A-10 in asymmetric MASK-10A scheme
1/144 LS kit (cat.nr. A207)

Whether you consider an A-10 to be a good looking aircraft is a matter of taste, but the early MASK-10A schemes do make it look much more attractive than the drab 'Europe 1' or later dark grey schemes do.
4-view drawings of the asymmetrical MASK-10A paint scheme can be found in Colours & Markings Vol.24 "A-10 Warthog" by Dana Bell (p11) and in Fine Scale Modeler magazine (Feb 1989 p56).

The kit used is an original old 1/144 LS kit (kit nr.A207, however ARII/MicroAce kit nr.33005 is exactly the same) with some details added:

• cockpit details,
• wing fences,
• fuel dump pipe,
• tie rods between the landing gear and the doors,
• metal pitot tube out of a steel magazine staple,
• blade aerials,
• sway braces for the wing pylons,
• new gun barrel out of plastic rod,
• new fairing for the gun barrel made out of lead foil,
• opened up center of 'towel rack' antenna on lower fuselage (C-14) behind nose wheel bay,
• deepened main wheel bays
• drilled hole in intake and exhaust of heat exchanger between the engines (B-2), then made holes square with tip of knife.

I glued the engine faces (B-8) to the intake rims (B-7) instead of fitting them to the inside of the engine pods to create seamless intakes.
In all, not much effort is required to turn this kit into a convincing looking A-10.

The finished model depicts A-10 75-0277 when it just entered service with 355TF(T)W at Davis-Monthan AFB.

Date finished: February 1, 1990.