1. Introduction
1.1. Aircraft
Douglas A-4C Skyhawk
Carrier-based attack aircraft (information in Wikipedia)
U.S. Navy. BuNo 149574 / NL306. VA-153 squadron.
USS Coral Sea (CV-43), Gulf of Tonkin, 1964.
Douglas A-4C Skyhawk
Carrier-based attack aircraft (information in Wikipedia)
U.S. Navy. BuNo 149574 / NL306. VA-153 squadron.
USS Coral Sea (CV-43), Gulf of Tonkin, 1964.
1.2. Story
An A-4C Skyhawk jet of Attack Squadron 153 aboard the USS Coral Sea sits armed and chained to the flight deck. The flight deck crew prepare the plane for the next mission.
1.3. Model Kit
A-4C Skyhawk from Fujimi (kit # F-26 / 25026), 1:72 scale.
2. Kit Overview
The Skyhawk kit by Fujimi is well-known. Although quite old by now (first introduced in 1987), the kit is, in my view, exceptionally good for its age. The accuracy and the quality of moulds are excellent, and the fine surface details are better than on many newer kits. The following features of the Fujimi's kit are, for me, especially commendable:
1) Fujimi has correctly modelled one of the most noticeable features of the tiny Skyhawk: the extended leading edge slats. Those leading edge slats are entirely automatic and are controlled solely by aerodynamic forces; there are no provisions for the pilot to control the slats. They automatically extend (fall down due to gravity) when the airplane slows down for landing, they remain extended on the ground and throughout the takeoff, and then they automatically retract when the airplane reaches a certain airspeed (and the wind speed overpowers the gravity). Any scale model that is intended to represent an operational Skyhawk – on the ground or on the flight deck – must have the leading edge slats extended.
2) Engine intake interior is included (which wasn't a common practice for the 1:72 scale kits back then).
3) Quite decent landing gear detail is provided (wells, doors, legs).
Yet, the kit is not perfect: the cockpit interior and the main wheels need replacement, some of the features on the fuselage are incorrect for the A-4C variant, and a number of small details are lacking (and should be scratch-built if your aim is to have an accurately looking A-4C).
3. Construction
3.1. Building
This is the list of enhancements that I have added to what was in the box:
1) A number of small inlets and vents on the fuselage were cut out so as to accurately represent the A-4C variant (this kind of detail on the Fujimi's central fuselage parts is mostly correct for the A-4E/F variant). Gun blast shields were removed altogether as absent on the real A-4C.
2) To improve the cockpit, a resin set by Aires was installed. It offers amazingly detailed ejection seat, instrument panel and side consoles. Note, however, that most items have to be trimmed to fit, and the set's gunsight installation cannot be used due to insufficient space (the cockpit of the plastic Skyhawk is even more cramped than the cockpit of the real one, and the thickness of the plastic windshield precludes anything of significance to rise above the instrument panel hood).
3) Wing leading edge slats are positioned as extended, which is necessary for operational Skyhawks when on the ground / on the flight deck. The channels for the slat actuators, lacking on the kit's upper wing, had to be scribed. Also, the relief on the inner surface of the slats was imitated.
4) Wing flaps are positioned as extended, which is normal for operational Skyhawks at rest.
5) Scratch-built actuators added for ailerons and aileron trim tab.
6) Landing gear well interior and landing gear legs enhanced with some minor scratch-built details. This included tie-down rings, brake lines and metal oleo for the nose landing gear leg.
7) Correct main wheels added, using a resin aftermarket set by Pavla.
8) The small fuel dump pylon under the right wing must stand much closer to the flap hinge line than it is on the Fujimi's kit. A new one was scratch-built.
9) As usual, external lights required much work – in the 1:72 scale the kit manufacturers typically ignore this aspect. For the A-4C, the following has to be done: a) clusters comprising three lights on each of the wing tips; b) approach light in the left wing root; c) dorsal navigation light; d) ventral navigation light under the left wing; e) landing light on the right main landing gear door; f) in-flight refuelling probe illumination light on the right air intake lip.
10) Several other small items were scratch-built and installed: a) gun barrels; b) Pitot tube & temp. probe; c) AoA vane; d) windshield wiper; e) several blade antennas; f) catapult bridle hooks.
11) Ordnance was added in the form of two AGM-12B missiles manufactured by Eduard. Such load is confirmed by historical video footage of the VA-153 Skyhawks (link).
Speed brakes are of course closed, as it should be on an operational Skyhawk in normal conditions.
