A-10 Thunderbolt II, Heller 1/144 scale model

Finally, here is our first inbox review blogpost. To be honest it is long overdue. Our Facebook, Youtube and Twitter presence is up to date, but we have been lagging behind as far as the blog is concerned. Hopefully, we can catch up a little and post not only inbox reviews but model builds, model show reports and many other things too.

One reason, why I like the blog-style inbox review, is that it can be longer and more detailed than the Youtube reviews we usually do. There, the length is restricted, but here it isn't.

I would like to state here too, that (I and my fellow editors) we do this in our freetime for the sake of  fun and maybe helping a few modellers choose kits wisely or just have a peak into a box before buying it. We are in no way associated with any scale modelling cooperation, so our opinions are not biased by money. All the kits presented are in our own stash, bought using our own hard-earned money (unless otherwise stated, we DO accept donations).

So, here is the first subject:

The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II.

All of our reviews will feature a little introduction section here. However, I think the A-10 does not really need this. Who doesn't already know the Warthog? It is not only an aircraft, it's a symbol, an iconic image of aviaton.

One thing, I do would like to mention is the current debate about whether or not to keep these glorious and irreplaceable aircraft flying. Without getting into politics, and just looking at the data, it is clear that no other a/c in the USAF inventory can take up the role of the A-10. With the last vote, it seems politicans realized that too. This hopefully means that we will see the Warthog flying for a coupel of more decades.
If you are interested in news about the type, go and check out the Warthog News blog:
http://warthognews.blogspot.com/
Or the blog's Facebook page here:
warthognews on FB

I highly recommend it, it is a great source of information.

Now, lets talk about the model:
The kit is in a typical Heller style box with very attractive boxart. The boxart depicts an A-10 of the 74th Fighter Squadron, probably the most famous squadron to fly the Thunderbolt II. The dictinctive and intimidating 'shark mouth' makes the a/c even better looking and scale modelling companies know this too.

A-10 boxart

The detailed description of the depicted a/c is possible to find on the side of the box. I personally think that this is a great feature. It even states the date, when the specific aircraft was used. In this case it is during Operation Iraqi Freedom, April 2003. The little info box also has useful data such as the number of parts (51 pieces) and the size of the model assembled. The paint codes given are for Humbrol colors. (85 Coal Black Satin, 127 US Ghost Grey Satin, 128 US Compass Grey Satin, 130 White Satin, but more about the camo later)

However, accoring to Warthog News, there is a typo in the serial number listed on the side of the box: it should be 81-0987 and not 18-0987.
According to Warthog News, this is the history of the actual a/c:
"81-0987 (A10-0682) 511th TFS, 10th TFW (AR); Desert Storm; to AMARC as AC0223 12 Jul 2000; returned to service 25 Sep 2000; 75th FS, 23rd Wg (FT); severely damaged by AAA over Baghdad, Iraq, 7 Apr 2003 but returned savely to base (female pilot Capt. Kim Campbell unhurt); w/o; Gate Guard at Seymour Johnson AFB"

The 'description' box is really useful

Lets start the serious stuff, here is the first sprue:

First of the sprues

This sprue contains the weapons, the wheels and the horizontal stabilizers. As the A-10 is a 'mud-mover' many different kind of weapons are provided. A sum of 6 AGM-65 Maverick air-to-surface tactical missiles, 2 pcs of TERs (Triple Ejector Rack) for the Mavericks. Then there are two AIM-9 Sidewinders, as far as I recognize them they are AIM-9Ms, but I am far from a Sidewinder expert.
Two GBU smartbombs, two Mk.82 500 pound general purpose bombs, and a single Mk.83 1000 pound general purpose bomb is also given. 2 pieces of LAU-131 rocket launchers (each carrying 7 pcs of 70mm rockets, useful for Close-Air-Support missions) round up the offensive armament. An additional AN/ALQ-131 ECM Pod is there too. It is part of the defensive systems that keep the A-10 in the air even in heavy anti-aircraft fire.

