Hobbyboss 1/72 A-7K Corsair II

With the side consoles done, attention turned to the instrument panels. I was going to use either the Aires or Airwaves panels but looking at reference pics it became obvious that neither were of any use so I went ‘old school’ again and made the rear IP from scratch, just like I did in the 80’s when I converted a Fujimi A-7D into a two-seater using a Maintrack Models conversion.

To make the bezels, various sized holes were drilled into 0.10 thou plastic strip then using a scalpel I cut straight edges around the holes;

These were glued onto another piece of 0.10 sheet that was cut to the shape of the kit supplied instrument panel (I.P) and when done I had something that better resembled the rear I.P. found in the A-7K. It’s not exact but close enough for me;

Because the dials are on different levels I made another panel and glued it to the back, this way I’ll be able to scratch in the instrument faces after painting. For what you will actually see it will be good enough.

A perfectly good question you may ask is “what was wrong with using the kit supplied decals in the first place Andy?” Well one reason is that instrument panel decals in kits are too two-dimensional and generally don’t work for me. The other reason is that although the decals in this particular kit are not THAT bad, Hobbyboss made a duplicate of the left console for the front cockpit (decals 15 and 16) plus the I.P. decals are the same, they are different on the real aircraft;

Close but no cigar Hobbyboss!

Having done the rear I.P. I might as well scratch the front one while I’m at it and save all the aftermarket I’ve collected for this project and stick them on the other A-7’s I have in the stash. While it is has been good to revisit old scratch building techniques during this build, it would have been nicer if the A-7K was better catered for in 1/72 after 30 years or so like it has been in 1/48. Oh well it keeps me off the streets I guess…

Edit; I did indeed scratch a new IP for the front cockpit;

Near as dammit so that works for me. Although not exact copies of the real aircraft IP’s, you can see the difference between front and back, once you see it you can’t ‘un-see’ it.