My daughter absolutely loves the A-10 Warthog, and was super excited to see them do the fly over for the Indianapolis Grand Prix a couple of weekends back.   She is in 4-H and this year has the option to a do a plastic model for her project.  For her age group (3rd to 5th grade) the models have to be glued together, need to be painted, and have at least 3 decals.

Naturally she wants to do an A-10, and while looking on the internet, wants to do one with the shark mouth / gray on gray paint scheme.   Anyone have a good kit they recommend?  Right now I'm looking at a basic Revell kit and then seeing if I can find some 1:48 scale decals with the shark mouth, similar to what I linked below.

http://www.amazon.com/Revell-1-48-A10-Warthog/dp/B0006JNS54/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464053867&sr=8-1&keywords=a-10+model+airplane

Not the ubiquitous shark mouth scheme, but Caracal models does a 1/48th sheet with a pair of Indiana ANG options

Blacksnakes Decal Sheet

Indiana ANG would be a nice touch since its our home state, and those were the birds that did the flyby, thanks!

SprueBrothers.com is one of the better modeling webstores.   squadron is also OK.  Both should have a large selection of decals.
Ebay is also a good place to look for decals and kits.

My local craft stores usually have the A-10 model by Revell in the $20 range.


If you live near a Hobby Lobby they usually have the same, and a 40% off coupon.


 

Edit to add: you can also do the print your own decals.

For some reason our local Hobby Lobby didn't have it, which I found odd, hence the need to look for other options.

75th FS out of Moody?  I was at Al Jaber in support of those guys (comm) back in '95/'96 (they were out of Pope back then IIRC).  Got to do a "crew chief for a day" kind of incentive/boredom buster thing, it was pretty cool for those of us who didn't work on the flight line.  Been a Hog fan ever since.  CC let me sit in the cockpit for a bit, though he wasn't supposed to.  One of my great regrets is that I didn't get a picture.

The Revell/Monogram 1/48 kit isn't bad, but it's an older kit that shows its age.

There's another kit also 1/48 made by Tamiya. Similar age, but probably a better parts fitting kit.

The Hobby Boss 1/48 kit is expensive and probably not worth it, especially for a beginner.

The Italeri kit I guess is pretty good, but also expensive.

There are of course 1/72 scale models of the A-10 which are a smaller model. Which have pros and cons. You'll have decide on what works best for you. If you decide on 1/72, I'd look at the Hasegawa or Academy kits. To read up on reviews simply Google the name of the kit and that'll get you to where you need to look. Be sure to check out "images" too. In a review you wanna look for things like ease of assembly and not so much accuracy. "Rivet counters" can get pretty carried away and steer away from an otherwise enjoyable build.

Check out Spruebrothers and Squadron for online dealers. Don't be afraid of eBay. I have probably purchased 100 or more kits from there for some better deals than retailers.

Good luck!

Oh, for a real quick fix, there's a 1/72 snap together...probably needs to be glued regardless.

http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/rmx851181.htm

Well, we went with the 1:48 scale Revell model, and over the last week put it together.  She did > 80% of the work, and I just had to help on a few of the really small parts to glue on, landing gear, canopy, etc.   She also did 80% of the painting and decals, with my help on some of the really tough details.   We stuck with the decals that came in the kit once she found out that the plane we were building was piloted by Major Jill Long.  She thought it was really cool that a girl flew such an awesome plane!

Crappy cell phone pic tonight, but will see about getting some better pictures in daylight.   That will show some more of the flaws like brush strokes, glue, seams, etc, but for her first model I'm very pleased!

Nice work Dad. Better than my first model. That's for sure.

Did it come with a 1:48 scale bottle of jeremiah weed?

LOL!

No, but I was thinking about this other Dos Gringos song the entire time...

https://youtu.be/335GdTqtyLs