Academy 1/72 Cessna A-37B Dragonfly

[flyjoe180]

Academy's 1/72 Cessna A-37B Dragonfly. Has gone together quite quickly so far. I'm using Ammo acrylics, One Shot Primer, and Lucky vanishes. I won't put sprue shots up, you can find them online if you want to see what's inside.



Here's the fuselage with 5 grams of nose weight and cockpit installed. I forgot to drill the holes for the refuelling nose probe and fuselage radome. Who needs hole guides anyway! Only a small amount of filler required:



The exhaust area is pretty basic, just holes into trailing edges alongside a plate that gets attached to the sides. So I added some tubing to simulate pipes. They do not look this rough now:

 

[flyjoe180]

Fuselage to wing fit is good, some sanding and filling required particularly at the rear join.


Ammo One Shot Black:

The wire out each side is how I suspend it from a hobby vice while it is drying.

Things slowed down as a tropical cyclone came through. I did get the underside colour on, and stores sorted:

 

[Steve Brodie]

looking Nice

 

[Geoffers]

Very nice

Are the wires for lights?

Geoff

 

[papa 695]

Nice work so far Joe, looking good.

 

[flyjoe180]

Very nice

Are the wires for lights?

Geoff

Thanks Geoff; I threaded wire through the exhaust shield holes in the fuselage to hold it for paint drying. I'm not smart enough for electrickery

 

[adt70hk]

Cool!

 

[JR]

Very neat idea with that wire Joe .

 

[colin m]

Looking good Joe. A nice looking aircraft the Dragonfly, with its low, squat, meaningful appearance.

 

[flyjoe180]

Looking good Joe. A nice looking aircraft the Dragonfly, with its low, squat, meaningful appearance.

Thanks Colin. I've seen the A-37 at flying displays in South Vietnam Air Force colours, it's surprisingly quite a noisy and nimble aircraft with an impressive payload.

 

[flyjoe180]

USAF South East Asian scheme is on. I wanted the softer/messier edge to the colours and went for a light worn look using the black primer as a black base. Some clean ups to be done, but it will all darken under varnishes. I'm relatively new to acrylics, and previous experience with paint lifting under tape meant that I didn't spend any more than a few days getting the top scheme on. You have less trouble with paint lifting using enamels which are harder wearing but take a lot longer to dry. I have since painted the tail stripes, antennae, exhausts and exhaust shrouds, and the air to air refuelling probe. Landing gear and stores are ready. Updates to come.

 

[Mark1]

Looking good

 

[Tim Marlow]

Looking very nice Joe.

 

[adt70hk]

Looking very good indeed!!

ATB.

Andrew

 

[colin m]

Thanks Colin. I've seen the A-37 at flying displays in South Vietnam Air Force colours, it's surprisingly quite a noisy and nimble aircraft with an impressive payload.

That sounds like the perfect aircraft for an air show.

 

[colin m]

The paint looks great. Three tone camo looks very ‘right’

 

[yak face]

Only just caught this one Joe , brilliant work , the camo looks fantastic .

Thanks Colin. I've seen the A-37 at flying displays in South Vietnam Air Force colours, it's surprisingly quite a noisy and nimble aircraft with an impressive payload.

Yes by all accounts it was a deafening aircraft when spooling up , used a license built version of the turbomeca marbore , also used in the Fouga magister . Only three feet long but capable of deafening anyone with its high pitched whine!

 

[flyjoe180]

Looking good

Cheers Mark

Looking very nice Joe.

Thanks Tim

Looking very good indeed!!

ATB.

Andrew

Thanks Andrew

The paint looks great. Three tone camo looks very ‘right’

Cheers Colin

Only just caught this one Joe , brilliant work , the camo looks fantastic .

Yes by all accounts it was a deafening aircraft when spooling up , used a license built version of the turbomeca marbore , also used in the Fouga magister . Only three feet long but capable of deafening anyone with its high pitched whine!

Cheers Tony. Certainly a screamer at start up!

 

[papa 695]

Looking very good indeed Joe, nice paint work.

 

[flyjoe180]

I added the horizontal stab antennae and attached the landing gear. I then applied a gloss varnish using Ammo Aqua Gloss Clear and left it for a few days.


Then I applied the decals. These are the type from Academy, but on the whole I find they snug really well onto the model. They are, however very unforgiving and there were a few issues, mostly resolved. I'm having fun so never mind about that too much.


One of the horizontal stab antenna broke off because I was clumsy but it has been repaired. I attached the final two pylons under the starboard wing. They were left off until now for the underside USAF roundel. Next up is some panel washing and weathering, followed by a flat varnish and dealing with the stores and lights.