AMT/ERTL 1/72 A-7E Corsair II, by Scott Van Aken

The LTV A-7 Corsair II is an American carrier-capable subsonic light attack aircraft manufactured by Ling-Temco-Vought(LTV) to replace the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Its airframe design was a somewhat smaller version of the supersonic Vought F-8 Crusader. The Corsair II initially entered service with the United States Navy (USN) during the Vietnam War. It was later adopted by the United States Air Force (USAF), including the Air National Guard, to replace the Douglas A-1 Skyraider and North American F-100 Super Sabre. The aircraft was also exported to Greece in the 1970s, and to Portugal in the late 1980s.

The Navy was sufficiently impressed with the increased power offered by the A-7D Spey engine used by the Air Force, and decided to use this engine for its own version of the Corsair II. The designation A-7E was assigned, and this version was to succeed the A-7B in production. However, there were delays in the deliveries of the TF41-A-2 engine specified for the A-7E, so the first 67 aircraft of the order were delivered with the TF30-P-5 engine. These aircraft had all of the other improvements planned for the A-7E, including the improved avionics and the M61 rotary cannon, and were re-designated A-7C after delivery.

The first Spey-powered A-7E flew for the first time on 9 March 1969. The A-7E differed from the USAF A-7D in retaining the probe-and-drogue midair refueling system of the earlier A-7A/B. It entered service in Southeast Asia in May 1970 with VA-146 and VA-147 deployed aboard USS America. The A-7E participated in numerous close-air support missions over both North and South Vietnam, the A-7E's state-of-the-art bombing and navigation system being particularly reliable and accurate. Most air wings operating Douglas A-4 Skyhawks and early A-7s were re-equipped with A-7Es. The A-7E participated in the mining of Haiphong harbor in 1972, and played a vital role in Operations Linebacker I and Linebacker II that led up to the formal end of US involvement in the Vietnam War on 24 January 1973.

On 15 May 1975, A-7E aircraft operating from USS Coral Sea, in conjunction with A-7D aircraft assigned to the 3d TFS at Korat RTAFB, provided air cover in what is considered the last battle of the Vietnam War, the recovery of SS Mayagüez after it was hijacked by Khmer Rouge gunboats. By the time the Mayaguez incident was over, three USAF Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters had been shot down, two airmen, 11 Marines and two Navy Corpsmen had been killed in action and a further three Marines were missing in action. The type performed in combat in Grenada and against the Lybians on a couple of occasions with its last combat missions coming during Desert Storm after which the type was retired from fleet service.

Molded in an off-white plastic, this one has nicely engraved panel lines that would look good on any modern molding. There are no ejector pin marks on the inside of gear doors or on wheels or gear legs. Why ESCI could pull this off 30 years ago and some better known companies couldn't is beyond me. The cockpit tub is adequate with a bang seat, control stick, and instrument panel. One uses decals for instruments. A decal for the seat harness is also provided. I like having these included as they are better than nothing and not everyone wants to either make a harness or buy an aftermarket one.

Wings are a full upper surface with an insert for the lower inside. This insert has the two inner pylon areas already drilled out. The outer pylon is a butt join and all pylons are single piece moldings. To model folded wings, the builder will have to do some surgery. To my knowledge, the only 1/72 A-7 that can be built with folded wings is the Matchbox kit. For things under wings you have a pair of drop tanks, a TER and MER with lots of Mk 80 bombs to attach to them. You can also mount either Shrike or Maverick missiles, both of which are appropriate for the E model A-7. I should mention that there are fuselage mounted Sidewinders, but these were frequently not installed so not attaching the pylons is not a big deal.

Landing gear is well done and the wheels included are the slotted variety which, I believe, are appropriate for the A-7E. ESCI apparently did the right thing and included a sprue that is specific for the Navy version. In it are all the different bits including fin and underside antennas, the aforementioned wheels and a nose gear leg with the catapult bar to name most of the bits. Finally, the clear bits include a separate windscreen and canopy so you can model this open. Frankly, without an aftermarket cockpit, it would be best to keep it closed as the cockpit is rather Spartan. It could also use a decent bang seat and to my knowledge, no one makes one, though the A-4 seat is close.

