USMC A-4 replacement. The Boeing FA-32 Skyhawk III

[chrisonord]

When the last US Marine Corps A-4 M was finally retired after a long and excellent career, a large and noticeable hole was left in the Marines aircraft inventory. The F-18, although a good aircraft was not a liked aircraft by the marines and they felt like they had been short changed yet again when it came to getting the hardware they needed. To top this off, the eminent retirement of the AV-8 was not very far away either.
The F-18 just could not cut it as the rugged bomb truck the Marines needed, and after much debate and dummy spitting, the marines got the go ahead for a worthy replacement for their beloved scooters. Boeing   being the maker of the F-18 and owner of McDonnel Douglas put forward an idea that could just do the job they wanted. Since the JSF competition, Boeing have been working on other versions of their XF-32 airframe, and one such version caught the eye of the powers that be. A mock up was built of the modified XF-32 and shown to the Marine corps,the reply from their chiefs of staff " I don't care if it looks like a flying sheeps donkey, as long as it can fly fast and low and drop bombs"!!
So a new engine was chosen for the XF-32, but this time it did not need V/TOL capability,but fast super cruise was a necessity. The airframe had its internal weapons bays deleted, leaving much needed room for more fuel and avionics, and a canard fore wing was added to improve the aircrafts handling. The wings were fitted with 3 pylons each, the 2 inner ones were plumbed for fuel and the outer ones to carry either AIM-9 or AIM-120.
The fuselage had mounting points and interfaces fitted for carrying conformal tanks and targeting/ reccon pods. Also the GAU-25 has been fitted into a fuselage pod under the port wing, and fed from an internal drum.
The prototype was built and test flown in record time, passing all tests admirably, so now it go to the Marines for their test and evaluation.
The aircraft was put through its paces in all climates with all kinds of weapons loads, from land bases and from carriers too, far exceeding the marines expectations the XF-32B+, was officially christened the FA-32 SkyHawk III.
pictures of the aircraft in a test and evaluation camo scheme will be put on tomorrow The colour scheme is being tested prior to the aircraft being deployed to Honduras, where they will be mostly land based in a jungle environment.
Cheers,
Chris.     

[Gondor]

I doubt that as a replacement for the Skyhawk that the FA-32 would be called Skyhawk.

Gondor

[chrisonord]

I doubt that as a replacement for the Skyhawk that the FA-32 would be called Skyhawk.

Gondor

This is WHAT IF remember Gondor.
Chris.

[chrisonord]

Here are some pictures of the finished aircraft, I am not happy with how the decals have turned out, I prepared the surface and did everything else as per every other build I have done, but these turned out crap  I hadn't put a lot of concentration in to this build either as I have been suffering from another moving kidney stone and the pain certainly knocks the concentration. But any how here it is, my new Skyhawk.






Cheers,
Chris.   

[JayBee]

 

[ChernayaAkula]

VERY nice!   You made something really worth looking at out of the quite possibly ugliest thing that ever took to the air!   That's quite a feat!   Looks especially good when seen from above.

Nice camo, too!

What decals did you use? It looks they all didn't work as they should. Maybe you could just take them off again and use another set? Looks like a little water would take them off again without too much hassle.

[chrisonord]

Cheers for the comments guys
Morritz, I used decals cut from a few different decal sheets, as I wanted to keep the upper surface decals black, or at least very dark grey. I airbrushed on the gloss coat as per usual put the decals on them gave it a coat of matt clear coat, same as I do with all my other stuff, but for some reason, they look like stickers  I will have to have a look for some more black decals so I can re do them.
I too wasn't keen on the aircraft as it was, and when I looked at it closely thought it could do with some canard fore planes. So, when I got the kit, I looked at the picture of it on the back of the box and roughly drawn a pair of canards on, and it looked right.
Cheers,
Chris.

[pyro-manic]

The canards do make a big difference. The other thing I'd probably do would be to cut the intake lip back, to give it a raked back look rather than the "fish mouth" it has normally.

I've probably got some black/dark grey USMC markings if you need them - let me know.

[Taiidantomcat]

Those Canards make it look about a %1000 better

[NARSES2]

Yup, still an ugly duckling but has a certain charm about it. Nice build 

[Taiidantomcat]

That last pic from the top looks so intriguing, you can help but do a double take to see more. If someone did major surgery like stargazer's F-32:



One would have something that might actually fool people completely. (not that I mind the intake, really its ugly but its how the aircraft is)

Once again Chris, you have managed to do something really unique-- A simple change to make a drastic difference 

[Captain Canada]

Love the camo....great job. And I'm always a fan of a fully loaded warplane !

The new intake arrangement looks awesome !

[pedrospe]

hi Chris, that is an amazing model , a lot better than the original x-32, great work.


best regards


Pedro

[chrisonord]

Thankyou for the comments guys, I wish I had thought about cutting the intake back, as I don't think it would have been too much of a job either.
I am hoping I have some replacement decals to replace the dodgy ones, ten when I have done what I am building now I will have a go at removing the offending items.
Cheers,
Chris.

[Luis Almeida]

great job on the FA-32!