Nostalgia build -- 1/72 Hasegawa A-4 Skyhawk

[billn53]

When I was a college student, back in the early-1970s, I spent way too much time building models instead of studying and attending classes. One kit I remember with fondness is Hasegawa's A-4E/F, which I modified by dropping the leading edge slats and adding AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missiles (converted AIM-7 Sparrows from my spares box). Markings were for "The World Famous Blue Dolphins" (VA-203), that I found on a Microscale decal sheet.

 

 

 

Tomthounaojam's recent RFI inspired me to dig into my stash and try to re-create the Skyhawk that I built over 40-years ago. You can view tomthounaojam's excellent RFI here:

 

 

Unlike my original build, be doing this as an in-flight configuration, and attempt to replicate this photo:

 

 

 

much as tc2324 did in his gorgeous "Sundown Launch" RFI:

 

 

Let's get started!

 

Hasegawa's A-4 Skyhawk kit dates back to 1969, and has been re-boxed numerous times. The one I remember building (same as in my stash today) was from 1972:

 

 

 

The kit consists of three sprues, plus a clear canopy piece:

 

 

 

Instructions are sparse, which was the norm at the time:

 

 

 

 

 

I managed to find a MicroScale decal sheet for the VA-203 Blue Dolphins on eBay:

 

 

 

 

I'll also be adding a couple of aftermarket items, namely, a QuickBoost ejection seat and Shrike missiles from a Hasegawa weapons set.

 

Starting with the cockpit (what little there is), here's the QuickBoost seat and the kit's pilot figure:

 

 

 

The pilot is surprisingly well-molded, considering the vintage of this kit! And after removing the seat's harnesses, the pilot actually fits quite well:

 

 

 

The big question is: Will the seat & pilot actually fit in the kit's cockpit?

 

The first problem area I encountered is some warping on the fuselage halves:

 

 

 

It looks bad, but I should be able to coax the fuselage together with clamps and adhesive.

 

Second problem is that the cockpit opening isn't wide enough for the kit's broad-shouldered pilot. I fixed this by thinning down the fuselage sides:

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

 

 

 

[Side story: I once worked with a fellow who had flown Skyhawks over Vietnam. This guy was well over 6-feet tall. One day, I asked him how he managed to fit in the Skyhawk's cramped cockpit. He admitted it took planning to ensure everything he needed (charts, etc.) would be reachable after he was strapped in. He also told me how happy he was when his squadron converted to A-7s. "The Corsair was a Cadillac in comparison", he said.] 

 

Back to my build. Will the seat & pilot fit under the canopy? I may need to slightly lower the height of the seat, but this looks promising:

 

 

 

Which brings me to the third problem I've encountered: I'm going to have to replace the canopy (and, for once, it's not my fault). The canopy in my kit is missing parts of its left side, and there's a nasty gate mark on the opposite side:

 

   

 

My hope is to use the kit canopy to mold a vacuform replacement. First step is to fill in the missing areas. I glued styrene strip along the inside of the canopy, which will serve as a backing for the filler I'll be adding later.

 

 

 

Stay tuned!

[Smudge]

Loving the old Microscale sheet, should look great.

 

Good luck with the canopy.

[billn53]

I'm using "sprue gloop" to fill in the missing areas on the canopy, primarily because it is pure polystyrene when it hardens. The downside is that it takes a while to harden.

 

While waiting for that, I painted up the seat and pilot figure:

 

 

 

There's a yellow eject handle that goes over the headrest, I'll wait until my pilot is in place before adding that.

 

I also built up the wing and closed up the landing gear bays. The gear doors, amazingly, fit snugly in place!

 

 

 

I also added the engine air inlets and the dive brakes. Like the gear doors, everything fit well and minimal filling will be needed.

