A10 "Thunderbolt" 'Warthog' 1/72 Academy USAF

Hello everyone, hope you are enjoying my posts and learning some things about how to make models look a little better than good. My last few posts were about Canadian aircraft and my next few post will probably follow the same flow. Why you might ask? Well simply because I am Canadian and damn proud to be so I am trying to build every Canadian aircraft I can find.

I recently got a really good one and am taking my time putting the decals on but it should be up in a few days. Watch for it and be excited.

A10 Thunderbolt 'Warthog' USAF

This one was a little hard to find. The A10 certainly is not too much of a beautiful plane but it sure packs an awesome punch. I built her probably a month ago after finding it at Forbes Hobbies in Cambridge and was very excited when I did.

Anyways, the A10 is in 1/72 scale (like all of my models. Must keep consistency for the wars they fight) and was a fairly easy build. I find most airplanes are. The only kind of pain in the neck part of this assembly was putting the missiles and bombs together, as well as acquiring air-to-air missiles for it. I used the lighter IJN Grey spray paint over all with Neutral Grey in the cockpit, Clear Green on the targeting computer, Black inside the engines and Metallic Blue on the tops of the tail fins. The missiles are all white with Black tips while the bombs are Nato Green. The seat is also Nato Green. The instrument panel and the side panels are Flat Black as I am not sure if the plane came with decals for those or not.

This is the first model that I used Mark Fit by Tamiya on. Essentially clear nail polish, what this does is secures your decals so they won't move or come off when handling the model

I highly recommend Mark Fit or something like it so you don't accidentally pull the decals off when having those great battles.



 So you may not be familiar with this aircraft as it is practically new. It was used extensively during the Gulf War and the Iraqi war and also anti terror operations in Afghanistan. This plane is designed for one thing and one thing only... blowing the shit out of tanks. All the missiles it packs are capable anti-tank missiles with a few air to air for self defense.

This plane is famous for its use during the Gulf war in which it, along with Apache helicopters, created the Highway of Death. As Suddams army left Kuwait in retreat, American aircraft buzzed all over the place destroying hundreds of tanks and other ground assets and killing thousands. Pictures of the highway are easy to find as the Highway of Death is probably one of the most recognizable battles of the Gulf War


General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 53 ft 4 in (16.26 m)
• Wingspan: 57 ft 6 in (17.53 m)
• Height: 14 ft 8 in (4.47 m)
• Wing area: 506 ft² (47.0 m²)
• Airfoil: NACA 6716 root, NACA 6713 tip
• Empty weight: 24,959 lb (11,321 kg)
• Loaded weight: 30,384 lb (13,782 kg) On CAS mission: 47,094 lb (21,361 kg)
  On anti-armor mission: 42,071 lb (19,083 kg)
• Max. takeoff weight: 50,000 lb (23,000 kg)
• Powerplant: 2 × General Electric TF34-GE-100A turbofans, 9,065 lbf (40.32 kN) each

Performance

• Never exceed speed: 450 knots (518 mph, 833 km/h) at 5,000 ft (1,500 m) with 18 Mk 82 bombs
• Maximum speed: 381 knots (439 mph, 706 km/h) at sea level, clean
• Cruise speed: 300 knots (340 mph, 560 km/h)
• Stall speed: 120 knots (138 mph, 220 km/h)
• Combat radius:
  
  • On CAS mission: 250 nmi (288 mi, 460 km) at 1.88 hour single-engine loiter at 5,000 ft (1,500 m), 10 min combat
  • On anti-armor mission: 252 nmi (290 mi, 467 km), 40 nm (45 mi, 75 km)) sea-level penetration and exit, 30 min combat
• Ferry range: 2,240 nmi (2,580 mi, 4,150 km) with 50 knot (55 mph, 90 km/h) headwinds, 20 minutes reserve
• Service ceiling: 45,000 ft (13,700 m)
• Rate of climb: 6,000 ft/min (30 m/s)
• Wing loading: 99 lb/ft² (482 kg/m²)
• Thrust/weight: 0.36

Armament

• Guns: 1× 30 mm (1.18 in) GAU-8/A Avenger gatling cannon with 1,174 rounds
• Hardpoints: 11 (8× under-wing and 3× under-fuselage pylon stations) with a capacity of 16,000 lb (7,260 kg) and provisions to carry combinations of:
  • Rockets:
    
    • 4× LAU-61/LAU-68 rocket pods (each with 19× / 7× Hydra 70 mm rockets, respectively)
    • 4× LAU-5003 rocket pods (each with 19× CRV7 70 mm rockets)
    • 6× LAU-10 rocket pods (each with 4× 127 mm (5.0 in) Zuni rockets)
  • Missiles:
    
    • 2× AIM-9 Sidewinders air-to-air missiles for self-defense
    • 6× AGM-65 Maverick air-to-surface missiles
  • Bombs:
    
    • Mark 80 series of unguided iron bombs or
    • Mk 77 incendiary bombs or
    • BLU-1, BLU-27/B Rockeye II, Mk20, BL-755and CBU-52/58/71/87/89/97 cluster bombs or
    • Paveway series of Laser-guided bombs or
    • Joint Direct Attack Munition (A-10C) or
    • Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (A-10C)
  • Other:
    
    • SUU-42A/A Flares/Infrared decoys and chaff dispenser pod or
    • AN/ALQ-131 or AN/ALQ-184 ECM pods or
    • Lockheed Martin Sniper XR or LITENING targeting pods (A-10C) or
    • 2× 600 US gallon Sargent Fletcher drop tanks for increased range/loitering time.
    
    

Avionics

• AN/AAS-35(V) Pave Penny laser tracker pod (mounted beneath right side of cockpit) for use with Paveway LGBs
• Head-up display (HUD) for improved technical flying and air-to-ground support.

So what do I think? This plane is really cool. All that armament makes it awesome even despite its rather slow speed. I think these guys will be around for a while and the only thing to really compare it to is the SU-25 which was built for the same purpose.