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Two Vietnam Skyhawks: A-4E (VMA-311, Chu Lai ca. 1966) and TA-4F (H&MS-11, Da Nang ca. 1970)


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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!!

 

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Credits background picture: designed by Freepik, photo by jannoon028: https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/clouds-sunset-mountains_986559.htm

 

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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.

 

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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

 

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You did a fantastic job on this.  Love the diorama as well and thanks for supplying the actual photo to go with it. ;)

 

I personally thought A4 is somewhat short and fat, but I do like how you present them here.  They good quite good.  

 

Great efforts, thanks for sharing this. 

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Hello everyone.

Thank you to Fox 1 for your efforts here.

I'd like to share with you all some personnel information regarding H&M 11 and it's C.O.

during the time of the model ,1969. 

His name was Lt. Col. Richard F. Hebert , and a close friend of mine for 25 years.

He did 3 tours in Vietnam , first one 1965 , March, and over his 30 years in USMC

would log over 5,000 hours and fly 27 A/C , 

 

He was fast FAC/TAC of the " Playboys" and his call sign would be "PLayboy One" We both

Had attended pilot re-union in Washington DC about 20 years ago, the description 

by his squadron pilots was nothing but pride in the " skipper" as he was referred to.

 

You can see more of actual information , Google / records of war.com vietnam. and A4 skyhawk Assoc.

He passed December , '2020 at the age of 89 . He was a great friend of mine, instilled

with me sense of "mission" and confidence to overcome anything in life . 

 

Be well everyone. 

PeteR

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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.

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1 hour ago, fox1_BE said:

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.

Thanks for your reply , and bad luck about the fujimi kit ! 🙄

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