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Above: A Fairchild A-10A of the USAF gets ready "Somewhere in Saudi" for a sortie in the first Gulf
War. The kit is a Monogram kit. The revetment walls are cardboard box sides with the first layer stripped to show the ribbing,
simulating corrugated metal. The lights are dollhouse lights, and the light housings are 500 lb. bomb halves from an old B-17
kit. The lights on the trailer in the foreground are from an HO light tower, and the trailer is from an Italieri ground
equipment kit. The Maverick missiles are scratch built. A 12 volt transformer is installed under the diorama to run the
lights. This has always been one of my favorite models, as well as one of my favorite aircraft. Conventional wisdom is that
the A-10 is ugly, but I disagree strongly! This plane is absolutely awesome.
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Above: A close up of the aircraft nose. The plane was actually designed for (and designed around) the
21 foot Vulcan GAU 30mm rotary cannon seen protruding from the nose, instead of the reverse - a gun being designed for an
aircraft. The 30mm gun fires a depleted uranium shot - the projectile is so hard that it penetrates inches of armor plate
like butter. Designed to overcome the quantitative advantage the Soviets had over NATO in tanks, the A-10 never fought the
protagonist it was designed to fight, but did prove that our tax dollars were never better spent with its performance
in the Gulf conflicts to date. Low and slow, the A-10 may not have the panache of an F-16, but nothing
cleans the way for our armor columns better than an A-10. Barely visible on the nose is the appropriate name the pilot
has given his aircraft, "The Thief of Baghdad". Armored like a tank, the survivabilty of the A-10
over the modern battlefield is already legendary.
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