1/48 Hasegawa Douglas A-4K Skyhawk - No 75 Squadron RNZAF

 

Depicted as an aircraft from No. 75 Sqn Royal New Zealand Airforce circa 1985

The Build

In the  1/48 Hasegawa A-4E/F Kit, there's every thing you need to make a early Kiwi A-4K. The only mod you have to do is remove a couple bits on the intakes and change the lower anti collision light from the left to right hand side. 

Except for the rocket launcher I used weapons from the Hasegawa weapons set a. A-4's always look better fully loaded, so I decided to load the aircraft with 6 MK82's on a MER, a AIM-9G and 2 300 gal drop tanks. 

The Paint

I used the Gunze Sangyo Acrylics for the Grey (FS36222), Brown (FS 30219), and Light green (FS 34102), for the Dark green (FS 34079) Gunze colour looked way to dark so I used Tamiya's XF58 Olive green. This just looked more like the green in the photos I had. As usual (for me) I airbrushed them free hand, As real aircraft are usually painted free hand I figure I may as well paint my models that way.

One thing I noticed is the access ladder bends inwards just like the real thing. F

For the remove before flight tags I used red painted tin foil cut into strips. This was before I discovered after market RBF tags.

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. There is one glaring error I made, considering I worked on A-4K's I really should off noticed it.

The Photos

 

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