Douglas A-4E Skyhawk - WIP

1
December 11, 2017
filling and sanding almost completed
2
December 5, 2017
internal parst in place and as soon as the weight will dry - I can close the fuselage
3
December 5, 2017
additional bits cleaned and ready to go
4
December 5, 2017
initial cleanup
5
December 5, 2017
6
December 5, 2017
7
December 5, 2017
and preparation for PE parts
8
December 5, 2017
bits and bobs
9
December 5, 2017
seat ready for wash
10
December 5, 2017
11
December 5, 2017
cockpit finally together
12
December 5, 2017
13
December 5, 2017
just wash needed
14
April 9, 2018
ready to close the fuselage
15
April 9, 2018
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April 9, 2018
wings in place
17
April 9, 2018
almost everything ready to paint
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April 9, 2018
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April 9, 2018
some PE added
20
April 9, 2018
landing light
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April 9, 2018
LAU-10/A Zuni ready to paint
22
April 9, 2018
pylons need to be modified to fit the MER
23
April 9, 2018
main body with various bits and bobs
24
April 9, 2018
25
May 14, 2018
Mk-81 bombs all finished and ready for installation
26
May 14, 2018
MER for all those Mk-81s
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May 14, 2018
aircraft ready for priming
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May 14, 2018
MER version banana 🙁
29
May 14, 2018
a little bit of heat and I think it's not bad 🙂
30
May 22, 2018
MER are completed and painted - ready for decals
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May 22, 2018
together with the LAU-10
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May 22, 2018
and pylons
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May 22, 2018
Revell Aqua Fiery Red - quite nice color and handy for hand painting of the wheel doors later
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May 22, 2018
35
May 22, 2018
a little bit of Mr. Metal color 211 chrome silver and pistons are ready for wash
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May 22, 2018
all bits and bobs from today's spray booth adventure
37
May 25, 2018
LAU-10 with decals
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May 25, 2018
MER with decals
39
May 25, 2018
Skyhawk armament together ready for wash
40
May 25, 2018
final touch to the rockets
41
May 25, 2018
test pylon with and withouth Flory wash
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May 25, 2018
and from the other side.
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May 30, 2018
all washed up, cleaned and two MER already filled
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May 30, 2018
one MER to go...
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May 30, 2018
aaaand all armament is finished
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May 30, 2018
little dry testing
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May 30, 2018
looking good 😉
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May 30, 2018
Mr. Surfacer 1000 (do not have 1200 at hand 🙁 )
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May 30, 2018
looking very nice. Next will be slight sanding and preshading
50
June 6, 2018
a little bit of preshading
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June 6, 2018
52
June 6, 2018
bottom surfaces with MRP-99 US Navy White
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June 6, 2018
54
June 6, 2018
small parts
55
June 6, 2018
small parts painted. ready for wash
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June 6, 2018
upper surfaces done
57
June 6, 2018
some places will need to be corrected (red areas)
58
June 11, 2018
59
June 6, 2018
overall - looking good 🙂
60
June 11, 2018
masked and painted dark grey stripes and black areas near cockpit
61
June 11, 2018
two more black and yellow areas need to be added and red area for wing slats need some correction
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June 11, 2018
black and yellow areas masked and painted.
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June 11, 2018
plane is ready for decals
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June 11, 2018
small parts after enamel wash
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June 11, 2018
landing light should be silver underneath the paint but I forgot to paint it. well, it's not looking too bad.
66
June 11, 2018
first decals in place, more to come
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June 13, 2018
red stripes on the air inlet was challenge to say the least. but the result is not bad 🙂
68
June 13, 2018
more decals in place
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June 13, 2018
and still more to go
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June 15, 2018
all decals are in place
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June 15, 2018
ready for final touches and clear cote
72
June 17, 2018
Flory Dark Dirth wash in place and hapilly drying
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June 17, 2018
and also small parts...
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June 18, 2018
and wash is cleaned
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June 18, 2018
further inspection and cleaning will be done after the 2 week vacation I'm about to go to
76
July 1, 2018
Job done! More photos in gallery.

Comments

1 5 December 2017, 13:45

David Thor
Taking a seat, just building an eduard a-4 myself.

5 December 2017, 18:41

Soeren R.
Count me in😉

9 April 2018, 09:21

Es-haq Khosravi
I'm in!

14 May 2018, 19:33

Guus
That poor thing will never be able to take off with all that hardware dangling off it 🙂

26 May 2018, 18:20

John Thomas
Very nice work

31 May 2018, 00:15

Rex
Guss, actually it did once take off with 24 Mk 81's on it,,,,and it was the earlier version with a lower powered engine, and racks heavier than MERs are. (It was used to demonstrate the idea of multiple bombs invented by a Marine and demo'd to the USN and USMC, including fairly accurate CEPs for the time period)

11 June 2018, 17:58

Martin Frcka
Great info Rex. Thanks. 24 Mk 81's? wow. That's an idea for next A-4 skyhawk project 😄

13 June 2018, 21:23

Rex
oops,,,,,,that should be 18, sorry. I meant that all three pylons on the early Skyhawk were full. They were the Electric Fuzed (sharp nose) Mk 81s with the early standard Conical Fins. The racks were made by welding A-1 Skyraider bomb racks onto long rails. (compared to MBRs and MERs, those racks were *uglyyyy* )

15 June 2018, 03:54

Martin Frcka
no problem. so in a way my payload will be something like they had. but with additional LAU rokets... If anyone is wandering why this payload - I wanted the exact payload which is shown on the boxart (later I have found that the center MER do not have Mk 81s but bigger version - at least it seems like it).

15 June 2018, 06:22

Björn Svedberg
Looking great so far! Very nice build log, and I like the payload, it looks massive! 👍

18 June 2018, 09:33

Martin Frcka
And the model is finished. Thank you all for your kind words. I hope you enjoyed the build. The second part of the "The Sound of Silence" will be starting probably later this year. Right now it's time for another job.

1 July 2018, 11:36