Italeri (Esci) 1/72 Vought A-7E Corsair II

ITALERI (ESCI) 1:72 VOUGHT A-7E CORSAIR II

Reviewer: Simon Skinner (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 6 November 2003

Aircraft History:

The Vought A-7 Corsair II is the third Vought Naval aircraft to carry the Corsair namesake, in spite of the "II" label, the other two of course being the famous F4U fighter and the light observation O3U biplane. The A-7 was a product of the Vietnam war and the special requirements brought about by the experience there. In 1963 the US Navy set out parameters for a new attack plane with superior range, weapons load and bombing accuracy to the then current, A-4 Skyhawk. They also stipulated the need for all-weather capability and that the new plane be developed from an existing design. Vought based the A-7 on the already proven and venerable F-8 Crusader design, although the Corsair was an entirely new plane. A couple of the distinctive differences were that the A-7 would not be able to fly at supersonic speed and also had its fuselage shortened. The A-7 proved to be popular with both pilots and ground crew when it first saw action in 1967 in Vietnam. The A-7E is the third generation production version for the US Navy.

The A-7E variant is really only the major US Navy revamp of the USAF A-7D with upgraded engine and radar. The Corsair is a subsonic attack aircraft for the US (and other countries) air regiments. It was based loosely on it's fighter comrade the F-8 Crusader and to the untrained eye the aircraft look very similar. But of course the A-7 is a much different aircraft and has proven itself to be one of the most accurate strike aircraft ever built (in bombing and gunnery competitions). It saw action in the Gulf Air and back in 1986 off the coast of Libya.

The Kit:

The kit is released in one of the newer style of Italeri releases with a blue trim around box edges. This made me think this was a new tooling kit but it was evident later that this is a reissue of an earlier mold which I suspect is from Esci. The 90 light grey parts are presented on five sprues which contain nicely engraved surface detail, another clue this is an Esci kit. A little bit of flash is present and a few blemishes such as sink marks to attend to but nothing too serious. There are two clear parts on their own sprue to make up the canopy and these are nice and clear.

Instructions:

Very much the standard Italeri fold out sheet offering with a multi-lingual type overview, sprue map, eleven easy to follow exploded view assembly steps, and decal/painting guide for four options. The bottom of the box provides two other colour three-view drawings for painting options and Modelmaster, generic paint names (multi lingual) and FS numbers are provided throughout both.

Construction:

The cockpit detail is quite good for a mainstream kit with a ejection seat containing seat belts; control stick and instrument panel with decal which are installed into a cockpit tub that is affixed in the forward area of the fuselage. I followed the instruction sheet for painting the interior and also added some fishing weights to prevent tailsitting. Small holes have to be drilled out for the refuelling receptacle as shown in the instructions. The fuselage halves can be closed and any seam lines attended to.

The main wing assembly is quite straight forward and I also affixed the three under-each-wing pylons to carry ordnance along with fuselage side mounted pylons as these will be difficult to add once the wing is on. The kit supplies an array of stores including sidewinders, 500 lb bombs and drop tanks which can be mixed and matched to depict a laidened bird of your choice and I sub assembled and painted these separately as they would be added after the model was painted. The shoulder mounted wings were affixed into place with a bit of filler required at the roots to fill up the gaps. The “armpit” gaps were particularly hard to fill as I had to work around the pylons. Unfortunately there is no option to have folded wings in this kit.

The rest of the construction process was quite straight forward with the nose cone, tail fin, tail pipe, tailplanes, fuel probe and two-piece canopy all installed without any major dramas. Some small amounts of filler was used in parts to blend in components and achieve a smooth finish. The undercarriage was installed after the painting had been done and are pretty simplistic but nonetheless okay for the scale. The wheel well detail is a bit basic but provide some plumbing and painting was done in accordance with what the instructions say.

Colour Schemes:

Four colour options are available from the kit, one replicated on the instruction sheet and box bottom. Three options are in upper Gull Grey over White undersides with fairly colourful banners and emblems from US Navy examples, being VA-93 Blue Razors, VA-87 Golden Warriors and VA-147 Argonauts. The fourth scheme is an overall Dark Gull Grey with toned-down markings from VA-86 Sidewinders.

Decals:

Italeri have produced fine decal sheets in the past and this is no exception. The colour register is excellent and the decals are of high quality. There is sufficient stencilling provided to keep most modellers happy. The decals were applied without any hassles and bedded down very nicely onto the model.

Accuracy:

I seem to recall a few other modellers stating there were a couple of flaws with the old Esci kit and I assume they would apply here but for my liking the kit replicates the A-7E very convincingly which is fine by me. The kit is slightly underscale in length by half a scale metre.

Overall Recommendation:

A straight forward easy to assemble kit of a great post war aircraft. Apart from perhaps a few flaws in accuracy that I wasn’t concerned about I would recommend this kit to any modeller looking to add this aircraft to their 1/72 collection.

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