Category: Kit Corrections & Detailing
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The 1/72 Hobby Boss family of A-7s are very nice, but suffer from one major inaccuracy - the nose intake is "squashed" and is oval in shape, when it should be more circular.  Nuno Andresen presents below his solution, which is completely free 

This is what did about two years ago with the 1/72 kit. It's an easy fix!

In the picture below, you can see the kit intake has a "squashed" shape when compared to the picture in the Verlinden "Lock On" book in the background:-

 

 

 Not only is the intake "squashed", it is also far too thick:-

 

 

 

The first step is to sand/file down the intake to a more realistic thickness:-

 

 

Comparing the out-of-the-box kit intake to the thinned version, the difference is obvious:-

 

 

The next step is to prepare the intake lip.  To do this, I wrapped it around an X-Acto handle:-

 

 

I submerged the part in hot (not boiling!) water and used my hand to reshape it.  Take care here - make sure the water is not TOO hot!:-

 

 

This will result in a more rounded intake shape, but there is now a step from the lip to the intake:-

 

 

Comparing the out-of-the box intake to the reshaped one, the difference is quite clear!:-

 

 

The final stage is to get rid of the step in the intake.  To do this, I used a clamp to hold the fuselage halves together:-

 

 

I used a round jewellers' file to smooth everything out:-

 

 

And the result is as follows:-

 

 

 
Article, model and photgraphs by Nuno Andresen