 

  

 

I can't say as much about the fuselage-wing joint. Perhaps it will be better after the cockpit floor (top of the nose landing gear bay) is in place to spread the fuselage halves. But, I won't be surprised if I will need a spreader brace to close this gap:

 

 

 

 

[tomthounaojam]

Hi Mate, 

 Mine was a quick built, but seeing your progress it is full of love and dedications and I look forward to the end result soon. Glad to know I have inspired you to start this kit and rekindled your memories, Thank you and Cheers

[stevehnz]

I'm keen to see this done Bill, but I'm guessing being in flight there won't be any slat dropping going on, I've one of these I look at occasionally & think I've worked out how I can do the slats , then I rebox it & put it back to sleep.

Steve.

[billn53]

2 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I'm keen to see this done Bill, but I'm guessing being in flight there won't be any slat dropping going on, I've one of these I look at occasionally & think I've worked out how I can do the slats , then I rebox it & put it back to sleep.

Steve.

Doing the slats is really simple, Steve. Just do like I did in 1970-something: cut off the slats and glue them back on at an angle 

[billn53]

Making steady progress!

 

Got the warped fuselage closed up successfully, and have test-fit the wings:

 

 

 

I did have to lower the seat a bit, to ensure the pilot won't be bumping his head on the canopy. He may now be a bit too low, but better that than the alternative:

 

   

 

With the cockpit floor in place, the gap between the fuselage and wing root is much reduced:

 

   

 

I may still add a brace though, to reduce the gap even further.

 

Viewing the belly, there's a gap at the front of the wing that I'll fill with some sheet styrene:

 

 

 

I'm also nearly done with repairing the kit canopy, in preparation for vacuforming a replacement. Here you can see how the sprue gloop has filled in the missing sections at the bottom edge of the canopy:

 

 

 

Finally, the last item for today was finding where the center-of-gravity is. I'm going to try something new to me, namely, using magnets to fix the model to its base (a clear acrylic rod). Thus the need to find the CG, for that's where the magnet shall go:

 

 

 

More to follow!

[jean]

Well done!

The Skyhawk is a delightful plane to look at. My favorite is the -B, but I am not fussy. Any Skyhawk will do!

Your pilot looks horribly cramped, but if you can put your head through the hole, the whole body shall eventually follow. A tight fit!

Keep up this super work.

JR

[Howlindawg]

My first kit was an Airfix Skyhawk in a bag.

I still have a soft spot for them so will keep tabs with your build!

[billn53]

Today I applied sprue gloop along the fuselage seams, and while waiting for that to set up I tried my hand at representing an in-flight missile. Tc2324 was kind enough to describe the technique he used for his Sundown Launch build, and I followed his guidance with a couple of modifications.

 

The Sundown Launch missile plume was created by supergluing cotton wool onto a 3mm clear acrylic rod. I used rayon instead of cotton because it can be stretched out easier without separating. Also, I have a huge box of the stuff and this was an opportunity to put a very minor dent in my supply (if anyone wants some, drop me a line please).

 

 

 

Instead of supergluing the wool to the rod, I simply stretched out the wool to the length I need, and threaded a sharpened rod through it. I then rolled it into shape and sprayed the assembly liberally with hair spray to stiffen the wool. The only superglue I used was on the end that will connect to the missile.

 

 

 

I drilled holes in the rear of the missile and in the end of the acrylic rod, and used 0.8mm brass rod to pin the two pieces together:

 

 

 

This is the missile and its plume look when assembled together:

 

 

 

 

 

My Coastal Kits ground blur base arrived today, so of course I had to see how this build will look when finished!

 

 

 

Sweet!

[stevehnz]

That already has a pretty big wow factor, the finished article is going to be a stunna I reckon. Following closely.

Steve.

[busnproplinerfan]

I guess a resin cockpit is pretty well useless in the A-4 aside from the seat, to bad I have one. I know these are very small planes so the pilot won't be a six foot plus size. This should look cool with the backround.

Edited September 21, 2019 by busnproplinerfan

[billn53]

Time for another progress report.

