Hasegawa 1/48 A-4E/F Skyhawk

HASEGAWA 1:48 DOUGLAS A-4E/F SKYHAWK

Reviewer: Trevor Boxall (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 8 November 2002

Kit Details:

Hasegawa PT21 - A-4E/F Skyhawk

Aircraft History:

The history of the A-4 Skyhawk is pretty well documented being an Ed Heinemann (from Douglas) design to meet a US Navy requirement for a lightweight, single-engined, carrier-borne high-performance attack aircraft to meet a variety of roles, including close support, dive-bombing and interdiction. The design was not to add on an ounce of weight unnecessarily and thus emerged the XA4D-1 prototype with a pointy nose and probe, which first flew in June 1954, and a year later the type held the world airspeed record for the 500-km closed circuit at just under 1120 km/h. Within two years it had entered service and the first model A4D-1 (later redesignated to A-4A) featured 20-mm cannon, better engines and a refined nose radome.

Nearly 3,000 Skyhawks were built concluding in 1979, which ended the longest continuing manufacturing run of any US Military aircraft. Pretty good for a design which by that stage was already quarter of a century old! The A-4 made its mark in the mid 60's in the Vietnam war where it performed a number of close air support missions for US troops. Ironically, nearly twenty years later, in the colours of an export customer, the same aircraft took out two landing ships at the Falklands and inflicted heavy casualties among UK troops - an ally of the US.

The A-4E and A-4F models were the second (or some would argue third) generation types of the Skyhawk in US Navy service and introduced mainly upgraded engines to the previous A-4C type and further weapons pylons under the wings. The A-4F was most notably distinguished by its avionics hump along it's spine, but this was retrofitted to many A-4E's, making it difficult to tell the difference between the two types, and even worse, some later A-4F's in adversary roles had the humps removed for better performance. The A-4F also introduced the zero/zero ejection seat into the type for the first time.

The Kit:

This kit hadn't been on the hobby shop shelf for long before I snapped it up after hearing some pretty good things about it, and at last a beautiful Scooter in quarter scale. Inside the box you are greeted with some eight sprues of superbly engineered parts in light grey colour, thinly engraved panel lines which are accurate to scale, beautifully rendered surface detail, the works. I wasn't in the mood to count all the parts, but there is in excess of about 180 parts, although a number of them are marked on the instructions as "not for use". There is an additional sprue containing the clear parts which are also well molded.

Instructions:

Pointless really to say much here because they are simply standard Hasegawa, in a roughly A5 type size, foldout strip pamphlet. Clear and concise assembly steps to follow which include pointers differentiating between the E & F versions so you know which step to follow depending on the example you are building. A quick overview of the aircraft in historical terms in several different languages. Painting information as always commentated throughout construction, as well as external schemes, quoted from the Mr Color/Gunze Sangyo ranges. A sprue diagram with parts shaded not for use and finally the good old multi-view profile sketches showing decal placement and external scheme markings.

Construction:

As you would guess this commences in the cockpit, which is small but well detailed for Hasegawa kit. The main and side instrument consoles contain raised detail which can either be picked out with drybrushing or removed and replaced with the supplied decal. The seat looks the part if on the rather basic side, seat harnesses, ejection handles and the like must be scratchbuilt or otherwise added by the modeller. The basics are all there including the control column, and the super detailer will be able to enhance it somewhat with his own touch. I've heard of the KMC 1/48 A-4 cockpit detail set for the Monogram kit not suitable for this kit, so I didn't get one.

Once the cockpit is fixed to one of the fuselage halves the nicely detailed jet pipe, which comes in three parts, and intake ducts need to be fitted before the halves can be brought together. Some small fishing weights were also crammed ahead of the cockpit for nose weight. The halves go together superbly with a minor amount of seam cleaning afterward.

I was heading for an A-4E Skyhawk version, there are some minor conversions you have to do to turn even this kit into a more accurate A-4F such as the wing spoilers above the flaps and panel line detail. There are also some interesting variations even on the A-4E depending on which exact example you want to build, with some not featuring the avionics humpback and some others not having a retractable refuelling probe. Hasegawa provide inserts for the non-humped version. If you are from the so called "stickler" farm then best to do your research. I was happy to continue on with what Hasegawa recommended and directed.

The intakes come in three parts and are affixed over the trunking which was installed before the fuselage halves were put together. The trunking itself is not fully accurate with the curvature further back than it should be but only those from the "stickler" farm again are really going to put this down to a fault. You can get away without the use of filler here with careful placement, but a shot of Mr Surfacer along the join lines certainly didn't go amiss. I was building a non-humped version for the A-4E but for the purpose of this review assembled the three part hump and dry fitted it to the fuselage - needless to say it fits well.

