A-4B Skyhawk – Fuerza Aerea Argentina, Falklands War – 1/48 scale

Started by Colin Gomez · 94 ≡ · ↻ 2 years ago
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    Eric Berg said 2 years, 10 months ago:

    Nice to see you’re back on it! @coling. I hope to wrap my Falklands build by the end of this month. See you at or near the finish line.

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    Colin Gomez said 2 years, 10 months ago:

    Thanks for your interest, Eric. It would be nice to have our builds finish around the same time. As I mentioned in your own thread, your Pucara is coming along beautifully. I have also been working on the Super Etendard , but I don't want to post that until painting starts (soon). Too busy with work to get much modeling time in for the last couple of months. Happy to be working again, though, after all this COVID-19 madness. Modelling keeps me sane in my limited spare time.

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    Colin Gomez said 2 years, 10 months ago:

    Just a quick update on a few hours of work sourcing decals. There are some things in the hobby that are kind of tedious but necessary. I spent several hours going through spare decals and kit boxes looking for tiny numbers to match the existing ones in my FCM decal sheet for the A-4. I didn't pay too much attention to this previously but I decided I would try to model a specific aircraft - namely C-242 flown by 1st Lt. Luciano Guadagnini, whose bomb partly led to the later sinking of the frigate HMS Antelope. Guadagnini died when C-242 hit the mast of the Antelope (or was possibly hit by a Seacat SAM or 20mm fire) as he pulled up from his bomb run. Since the numbers on the FCM sheet were only for C-236 and C-222, I had to find numbers of the same size and font to match the codes below the cockpit and on the rear fuselage. Easier said than done. Anyway, I finally succeeded using and old ICM sheet with serials for a 1/48 Spitfire and a set of numbers for a CF-104. Nearly drove me crazy and left me cross-eyed, checking each number on a dozens of decal sheets with an magnifying visor and calipers. Anyway, I will next need to rethink he load out and dispense with the three bomb load in favor of a single Mk 17 1000 pounder. Some scratch building there yet. Here is a later tribute version of Guadagnini's aircraft and a profile I found on line.

    More pics of the original to follow. Here are the tiny numbers I needed to find to switch from 222 to 242 in various spots. Even tinier numbers can be switched between Navy and Air Force versions on the same sheet.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 10 months ago:

    Your extra job paid off, my friend @coling! Great they you could source all decals needed!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 10 months ago:

    Great research, Colin @coling

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    Colin Gomez said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    Thanks, Spiros@fiveten and John@johnb. Great to have your support and interest.

    This is just a tiny update for what was actually quite a bit of work. I masked the flap bays, cleaned up some flaws on the fuselage and removed excess red paint with Windex and sanding as I felt it would discolor the camo application too much. I had to be really careful with masking so as to cover but not damage the fragile actuator arms of the flaps.

    I will be painting these metallic later so they don't have to remain red, but I don't want them to be covered in too many layers of paint as this goes on in stages. The darn things are even more delicate for being broken off and glued so many times already.

    The next job was to create the small circular array in the lower tail of the FAA A-4B, visible in photos.

    I used an oval stencil sheet and cut three layers of styrene out with a needle in a pin vise. The trick was then to make it curved on one side to wrap around the fuselage but flat on the bottom. Careful sanding on one side did the trick. I still have to sand the rough edge but I am waiting for the liquid glue to fully cure. One other thing that has been holding me up is the British-origin 1000lb bomb I need for this aircraft. I had nothing in spares or weapons sets but I found a version in an old Academy Hawker Hunter kit. I tried to graft on a new nose from a drop tank as the Academy version was too blunt. There turned out to be other issues with the fins and a too extreme taper at the back. I realized that no amount of surgery and sanding would fix it and decided to get the expensive Reskit resin set, which has the correct shape. This may take a month now to get here from Poland but I will proceed with painting anyway.

    As for painting plans, I will retouch the red on the speed brake bay and some flaps first, and mask all that. Next will be some pre-shade mottling and panel lines before I do the light blue undersides, incl wheel bays and doors. The camo will be the last major stage, using Tamiya IJN red brown and Olive Drab green.

    So busy with work, I haven't airbrushed for months. It is nice to finally take the time to relax with this hobby.

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    Colin Gomez said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    Just adding a few pics of the tail array. Got it more or less smoothed out and attached with liquid glue. Some final sanding later to smooth and round things out perfectly.

    Positioning it took some time and slopping glue a bit, but I found a better photo of the placement and am quite satisfied. This photo is an A-4B repainted in A-4C colors, by the way.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    Some really fine job there, my friend @coling!
    Looking great!
    This round "array" is very interesting.

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    Colin Gomez said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    Thanks, Spiros@fiveten. I wish I knew what the thing is. Maybe someone on the site has an idea. I want to get this Skyhawk done soon to possibly rekindle interest in the GB, given that the anniversary of the War just passed. The SuE will be my next priority. Both are coming along quite well. I may use the scratch built 1,000 lb. bomb temporarily on the A-4 until the Reskit one arrives - just to get it across the finish line for now.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    Nice work done, Colin @coling
    The tail addition looks perfect, although I also have no clue what it should do.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    Looking forward to your SuE as well my friend @coling!
    Annnnnd...my apologies for not working on my Victor lately, will recommence on it soon!

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    Colin Gomez said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    Thanks, John. I hope to get some painting done on Saturday. Several models are at that stage now after months of prep. Time to break out of the slump.

    Thanks, Spiros. No need to apologize at all about the Victor. I want to get back to the Vulcan as well. 1/72 is not my thing but I still love the Vulcan shape. Likewise, the SuE is a really pleasing shape as I set it up for final inspection and the first paint session. In the spraybooth this weekend will be the Skyhawk, SuE and my He.111, which I recently masked for painting. Time to get these projects done!

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    Tom Cleaver said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    @coling - nice to see you back at it with this. I know your pain on the Great Decal Hunt. This is really looking nice.

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    Colin Gomez said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    Thanks, Tom@tcinla. I am glad you like it so far. It has been a fun build and I am planning to concentrate my energies on finishing it soon. Stay tuned.

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    Colin Gomez said 2 years, 7 months ago:

    Finally got to painting this weekend. I had a couple of longish session with the spraybooth, working on the A-4B and also my He.111 (see WIP GB). I started on Saturday by touching up the patchy Flat Red areas for the flaps, slats and speedbrakes. All good now. I then masked these elements off and proceeded with a preshade with Tamiya Flat White and German Grey. I wanted a mostly white undercoat to brighten up the light blue camo underneath. I did some panel lines darker but mainly went for a mottling effect, using my Iwata Custom Micron for finer squiggles and mottles.

    I also used a fine brush to run some Flat Black into the cabling in the wheel bays to pre-shade them more precisely.. Next came the basic underside color, which is also used for the landing gear legs and wheel bays on the Argentine A-4B. I copied the pale blue color from photos, mixing Tamiya X-4 Blue with Flat White. I then oversprayed this with a much lighter color for highlighting and lightening. I got this by mixing the base color with Gunze Flat White. I ran out of Tamiya Flat White, so I am glad that the Gunze Acqueous combined OK with the Tamiya. I may lighten it the same way even further in my next painting session. The photos make it look darker than it is (and greener, for some reason) but I could go lighter still. Generally I hate mixing paints as I am not good at it. I think this will be fine in the long run.

    I hope this looks OK. More to come soon.

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