1/48 Revell A-7E Corsair II

by Simone Gazzola

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Here’s my latest production: a LTV A-7E Corsair II built up from Revell box with the addition of aftermarket decals and resin cockpit.

It represents a plane from the VF-113 “Stingers” on board the USS Ranger in the early 80s.

It has been alot work for me, but I enjoyed all the time. I used the Black Box cockpit (#48055) and a Superscale decal sheet (#480944).

The fit is very nice on the entire model and the details are good. Fine engraved lines and good fit are the things I preferred on this kit.

First of all I started with inserting the resin cockpit in the fuselage halves: it is a very good cockpit made by BB. Only the pins on the air duct must be removed to place the cockpit tub. The details of the resin parts is very good: it comprises of the cockpit tub, sidewalls, ejection seat, canopy internal frames, front hub, stick. 

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The Revell kit (ex Hasegawa) is good because it is possible to represent some details of the fuselage (like the oxygen bay), or the slat/flap down or the wing folded (with the details of the wing folding system included).

I preferred to close 3 of 4 panels on the fuselage, scratchbuilding the 4th. It is the oxygen bay. I used various materials like sprue, plastic sheet (various measures) and an iron ball (to represent the oxygen “bottle”) to represent the components of the bay. The flap down and wing folded gave the model more realism.

The work is proceeded with the painting and decaling. I used Gunze Sangyo acryclic colors: white for the undersides and grey 16630 for the upper sides. A coat of Gunze Sangyo Clear before decals and after that I brushed a coat of Aircraft Colors Matt. This is the first time I use this Matt and I can say that these are the best result I’ve ever had.

A couple of tanks and Sidewinders completed the job.

The result gave me a lot of satisfaction, considering the length of time to build it (almost six months…) but now I’m happy to share it with all you guys.

That’s all about it from Italy: I hope you’ll enjoy my Corsair II. I must go now, there’s always other planes waiting on the workbench.

Cheers, 

Simone 

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Photos and text © by Simone Gazzola