Hasegawa 1:48 A-7E Corsair II BuNo. 159285/AC-405, VA-72
The Story
At the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the "Bluehawks" had been
planning to retire their Corsairs and transition to the F/A-18 Hornet.
However, the Gulf Crisis gave the Corsair one last deployment. With
only four days notice, VA-72 Bluehawks deployed on board the USS John F.
Kennedy for the Persian Gulf.
Corsairs from VA-72 and VA-46 flew on the first night of the war.
Thereafter, Kennedy launched A-7Es day and night to attack a variety of
well defended deep interdiction targets. They employed
television-guided AGM-62 Walleye glided bombs, Mk82, 83 and 84 gravity
bombs, and AGM-88 HARMS.
Corsairs flew 722 sorties without a single aircraft destroyed by enemy
action. By the end of the war, A-7Es had fired 152 HARMs, dropped
1,033 tons o bombs on bridges, airfields, and industrial targets.
The Kit
One of the features that stands out on the Corsair is the big intake at
the front of the plane. I did not want the hassle of filling the seam
of the kit intakes so a Cutting Edge seamless intake was used. Bombs
and TER pylons were sourced from other kits.
Decals are from the AirDoc 48013 sheet.
