DONE @p.2 +++ 1:72 Douglas A-4L 'Skyhawk', USN VA-207 'Golden Warriors', 1976

[Dizzyfugu]

The next one from the queue, this time a rather mild whif.

The kit and its assembly:
I had for a long time the plan to build/create an A-4L, a rather obscure Skyhawk variant that originated from factory conversions of 100 A-4Cs. This turned out to be a tricky plan because there is no OOB kit for an A-4L in 1:72, even a Charlie is hard to get – and it's a quite unique variant with a characteristic nose. The only (decent) A-4C kit comes from Fujimi, and it was recently re-boxed under the Hobby 2000 label, with new decals by Cartograph and some paint masks. I was lucky to get my hands on a relatively cheap specimen and also had reserved a surplus dorsal avionics hump from a Hasegawa A-4E/F kit, already with a potential A-4L build in mind.

With these ingredients the modifications to turn the Charlie into a Lima were limited. The A-4C was basically built OOB, just using the inner wing pylons, and the camelback hump was, with some light modifications, PSRed into the spine – resulting in the unique, very compact, and chunky silhouette of the A-4L. The only other addition is a pair of AGM-62 Walleye glide bombs, which the A-4L was capable of deploying, thanks to its improved avionics. These were taken from a Hasegawa air-to-ground weapons set. The ventral drop tank came OOB from the Fujimi kit.

Slats, flaps and air brakes were mounted in open/lowered positions, following the options the Fujimi kit offers (even though the flaps had to be cut out individually and modded slightly to fit into the deployed position). Another potential mod would have been the spoilers, as "counterparts" to the flaps, but I eventually left them down/closed, because I was not certain about their interior.


1:72 Douglas A-4L 'Skyhawk'; 'AF 312 (Bu/No 146098)' of the U.S. Navy VA-207 'Golden Chargers', Reserve Carrier Air Wing 20 (CVWR-20); NAS Fort Worth (Texas), 1976 (What-if/modified Hobby 2000/Fujimi kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Douglas A-4L 'Skyhawk'; 'AF 312 (Bu/No 146098)' of the U.S. Navy VA-207 'Golden Chargers', Reserve Carrier Air Wing 20 (CVWR-20); NAS Fort Worth (Texas), 1976 (What-if/modified Hobby 2000/Fujimi kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Douglas A-4L 'Skyhawk'; 'AF 312 (Bu/No 146098)' of the U.S. Navy VA-207 'Golden Chargers', Reserve Carrier Air Wing 20 (CVWR-20); NAS Fort Worth (Texas), 1976 (What-if/modified Hobby 2000/Fujimi kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Douglas A-4L 'Skyhawk'; 'AF 312 (Bu/No 146098)' of the U.S. Navy VA-207 'Golden Chargers', Reserve Carrier Air Wing 20 (CVWR-20); NAS Fort Worth (Texas), 1976 (What-if/modified Hobby 2000/Fujimi kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


A final word about the Fujimi A-4 kit: it's quite nice and well detailed, but also has some weak spots. One is the front-end construction; the mould designers wanted to be clever and allow different cockpit sections (from the A/B and the C versions) to be mated with the hull, but together with the air intake duct and the protruding wing roots this creates a messy area that is really hard to assembly without seams and offset. And why the arrester hook was moulded onto one of the fuselage halves instead of being a separate part, which would have been much easier to mount and paint, is beyond me? If you build one, cut it off and glue it back into place after PSR, makes life a LOT easier...

More to come soon. 

[kerick]

Looking cool! A straightforward kitbash that will look sharp.
IIRC the Fujimi kit is the only 1/72nd that has the leading ledge slats molded separately. Quite an obvious thing when parked as the slats only closed when flying. Except for the Blue Angles who fixed theirs shut for safety reasons. Aside from the things you mentioned it's a great kit.

[Dizzyfugu]

Yes, it's not bad, and when it came out it must have been considered excellent (you still read a lot of raving reviews; personally). I was a bit underwhelmed, it has some weak spots, as mentioned - but there's AFAIK (still) no alternative for an A4D-2N/A-4C!

[Dizzyfugu]

Besides.... 

