This kit was a gift
from a friend from Cold Lake, Alberta - thanks James, and I hope you like it!
His wife told him to clear out his kit stash, and I was a happy bystander.
I have always like the little A-4. It is a neat looking little jet, and
the USN paint jobs are beautifully colourful. For a long time, I debated
over building the later version with a dorsal hump, or this earlier version.
My daughter told me this one was cuter, so... And a note for the purists.
Consider this as an artistic impression of the Skyhawk. I made no attempt
to ensure the weapons load, refuelling probe, or anything else were accurate.
I used Hasegawa's air to air weapons (AIM-9Bs), and left the centerline station
empty, as if this little Scooter had just come back from dropping bombs (and was
lucky not to encounter any air threat). I just wanted this to be a fun
build, and to admire it on my shelf with the other 1:48 jets that I am fond of,
not to be a study in history. Apologies to the purists.
Click on
images below to see larger images
With the exception of the
missiles, it was all OOB. One thing I would do differently next time
is not use the decals for the pretty gold striping. On the rudder,
the decals were tough to get right, and I ran out of patience. In
retrospect, I should have used paint. The wing tank stripes were
also difficult to get right. I settled on making them almost meet at
the top, and accepted the overlap on the bottom, as well as the small gap
at the front of the tanks. Paint and masking, however, would have
been way too much work for me - I have other kits to build, and in my
opinion, a hobby is meant to give pleasure, not to create work and
frustration.
This was a great kit
to work with. Excellent fit, great detail (look at the wheel wells and
panel lines). I used Tamiya acrylics, which I was quite happy with.
Thanks for looking. Now I have to get to something more serious - a CF-18
commission build.
Dan
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