A-12 Avenger II: The World’s Most Expensive Model Airplane

The end of the cold war was as abrupt as it was anticlimactic. Now, I am probably mis-remembering this to a degree. It was like we came home from school on a Friday, still hating those godless commies. But come Monday morning sometime in 1991, everyone forgot what all the fuss was about.

I can clearly remember the immediate effect of the Soviets throwing in the towel: Cuts. Oh boy, if there is one thing that governments like to do, it is cutting military spending. Typically, the first to go are those big, expensive, shiny, and narrowly focused programs.

The A-12 Avenger II was just such a project. It was big, ambitious, futuristic and almost as ridiculously expensive as the F-22. The original idea was to create a long-range, low-observable attack aircraft to replace the Grumman A-6 Intruder. But somehow it grew to have additional capabilities like electronic warfare, antiship, close air support, tanker missions and air to air. Instead of making good on these hopes and dreams, all the program delivered were delays, scope creep, re-designs and impossible-to-overcome issues in manufacturing processes. When those Soviets packed up and went home, the purpose behind all this spending was no longer there. The A-12 was just too squishy and bloated a target to pass up.

Depending on who you ask, the program cost anything between $2.8B and $5B dollars. And for all that money, all that was created were some canopies and a 1:1 scale wooden mockup. That has got to be the world’s most expensive model airplane.

The Model Collect A-12 Kit

I actually knew exactly what this kit was when I first saw it online. I vaguely remember the A-12 program. Truth be told, I only knew 3 things about it. It was supposed to be a stealth flying wing, it was never built, and its cancellation led to one heck of a legal dispute. Some 20 years in total!

I had never built a Model Collect kit but I knew they made a rather popular B-52 kit. In terms of design quality, the kit has some odd quirks but it does fit together with some occasional coaxing here and there. Considering the only prototype is a rough mockup, Model Collect did not have much to work from. So detail is minimal but what is there is crisp. Actually, the kit comes with a pile of different weapons to install in the massive weapons bays. I test fitted one of the cruise missiles and it went together well.

I didn’t bother making or painting them as I was going to be closing up the weapons bays.

The only nit I have to pick with this model is that I had to install the main gear before construction is complete. I hate having to do this as I have broken off bits in the past while completing the model. And snapped landing gear is a royal pain to fix. I was lucky this time that nothing broke off while I finished the kit. Then again, the main gear is incredibly big – this probably helped keep it in one piece..

I decided to replace the kit seats with resin ACES II seats from True Details. Yes, I know. These resin seats are almost as old as me and they are definitely showing their age. But under some careful painting and inside of a closed canopy, I figured they would look just fine. I enjoyed painting them but to be honest, I could use more practice with my ejection seat painting.

The only issue I ran into was when I had to close the fuselage together. The top mostly met the bottom half, but I had to file down some of the internal weapons bays and bulkheads to get a perfect fit. The problem may have been with the internal structure posts not fitting in their proper holes. However, once it did come together, the leading edge of the wings were almost perfect and required only a small amount of CA glue here and there to get a smooth surface.

Since I bought the Air Force version of this plane, I decided to paint it like an Air Force F-16 of a similar vintage. I used Tamiya Acrylics and the paint mixes recommended on the Replikator Club website. And I will admit: mixing Tamiya paints is old school and there are probably better and more accurate alternatives out there. But I tell you, nothing is more reliable to find in a hobby shop and nothing sprays as consistently. I do try new paints from time to time but I don’t mind going back and using paint mix recipes.

Once it is painted, there is not a lot of final assembly to carry out. Basically you install the wheels and the gear doors and you are done. There is no weight in the nose and this thing sits nicely on all three wheelsets.

Wanna See a Video?

Of course you do! Let me know what you think of it!

Last Thing

I do not usually build fantasy kits but I got this one because of its amazing shape and unique history. The kit itself is simple and it builds quickly. If you have a soft spot for cold war planes, paper projects or cancelled programs, this is the model for you. The model went together quickly – if you stick to what is in the box, you can have this thing ready for paint in a matter of hours.