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Colin Gomez
33 articles

A-4C Skyhawk – Hasegawa 1/48

April 11, 2020 · in Aviation · · 17 · 2.7K

This is the Hasegawa 1/48 A-4C Skyhawk, done up in the colors of aboard USS Coral Sea during the Vietnam Conflict. The kit is slightly enhanced with a small Eduard instrument panel and seatbelts and some scratch built quilting to the sidewall. I think I sourced the snake eye ordinance from another kit (can't remember). The decals are from Aeromaster. BTW, it is a bit of a challenge to get the Stars and Bars to settle over the vortex generators on the port wing but somehow it turned out with help from Micro Sol.
This is one of my earlier builds and I have somehow lost the tiny PE windscreen wiper. Let's just say it has been removed for maintenance. Overall, the Hasegawa Scooter is one of my favorite kits, very easy to build. I didn't go all the way to “fix” the step in the slots for the leading edge slats. I didn't realize Hasegawa's error at the time. I think it looks OK anyway.
Painted with Model Master and Tamiya acrylics with an oil wash over Tamiya clear gloss for weathering. Final flat coat was Model Master. Blue Tail was done with Tamiya X-4 Blue, tinted with white. It looked to be the most accurate color relative to very good period photos of VA-153 aircraft on the Internet.
The A-4C has the nicest lines of the Skyhawk series in my personal opinion and I like seeing the bright blue tail of VA-153 on the shelf. I hope you like it too.

Colin

Reader reactions:
12  Awesome

14 additional images. Click to enlarge.


17 responses

  1. Amazing job, Colin. You've put a lot of quality work in it! I am impressed with the painting and especially the decalling.
    All the best!

    • Thanks, Spiros. I had a lot of fun making it. The Aeromaster decals were very good, as were the kit decals. It always helps when you have quality stuff to work with.

  2. Looks more than OK, great job! Maybe the wiper was lost in flight.

  3. Very well done and great version!

    • Thanks, Rick. This is by far my favorite US Navy scheme. The Blue tail really goes well with the gull gray. As with the VF-96 bird of prey, you can sometimes see the maintenance crews has a great talent for graphic design.

  4. Nice looking Scooter Colin.

  5. Great job Colin @coling. The Scooter is one of my favorites! Here's one that is not far from my house, less than two miles actually.

    "Liked"

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

    • Thanks, James. Cool pictures. it would be great to be that close to a Naval Air Station (I assume that's the location). The Scooter looks new. Hard to believe they've been flying since 1956 - 64 years.

  6. I have to agree that that blue tail really makes for a standout! All around lovely Skyhawk.

  7. Very nice Scooter Colin, I love the scheme you've done and the added details are brilliant. Love the red around all the wheel bays.

    Great work.

  8. Thanks, Anthony.@anthonyricco This is a favorite build in my collection, simply because I love the colors of the Blue Tail Flies VA-153 scheme. It also came out just the way I wanted, which can be a rarity in modeling projects (mine, anyway). I have more 1970s US Navy subjects on my list to complete some day, including a Hasegawa A-7, Hobby Boss and Monogram A-6a and A-6e Intruders and a Trumpeter Vigilante - all in 1/48. If you like Navy Gull Gray, you might like to check out the Tamiya F-4J build in this blog list. It didn't get many comments here, but it is by far the most work I have done on a model and a great kit when finally complete.

    • Its awesome that it came out just the way you wanted. You did it beautifully. I love the A-7, A-6s and A-8s, really cool planes I'd love to add to my collection some day.
      I'll definitely go check out your F-4J build. I'm sure it's as good as the rest of your work.

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