This was a difficult kit to put together well, especially to get the wheels and air brake retracted. The way Fujimi designed this kit it was very fragile and weird breakout of parts. Unfortunately, I’ve got 2 more old Fujimi AV-8’s in my stash!

Outside of a lot of slimming, filing and sanding (and a pilot), I didn’t add any extras to this. The reason I built it is that I purchased a decal set for a Sundowner’s F-4, and the set included these decals, and I wanted to test the decal sheet before building the F-4. Unfortunately (also), the decals weren’t the best to work with – not very pliable and didn’t conform well even with Solvaset. I used all the smaller decals, but for the stars and bars I went to my spares box, so they’d conform over the small inlets they sit over.

Overall, I’m satisfied with the result. This was a bugger to handle as it is really tiny in 1/72! Had to be very careful during painting not to knock stuff off.

5 additional images. Click to enlarge.