This kit came without decals or instructions, but I used the instructions from another kit to build the model.

I started with subassemblies. First were the wing tanks. These have mounting pins that are too long so one is better off either sanding them down to near nothing or removing them entirely. Next, I went for the wings and the underside inserts. These inserts have holes drilled in them for the two inside pylons. The A-7 was rarely seen without all three of them. The inserts are also a bit smaller than the opening into which they fit so many of us will need to apply filler around the edges of the pieces to smooth things out. So that is what I did, despite the fact that few will ever see the underside of the wings.

The interior was next. This is nothing fancy, though I was concerned about the old decals. First the instrument panel and rear bulkhead were glued onto the tub. Then it was painted dark gull grey FS36321, a shade I also painted the small inner fuselage section of the cockpit. Instructions would have you paint it a lighter shade, but in all my years in the navy, dark gull grey was the standard shade for cockpits. When dry, the decals were applied. I was concerned that these would disintegrate as my past experience with old ESCI decals was not positive. Much to my delight, I had no issues with them at all.

With the cockpit assembled and the exhaust painted, I added the required 10 grams of weight in the nose. When dry, the cockpit and the exhaust were attached and the fuselage halves put together. With the halves joined, I used filler on all the seams, especially the lower fuselage where there was a step. The shallow intake halves were joined and attached to the fuselage, followed by its coating of filler. Then all the external fuselage bits except the pitot tubes were attached. This was followed the wings. I then attached the landing gear and the windscreen/canopy. The latter were masked and I headed for the paint shop.

This one would be the early camo scheme of light gull grey and white. For the white I used Testors XF-2. I masked the upper flaps/ailerons as well as the fin tip and rudder. I also painted the gear doors, drop tanks, and pylons this color. Then the upper surfaces were sprayed light gull grey using Testors enamel. Then sections of wire were intalled in the bottom of the inner pylons and corresponding holes drilled in the drop tanks to accept them. Next the model took a vacation to the box of near doom where it rested for about six months before I got back into it.

The wing pylons were attached and the wheels painted and attached. Nose wheels are not a very tight fit. On the gear doors I used a sharpie to outline them in red. Those were then attached and honestly, the fit of the very small upper door is quite poor. I also glued on the underwing pylons.

With all that in place and fully expecting to knock off a door or two while handling the model, I started applying decals. For this one I chose the VA-27 scheme from Print Scale 72-160. I found the decals to be very matte, somewhat impervious to even strong Mr Mark Softer setting solution and thin to the point of being difficult to use. I had at least two on the tail fold and impossible to straighten out and a serial number decal fold into a ball. They also require a fair amount of water prior to application or they tend to stick as soon as they hit the plastic. Print Scale provides a full insignia/stencil sheet for both full color and low viz schemes. The stencil placement guide is not the best and one has to guess on some of them. Naturally, I did not use most of the tiny ones.

With all the decals in place, I worked on getting something for the two outer pylons. Digging through a box of bombs, I found some from a Hasegawa weapons set. I used two 2,000 lb bombs on the middle pylon while the outer got a TER with a pair of 500 pounders. I used a dark OD from Tamiya and did my usual poor job of painting yellow bomb stripes on the nose. I then attached the Sidewinders and their pylons. The A-7E almost always carried the missile pylon but rarely had the missiles attached The pitot tubes were attached to the nose, the masking removed, a bit of touch up painting happened and I was done.

CONCLUSIONS

As you have gathered from reading this, the kit isn't perfect. However, it does have the shape down fairly well and it can be found fairly inexpensively. I bought a fair number of them as they were available at a very good price. However, I doubt I will buy any more as I still have one Italeri boxing and an ESCI A-7D in the stash. I have a goodly number of Fujimi A-7s and a few Hobby Boss as well to help use up my decal stash. Though not by any means a slammer, it builds up fairly well and can be used to help hone a few of those modeling skills.

KIT #:	8808
PRICE:	$7.00 on the used kit market
DECALS:	Two options
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	Reboxed ESCI kit.