Official Freewing Twin 80mm/90mm A-10 Thunderbolt II Thread

[Alpha]

Hey Medfire 4905, welcome to Hobby Squawk. And you too, Gravity Tester! You always win, I'm told ;)


Medfire, I look forward to seeing your custom markings. Are you painting it or having Callie do decals for you or printing your own?

And you're right, we can't get anywhere without fuel so thank you for your service to our nation on the stalwart KC-135!

[F106DeltaDart]

Alpha, I've said it before, but this looks better and better every time there are photos of it! Also, very happy to hear that the markings will be waterslide! Should allow for much better adhesion and look almost painted on. As for the interest in accessories, I am down for the ladder depending on price. If it's too expensive, it's easy enough to build one. I am also down for the scale nose strut, powder cannon/sound, and another loadout if offered. Might need to spread it out over a few months, but this will be a must have!

[Medfire4905]

Alpha I am up in the air yet on painting or Callie. I have seen some of the awesome work she does. I will have to do some testing to see how good or bad my painting skills have gotten.

Unfortunately the only times I was on the 135 was for training or for an emergency. I was the one on the ground to pull the guys out of the plane or put the fire out. I had plenty of time inside of the 135 but most of it was on the flightline. Did you talk to the A-10 pilot at EAA over by the warbirds or the main concourse? I talked to one with baseball cap on and a dip in his mouth by the warbirds. He was very nice and showed my son, daughter, and me (the 3rd kid) all around.

[T-CAT]

Great progress and engineering on this beast. I'm always impressed every time you provide updates Alpha. I'm glad I'm spending my money on this, as it was between this and the FMS. I have my reasons as to why I'm going the Freewing route, but I give lots of credit to both for an outstanding job overall. However, the more updates on see on this one, the more it solidifies my decision on the FW A-10. So, thanks for the hard work and the rest of the Freewing crew.

[OV10]

In just a little over 2 months since Mark "confirmed the cats out of the bag" and Alpha has been ratcheting up our excitement level over these past 75 pages and now 745 posts, all I can say is that container ship had better be loaded to the gunnels(or gunwale) with these bad boys on the first shipment !!!! ;)

[petefoss]

I'd love it if the plane came with all the markings separate. And I'm thrilled they are water slide vs pressure sensitive adhesive. I have a 25 year old Goldberg Chipmunk and the markings still look great compared to sticky back decals with peeling edges and dirt trapped under them.

[Twowingtj]

I like the idea of having the service decals seperate as well. Will always go to Callie for specialty decals. I have used her work for years. I see she now offers the "Irish Angel" livery I asked her to do for my FLRC P-38.

Alpha, your Hog looks fantastic! Sooooooooo looking forward to getting this bird.

Had to share a pic of my 1929 Ford Roadster P/U taken in front of an A-10 at an airshow when we lived in Oregon a few years ago.

[Legman01]

Yes, the final production model will arrive to customers factory painted in matte three tone gray. We will have those three aircraft liveries available, Blacksnakes, Termites, Flying Tigers. The text markings set will be unapplied as well at this point, to support the trend of personalizing before decaling.

I'm working with Callie to have a range of other liveries available separately from her website. We like supporting a Statside small business and I know many of us here have experienced the quality of her work and promptness of her service.

Xplaneguy provided info on a beautiful Euro I (green woodland camo) A-10A. That's on Callie's list, as well.

Legman, if you had pictures of your bird, I'd be happy to have a set offered in it as well.

Speaking of which, what are the two tubular cockpit components over the left should of the pilot in the photo you posted? I'm guessing the two rings are for the thermos/helmet bag holder, just empty in this picture? The Acog-looking device in front of and outboard of it puzzles me, though. I can't place it. I can identify instruments like CDU, SAS, HARS, UFC, MFD, TISL, etc but for the life of me I can't place what that device is. Please enlighten me?

Alpha, I flew Grey A-10s my last assignment at Nellis, AFB in the A-10 Division of the Fighter Weapons School. 57th Fighter Weapons Wing, 66th Weapons Squadron, the birds with the yellow and black checkerboard on the tails. Back then they were A models. Here's a pix. I'm sure Callie could easily whip up the markings. I'll have to do some digging to find a pix of my jet.

