1/72 Academy A-37B Dragonfly

Gallery Article by Fernando I. Moreno Villa on Apr 6 2010

 

A-37B Dragonfly - Fuerza Aérea Peruana

The A-37B Dragonfly is a military development from the Cessna T-37 Tweet seat-by-seat jet trainer. It was first tested in the Vietnam War as an advanced observation, night interdiction and close air support aircraft, achieving success with its performance in these roles. After the war, most of the aircraft went to the US Air National Guard units and later, many surplus units were sold to Latin American countries that were facing the same threat of "leftist" guerrilla warfare.  

Perú obtained more than 50 cells for COIN and drug-interdiction. Also Ecuador had some Dragonflies in its inventory. In 1995 both countries were immersed in another border conflict in the Cenepa Valley putting their A-37B into action again. One Peruvian Dragonfly was lost in air-to-air combat while an Ecuadorian unit was damaged by ground forces. 

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

THE KIT
This is an excellent Academy kit, cheap and easy to build. Engraved panel lines are accurate and very well done. Interior details are good but seats are very simplistic. With a little scratchbuilding effort you could achieve a nice looking cockpit. 
 
Plenty of underwing weapon options are included, something that makes me very grateful to Academy. Bombs and pods are of great quality, as if they come from a special weapons set. Also clear parts are a good complement to achieve a realistic look. However, decals provided by Academy are awful and mostly useless. Only some stencils could help to increase detail but I don't really recommend using them.

CONSTRUCTION
This process was very straightforward and the fit of most pieces is excellent. You only need to be careful while joining the intakes and the wings to keep them aligned. 
 
It is important to add as much weight as you can in the nose, considering there is very small room there. I simulated lateral control panels and seatbelts with masking tape. Nothing else was needed. 

PAINTING
Following the camouflage pattern and color guide provided in the fabulous Aztec Decal sheet, I painted the belly in Light Ghost Gray and the upper half in Armour Sand. Then I used Field Drab masking with Boligoma, being careful to make soft borders at high pressure with my single-action airbrush. 
 
DECALS
The set was the Aztec's Peruvian Air Force II which also includes markings for a Mirage 5P, Sukhoi-22 and the F-86F Sabre. Unfortunately it is out of stock. Decals performed very smooth, but they became very fragile after years of storage so I applied a coat of Testors decal spray to keep them complete during application. That was enough to use them with no difficulty.

WEATHERING
This time I only did post-shading using Sienna dry pastels on panel lines. After Future, I highlighted panel lines with a Black oil-wash and sealed the entire thing with Semi-Gloss coat. 

CONCLUSION
I was very pleased with the outcome achieved with this kit. I always wanted to have this model in my display because I was very attracted to this scheme and to the history behind it. This one also won a first place in the "jet aircraft" category last March…

REFERENCES

  • "Encyclopedia of World Military Aircraft", AIRtime Publishing. 1996.

  • Air Combat Information Group website. 

Thank you all and regards from Monterrey, México.

Fernando I. Moreno Villa

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by Fernando I. Moreno Villa