Note that at that point of time, the A-4Cs belonging to this particular squadron did not have any ECM antennae fairings, nor the flare & chaff dispensers. Also note that the Bullpups were attached to the pylons directly, without adaptors.
3.2. Painting & Markings
The aircraft wears the standard U.S.Navy Light Gull Grey over Insignia White camouflage scheme of the period. Miscellaneous markings applicable for this particular machine (149574 / NL306, seen e.g. here) are done in accordance with historical photographs and comprise:
- Insignia Red engine intake lips and wing flap interior. Note that the red is absent from the leading edge slats interior and landing gear door edges.
- Black anti-glare panel (in front of the canopy) and nose cone.
- Aluminum-colored leading edges of the wing, the horizontal stabilizer, the tail fin and the weapon pylons.
- Bare metal (steel) engine exhaust pipe and the tips of the refueling probe and the arrestor hook.
- The squadron's trim consisting of the light blue vertical stabilizer with white diagonal stripes, separated from the fuselage by a very thin black border.
The decal from the Fujimi's box is accurate (which was not very common 40 years ago and is not guaranteed even now), but is let down by two things: the carrier film is very thick and the stuff that should be white is printed instead as cream-colored. However, I wanted a different variant in any case – a VA-153 bird with that colorful blue tail. To accurately represent a VA-153 Skyhawk from a 1964-1965 deployment, I had to have some of the markings made as a custom-printed decal. The national insignia decals came from a generic sheet by Techmod, and only some miscellaneous markings (such as the anti-glare panel) were used from the kit's decal.
In decaling a U.S. Skyhawk, there are two issues that are rarely mentioned. Firstly, the upper surface of the wing is studded with turbulators, and the Navy inconveniently painted both the national insignia and the wing codes right over these items. No decal will adhere to such a relief. Therefore, the turbulators have to be removed from the respective areas, and then, after painting and decaling, you carefully glue the tiny pieces of thin plastic you've made yourself and brush-paint every one of them. Secondly, the right hand side fuselage national insignia on the A-4B and C variants goes over the prominent bulge containing the in-flight refuelling tubing. The standard national insignia piece from a kit or an aftermarket decal cannot cover this bulge, therefore you have to improvise again (e.g., to cut the standard n.i. piece into two parts and to fill the gap by some paintwork).
3.3. Presentation
My small diorama shows the Skyhawk being prepared for flight and includes the following:
1) The deck imitated with sheet plastic was detailed with photo-etched tie-down eyes.
2) The flight deck crew figures were obtained from several sources (Italeri, Airfix, Hasegawa), and all of them underwent "plastic surgery".
3) External electric power for pre-flight purposes comes from the NC-1A mobile power unit, a special vehicle in wide use on the U.S. Navy aircraft carriers between the 1950 and the late 1960s.
4) Early variants of the Skyhawk (specifically, the Wright J65-engined A-4A, B and C) utilized a very peculiar engine start arrangement: the engine had to be started mechanically by means of a rotating metal shaft inserted into a dedicated receptacle from the outside, and the shaft, in turn, was driven by compressed air obtained from a tractor-mounted jet start unit. On my vignette, an MD-1 flight deck tractor equipped with an air start unit backs to the airplane, while a ground crewman hauls a portable device that "converts" compressed air energy into mechanical rotation.
5) Any aircraft parked on the flight deck must be secured to the said deck. This is a very strictly followed rule: if there is no pilot (or crewman) in the cockpit to operate the brakes, the aircraft is always tied down. On my vignette, a photo-etched metal imitation of tie-down chains is used; these chains are flat, but they are better than nothing.
6) The Skyhawk was one of the very few Navy airplanes lacking the self-boarding capability, so that external access ladders were always needed to get to the cockpit. A photo-etched metal ladder was therefore added to my Skyhawk.
1) The deck imitated with sheet plastic was detailed with photo-etched tie-down eyes.
2) The flight deck crew figures were obtained from several sources (Italeri, Airfix, Hasegawa), and all of them underwent "plastic surgery".
3) External electric power for pre-flight purposes comes from the NC-1A mobile power unit, a special vehicle in wide use on the U.S. Navy aircraft carriers between the 1950 and the late 1960s.
4) Early variants of the Skyhawk (specifically, the Wright J65-engined A-4A, B and C) utilized a very peculiar engine start arrangement: the engine had to be started mechanically by means of a rotating metal shaft inserted into a dedicated receptacle from the outside, and the shaft, in turn, was driven by compressed air obtained from a tractor-mounted jet start unit. On my vignette, an MD-1 flight deck tractor equipped with an air start unit backs to the airplane, while a ground crewman hauls a portable device that "converts" compressed air energy into mechanical rotation.
