[muesingman]

Last year, I purchased one Hobbymaster A-10 "Mil Kiler" of the "Flying Tigers". My impression was that HM made a quite fine plane, but they saved some efforts / money on the armament. So I am now planning to refine the armament a little and thus, I would like to consult once more who has turned out to be the expert on this area.

@David Hingtgen:

David, what do you think about HM´s armament given with this plane? My special questions are:

1. The ECM jamming pod looks wrong to me. If it is really wrong: which one would be right?
2. Is the bomb betwenn the ECM jamming pod and the Mavericks supposed to be a Mk. 83 or Mk. 84?
3. Is the large laser guided bomb between the Mavericks and the MER´s supposed to be a GBU-16 or a GBU-24?
4. Shouldn´t the sidewinders be painted grey?

BTW: I have purchased a Hasegawa Aircraft Weapons Set I already. I feel a little dizzy now after painting 12 x Mk. 82.

[Andrew]

I'm surprised you didn't pick up on the most obvious error being the Maverick Tree pylons

[muesingman]

Originally Posted by Andrew

I'm surprised you didn't pick up on the most obvious error being the Maverick Tree pylons

Oooops.... so what is the error about them?

[Andrew]

well apparantly the 3 maverick tree pylon was only a concept but was never implemented operationally. There are no photos of maverick pylons like that on the A-10 that i know of. Instead, they only have 1 Maverick per hard point at most. you can detach the mavericks and the pylon with a hobby knife and just remove the tree and attach 1 maverick to the pylon.

[David Hingtgen]

The HM A-10 armament is just messed up. They copied the Academy kit for their model, weapons and all. (If they'd copied the new Revell kit, it'd probably be among the best 1/72 diecast out there, maybe even surpassing a Century Tomcat) Anyways:

All the little bombs on the MER? Totally wrong. They're Mk81's (Vietnam only). And A-10's (like the F-18) are NOT authorized to use an MER for anything other than 2 through 25lb training bombs, no "real" bombs at all. I sliced the MER's off the pylons entirely and threw them away. And they're white???? Kept the bombs though, I figure a dozen ready-made Mk81's might be useful for the Century Crusader. Ironically these are the most accurately shaped weapons/launchers the model came with.

The triple Maverick launcher is technically correct for an A-10 to have, just rarely, rarely seen nowadays. And wasn't that common in the 70's when it was used prior to the single-rail version existing. Even though triple launchers do exist and are used (only 2 missiles though, not 3, slant configuration)---the model has a really, really, really ugly and crude version of it. You need to shave off half of it, and reshape every piece of it, to look like the real thing. Not worth salvaging IMHO.

ECM pod---a few decades out of date. Again, used by the very first/test A-10's, but not seen in a long time.

The dumb bomb is a Mk83. Which no A-10 ever has, nor ever, will carry.

The laser guided bomb is a really bad model of whatever it's supposed to be. Based on fins/age of the other stuff, I think it's supposed to be a GBU-10. More stuff from the 70's that hasn't been seen since Vietnam.

The Sidewinders (and ECM, and Mavericks) should be grey. The Sidewinder launcher is much like the Maverick launcher, in that it is very crude---a rectangular adapter with two more rectangular rails stuck on. But not as bad as the Maverick launcher. Salvageable, but not really improvable. If you wanted to (and I might), you can remove the rails and missiles and replace with Hasegawa parts. The rails themselves are the basic LAU-7.

See, the HM A-10 itself is quite good (though annoyingly, not a 90's A-10, despite every scheme they've made being a 90's+ A-10). But the weapons are very poorly shaped, and most of them are wrong anyways. I've removed all of them from mine, and used 2 GBU-12's from DW, am building/painting a more modern ECM pod, and will repaint the Sidewinders. Not sure about what else to use, it'll still be fairly empty then. The most common loads for a modern A-10 are very hard to do--the ultra-common single-rail Maverick launcher is only available in one kit (the aforementioned very good and accurate Revell A-10), and the rocket pods are I think only found in the Fujimi A-4 kit.

I really should have snagged the Revell kit when I saw one for 10 bucks--it'd be worth "wasting" the whole kit for its weapons at that price. But now you can only find them for $25+ imported from Germany. (The normal A-10 kit you see from Monogram/Revell, and often labled simply as Revell in the US, is not it--there's a new one that is WAY better and newer than what's on 90% of shelves)

It all comes down to "what they copy". If a company copies the best plastic kits well--they end up with good diecast! If you copy an inaccurate kit---you have little chance. The Academy kit is a combination of itself being a copy of the Hasegawa A-10----but with Academy's own idea for weapons (as Hase kits have no weapons). Thus, the HM A-10 has a Hasegawa A-10 as its original reference, which is why the plane itself is so good. But the weapons are just sad. While the Hase A-10 was the best years ago, and is still really good---the new Revell kit is nigh-perfect, and has perfect weapons, too. If they'd copied that kit instead, the HM A-10 would probably be tied with the Century F-14 for "best diecast jet".

[zed550]

the maverick pylons are correct if basic but only 2 were usualy fitted[ inboard one not used] although the most common fit is just a single maverick fitted.the HM A-10 was based on the acedemy kit which does'nt have the best weapon fit[innacurate and basic]
the italeri kit has a more update and accurate loadout this was also issued by tamiya for the japanese market with a slightly different weapons sprue.

[muesingman]

Ok then...

...I just cannot tell actually how I feel since there seems to be no use for me of all which was included in the Hasegawa Weapons Set I. Great. Superb. Thank You, HM.

@David: Could You please post a pic of an A-10 which is realistically loaded with live weapons? If not: what would You suggest me to do / how would You "pimp" the plane? I haven´t lost all hope yet since I can still buy the other Hasegawa Weapons Sets (with LGBs), but which ones should I use then on which pylon?

Thank You in advance (again) !

[David Hingtgen]

You can always put a 500lb MK82 almost anywhere, on any plane that can possibly carry it. (Yet Century/Witty/Dragon/HM tend not to give us Mk82's at all). Want a Mk82 on every pylon? Go for it. GBU-12's can go on some pylons---4,5,7,8. (Pylons are numbered starting from the left wingtip on all planes, and every station counts----on the A-10, 1 and 11 are the outermost ones, 6 is the centerline, etc. I read that the triple-Maverick rail was brought back very recently to make up for the loss of the pylon now usually used for the LITENING pod, but only used when they really need it--drag penalty is insane, even for something as big and slow as an A-10. Can be loaded slant-2 or all 3. Now, for "typical, common loads seen today" here's some pics:









Could also try empty TER's. Stations 4/5/7/8. VERY common, especially at airshows---and very appropriate, since the model you have is the 23FW's Demo plane.

[Armour Addict]

Uhm, what about stuff like SNIPER XR on an A-10C? Anything on the modelbuilding market?

[David Hingtgen]

A guy did make a SNIPER pod, but I think the mold only lasted for one batch or something, it's no longer made and very few people got any. He does make a LITENING pod though, I might snag one---one piece, paint it grey and you're done.

http://www.drpepperresins.com/liteninginst.html