A-7E ‘’Desert Storm’’, Hasegawa (PT 14 ‘Valions’’) 1/48

The Hasegawa kit remains excellent and offers nice detail after all these years, but I used a seamless intake from Rhino Modelworks, a Quickboost ejection seat and an Eduard PE set to further improve it. The assembly was straightforward. The white canopy line was achieved by careful masking: First, using yellow tape, I masked all clear areas, leaving 1mm space around the frame. Then white was airbrushed and finally new masks were applied to cover clear areas plus the white line. Then the canopy frame was painted together with the rest of the camo. Unmasking revealed a beautiful result. The windscreen of course was glued to the fuselage, joint filled and sanded smooth, before masking/painting.

After the basic build was finished, I prepared the model for the painting. I washed it with soap water to remove any grease from my hands and dust residues.

The first stage began by airbrushing Gunze's Mr Surfacer 1200 primer in light coats, thinned with Gunze/MrHobby's "Mr.Color Leveling Thinner" (yellow label). Using primers we can detect any flaws on our models and prepare the surface for the paint.

 

Painting of the two tone camouflage pattern began with spraying a base coat for the upcoming shades. I used Tamiya’s XF-78 as more appropriate for that purpose. After that I preshaded the model using Tamiya’s XF-85 black. I did that to have some tone variations after the basic colors of camouflage were sprayed.

For the main camouflage pattern I used two MRP paints:  MRP-233  (Special Brown FS30140) and MRP-244 (Tan FS20400). MRP paints are acrylic lacquers, pre-thinned, ready to be used with an airbrush. For further thinning (special effects or for nozzles below 0,3mm) you can use Gunze's Mr.Color Leveling Thinner (yellow label) or MRP's Mr.Thinner.

The following stage is highlighting the basic colors. For that purpose I used a mix of MRP-233 with Gunze’s H-406 Chocolate Brown (for the darker shade) and a mix of MRP-244 with Gunze’s H-316 white. A few drops from each color to the basic color did the job.

 

For the wheel wells I used white Gunze’s H-316 (FS 17875)

For the NMF area near the stabilators I used the Mig Ammo – Alclad Polished Aluminium ALC 305.

 

At the end I sealed the model using Alclad’s gloss varnish ALC-600 spraying it lightly in 4-5 layers to prepare the model for the decal procedure.

For this model I used a Cam decals sheet.

 

After decalling the model accepted a panel line wash to enhance the already very good engraved panel lines and rivets. For that I used Mig Ammo’s PLW Orange Brown.

Then it was time to add some dirty look to the wheel wells of the model. For that purpose I used Mig Ammo’s PLW Black night. After I applied the wash I cleaned the area using a cotton bud slightly wet with thinners.

Then it was time for the final assembly. Some oil streaks were made using Mig Ammo Streaking Grime and the final varnish was sprayed using Mig Ammo’s matt. Our model is completed!