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 :thumb2:

Are the wires for lights?

Geoff

[papa 695]

Nice work so far Joe, looking good.

[flyjoe180]

Very nice :thumb2:

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 :smiling3:

[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.