Close up on the GBUs

This photo is a close up on the GBU bombs. They are really well-detailed considering this is such a small scale! Judging from their size, they should be GBU-16, 1000 pounders

Now a zoom in on the wheels. They are rather good looking too, especially in this scale. I have seen much worse in 1/144. In fact, they are much nicer than Dragon's A-10 wheels. Of course the Dragon tooling is a lot older, but Dragon kits are considered by many as 'standard setting' in this scale, so making a better tool than theirs is a good achievement by Heller.

The wheels

The quality of this picture is rather, shall I say, poor... But behind all the blur there is a nice looking pilot figure!

Pilot figure in 144! And a good looking one too!

The second of the sprues contains the upper section of the wings, the engine nacelles, the wheelbay doors and the landing gears

The second sprue

Close up on the engine nacelles. Detailing is once again quite good. they will be easy to fit, thanks to the four little pins.

The engine nacelles

The landing gears, just like the wheels are of high quality. We are talking about the 144 scale, but some 72 scale kits don't have such detailed landing gears.

The landing gears

The last of the light grey sprues is the third one. This one contains the fuselage halves, the vertical stabilizers, parts of the engines and various smallers bits.

The third sprue

A close up on the port side of the fuselage. Fine recessed panel lines, just maybe a bit too wide for this scale.

Port side of the fuselage

A close up on the part of the General Electric TF34 turbofan engines.

Details of the TF34 engine

The last of the sprues is of the canopy. It is of two parts, so can easily be displayed in the open position. It is clear and captures the shape of the original canopy.

The clear sprue

The istructions are black and white, and of the traditional Heller fold-out design, but the graphics are modern.

Instructions

2 gramms of weight is needed in the nose of the model.

Straight forward steps

The other side of the sheet has the finishing steps and the painting scheme.

Other side of the sheet

As mentioned before, the colors are given in Humbrol codes. The two-tone grey camo consists of 127 US Ghost Grey Satin, 128 US Compass Grey Satin. The decaling instructions are as straight forward as the other parts of the instructions.

Intimidating markings

At the bottom of the page, there is a graphic of the Warthog armed to the teeth (or rather to the hog). A spectacular sight to see, even on a model, not to mention being on the receiving end of such weaponry!

Loads of weaponry on the a/c

Finally, there is the decal sheet. It is of the usual Heller quality, maybe the white is a tiny bit out of register, but at least the decals look thin enough.

The decals

As stated on the side of the box, there is only one decaling option. That of a Warthog from 2003 from the famous 74th Fighter Squadron. She participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Close up on the decals

In your Youtube reviews, we usually spend the last couple of slides giving a verdict regarding the quality of the kit, the price of it and the availablity of it. Lets finish with it here too:
Overall, this is a nice kit, especially considering the small scale. With some tuning it can be a winner at scale modelling shows, but if built OBB, it will still be a nice addition to anyone's 144 scale lineup.

Availablity should not be an issue either. It is listed in Heller's webshop (not going to link it, they don't pay us, but easy to find).

Back when I purchased this kit, the price of it was good too. It was under 10 EUR. Now it is listed for 13.34 EUR in the above mentioned Heller webshop. I think that is rather expensive for such a small kit. However, probably Dragon's kit isn't cheaper either and this is a good quality model.

This wraps up the review of the A-10. If you are interested in our Youtube review, you can watch it here:

I recommend watching it, it might not be exactly the same as written here.

Also there are plenty of other inbox reviews on our channel, and we keep adding more and more, so make sure you check it out and subscribe!

Wombats Models Youtube Channel

Besides this, we have a fine Facebook page too, so make sure you visit that and hit 'like'. We have our decal products listed there too. You can oder those using our e-mail address.

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Ohh and we are on Twitter too:
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I hope you enjoyed reading this review as much as I did writing it. As more and more of our reviews appear on YT, we will try to keep up and post more here too. So stay tuned!

(written by Jozsef)