 

Before joining the wings to the fuselage, I added a spreader bar to reduce the wing-fuselage gap. I only needed to spread the fuselage a wee amount, maybe one-half millimeter. When I was done, the wings fit perfectly:

 

 

 

 

 

I can't say the same for the nose gear door, which needed extra styrene and sprue gloop to fill its gaps:

 

 

 

With all the handling, the kit's cannons (molded as part of the wing) broke off. No great loss there, they weren't very convincing anyway. I cleaned up the attachment point, and will have to find a replacement.

 

 

 

Moving on to the canopy, here's the original piece now made into a mold for vacuforming:

 

 

 

It took a couple of tries before I got an acceptable canopy:

 

 

 

After a little trimming, it was time to glue the canopy in place. For this, I used Araldite clear expoxy, which was recommended to me when I had to vacuform a canopy during my recent Barracuda build:

 

 

 

Canopy in place, and taped down for the night:

 

 

 

With any luck, tomorrow I might be able to get some paint on this Scooter!

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Looking very good now, love the work on the canopy. 

[Mr B]

Lovely work

 

can’t wait to see the end result

 

rgds

[billn53]

It's Sunday evening and I've missed my goal of getting the Scooter painted. Here's where I am at:

 

This morning I masked my vacuform canopy using a set of Eduard masks for the Airfix A-4 and Bob Dively Masking Fluid (great stuff!). When the masking fluid was dry, I gave the canopy area a coat of dark gull gray, the better to see if there were any flaws needing attention before painting in earnest.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the results convinced me that I needed to do some putty work to blend the canopy in to the fuselage. That's what has set me back on my painting goal.

 

 

 

While waiting for the putty to dry, I worked on some other items. I re-shaped the kit's triangular dorsal antenna to better match the shape on VA-203's aircraft:

 

 

 

 

 

I also cut down the kit's molded anti-collision beacon. My intent is to use clear, UV-activated acrylic gel to simulate the beacon (after painting is finished, of course).

 

 

 

I painted and decaled the AGM-45 Shrike missiles, and got the fuel tanks ready for painting:

 

 

 

I spent a fair amount of time pondering how best to attach my flying missile to the Skyhawk. I finally decided to add a pair of acrylic rods under the wing (hidden behind the outer pylon), and attach them to the long acrylic rod that's hidden within the missile plume.

 

First, I drilled out a pair of recesses on the underside of the wing:

 

 

 

Here are the two acrylic rods, temporarily set in place:

 

 

 

I drilled holes in the lower end of the two rods and inserted short pieces of brass rod to act as pins. I also drilled holes in the plume's center rod to receive the brass pins. Easier said than done! But after a few choice words, the work was done:

 

 

 

(Note to self: Next time, do this before adding the rayon wool)

 

Last item for this weekend -- I trimmed the Coastal Kits ground blur base to my desired size, and glued it to a piece of 1/4-inch plywood. Next, I'll drill a hole in the base for the 1/4-inch acrylic rod that will support my Scooter "in mid-air", about four or five inches over the base. Oh! And I forgot to mention that I've put a magnet in the plane and there will be another the top of the acrylic rod, so that the model (complete with flying missile) can be easily detached from the base for transport.

 

 

 

Now, if only the putty around the canopy would dry so I can get this puppy painted!

 

PS -- Here are a couple more pics of Blue Dolphins Skyhawks:

 

  

 

 

 

Note how clean they are... not much room for weathering on this build (unlike my Barracuda)  

[tomthounaojam]

It has been an absolute pleasure following this thread, Thank you Bill

[billn53]

Paint's on, and I must say I have mixed feelings about it.

 

 

I used Mission Models paints. I first sprayed the underside and control surfaces with White Primer, followed by Insignia White (FS 17875). The Insignia White looks, to my calibrated eyeball, a bit too yellowish. I then masked off the white areas and painted the upper surfaces with Gray Primer, followed by Light Gull Gray (FS 16440).

 

 

 

The Mission Models paints go on quite nicely, although I did have a few areas where the white primer pulled away with the masking tape:

 

Rudder tip and tip of starboard wing:

 

 

Various places along the port wing's leading edge:

 

 

The above items were easy to repair. The canopy is another story (grrrrr…..)

