Italeri

1/48 A-10A Thunderbolt II aka 'Warthog'

Kit Number: 34396

Reviewed by  Dennie Adams, IPMS# 34396

MSRP: $38.00 Imported to USA by MRC Academy- ( www.modelrectifier.com) How long have the fans of the Hawg been waiting and hoping for a new tool A-10? Too long! Now we have two of them to choose from. There wasn't anything really wrong with the old Monogram or Tamiya offerings but it would take all your fingers and toes to count the issues and I, for one, am thrilled at getting updated new-tooled versions of the A-10. It's long been one of my favorite airframes of all time, a truly mean, deadly brute of a warplane that thankfully is still flying today. What you get in the box from Italeri are five sprues of good looking parts with nicely engraved panel lines, no flash to speak of and some real improved features that make this one easy to pick over the old offerings. Just to name a few high points: recessed panel lines, poseable dive brakes, an open electronics bay, an open refueling port on the sponson, positionable canopy and a modern weapons array. The decal sheet gives you four choices as well, two in the Euro camouflage scheme and two in the modern gray. The clear parts are properly thin and distortion free. The downside is the cockpit and the wheel wells in the sponsons. The cockpit is a simple affair with only decals for the instrument panels but the ACES II seat is nicely represented. The main gear wells lack any real detail at all. I'm sorry Italeri, you could have done a bit better in this scale and for $38.00. Not to worry though, as the aftermarket guys will be on this for certain. The build is straight forward on this one and the fit is much better than some I've had from Italeri. Sometimes their kits can be a hit or miss proposition but this one being a new tooled item, I think they got the engineering right. There are some seam problems on the wing sponsons and the engine intakes took some time as did the engine pod panels but they were easily worked with. An unskilled builder could get this one looking good right out of the box. The cockpit left me wanting to go for something better so I started shopping a little. With some trial and error I found that a monogram cockpit will fit here if you're willing to massage it some, as did a resin cockpit from True Details (Squadron). That is the choice I made for this build up and though it took some doing it worked out OK. This is where I noticed an important factor. Even with all that resin in the front and the usual amount of weight added, this Hawg was tail heavy. Since it was already sealed up I resorted to sliding slivers of lead down the opening for the cannon barrel before dropping in the gun barrels and sealing it up for good. It's still a bit touchy if you put the slightest pressure on the tail she'll sit down. When I built this one there was nothing out there for the wheel wells or anything else specifically for this kit. I picked the two-tone gray scheme with the Michigan ANG markings just because one of the guys that hangs out and builds in my garage is from Michigan and he thought it would be cool. Besides the other Hawgs in the pen are all green ones. After painting and a gloss coat of Alclad's clear gloss base coat the decals went down with moderate success using solvent to keep the silvering down. This is a phase one review basically of the kit itself since I recently volunteered to build another one with the Aires upgrades included. These consist of a replacement electronics bay and a set of wheel wells. I've also purchased an Aires cockpit to go "whole Hawg" on the second one. Even with the few issues I had with this kit I totally recommend this one and my thanks to MRC/Academy and the IPMS for the review kit.

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