Douglas A-4E Skyhawk - WIP

filling and sanding almost completed

internal parst in place and as soon as the weight will dry - I can close the fuselage

additional bits cleaned and ready to go

initial cleanup

and preparation for PE parts

bits and bobs

seat ready for wash

cockpit finally together

just wash needed

ready to close the fuselage

wings in place

almost everything ready to paint

some PE added

landing light

LAU-10/A Zuni ready to paint

pylons need to be modified to fit the MER

main body with various bits and bobs

Mk-81 bombs all finished and ready for installation

MER for all those Mk-81s

aircraft ready for priming

MER version banana 🙁

a little bit of heat and I think it's not bad 🙂

MER are completed and painted - ready for decals

together with the LAU-10

and pylons

Revell Aqua Fiery Red - quite nice color and handy for hand painting of the wheel doors later

a little bit of Mr. Metal color 211 chrome silver and pistons are ready for wash

all bits and bobs from today's spray booth adventure

LAU-10 with decals

MER with decals

Skyhawk armament together ready for wash

final touch to the rockets

test pylon with and withouth Flory wash

and from the other side.

all washed up, cleaned and two MER already filled

one MER to go...

aaaand all armament is finished

little dry testing

looking good 😉

Mr. Surfacer 1000 (do not have 1200 at hand 🙁 )

looking very nice. Next will be slight sanding and preshading

a little bit of preshading

bottom surfaces with MRP-99 US Navy White

small parts

small parts painted. ready for wash

upper surfaces done

some places will need to be corrected (red areas)

overall - looking good 🙂

masked and painted dark grey stripes and black areas near cockpit

two more black and yellow areas need to be added and red area for wing slats need some correction

black and yellow areas masked and painted.

plane is ready for decals

small parts after enamel wash

landing light should be silver underneath the paint but I forgot to paint it. well, it's not looking too bad.

first decals in place, more to come

red stripes on the air inlet was challenge to say the least. but the result is not bad 🙂

more decals in place

and still more to go

all decals are in place

ready for final touches and clear cote

Flory Dark Dirth wash in place and hapilly drying

and also small parts...

and wash is cleaned

further inspection and cleaning will be done after the 2 week vacation I'm about to go to

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