A-7E operation praying mantis

Tim Vereecke
good scale and nice process! 🙂 The Zactomodels parts really make the difference

mark de bruyn
Yes it is and the parts are a great fit.

Stefaan Hoste
nice progress idd

Luc B
I'll follow this one

Burkhard D
Very attractive camo, and very well done, too.

Frank Krause
Wow, the detailing looks phantastic! Love the camo!

Philip De Keyser
Looks great Mark, very nice camo sheme, Greetz Phil

Augie
very nice 🙂

Bill Gilman
Based on the photos, the Zactomodels parts are awesome! How could Trumpy get the intake and windscreen so wrong? Oh, wait, never mind I think I know...

Michel Huijghe
Great looking camo.

Holger Kranich
I agree with Michel, cool looking camo!

Ben Schumacher
Striking scheme, Mark! I have the Zacto set as well and the parts are incredibly well engineered and moulded. Too bad I cannot start my A-7 as my Navy boxing contains the wrong fuselage - the USAF one instead of the Navy version and I am not really tempted to scratchbuild the refueling probe... anyway, I will be watching your progress - keep up the good work!

Bill Gilman
Ben - the Trumpy box for the USN version has the USAF fuselage? That's even more crazy than I would have expected!

Mark - the national insignia on the port wing is beyond low "visibility" - it's almost "invisible!" I do love the scheme you've chosen though, it looks very cool! 🙂

Ben Schumacher
Yes, seems they just put the wrong fuselage into my box... Not a huge issue, but it still sucks. Anyway, I think the next project after my RF-8 will be either the Fisher Cutlass or Skyray.

mark de bruyn
Thanks for the nice words

Treehugger
Q: Any idea if the two related kits (one with "new parts") are similar? Seeing as OP has acquired aftermarket nose + intake + canopy (no longer on sale by the looks of it), it makes me wonder if maybe the camo version, has corrected shapes, but I am probably wrong.

Ben Schumacher
There is a Navy (used here) and an Airforce version. Main difference is the fuselage (different IFR probes). Both of them share the same massive canopy and air intake shape issues. These have never been adressed by Trumpeter.

Treehugger
I contacted the people that made your intake + canopy + nose aftermarket combo, they don't make them anymore. 🙂 So OP is lucky in that regard.

Ben Schumacher
I thought Chris still did the intake but without the corrected Canopy? I luckily have a set as well…

Treehugger
Yes, they sell the corrected intake for $8, which is a nice price I think.

I don't understand what some kit manufacturer thinks. It is as if they don't even think about canopies being rounded on top, as if they can't even imagine round objects being based on an ellipsis or a circle shape even. Maybe they just see a single curve, never thinking that the curved surface is probably designed as a part of a larger curve, like a circle or something similar.

Ben Schumacher
Simple - these kits were developed by people who don't care about the real a/c and who have never seen it in the flesh. "Close is good enough". Super annoying for sure but that's the explanation for many flaws in many different kits...

Treehugger
I see what you say.

And if one look at the cross section of F-16 and F-14 canopies, I think one will see the cross section is more circular, not just some curve that is round on top and then just merges with the hull on the sides. 🙂 I used to make 3D models of stuff on a computer, so this type of design problem is all somewhat familiar to me. I got burned out by technical difficulties due to shader networks, and faulty/crude scale drawings. Apparently 'proprietary' drawings are proprietary (secret sort of). 😄