The 500 lb Maverick comes off the rail like a freight train, with 10,000lbs of thrust for the first second. The Sidewinder launches like a pop bottle rocket in comparison to the Maverick.

[bill34207]

Totally awesome photo. I want one for my computer wallpaper.:a10

[Clearblue]

Same here! awesome shot....

[2FewDaysAtFlyingField]

That does it Legman, I'm totally setting my Hawg up to launch some Estes Mavericks at the field! I know it violates the AMA codes but dang would that be awesome! Roll down the runway at full throttle and light off a Maverick. Might give one of the old guys in the club a heart attack!

[TSHobbies]

Im all for separate decals ..I will be customizing mine as well, so having the decals left off will certainly be a bonus! since theyre water slide decals though, it means a nice glossy surface before applying them..followed with sealing and a dull coat. If you dont apply that gloss coat though, theyll eventually just flake off (and also have silvering to them)

[Alpha]

Legman01, I reached out to Callie to offer decals depicting your FWS mount. Do you have a photo of the port nose? Specifically the names.

[downwindleg]

Wow!!! Clearly,I was behind the door when this news came out about the A-10 until I caught a little blurb in Model Airplane News. I'm still hyperventilating!!!! I have the Banana Hobbies A-10 and although it looked O K , there were nonstop problems with the landing gear tearing out,etc. until it worked it's way into hanger queen status. That was three years ago! This hawg is bigger, better engineered in every way I can think of, and BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT excuse me! Anyway, my prayers to the awesome plane gods have been answered. I'm usually more of a WWII guy but this plane has always blown me away ever since I started seeing them at the Reno Airaces. Love the details like a much more realistic looking GAU-8/A Avenger canon, the landing gear, lights, and the telescoped steps is over the top if it gets in the final unit or as an option. I could go on all day-I'm ready to hit the preorder button the minute the switch is armed!!! Congrats to Alpha and the whole team, way to blow my doors off. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT oops! Brad

[mavdriver]

Looking forward to getting this A 10 :Cool:

[Alpha]

Downwindleg and mavdriver, we appreciate your support!

Downwindleg, you mentioned the detailed cannon so I decided to share what the final production A-10's cannon looks like. The final version is plastic, as part of the plastic nose cone, and each hole in the muzzle is completely drilled out. What's more, it is mostly hollow and mounts against a flat foam wall underneath it. Behind this foam wall is the interior of the nose. We designed it this way to make it easier to plumb a barrel directly into the cannon piece, and when fired pneumatically, the powder would be pushed forward and expel out of the muzzle's holes. A user could of course drill through front of the plastic face to push the powder forward in front of the aircraft as well.

We did not end up making the nose cone/barrel piece removable, but I'll leave that to modelers to determine if they want to do that, if they even need to.



Fully vented holes can be further detailed by adding tubes inside to depict the real GAU-8's barrels:



The interior is hollow, making it easier to customize with an aftermarket pneumatic powder cannon.

[RCjetdude]

This rocks! Thank you.

[smdub]

I vote for separate water slide decals sheets as well and if you produce a crew ladder I would rather buy one than have to make it myself.

^this

[gravity tester]

Thanks TiredIronGRB and gravity tester. I like it. WOW! Donald Duck, riding a lightning bolt, packing heat, wearing a packers helmet and cheesehead. Now why would you ever think that has to do with Wisconsin? Was it the lightning bolt that gave it away?

LOL. You got me. It was the lightning. :-) For what it is worth, that ladder door is from a Battle Creek, MI ANG unit stationed at Tallil during Iraqi Freedom. Maybe from the same bunch that you saw at Hardwood Range that day.

[downwindleg]

Alpha, I am overwhelmed with the level of detail you have achieved! By the way, most people know that the nose gear is offset to allow for the gun to be centered but upon further inspection I noticed the gun is just slightly off center in the opposite way. That didn't make sense because I read that unless the gun was dead center, the recoil during firing could cause adverse yaw. Turns out that the gun barrel that fires as it spins is always in the 9 o'clock position thereby making it dead center! Just some hawg trivia, Brad