 

 

At first I thought paint had somehow infiltrated into the cockpit, but closer inspection revealed something entirely different. What you see are stress marks in the thin plastic of the canopy. While painting, I accidently "oil canned" the canopy with my big, fat fingers. The canopy popped back into shape, but the damage had been done 

 

The only proper solution would be to tear the canopy off and start over. I have no appetite for that! Instead, this is going to be a "three-feet" model, and "one-side-only" as well.  My missile launch diorama, of course, has had to do a 180:

 

 

 

Tomorrow I'll do some detail painting, and maybe even get some decals on.

 

 

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Wow sorry to see the canopy like that. Shes good looking otherwise and maybe someday you can re-attack the canopy. 
 

 

[Andwil]

That’s a real shame about the canopy as the rest of the model is looking brilliant.

 

AW

[billn53]

14 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Wow sorry to see the canopy like that. Shes good looking otherwise and maybe someday you can re-attack the canopy. 
 

 

Someday like today. 

I got up this morning feeling less discouraged, so tore off the old canopy and vacuformed a new one. 

Pics to follow. 

[billn53]

We're back in business!

 

As I mentioned in my previous post, this morning I cut off the bad canopy and began working on a replacement (thanks for kicking me in the butt, Corsairfoxfouruncle).

 

Old canopy removed:

 

 

While the cockpit was open, I took the opportunity to do some cleanup on the interior paint job, and added a touch of red to the escapac head rest that I noticed in photos. I then polished up the canopy mold and vacuformed a new canopy. Trying not to repeat whatever caused my previous attempt to fail, this time I used PVA-based canopy glue instead of the clear epoxy:

 

 

Masks added, not to mention a load of putty:

 

 

Here's the result, much better than my previous attempt:

 

 

This time around I used Montex vinyl masks, instead of the Eduard paper masks used before. The Eduard masks worked perfectly. But with the Montex masks, I had paint intrusion on nearly every edge. I'll need to do some cleanup on the canopy framing before I'm calling this one done.

 

During some dead time while waiting for the canopy putty to dry, I added a 1/4-inch acrylic rod to the base and topped it with a magnet to mate with the one inside the model. This went smoothly and it's looking good!

 

 

 

I'll be away a few days starting tomorrow, going to La La Land for a short notice business trip. I'll be back Friday evening, so no updates until the weekend.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

I didn't mean to push you, I just figured when you had time and could fix it in the future you could. Im happy it worked out though with exception of paint bleed. Its looking good with the base and will really standout on a shelf with the missile firing. 
 

Dennis

[billn53]

I got back from my trip to LA yesterday evening and decided to give my Skyhawk a light weathering using Flory gray wash. What follows is a painful lesson on what Not to do with Mission Models paints.

 

My mistake was applying the Flory wash without first giving my model a protective clear coat. After letting the wash dry overnight, I preceded to remove it using a damp cotton cloth. I knew I was in trouble when the paint on my Skyhawk immediately became tacky. Bottom line is the MM paint softens when it becomes wet!  My only recourse was to finish removing the Flory wash — the result was pretty ugly. I ended up having to repaint almost everything. 

 

To add insult to injury, after the new paint was dry I carefully brush painted the clear sections of the canopy with Future. Wouldn’t you know, the MM paint on the canopy framing began blending into the clear sections!  Aarrrggghhhh!

 

I’ve cleaned up the canopy best I can, and later this evening plan to spray a light clear coat (with fingers & toes crossed), before doing anything more. 

 

Sorry there I have no pics to show, hopefully next update I’ll have a happier story to tell. 

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Im very sorry to hear this, I thought it looked great. I truly hope you can save it. Im surprised as i’ve read nothing like this in any reviews or builds involving Mission Models paints. Will have to note that for future if i ever use them. 

Edited September 29, 2019 by Corsairfoxfouruncle