1/48 Academy McDonnell Douglas A-4G Skyhawk - 75 Sqn Royal New Zealand Air Force circa 1985

 

Depicted as NZ6217 still wearing the attractive RAN air superiority scheme.

The Kit 

• 1/48 (1/50?) Academy/Minicraft A-4E Skyhawk Kit No. 1657 | 1:48

The Build

Having worked on Skyhawk's  in the RNZAF, the A-4 is a favourite of mine. This kit is a very basic A-4E missing plenty of the little details. Thankfully I am currently building some Hasegawa A-4's and they have plenty of spare bits to add detail e.g. the Pitot probe, TACAN Antenna, Drop Tanks and LAU 7as example. I decided to build this as a flying kit because the slats were up, and rarely if ever are they that way on the ground.
 
Except for the rocket launcher I used weapons from the Hasegawa weapons set as the ones supplied weren't that flash. As A-4's always look better fully loaded, I decided to load the aircraft with 3 MK82's on a TER, a AIM-9G and 2 300 gal drop tanks.

Painting

 
The RAN scheme of Light Admiralty grey (blue) and Dark Sea grey is IMO one of the most attractive A-4 schemes. Finding paints that match was difficult but I settled on the Tamiya Acrylics (XF23 Light Blue and XF54 Dark Sea Grey) I still haven't mastered them as yet, they, particularly the clear, seem to take a while to harden and I ended up with finger prints in some areas.

Decals

 
I used some of the Hasegawa decals but the RNZAF decals are the excellent Gecko Graphics A-4 Decals. If you want to build a Kiwi A-4 these are the decals to get. I'll be using them on the other 3 A-4s I intend to build.  Overall though I think it has turned out OK.

The Photos

1/72 Airfix Avro Lancaster B1 Special - No. 617 Sqn Royal Airforce

Depicted as an aircraft from No. 617 Sqn Royal Airforce

I had intended to build a standard Lancaster, at first glance it looked like all the bits were there. But after closer inspection it turned out that some bits appeared to be missing, particularly the fairings around the Mid Upper Turret. So I built from the box.

It was painted with Humbrol enamels and was my first go at painting camouflage freehand with the airbrush.

The Photos

1/48 Idea F-16A Fighting Falcon

 

This was a cheap Korean Kit. It is of dubious accuracy , had massive fit issues but was good for me to learn to use the Airbrush.

1/72 Grumman EA-6B Prowler

Depicted as an aircraft from VMAQ 2 - The Playboys United State Marine Corps

The Kit

This was another Chinese $5 golo special, It was a real terrible kit to build as many parts didn't fit.  I used it to practice with the airbrush and try Tamiya acrylic paints. I liked the paints, particularly there application and clean up but the range is poor and I can't be bothered mixing them.