Painting and markings:
It might be a bit disappointing, but the only serious whiffy aspect of this build became the fictional unit and its markings, because I wanted an authentic look for the Lima (and did not want a later operator like Malaysia or something fictional). AFAIK, VA-207 did not exist, but I wanted an aircraft in the USN's bright hi-viz livery from the Seventies with its colorful unit markings, before everything turned all-grey. Therefore, the basic paint scheme consists of classic Light Gull Grey (FS 36440) over white, with any rudders' upper surfaces left in anti-nuclear flash white. For an even finish and saving time with the landing gear, all white areas were painted/primed with white from a rattle can, and the grey (I used Humbrol 40 in this case) was later added by brush. To emphasize the A-4L's radar I gave the aircraft a nose in radome tan (Humbrol 71) with a dirty black tip, even though real Limas had typically their camouflage extended to the nose tip; however, but some early aircraft also had all-black radomes, making their nose look very similar to the contemporary F4Ds'.
After basic painting the kit received an overall light black ink washing to emphasize panel lines and surface details, as well as a very light post-panel-shading treatment to make the aircraft look a bit more "uneven", but not really worn.


1:72 Douglas A-4L 'Skyhawk'; 'AF 312 (Bu/No 146098)' of the U.S. Navy VA-207 'Golden Chargers', Reserve Carrier Air Wing 20 (CVWR-20); NAS Fort Worth (Texas), 1976 (What-if/modified Hobby 2000/Fujimi kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


General markings are USN standard, and the A-4C/L retained the unusual position of the large stars-and-bars fuselage roundel under the cockpit, which enhanced the type's stout look. Thankfully the Hobby 2000 decal sheet provides an extra roundel which contains a "distorted" area that can be wrapped around the refueling probe. This is easily done, because the carrier film is very thin and flexible.

Even though USN reserve units rather carried simple decorations, I wanted to make them colorful on this fictional one. The yellow unit/fin decoration was inspired by the colors of an F-14 from the early Seventies, from the VF-32 "Swordsmen", and I adapted that for the small A-4L. To make the fin stand out I painted the whole area with a deep yellow (Revell 310); the tail code "AF" was adapted from the other CVWR-20 reserve attack units, which all shared it, and the letters and the sword icon were adapted from a Matchbox F-14 decal sheet.


1:72 Douglas A-4L 'Skyhawk'; 'AF 312 (Bu/No 146098)' of the U.S. Navy VA-207 'Golden Chargers', Reserve Carrier Air Wing 20 (CVWR-20); NAS Fort Worth (Texas), 1976 (What-if/modified Hobby 2000/Fujimi kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:72 Douglas A-4L 'Skyhawk'; 'AF 312 (Bu/No 146098)' of the U.S. Navy VA-207 'Golden Chargers', Reserve Carrier Air Wing 20 (CVWR-20); NAS Fort Worth (Texas), 1976 (What-if/modified Hobby 2000/Fujimi kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


The rest became standard: white landing gear and respective well, a medium grey (Dark Gull Grey) cockpit and canopy interior. The TV-guided walleye glide bombs were painted in bright blue like training rounds, with bare aluminum fins and a white sensor head – a nice color contrast to the yellow and red on the aircraft. Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish and final details like position lights were added.

[PR19_Kit]

That A-4C nose is much more distinctive than I remember, but it works a treat, and very much looks the part. 

[rickshaw]

I believe Freightdog does an A4C nose, doesn't it?

[Dizzyfugu]

That A-4C nose is much more distinctive than I remember, but it works a treat, and very much looks the part. 

The beige radome changes the look a lot; compared with the B nose the Charlie's is a bit more pointed and longer (and the B has s slight "nose up" profile, too), reminding of the later E/F. Together with the different early air intakes the C has a pretty distinct, stout look, which is even emphasized through the L's hump.

[NARSES2]

Coming along nicely, always had a liking for the A-4 

[kerick]

Very colorful! I like it!   

[chrisonord]

Looking good Thomas.

[DogfighterZen]

  

[su27rules]

      

[Gondor]

ondorhat Dizzy is doing.

[Gondor]

I believe Freightdog does an A4C nose, doesn't it?

Yes, they do although it's out of stock at the moment. You do get two noses in each pack though so if they come back into stock I may follow what Dizzy is doing and make a C and an L for myself.

Gondor

[Dizzyfugu]

No real news; I had plans for a photo shooting last weekend, but I did not find enough time and/or mojo to pull it through... 

And in the meantime, another project has been finished, the queue is growing again.