Academy 1/72 A-37B Dragonfly

[Finnart]

Hello everyone! This is my first GB and I am looking forward to it! I have already seen fantastic aircraft in this era and after finding this bird at my local hobby store, I decided that I had to enter as well. I'm a beginner and have been focusing on 1/48 but decided that this plane should be built, even if it is in 1/72. Anyway, here is the box.



The kit is made by Academy and seems to be very nice. The detail, as you will see in the sprew shots, looks very nice for 1/72. The version I will be building is the USAF Cessna A-37B, 8th SOS., 14th Sow., Bien Hoa AB., Vietnam, from 1970.




According to the instruction manual, the A-37B was "designed to combat guerilla warfare... what the military referred to as a counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft. It was based on the T-37, a prototype jet trainer first flown in 1954. The trainer was converted into the A-37A turbojet, which, beginning in 1967 saw extensive action in Vietnam. These aircraft were all subsequently converted into the more advanced A-37B." "...the Dragonfly seats two pilots side-by-side and protects them with a nylon flak curtain. To guide the pilots, the A37-b boasts a wealth of navigation and communication instruments. Eight under-wing pylons carry over 5,000 pounds of rockets , bombs, and napalm, and a GAU-2 7.62mm minigun serves as fixed armament. Noted for its light weight and ability to fly low-altitude missions, the A37-B can also take off and land on very short airstrips. Most of the Dragonflies produced were sold to the U.S. Air Force, who retired the last one in 1992."

Next I will show the kit itself.

The paint scheme I will be doing.


The wings have fairly nice detail.



The fuselage and other bits.


The canopy is quite thick and somewhat scratched. Still clear and not too bad.



The ordinance has fairly nice detail as well.



The decals don't look half bad either.


Over all the kit looks nice. It has some very nice detailing for 1/72 and if I don't mess it up, it should look just fine. Since I am not a veteran builder and I haven't made a build post before, I will be making mistakes. Please feel free to give me tips and suggestions along the way. They would be greatly appreciated! Looking forward to beginning this build, it may take a little bit of time, and hopefully completing it before the GB ends! So far I am really enjoying all the other models being built for this GB. There are tons of options and it seems that there is a good variety of models being built. Thank you for viewing and until the next update, bye bye!

[SyntaxModels]

Looks like it'll turn out to be a great build mate! I've seen a Dragonfly in person when I was down at Temora Air Museum in NSW (in Australia if you didn't know), the thing is a lot smaller than you would think, it also sits incredibly low to the ground! Can't wait to see what a fairly new modeller like me can do with a kit like this!

[planemaker]

Nice choice! Looking forward to seeing your build.

[Finnart]

Update #1

I have finally started this "beast" and I have to say, it's fantastic! So far it has just fallen together, something I have been thinking didn't exist in model building .

I started off by cleaning up the cockpit components


Then I assembled and painted them, no weathering at this point. I used mixes of Vallejo Model Color. I have a limited amount of paint so I don't go for color accuracy. It doesn't matter though because most of these birds had been completely battered, paint wasn't the number one concern.


After that, I cleaned up the fuselage halves and noticed that they had ejection pin marks on the cockpit side walls. I quickly sanded them down, no filler was needed.



I then glued the cockpit into one of the fuselage halves. The instructions called for 5 grams of extra weight into the nose of the plane, so I added some metal beads and glued them using Micro Krystal Klear.


After that I glued the two fuselages together.


The cockpit was weathered by dry brushing a lighter grey onto the dark grey areas, adding a grey oil wash and finally lightly dry brushing some aluminum.



So far the kit has been a nice build. I really enjoyed finally starting a kit that is meant to go together. Next up are the wings. Until the next update, bye bye!

[SyntaxModels]

Looks good mate, can't wait to see her come together! Good job on a sparsely detailed cockpit!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Looks like a great kit, nothing wrong with 1/72 scale
I have yet to see any of my instructions remind me to weight the nose...that must be a well thought out kit!
Some sweet paint work on the cockpit .......so far so good

[LudvigN]

Beware of the decals, I only have bad experiences with Academy decals!

[Deacon]

Looking good mate.

[Daishi12]

Beware of the decals, I only have bad experiences with Academy decals!

Looking good so far mate, I would also urge a degree of caution with the decals, I've done a couple of Academy planes so far and have found the decals are very thin and somewhat fragile. From what I've seen so far, the best approach seems to be using a gloss coat under the decals, and then micro-sol and micro-set to bed the decals in once that is done finish with your choice of clear cote, weather the kit and final clear coat. HTH

[Finnart]

Hello everyone!
Thank you all for the wonderful comments and tips on how to go about this model. I am sorry to say that I will not be able to finish this model in time for the end of he Vietnam GB. I have been in the ready to prime stage but without primer. I have ordered new primer but it will not arrive in time for me to complete the plane. This means that I will be moving the post to the works in progress part of the forum. Thanks to everyone who viewed and commented on this build and I hope you all have a good holiday!