1/48 Hasegawa A-7D Corsair II

by Miroslav Adamovic

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Applied name to this aircraft, the name Corsair has its origins in a series of famous biplanes built for the US Navy by the Vought Corporation between WWI and WWII.  The name was later applied to Vought F4U fighters used by US Navy and Marines during WWII.  The modern day descendant of that famous aircraft is the Vought A-7 Corsair II.  It is also often called the SLUF (Short Little Ugly F......).

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      The A-7D was the USAF variant of Corsair II.  Defense Secretary McNamara directed the Air Force to acquire a version of the Navy's A-7 attack airplane, reflecting his view that the Air Force needed to strengthen its close air-support to the ground troops. 
       The aging low payload F-100 was the USAF's primary close air support aircraft at the time and initially the Northrop F-5 was a possible candidate to replace the F-100.  By late 1965, the USAF had decided that the A-7 was better candidate to replace ageing Hun because of its much greater payload.  The A-7 could carry a total ordnance load of 15000 lbs on eight stations, two fuselage, each with 500 lb capacity, two inboard on the wings with 2500 lb capacity each and four on the outer wings with 3500 lb capacity each.  The A-7Dcould carry more than 200 combinations of different stores.
       The original power plant of the A-7 was a non-afterburning version of the Pratt & Whitney TF30 turbofan.  This is the same engine that, equipped with an afterburner, powers both the F-111 and the F-14.  Beginning with the A-7D, the more powerful Allison TF41-A-1 turbofan was installed and engine thrust was increased to to 14,250 lbs.

        My model represents A-7D of 353rd TFS, 354th TFW flown by Capt. Don Cornell out of Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base during the Linebacker campaigns in 1972.  The 354th TFW was deployed to the Vietnam theatre at the end of 1971 and it's pilots had a little time to exploit exceptional qualities of their A-7Ds.
        Until the beginning of August 1973, US Navy A-7s carried out more than 90 000 missions over North Vietnam, losing only 54 machines to enemy fire.  It is also interesting to note that an A-7D of the USAF carried out the last attack on territory north of 20th parallel on August 15,1973, the day when hostilities ended between the United States and North Vietnam.

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Construction on my A-7D started with Black Box cockpit set which is a great addition for everybody who wants to boost level of detail in "the office".  The BB set is exceptional, fits like a glove, there was only minor cockpit tub sanding needed.  After the cockpit was installed, I assembled the air intake, filled its nasty seam and sanded it down.  I used 800 grit sand paper wrapped and taped around Exacto knife handle to do that.  It wasn't my favorite part of building this model.
        After fuselage was put together, I've tried something "new", for me at least, I filled all seams with CA Glue and after sanding the result was more that excellent, so I gave my favorite brand of putty a flick, from now on it is going to be CA Glue only.  I attached wings to the fuselage and there was a bit of a fit issue, there was a step where the upper part of wings met fuselage, nothing serious, a bit of CA Glue and good old elbow grease got the matter fixed.  After all filling and sanding was done, I rescribed lost panel lines and rivets and moved on painting the model.
         I painted my Corsair II in standard SEA camo scheme using Gunze Acryl paints.  After a few coats of Pascoe Long Life floor polish (Aussie for Future) I applied excellent
Albatros Decals and proceeded with wash made from artists oil paints.  It was all sealed wit a coat of clear Testors Acrylic flat coat and the model was weathered a bit more with pastel chalk dust.
         At the end I attached underwing fuel tanks, 12 Mk82 bombs (which were "spiced" up with couple of Gekko Vietnam Bomb Graffiti decals) and 4 Mk20 Rockeye cluster bombs.  The last thing I've done was hollowing pilot's helmet with my Dremel rotary tool and attaching it at the top of the windscreen. 
         I hope you like my Corsair II.  Best Regards,

Miro

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Photos and text © by Miroslav Adamovic