Douglas A4D-2 Skyhawk
Some nice resin goodies from CMK. I hope these will tart up the kit.
And more resin, this time from Aires. Looks like I will have two choices for the control surfaces - CMK or Aires.
Photoetch from Eduard and some resin gun barrels from Quickboost.
A beautiful decal sheet from Xtradecal.
I'll be doing the scheme for VC-5 Checkertails - even though I suspect it will be fun getting the check to snuggle down over the ribs in the rudder.
Hmm...nice and small sprue attachments.
Wow, I'm not sure that's where I would attach to the sprue if I were designing the tooling.
Or here. Thanks to the Airfix plastic being a bit "soft" I should be able to sand these away without any damage.
Not much difference between the kit and the CMK resin wheel wells. Might not be worth the effort of hacking away at the kit's wings.
The CMK resin cockpit went together easily and looks quite nice. And it fits!
Compared with the kit parts...
More views - the instrument panel is from the Eduard PE set, as are the side consoles and the face curtain handle.
The PE rudder pedals will never be seen again.
The fuselage going together - Note the filled in access panel on the nose. This was not present on the A4D-2.
Can't have a tail setter! Although not shown, Airfix did a nice job with the intake tunnel.
Eduard provide PE details for the areas under the wing slats - although I'm not sure this was on the early Skyhawks.
The fit of the PE, once you get the curvature right, is very good.
These PE bits are for dropping the wing flaps, which I intend to do.
And the PE detail underneath the slat itself.
Wings attached - note that I've cut out the wing flaps.
I've reconstructed the top half of the split flaps with card stock.
The PE detail is added to the bottom of the card stock. The dropped portion of the flap, which is all PE, will be added much later.
And she is setting on her legs. Note the PE tie-down hooks on the landing gear. Will it survive the rest of the build?
I chose the Aires tailplanes as I liked the airfoil cross section better than the bits from CMK.
Now it gets messy - Mr. Surfacer, priming, and sanding to try and make the panel lines more "petite."
The ribs on the rudder are pretty deep - I see lots of decal solvent in my future.
Eduard provide PE details for the inside of the air brakes so the Airfix moulded-in detail must be filled in or sanded away.
Hmm...which set is correct for this mark of Skyhawk? I chose 36 and 37 as the other set is the configuration for JATO units.
Paint! Gunze H315 Light Gull Gray and H11 Flat White. Also some H23 Shine Red. Much fun masking and painting the Corogard on the leading edges!
I popped on the main tyres to check the stance - looks OK.
Airfix forgot to add the hinges for the ailerons, so I just painted them in. Lazy, I know - should have scribed them.
Wing slats and cannons added.
Best shot I could get of the lowered wing flaps. It's too bad you can't really see the PE very well.
Stickers! Snuggling down over the rudder ribs wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I had to touch up a few places with paint, luckily it matched well.
I guess I toned down the panel lines a bit, but I sure wouldn't want to add a wash - they're visible enough as it is!
A coat of flat varnish, some post shading, and the addition of the drop tanks and gear doors.
I verified with colour photos that the inside of the air brake well was Light Gull Gray. Only the inside of the brake petal itself was red.
Adding the HUD.
Finish with the canopy/windscreen, some antennae, and I think she's done.
Enjoy the rest of the photos.
Scooterville!
All told, not a bad little kit. I wish the panel lines were more like the Fujimi offering though.
Коментари
20 26 September 2023, 22:21
Michael Kohl"May I have one Airfix A4, please?"
"That´s 10€"
"Thanks, and now all the aftermarket there is?"
"Another 100€. My pleasure"
😉
cute plane, clean build.
27 September 2023, 10:48
Bill GilmanHa! That's pretty funny Michael. And it's true for so many kits that I build. Luckily, the wife only sees the kits on the shelf - she doesn't know where I keep the boxes full of resin and photoetch. Oh, the extra decal sheets too! Can't forget about them. Cheers, Bill
27 September 2023, 13:50
Bill GilmanI've uploaded some more photos to show the progress. I'm teasing you guys - the model was finished several months ago, but I just got around to adding it now. Cheers, Bill
27 September 2023, 22:02
Album info
1:72 Airfix kit with a boat load of aftermarket stuff.
