Hasegawa 1/48 A-4M...maybe

[AeroplaneDriver]

Hase's 1/48 A-4 is one of my favorite kits.  I've done two in the past, a RN FG.5 back about ten years ago that actually won the OWGB and more recently a RW USMC A-4E. 

I picked up an A-4M a while back and decided to tackle it as my next build.   When I was kid in the early 80s we did a couple of family vacations in the low country of South Carolina, not far from Beaufort MCAS, and I will never forget being on the beach and watching a pair of Marine A-4Ms in low vis markings screaming along the waterfront down low. 

My original plan was to build this kit as a Beaufort based A-4M from VMA-311 "Tomcats" using the great looking TwoBobs decals. 

As I got going with the build though I'm having second thoughts...While I love the muscular look of the A-4 with the avionics hump, I REALLY love the sleek look of it without it. 

So now I'm torn between the RW A-4M from childhood, or my third RN Skyhawk...this time an FG.6 serving as a station hack, with the hump removed in a blue over white scheme similar to that seen on the "Admiral's Barge" Hunter T-birds from Flag Officer Flight Training...


Decisions, decisions....

Pics to come as it progresses.

[AeroplaneDriver]

I am VERY torn...I love the look with the hump too...but there is just something about the non-hump ones that looks like the perfect jet design to me. 

Having said that I am getting close to decision time...





I think I need to sleep on this one.  If you look closely you see that two of the three slat tracks on the left wing are missing...It came out of the bag that way..I found one, but the other is lost to the styrene gods.  I was already leaning towards a nice clean inflight build on a stand, so this may be a deciding factor.  Much as I love the A-4 it always looks a tad ungainly to me on the ground. 

As far as the decision on the scheme goes...the more I think about a Roundel Blue over white Station Hack would look really nice.  The scheme is seen here on a Hunter: 

https://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=134280

Turns out Roundel Blue is damned hard to find...all I can see available is Xtracolor enamel from Hannants.  I've done some research on equivalents and there don't seem to be any suggestions other than "eyeball and hand mix it".  And then I looked at the rarely touched bottle of Testors "Gloss Blue" from a generic acrylic set I bought over a year ago when I first got back into building...it seems a damn close match...

[zenrat]

How about the RW childhood scheme but leave the hump off?

[Air21]

I always thought the A-4M really needed the bubble cockpit and nose from the AV-8B+

[Old Wombat]

CA-4E almost sounds like something the RAN may have been looking at through the CAC.


Back in my Tracker-Whacker days, I got used to seeing the RAN A-4G's, which didn't have the hump (despite being upgrades of the humped A-4F), so I kinda prefer the humpless look.

As you say, AD, the slimline look of the humpless A-4's is close to the epitome of jet elegance. However, the humped A-4's do have a more aggressive look.


Decisions! Decisions! Glad I'm not you, mate!

[kerick]

Well, I guess you"ll have to build one of each then!