Douglas A-4 Skyhawk 1/32
[ page 3 ]

Douglas A-4 Skyhawk in 1/32 scale	page 1 page 2 page 3
... continued from page 2...
The wing fuel tanks had received some more details and inscribed lines and the tanks had been airbrushed white earlier. I noted that sometimes the RAN VC-724 tanks had a blue-yellow stripe and these were added from Xtradecals stripes. I only added the stripes on the outsides though some photos show these to be on both sides on each tank. Instalment of the tanks are with pins and holes. These holes were enlarged a bit. Note that not the pylons #C4 but #C10 should be used and that each tank drops a bit to the rear when set which is correct.   The refuelling probe on the RAN A-4 is the “cranked type”. The kit part #A5 can be adapted: carefully bend with two kinks and remove a section of 2 cm aft of the tank mouth. (or use the cranked probe in the 1/32 single seat Hasegawa A-4E kit if you have that one). The wind screen was fixed with white glue without any issue. It had been airbrushed after masking earlier as was the big canopy. The wind screen inside’ frames had been painted black.   Now, nearly there! The horizontal stabilizers were set in 2 minutes and look good. (note that I had made razor saw cuts before top suggest separate elevators). The last step is to apply a light coat of gloss varnish to protect the decals and get an even sheen (I used as usual Johnson Future/ Pledge). When doing this, obviously leave off the big canopy and shield off the clear wind screen and the “matt” tyres. That’s it!  Making this kit took about 45 hours overall (excluding researching the history, schemes and decals). It sits nicely with my RAN Sea Venom FAW53 and RAAF Mirage IIIO of the ARDU made years ago.
AUSTRALIA      For information about Australia's  air forces look at the Mirage III page here...  RAN TA-4G of VC-724 as based at HMAS Nowra south of Sidney in 1979                    ... at Nowra..
A nice large scale TA-4 Skyhawk trainer is in the collection. Some 1/32 A-4 kits still to be made in the future...   Back to 1/32 Models
(c) Copyright Meindert "designer"/ All rights reserved. Your comments are welcomed by  webmaster	Created this page August 16, 2021