Old School Scooter, Monogram's 1/48 A-4E Skyhawk US Navy

[modelling minion]

For some strange and inexplicable moment I obviously don't think that I have enough on my plate already so here goes with build number three in the GB. Following hot on the heels of my Skyraider comes another Monogram classic in the form of the A-4 Skyhawk, this has been boxed in a variety of slightly different forms over the years and can basically be built as either an A-4E or F out of the box, my boxing is for a Blue Angels F;

 

Fresh from a certain internet auction site the very blue plastic came still sealed in it's original plastic bag;

 

Upon opening the bag, and getting past the blue colour, the raised detail is actually very good and restrained;

 

And some of my Skyhawk references that I shall be using for my build;

 

And that brings us on to the subject of markings to be used for the build, I am lucky enough to have one of the excellent decal sheets by Victory products which covers various US Navy A-4's from the Vietnam War;

 

There are a couple of options missing, one used for an earlier build (Jim Stockdale's A-4E) and one donated to a fellow BM'er for a build but I am still left with some nice options. I am leaning heavily towards the aircraft flown by Michael Estocin on his Medal Of Honor winning mission on which he unfortunately lost his life;

 

The decal sheet shows it without the dorsal hump but some profiles I have seen show the hump fitted, unless anyone knows better I will go with the decal sheet variety with no hump.

I am also tempted by another option on the sheet;

 

I am quite drawn to the tartan bands, not something you see on aircraft very often.

 

So there you have it, build number 3 and my last one for the GB. As per usual any comments and criticisms and help will be gratefully received.

 

Craig.

[helios16v]

Nice decal sheet!  

[modelling minion]

Cheers Chris, it really is a very nice sheet.

[Hewy]

  Well This is taking a leaf out of enzo's book, is the route into narnia being finally cleared ,there'll be plenty of room in that deep wardrobe after this gb😋

Nice colour plastic mind👍

[modelling minion]

17 minutes ago, Hewy said:

  Well This is taking a leaf out of enzo's book, is the route into narnia being finally cleared ,there'll be plenty of room in that deep wardrobe after this gb😋

Nice colour plastic mind👍

Not quite as prolific as our Enzo, but more than enough to keep me busy. 

Don't worry about Narnia mate the Skyhawk only came through the post yesterday, never even got to visit Narnia. 

The plastic is a bit of a pain colour wise but nothing that some primer can't sort out. 

[SoftScience]

I don't know the story of Estocin, but was this one of the aircraft aboard the deck of USS. Forrestal during that horrible accident that killed or maimed almost 200 sailors?  

[Valkyrie]

Yessss! Great action here, got to be tartan bands or really any of those, you’ve got to love a Skyhawk 

[modelling minion]

59 minutes ago, SoftScience said:

I don't know the story of Estocin, but was this one of the aircraft aboard the deck of USS. Forrestal during that horrible accident that killed or maimed almost 200 sailors?  

The one from VA-46 with the tartan bands was one of the aircraft destroyed on the Forrestal. 

Estocin's story is worth reading about, a very brave man. The US Navy named a ship after him. 

6 minutes ago, Valkyrie said:

Yessss! Great action here, got to be tartan bands or really any of those, you’ve got to love a Skyhawk 

Cheers Val, you've got to love your scooter!

[trickyrich]

surprise surprise......guess who's happening to be building a Skyhawk! 

 

....and a blue one??? For its age the moulding still looks very nice.

 

I do like both of the schemes, but the Tartan one has my vote, plus I do like the USS Forrestal based aircraft.

 

Good luck with #3, are you going to throw some AM stuff at it??

 

Gee now if only we had a Skyhawk STGB coming up, I'm sure you'd love it.......... you can bit I'd be there to annoy the host, that'd be for sure!  

[modelling minion]

13 hours ago, trickyrich said:

surprise surprise......guess who's happening to be building a Skyhawk! 

 

....and a blue one??? For its age the moulding still looks very nice.

 

I do like both of the schemes, but the Tartan one has my vote, plus I do like the USS Forrestal based aircraft.

 

Good luck with #3, are you going to throw some AM stuff at it??

 

Gee now if only we had a Skyhawk STGB coming up, I'm sure you'd love it.......... you can bit I'd be there to annoy the host, that'd be for sure!  

I am drawn to the tartan one, and the Forrestal fire should really be covered but Estocin's was the only Medal of Honor awarded to the US Navy for combat ops, Jim Stockdale got his for what he went through in captivity, not that that isn't heroic but I already built his Scooter.

 

No AM with this one Rich, just the decals. You might want to try the approach, certainly is cheaper and less stressful.

 

I look forward to your special kind of "help" in March, wouldn't be the same without it.😁

 

 

[trickyrich]

13 hours ago, modelling minion said:

No AM with this one Rich, just the decals. You might want to try the approach, certainly is cheaper and less stressful.

now where would the fun in that be??  

 

13 hours ago, modelling minion said:

I look forward to your special kind of "help" in March, wouldn't be the same without it.😁

I do aim to please! 😊

 

I even have the build all sorted to, just a wee bit AM to mod it to an Israeli A-4N,..........plus maybe some new weapons...........maybe some wheels......oh bugger it, lets go shopping on evilBay!!!  

[modelling minion]

Sounds like you're good to go with your Skyhawk build Rich, should be a good one to follow and Israeli A-4's look great in their camo scheme. 

[trickyrich]

Yeah I've always liked them but the Hasegawa model is now near impossible to get, and if you can it's a stupid prices!

 

But interestingly you can almost get what you need with this one from them:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hasegawa-64747-a-4m-skyhawk-greg-gates--1023034

 

hidden away as not used parts on the sprues are all you need for the N model (from memory, need to check again). 

 

But Armycast A-4N Upgrade set (reference for those interested) does a very nice upgrade set for the N model. They also do upgrade kits for the TA-4J, and A-4E,F, & H IDF aircraft.

[modelling minion]

It amazes me why Hasegawa don't release the different versions of the Skyhawk more often as they are really good kits and always sell well.

[John Masters]

On 9/15/2020 at 4:27 PM, modelling minion said:

For some strange and inexplicable moment I obviously don't think that I have enough on my plate already

There is something about this GB that urges us to attempt multiple builds, I think.  I am looking forward to this one.

[modelling minion]

42 minutes ago, John Masters said:

There is something about this GB that urges us to attempt multiple builds, I think.  I am looking forward to this one.

Thanks John, I hope to make a start on my Skyhawk very soon.

I must admit that I too get caught up with the GB's and try to avoid getting involved with multiple builds, kind of failed this time though!