A-10 “Warthog” Card Kit

When I was growing up on a farm in upstate New York, the 174th Fighter Wing “the boys from Syracuse” would fly over with their A-10’s traveling from Hancock Field to exercises at Fort Drum.  I was always impressed at their low altitude as they flew by.  Sometimes they would pass directly over the silo at about 200 feet, (probably using it for a practice target run).

You can customize your model in a number of ways.  First the hanger loop may be used for creating a mobile display with multiple models or as an ornament for a Christmas tree.  Or, by clipping it off, and using the stand, you have a display model of an A-10 Warthog.  The eleven hard points may be populated with an assortment of bombs and missiles at your discretion.

A set of the various munitions along with the card that includes munitions and the engines are provided to allow for individual preferences in construction.

Printing

Print the two cards using support.  I used the adaptive Z-step in Slic3r and 25% hexagonal fill.  Note: if the top surfaces of the body or wings have holes over the hexagonal fill, you may need to increase the number of horizontal shells.  The engines are printed with solid fill to add weight.  If your slicer uses a partial fill in the engine print it may affect the model balance from the support ring.

The surface where the wings meet the wing root on the body and the wheels fit onto the wings can be rough after removing the support material.  You may need to trim or sand that section for a tight fit.

The munitions are orientated for vertical printing to minimize the problem of support removal.  Laying them down creates a mess in removing it.  Printing multiple copies or adding an additional dummy cylinder lets the deposited plastic on the missile tips cool before the hot end returns for the next layer.  I found the “A-10_munitions.STL” file printed OK by itself.  I found that removing the support from the tip of the Paveway GBU-16B/B (a 1000 lb. bomb) and the AIM-9 sidewinder missiles was difficult without breakage.   If you can disable support above a certain printing layer height that will help immensely in printing the tips.

I printed with ABS and found some pesky stringing between munition elements.  Lowering the hot end temperature can help but may affect layer adhesion especially with the munitions.  A quick trick for removing the strings is to flash a match or lighter flame over the affected region.

Assembly

Clean off all the support and check the fit between parts before applying adhesive.  Be careful removing support around the munitions (they are delicate).  The support for the wheel shrouds that fit onto the wings and the wing taper at the wing roots needs special care for a good fit. 

Super glue works well for assembly. With an ABS print and super glue I found that just momentarily holding parts in place lets the glue polymerize enough to set.  Assemble the wings first.  Place the A-10 body on a flat surface and again check the fit for each wing dihedral when you press down on the joint.  Run a bead of super glue along the joint on the body, set the wing onto the joint and press down with a finger for a couple seconds to allow the super glue to polymerize.  If you get some glue on the tip of your finger twist it loose while holding the model down.

The wheel shrouds are not interchangeable.  There is a left and right.  They fit below the wing seam centered between the hard point slots.  The wheels should be vertical when correctly positioned.  Run a bead of glue along the wing roots, press them into place and hold for a couple seconds.

Glue the elevator and engines in place then add a bead of glue to the ends of the elevators and press on the rudders (flat side in, making sure they are vertical).

Now you can populate the hard points.  Check the fit then fill the slot with glue and press the munition in place.  Note that not all munitions were carried on every mission.  Some hard points under the wings were bare.  And, some items were mounted at specific hard points on the wing.  For example, the ALQ-131 ECM POD could only be attached at hard point #1 or hard point #11.  And the Paveway GBU-16B/B (a 1000 lb. bomb) was normally attached to the middle hard point under the body.

A-10 Munitions

Munitions Identification is shown below:  Note they are small and delicate when printed.

  AGM-65 Maverick

  AIM 9 Sidewinder

  ALQ-131 ECM POD

   Lantirn Targeting POD

   Paveway GBU 16-B

  Rockeye Mk-20 Cluster

Enjoy.