fox1_BE

Great work on that recce Phantom, Barzin! Very nice build & paint work

That’s a very nice Starfighter, Pete! Build, finish and markings look great

Hi all, thank you for your comments! Well @basket, it’s actually quite simple: I really wanted to build the A-4E from a Fujimi kit, which was not that easy to find at the time. So, when Hobby2000 released their first kits, I bought the (O)A-4M boxes immediately and started backdating from there. …. typically, last year Hobby2000 released an A-4E, even with the VMA-311 markings I wanted to use! But by then I was already well underway.

That’s one cool looking aircraft, great finish as usual, Russ You keep rolling them out at incredible pace! Regards, Patrick

Good afternoon all - many thanks for the kind words, much appreciated! @Robertone139 actually all figures are Hasegawa, except the chap on the left in the Chu Lai scene (Fujimi). Cheers, Patrick

Great job - wonderful build and presentation

These are the nice Fujimi Skyhawks, recently reboxed by Hobby2000. I added a bit of sidewall detail to the pretty good cockpit interiors, spare PE seatbelts in the A-4E and a couple of Pavla resin seats in the TA-4F. The aft canopy bulkhead of the TA-4F was scratched, as were the straight IFR probes. Armament consists of Verlinden Mk.82 bombs and a couple of Eduard Zuni's: although the rocket heads on Fujimi's Zuni's are actually quite nicely molded, dimensions and detail of the launchers are way off, so I used resin types instead. Paints are Gunze/Tamiya acrylics mainly. Weathering consists of a bit of pre- and postshading as well as oil washes. As reference pictures from Chu Lai AB showed particularly weary aircraft, I went a bit heavier on the A-4E. Decals are from two very old Microscale sheets, with the red/yellow bands on fuselage and tail fins painted on. The A-4E portrays an aircraft operating at Chu Lai AB: in 1965, the USMC constructed a SATS (Short Airfield for Tactical Support) on the shores of the Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam. Both the runway and flightline were built from interlocking metal AM-2 matting, with revetments constructed from oil drums. Interestingly, this runway was equipped with catapult and carrier deck type arresting gear. A-4's also used JATO (Jet-Assisted Takeoff) rockets, providing a short extra thrust on takeoff thus shortening the takeoff distance. As of 1966, a paved runway was constructed, followed by hardened shelters and related buildings. When looking for reference material on Chu Lai AB, I came across a blog by fellow Britmodeller Gary @Oldsarge : https://oldsargesaircraft.blogspot.com/search/label/Chu Lai RVN A lot of interesting pictures on this subject/era can be found here (but also on other aircraft-related topics) and Gary was kind enough to grant me permission to use one of his pictures. The aircraft shown in this photo are A-4C type Skyhawks, but it's a good example of the typical Chu Lai flightline layout. Thanks again mate!! Credits background picture: designed by Freepik, photo by jannoon028: https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/clouds-sunset-mountains_986559.htm The second build shows a TA-4F operating from Da Nang AB in a Forward Air Controller (FAC) role, using rocket pods to mark targets for incoming strike aircraft. I had as much fun building up the accessories as I did constructing both aircraft: revetment consists of Brengun oil drums and putty sandbags. Access ladder, loose PSP plates and nitrogen cart are also Brengun items. The bomb lorry, fire extinghuisher and generator set are from Hasegawa, with some spare PE added. I also used some Valuegear blobs and the tie-down chains are from Infini models. For the fun of it, here is a final pic with Hasegawa's 1/48 A-4E that I built a few years ago. Hope you enjoy the pictures, thanks for looking!! Patrick

Interesting scheme and great finish

What a beautiful metal finish you created there, well done

Another great finish, Russ - very well done exhaust staining and weathering on the fuel tank

Very convincing finish on your Farmer, Pete

Super realistic finish, lovely painting work!! Also very impressive work on correcting the intake arena

Neat finish and great paintwork

Very convincing finish and great eye for detail on that cockpit

Really great looking Phantom