The wings are broken down into three pieces, two upper halves and a single underwing section. All the flaps are separate parts enabling you to position them as you please. Everything fits very nicely with the wing to root join surprisingly excellent and not in any need of filler. Positioning the leading edge flaps in the lowered position is somewhat fraught with a degree of difficulty by the sheer nature of the parts and the attachment process. You can also run this same equation for the slats with thick rails purely because it is in plastic. They are deployed when static although can be shut also. All parts have both upper and interior/lower surface detail molding.

The tailplane assembly fits at the correct angle without any real effort needed by the modeller to construct a jig or some other means to hold it in place.

The speedbrakes are also separate and for the sheer hell of it I displayed them them in the open position. However, you will find that they are almost always seen in the closed position except on taxiing aircraft and when landing on carriers. So it is up to the individual modeller again, but there have been cases of speedbrakes open on parked aircraft which was good enough for me.

Underwing stores options is pretty restricted with a pair of wing tanks the only components in this kit. They are however, broken into several parts allowing you to choose the blunt rear or fin attached rear types to be represented. If choosing the fin option, the fins should be angled in such a way that the underside ones are inward toward the fuselage. Fit is not that fantastic here and the parts can benefit from a bit of sanding to smooth out their complexion before attaching to the pylons.

Moving onto the undercarriage and it is almost a case of saving the best til last. The only real gripe is that the nosewheel is molded integrally with the landing gear, even though the A-4F steering mechanism is provided as an option. The wheel bays themselves are nothing short of excellent, seemingly the right depth and plenty of detail to keep even the most discernible detailer silent. They also assemble without any hiccups at all and fit nicely into their respective bays which was done after painting.

The rest of the construction process, much of which was actually finished after painting, was very straight forward and included the addition of the various antennae, refuelling probe and other external bits and pieces. Fit overall on this kit would have to be rated as excellent.

Colour Schemes:

I've never been a real fan of Hasegawa in this area because their rather mundane or lack of real marking options they provide. They prefer to use the same mold and churn out a whole new release for a particular example or two than provide it in the base kit. Unfortunately this kit does nothing to change my view with only two marking options supplied, and thus meaning one A-4E (VA-192 Golden Dragons) and one A-4F (VA-22 Fighting Redcocks) is all you get. Both wear the upper Gull Grey scheme over gloss white undersides and flap/slat areas. Some may want to go hunting for some aftermarket alternatives for some better choice options.

Painting:

Two ways you can approach this, either giving the whole aircraft a quick undercoat of grey primer, or spraying the whole model in the semi-gloss gull grey which in turn acts as a primer for the white. I chose the latter because it is simpler. Once that was applied I masked off the appropriate areas and applied gloss white to the undersurface, flaps, slats undersides, rudder etc. Gloss Red was then applied in the various areas it needed to be and then finally the black nose and aluminium refuelling probe end. The good thing about this type of kit is that only the basic and standard colours are used throughout which makes the job easier on the modeller. To summarise, the cockpit, including canopy interior, seat, sidewalls etc was painted Gull Grey matching the fuselage scheme. The head rest was painted black and the seat cushion olive green. The slats were painted gull grey on top, white underneath and the wing area where the slats reside red. Red was also applied to the speedbrake wells. The landing gear was painted white, with aluminium in appropriate areas matching up with reference photos while a red outline was applied on the gear doors.

Decals:

The decal sheet is up to the standard we have come to expect from Hasegawa with nicely rendered decals in bright colour register. There are decals for the two versions the kit provides for which includes an array of stencilling and everything you need to get away with not having to paint any flashes or intake lips yourself, if you so wish. The decals are a bit glossy and thick but had no problems conforming to the model with the aid of Mr Softer, or whatever Gunze Sangyo's decal setting solution is I generally use. A gloss cote to seal the decals in before adding in the final (in my case) semi-gloss cote is a must to clear up any real noticeable silvering effects.

Accuracy:

Well it looks very much the part when completed and the dimensions to scale are almost spot on. The A-4 in my book should also be judged on how it stands in static form, as it has a very clear nose-up attitude which the kit captures very convincingly indeed. Those that come from that "stickler" farm I have mentioned will no doubt find a flaw that I haven't but I am not going to criticise what is in my eyes an accurate replica of a great little aircraft.

Overall Recommendation:

It doesn't get much better than this chaps! Out of the box this kit is outstanding, the surface detail that encompasses both the thinly recessed panel lines and small rivet detail is accurate and excellent and the undercarriage bays are nothing short of superb. This is one of those kits that reminds me a bit of the Tamiya Skyray which is an excellent kit, you buy it not because so much of the aircraft (if you do of course that is just a real bonus!) but because the kit is that damn good, you want to really enjoy the experience of modelling for a change that is akin to a kit bash, and comes out at the other end almost perfect in every way. It requires little work on your behalf other than putting the thing together and painting it. One word - excellent - three words - very highly recommended.

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