The A10 Warthog and An Adventure with Train Girl

 So fellow modelers, it has been a few days since my last post.  Life gets in the way.  But my newest sanity-saving project is boosting my self esteeem as surely as it is sucking away valuable hours better spent on children’s homework, dog walks and romantic dinners with that special someone.  The Revell 1/48 kit has been great.  I modified the kit to enable me to display the Warthog on a stand.  This requires some careful prep work to make sure the plane sits securely on its perch.  A hand carved wooden holster will receive the business end of a 3/8 inch dowel rod, the whole mess glued in with an appropriate goop of cotton balls and wood glue!  After that the kit goes together fairly smoothly, lots of little bombs and missiles to build, a gazillion little stickers (decals, I know!) some putty and steel wool and it is ready for my first clumsy effort at camouflage painting.  To accomplish this last task I have invested in a beginner airbrush.  This thing is cool, I am seriously thinking of scrapping my career as a part time modeler and going into full time body painting.  (Ahh, If only it could be so…….Train Girl? Huh, what? Anyway… I drifted off there for a minute.) After some research into camouflage techniques, it seemed best to say screw it and slap a bunch of painters tape across the thing and whale away with my new airbrush.  A coat of dark gray, a coat of custom mixed puke green - tonight will bring a layer of dark green.  Enjoy the photos, comment away - I can take it! Most of all stay sane fellow modelers

I knew I wanted to display the A10 on a stand, so I carved a wood block to hold a support rod and secured it with glue-impregnated cotton, building up the layers and molding it into both halves.

Once the block was finished, I marked the location of the block, joined the fusalage together and drilled out a hole.

I spent some time on the cockpit, dry-brushing the details.  Here it is dry fit, I removed it through the nose wheel well so I could finish the painting without having to mask it off.

Here the rest of the body is assembled and prepped for painting.

I used a three color camouflage pattern from Eastern Europe.  Decals and weapons loaded.  I still need to dull coat it and secure the canopy.