Freewing 80mm A-10 Modifications

[ULTIMATETWO]

Beautiful work Steve... tx so much for sharing all these awesome superdetailing...want to use some of your superb ideas....
Best regards.
Manolo.

[Jpahemi1]

Looks great. Love your mods. I'm working on a tomcat right now too keep me busy until my preorder gets here. I just made the first group. My A10 will be in the Red Devils livery.

How are you going to lock down the front of the canopy?
Thanks
john

[Twowingtj]

Sweet! Really enhances the A-10's lines

[RCjetdude]

Ha! Good one T-CAT. No I am not a surgeon but I do claim to be a foam smith. I love working with foam. Got some paint on it this evening. Still not ready to un-mask it but it may be good enough to get legman01 to sign it at the Nall. The artificial light in my basement exaggerates the colors in the pics. Time for bed.

[T-CAT]

Canopy/cockpit mods

OK, Here is a little on what I did to modify the canopy to open add some more scale realism to the cockpit. The paint on the cockpit was quite thick on mine but none the less I wanted to cover it with styrene to eliminate any possibility of "gatoring". I also wanted the canopy to open and close on a servo and to have a semi-scale ejection seat that would hold the JHH 1/10th scale pilot I had ordered and painted up some time back. The first thing of course was to remove the canopy which really only required sliding a flat dull blade under the edge to lift it and worked my way around. Pretty straight forward. I used a metal spatula.



Of course some of the paint lifted from the foam, especially where it was so thick up front. The original pilot is held in place with a screw and easily removed.

So I began cutting foam starting with removing the seat/floor...



and then the deck aft of the seat.





And I just kept cutting...



To be continued....

LOL, you should have been a surgeon with such clean cuts! Nice job. Or, maybe you are!

[RCjetdude]

Canopy/cockpit mods (next installment on post #76)

OK, Here is a little on what I did to modify the canopy to open add some more scale realism to the cockpit. The paint on the cockpit was quite thick on mine but none the less I wanted to cover it with styrene to eliminate any possibility of "gatoring". I also wanted the canopy to open and close on a servo and to have a semi-scale ejection seat that would hold the JHH 1/10th scale pilot I had ordered and painted up some time back. The first thing of course was to remove the canopy which really only required sliding a flat dull blade under the edge to lift it and worked my way around. Pretty straight forward. I used a metal spatula.



Of course some of the paint lifted from the foam, especially where it was so thick up front. The original pilot is held in place with a screw and easily removed.

So I began cutting foam starting with removing the seat/floor...



and then the deck aft of the seat.





And I just kept cutting...



To be continued....

[RCjetdude]

Great work dude! and the sound system sounded great ..as well as the BRRT ,sounded better this time..did you change something? or is it because your in the basement?

I have been playing with the sound file trying to get more sound pressure out of it and reducing the duration of the pauses. Both TT-25 speakers are mounted in the belly of the plane so the sound projects down and may behave differently off the concrete floor as well. Sound is a tough thing to deal with.

[TSHobbies]

Great work dude! and the sound system sounded great ..as well as the BRRT ,sounded better this time..did you change something? or is it because your in the basement?

[TiredIronGRB]

The last bit of exterior detail I had to complete before painting is now done. No ladder yet but the box and door are made as well as the vent covers just ahead of it. Paint goes on tomorrow.

That's some crazy detail work on the ladder cabinet Steve, awesome craftsmanship!

[OV10]

That hand crafted styrene work is truly remarkable and the mark of a craftsman :Cool:
Here's to hoping that your GAU-8 Avenger mod can be offered to the rest of us at an affordable cost.

[RCjetdude]

I made the side walls 14mm deep as my upper tube has a 10mm OD and then I will add a small section of styrene tube to secure the top of it inside the box. Also, the door has a plate on the inside of it which is 0.040" thick so I SWAG'ed 14mm deep. It is completely hand-made from 0.020" and 0.040" Styrene sheet. The only part of the interior it intruded into was a wire routing channel molded inside the fuse. I wish I had a 3D printer. The piano hinge I got from Micro Mark and the smallest one I could find. There are a couple tiny magnets I got off of ebay embedded in the corners of the door. There is only one magnet at this time in the upper right corner of the box to hold the door shut and it works pretty good.

[petefoss]

How deep is your ladder pocket? Did it intrude into the interior space or just embedded in the foam. 3D printed box?

[RCjetdude]

The last bit of exterior detail I had to complete before painting is now done. No ladder yet but the box and door are made as well as the vent covers just ahead of it. Paint goes on tomorrow.

[dahawk]

Awesomus Maximus ! This is great stuff !

[OV10]

WC, did you get your answer above on the axle length?

Yepper.......thanx

[RCjetdude]

WC, did you get your answer above on the axle length?

[OV10]

Yeah, but somehow modding never works that way..

AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH LOL

[F106DeltaDart]

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just find exactly what we need?

Yeah, but somehow modding never works that way..

[RCjetdude]

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just find exactly what we need?

[F106DeltaDart]

Are you going to drill out the axle holes for 5mm or bush down the wheels?

Not sure yet. I'll have to see if there's enough meat on the end of the strut to drill to 5mm. If not, I'll do a 4mm shaft and see if I can slip a brass tube over the shaft to bump it up to 5mm.