Project I/16

Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II

It was nice to return from the Galaxy Far Far Away back to the feelings of the cold war. The Warthog's box art was yapping something about the freedom in Iraq but we'll ignore silly propaganda. Here in 'mumblings we stick to the strictest truth and coldest facts. Unless we're pulling everything from our magical hat, of course.

Guidelines

The instructions went back to the N/AW-style short and to the point kind of no-nonsense instructions, as a pretty noticeable change from the Raptor's more verbose multi-step process. I guess it was to be expected, as the planes are so very different from each other.

I didn't waste time in looking at the instructions more than with a general "yeah, this''ll be another three-step build" and flipped to the painting and markings side. The camo pattern wasn't something I had thought of yet, so I cannot yet say if I'd take this one offered or if I'd pick up something else from my references. At least the decals were marked here in the usual fashion, so it won't be totally useless.

Bits and pieces

Nothing in the sprues jumped out initially. While I was looking at the decal sheet I was pondering if I'd paint it myself or subject myself to the potential problems and less-cool approach of applying it as a decal. The canopy was a two-piecer, nothing new there. Some wings, engine parts and all that, typical and normal.

Then I noticed something completely and utterly unexpected. One sprue had some weird winged cones (the first thing I thought was "are those Mavericks or what?" and surprisingly google verified my guess). Immediately I realized that two other sprues had bombs/missiles in them. Also a good amount of hardpoints and pylons were found, I just didn't think of looking more closely at the pylons.

This'd end up an insane warmonger, especially with the repeatedly mentioned A2G box filled with all things interesting. If nothing else, I'd load this beast up so full that it wouldn't even make any sense anymore! Buahahhaahhahahahaaa!