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Discuss the modern aircraft age from 1975 thru today.
REVIEW
A-10 Thunderbolt II
Merlin
Staff MemberSenior Editor
AEROSCALE
#017
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United Kingdom
Joined: June 11, 2003
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Posted: Friday, May 11, 2007 - 03:19 PM UTC


Here's a First Look at Hobby Boss's exciting new 1/48 scale A-10 tankbuster.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
jhoog59
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Florida, United States
Joined: November 13, 2005
KitMaker: 189 posts
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Posted: Saturday, May 12, 2007 - 11:39 PM UTC
Based on what I can see in the pictures the italiari kit is better.
GLAARG
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United States
Joined: August 05, 2013
KitMaker: 25 posts
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Posted: Saturday, February 06, 2016 - 09:17 PM UTC
I dunno about 'better'.

There is no excuse, at 50 -or- 70 dollars for a 'blank' cockpit. The Hobbyboss detail relief is fair but the lack of instrument dial decals for the main panel and a clear backing for the Maverick display marks it as a failure. While the Italeri kit's all-decal approach is flatly disgusting in this scale.

Similarly, compared to the Hobbyboss which essentially copied the Tamiya 'everything but the kitchen sink' (none of it service-jet appropriate) weapons load; the Italeri tries to get the basic weapons load right but they make a total hash of it with low detail execution quality.

Things like forward sweep the wing trailing edge on the AGM-65 Mavericks and leaving out the Sniper or LITENING targeting pods. Both of which are an expensive trip to Wolfpack and Brassin (6+14 = 20 dollars, pre shipping) to replace. This is a peeve with me, as is the lack of seeker optics and translucent milky-amber domes. The maverick is a major part of the A-10's arsenal people, _get it right_.

The Italeri CBU-58 uses the SUU-30A/A which is a direct copy of the Monogram kit ordnance and is no more correct now than it was in 1980. The SUU-30A/A was introduced in 1960-61 and found so wanting in terms of carriage quantity and aerodynamics that it was replaced about 2 years later.

The SUU-30B/B (on which the CBU-52/58 cluster weapons was based) looks NOTHING like it.

One is a pointed watermelon, the other is a milk bottle shape.

BOTH are now long out of service.

Similarly, the Italeri CBU-87 which replaced the CBU-52/58 is the width of a Mk.20 Rockeye and the length of a SUU-60 TMD which makes it look like neither ordnance.

BAM. One move and all the kit freefall ordnance is useless.

Italeri included the LAU-68 seven shot rocket pod but then made it almost as thick as a LAU-3 19 shot pod. Ironic, given the original kit's Euro-1 camouflage because the OA-10A mission didn't happen until after the 1991 war when we started to paint them grey again, with the LASTE mod.

The Sidewinders are meh. And the Centerline Tank is both skinny, overly long and has (tiny) ill-proportioned fins.

Originally, the Italeri kit came with LASTE/PE bits separately but the ECM pod was just the ALQ-119 which is only appropriate for 1991 and before (and then only for CONUS birds).

The A-10C release comes with both ALQ-131 deep and ALQ-119 pods but not the ALQ-184, either long or short, which means, now that almost the entire CONUS based Hog force has transitioned to that pod, the only A-10s you can do are older green birds or the Spangdahlem A-10s.

Getting the Hasegawa Weapons Set E for GBU-38, Targeting Pods And ALQ-184 is a 20-25 dollar addition.

The Italeri single piece lower wing is the one thing I like the best about that kit. Not only does this help resolve the dodgy wingroot fit issues but anytime you are doing a model with outboard landing gear, you need to have one unifying element which ensures that both gear and all the pylons are level. Tabs and Slots for opposed wings, by themselves, don't do this terribly well which means a jig for the other kits.

Unfortunately, the Italeri kit doesn't have anything in those MLG wells and the shapes of the fairings as well as the pylons are also a bit weak.

Buying replacement Aires gear fairings runs about 24-27 dollars (you can actually get a set with MLG bays, Intakes and cockpit for about 49 dollars).

The fiddly bits (Avionics Bay) that the Italeri kit inherits from it's 72nd pantograph cousin don't fit particularly well and have poor detail fidelity in this scale while things like the squared off nose section, which was grudgingly acceptable in 72nd, most assuredly is not on the 1/48th.

Though I cannot exactly say what's wrong, there is something about the fit and sit of the Italeri canopy/windscreen which just doesn't look right to me.

For all this, (and the list of mistakes on the Hobbyboss is admittedly just as long) the thing that buries the Italeri is price.

They used to offer affordable models for a price range that acknowledged the truth of lower quality tooling in trade for the ability to pick up some Aftermarket or wait for a CMK multimedia kit version to come along. The JAS-39 comes to mind here, especially when it was the ONLY Gripen in town.

Now that there are several to choose from, you go from the Revell/Monogram (available at 20-30 dollars on EBay, depending on boxing) to $46.99 for the Italeri (preshipping) to $57.99 for the Hobbyboss (preshipping).

For a ten dollar difference in MSRP, the Hobbyboss is the better baseline starting point to invest another 50-60 bucks of AM into a hundred twenty dollar finished model.

Just on the trenchlike panel lines and nose issues of the Italeri.

The sadness is, the A-10 will never be more popular than it is _right now_. If Revell were to do with the A-10 what they did with the F-15E, issuing a 25-30 dollar, recessed lines, better fitting, retool of their older raised line kit (same outline, new details) with separate LASTE/PE greeblies and basic weapons (Maverick, DRA, AIM-9M, ALQ-184) and a set of good decals, they'd have the market completely wrapped up. PARTICULARLY if they did so with a unibody upper fuselage like the Academy F-4s.

In 2022, when they retire the jet, it will be too late.



Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
AUTOMODELER
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New York, United States
Joined: December 04, 2010
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Posted: Tuesday, February 09, 2016 - 06:27 AM UTC
If indeed those two kits suffer from such basic flaws as you mentioned, I'm glade that I've refocused my modeling priorities to concentrate on 1/48 scale WW2 props, and 1st generation jets.
Joel
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