1/144 YA-10 beta build

[cafe]

It's looking really good!

[Don Boose]

I thought you had some Flying Tiger in you, Flyboy!

Here's a toast to the host.

Dogface

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Boose
Looks great, Ray.

I am sure you answered this question before, but my aging brain doesn't remember so well anymore -- did you ever serve with the 23rd Fighter Group?

Don

Yes Sir I did indeed. A little over two and half years as a C-130 flight engineer (C-130s with teeth!), and then 4 years with the 75th FS and 4 years with the 74th FS at Pope AFB, NC.
__________________
Ray

[Texman]

When I first arrived at Pope AFB, the Air Force was in the middle of the "composite wing" concept.
We had C-130s, F-16s and A-10s, all assigned to the same wing. Each aircraft had the Flying Tiger
shark mouth with the tail code FT.

Bruno has done the shark mouth A-10 and F-16, and Dave has done the C-130. My winter plan
is to do a display of all three together, as this was a benchmark point in my career. I had fulfilled
my dream to aviate, and I met and married my wife.

[elliott]

Aww, you're a sweet guy Ray. I remember the "composite wing" at Pope. Interesting concept. Did it stick or did things eventually revert back to their old way? Sidetrack here - Did Bragg & Pope become one of those BRAC "joint command" bases that seem to be so popular these days?

[Texman]

The composite wing concept went away. They found it costly, largely ineffective, to hard to manage that many types of aircraft from an ATC point of view, etc.

Pope did fall to the BRAC axe. It became a Reserve base, and now I believe, it is called Pope Field. It is still home to several units, and is a staging base for the 82nd Airborne activities.

[Texman]

Bruno, thank you for stopping by. I'm honored your checking in on the build.

Carlos, thank you.

[Don Boose]

Ray - To the best of my knowledge and belief, the 23rd is now stationed at Moody AFB, Georgia. Access Denied [Air Combat Command units and bases]

Last summer, I had a former 23rd FW pilot in my Pacific War Strategy graduate seminar.

Some 23rd FW news and events with A-10 images (for some reason, the links come out reading "access denied," but they seem to work, nonetheless):
Access Denied [Teeth of the Tiger: 74th EFS wraps up 'far-reaching' European deployment.]
Access Denied [P-40 and A-10 over Langley AFB]
Access Denied [Flying Tigers reunite, honor 70 years of service]
Access Denied [A-10 refueling from KC-135R]

Looking forward to the next steps of the build.

Don

[Texman]

You are absolutely correct Don. When Pope was realigned, they did move the
23rd to Moody. I had been there, and had no desire to go back, so I found
a new assignment before they could lock me into the move.

I had the good fortune to meet several of the original Flying Tigers through
the years at various wing functions. Being a Flying Tiger for so many years
is something I am very proud to be able to say that I was a part of that legacy.

[Texman]

In this edition, I tackled the landing gear pods. As the YA-10 did not
have the chaff/flare pods installed, neither did I install them.

I personally did not like the gear pods as drawn. They are much to
high under the wing, resulting in an extreme step where they fair into the wing leading edge.

To work around this and give a slightly smoother appearance, I made
a template to modify the parts. (See pic 1.)
Using this template, I drew a more correct outline on the part and cut it out.
In pic 2 you can see the difference in the pods. However, doing this caused me to
need to cut out two parts for the aft end of the pod, and glue them together
for installation to close the back of the pod.

In pic 3, you can see the stepped transition into the leading edge is still more
than it should be, but acceptable for my purposes.

In pic 3, you can also see two of the differences in the YA-10 and the production
versions. When the prototype rolled out, it did not have the leading edge slats
inboard of the landing gear pods, nor was it equipped with the fuselage strakes
usually seen on the lower fuselage just ahead of the wing leading edge.

[Doubting Thomas]

Ray, great job and so tiny. I've got a Revell-Germany one in 1/144 too, have it packed neatly with others at that scale. At the time I seem to remember that the "New" A-10 at the time (1970's) it was supposed to be called "Thunderbolt II" after the old republic P-47 fame of WWII. How did "Wart Hog" get attached? The photos of the real planes do look like wart hogs though.


Jeff