Internet Modeler : Features : Aviation RSS News Feed

Miniwing 1/144 A-7A Corsair II

By Matt Bittner

Introduction

Since there is plenty available elsewhere on the Vought A-7 Corsair II, this paragraph instead explains a little about the early years of the squadron in which this model shows its colors for.

The United States (US) Navy attack squadron VA-27 - known as The Royal Maces - was first commissioned in 1967 but didn't report to Carrier Air Wing officially until early 1968. The Royal Maces was the first squadron to fly the A-7A operationally and departed for the war in Vietnam in May, 1968.  During the second combat cruise in 1969, VA-27 flew over 2500 combat missions and was the only squadron to bring back all its pilots, even though aircraft were lost.  The Royal Maces flew the A-7A until June of 1970, at which point they transitioned to the A-7E.

Check out the "unofficial site" of The Royal Maces for more information.

The Kit

My aversion to using kit decals hit full force with the Miniwing A-7A.  There were too many "real" A-7As built to finish mine as the single one out of the box. So, I contacted a friend and he created a set of decals for The Royal Maces, a squadron I thought had great looking markings.

There really isn't much to the Miniwing 1/144 A-7A.  Take a look at my First Look to see what's included in the box.  There isn't much to it.  Glue the one-piece wing to the one-piece fuselage, add whatever you want after that.  To the cockpit I added a control stick and the HUD.  Just enough to spice up what Miniwing provides in the form of decals.

Construction

There were few issues gluing the wing to the fuselage.  What little gaps existed were dealt with easily using Apoxie and very little sanding.  The most difficult part of the build was first cutting/sanding the parts from their pour blocks, and then dealing with the vacuformed canopy.  Both of mine weren't formed 100% correctly, and while I thought I fixed the port side, where the rear of the canopy meets the fuselage, it turns out it wasn't enough.  Bummer.  But that was the only flaw I had in this build.

After attaching the wing and the canopy - and blending both in - it was time for masking the canopy and the priming all the parts.  I used Alclad's gray primer, but now they have their own white primer out I'll probably use that more in the future (once I can find some).  After everything was primed, then everything was sprayed white.  I left the horizontal tail pieces off until after painting was finished because I thought that masking these during painting would mean they could pop off after removing the masking.  Well, it came to fruition that even waiting wasn't good enough.  I bumped one tail from time to time and had to re-glue it three times.  So...

After the white was sprayed then it was masked and the gray sprayed on.  I used Polly Scale's "Light Gray 5-L" as I thought it was a good match.  Once the gray was dry then I removed the masks from the white and gave the kit a good coat of Future.  Since I tend to wait at least two days for Future to dry, it was at least that long before I started adding the decals.

Since the decals were ALPS printed, care was needed.  Even so it was good I had a couple of extras because I forgot it best not to brush Future over ALPS decals, and did so.  DOH!  After replacing the "decal that ran", I then sprayed Future over the decals.  Much better.  Once that layer of Future dried I then applied an oil was of gray, waited for it to dry, and sprayed on an overcoat of Xtracrylix Flat.  I didn't want a dirty plane so finished after the dull coat.

Conclusion

I decided to leave the plane "clean" because the kit only came with external fuel tanks, and nothing else.  In fact it also didn't come with sidewinder rails, and while I have seen photos of A-7s without those rails, it would have been better to include them.  I ended up with a spare set from a Platz F-8 but it was too late and they arrived after the model was built and painted.  It would be best to mark where those go on the fuselage prior to adding the wing.

I also contacted 3 Wire Design and asked if they were willing to make a 1/144 Logo Flightdeck, and they were.  You can see the model posed on the base, and I think it looks awesome.  Let's hope this is a permanent foray for them into 1/144 scale.

Huge thanks to Miniwing for the A-7A to build for review.