5) Any aircraft parked on the flight deck must be secured to the said deck. This is a very strictly followed rule: if there is no pilot (or crewman) in the cockpit to operate the brakes, the aircraft is always tied down. On my vignette, a photo-etched metal imitation of tie-down chains is used; these chains are flat, but they are better than nothing.
6) The Skyhawk was one of the very few Navy airplanes lacking the self-boarding capability, so that external access ladders were always needed to get to the cockpit. A photo-etched metal ladder was therefore added to my Skyhawk.
Here's an excellent photograph that shows a number of peculiar features mentioned above, namely, the access ladder, the tie-down chains, the starter probe (inserted into its receptacle), and also the way the right-side national insignia is painted over the IFR tubing: link.
With the exception of photo-etched tie-down chains which came from an old aftermarket set by White Ensign Models, all of the support equipment mentioned above was designed and custom-made by myself.
4. Reference Data
[1] General information on the A-4 Skyhawk in Wikipedia: link
[2] A-4 Skyhawk in Detail & Scale | In Detail & Scale Series # 32 | Airlife Publishing Inc., 1989.
[3] U.S. Navy and Marine Corps A-4 Skyhawk Units of the Vietnam War | Combat Aircraft Series # 69 | Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2007.
[4] A-4 Skyhawk Walk Around | Walk Around Series # 41 | Squadron/Signal Publications, 2006.
[5] A collection of historical photographs accumulated over the years of browsing various galleries on the Internet.
5. Notes
5.1. Note that the Skyhawk (and it is not unique in this regard) has a number of painting and marking peculiarities, and even the machines of the same version from the same squadron may differ. For instance, there are several variations of applying the jet intake warning chevrons. The aluminum anti-corrosion paint on the leading edges, the red paint on the slats interior and the landing gear door edges may or may not be present. Various shapes and colors of the wing walkways have been observed, while in some cases they were absent altogether. Similarly, the size and positioning of the wing codes varied. And so on.
This kind of information is nearly always omitted in the kit manufacturer's instructions. You have to do your own research, to be based on historical photographs, and not on how the museum exhibits are painted, nor on various artworks or color profiles found in aviation magazines.
5.2. Regarding the Bullpup missiles. The Internet is full of line drawings and 3D-renderings which are labeled "AGM-12B", but are grotesquely inaccurate when compared to the real thing. So beware. Your trust should be put in the historical photographs only.
This kind of analysis tells us that the one-piece missiles included with the Fujimi's Skyhawk kit are hopelessly inaccurate. On the other hand, aftermarket AGM-12B missiles manufactured by Eduard are good shape-wise. Still, the Eduard's set is not without some problems. The way the resin parts are molded makes their removal from their respective bases and the eventual assembly of each missile needlessly complicated. Then, if you follow the instructions, you will get a missile in a non-operational configuration, with its exhaust pipe closed. Also note that there were several different variations of markings on the missile body (the painted rings in particular, as well as various stenciling), as can be seen on the photographs of real AGM-12Bs hanging under real warplanes.
5.1. Note that the Skyhawk (and it is not unique in this regard) has a number of painting and marking peculiarities, and even the machines of the same version from the same squadron may differ. For instance, there are several variations of applying the jet intake warning chevrons. The aluminum anti-corrosion paint on the leading edges, the red paint on the slats interior and the landing gear door edges may or may not be present. Various shapes and colors of the wing walkways have been observed, while in some cases they were absent altogether. Similarly, the size and positioning of the wing codes varied. And so on.
This kind of information is nearly always omitted in the kit manufacturer's instructions. You have to do your own research, to be based on historical photographs, and not on how the museum exhibits are painted, nor on various artworks or color profiles found in aviation magazines.
5.2. Regarding the Bullpup missiles. The Internet is full of line drawings and 3D-renderings which are labeled "AGM-12B", but are grotesquely inaccurate when compared to the real thing. So beware. Your trust should be put in the historical photographs only.
This kind of analysis tells us that the one-piece missiles included with the Fujimi's Skyhawk kit are hopelessly inaccurate. On the other hand, aftermarket AGM-12B missiles manufactured by Eduard are good shape-wise. Still, the Eduard's set is not without some problems. The way the resin parts are molded makes their removal from their respective bases and the eventual assembly of each missile needlessly complicated. Then, if you follow the instructions, you will get a missile in a non-operational configuration, with its exhaust pipe closed. Also note that there were several different variations of markings on the missile body (the painted rings in particular, as well as various stenciling), as can be seen on the photographs of real AGM-12Bs hanging under real warplanes.
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