Hasegawa 1/32 A-4C
By Rob Colvin
The kit is the older Hasegawa kit coupled with the old Condor A-4C conversion. The conversion kit gives you a new nose (solid cast chunk), new intakes, new antennas, main wheels, and the blisters required mostly for the Argentine birds. Oddly enough the kit did not come with the windscreen wiper.
The first order of business contact Harold of AMS Resin to procure a windscreen wiper (thanks Harold).
Now on with the build… The Hasegawa A-4 being a bit seasoned as kits go, fit together really well. I did a basic scribe to the airframe. I removed the floor plan from the kit tub to accommodate a CAM resin seat. I filled in the exhaust vent on the spine and added the two exhausts appropriate to the A-4c. I also removed the flare and chaff box from the rear of the fuselage and of course attached the new intakes and nose. I added an additional antenna on the nose gear door.
The bombs were from the Fisher Cougar (they are practice rounds). I cut off the tips and used some left over bomb fuses from a Trumpeter A-1.
The center fuel tank is from the Trumpeter Skyraider. I removed the bomb rack attached to the Hasegawa pylon and pinned the Trumpeter tank to it.
Paint was mix of Mr. Color, Tamiya (for the blue), Alclad, and Floquil.
Marking came from various sheets including a Trumpeter Skyhawk kit sheet, some decals produced by a fellow modeler here at LSP (Thank You!), and CAP 32001 WestPac Scooters.
The majority of the decals came from the CAP sheet (including the white tail flashes), the Ship numbers and pilot name were produced special for this build, and the rescue arrows/danger markings came from the Trumpeter kit sheet.
Overall everything went together without too many issues and it looks like an A-4c despite the age of the kit/conversion.
© Rob Colvin 2015
This article was published on Friday, May 01 2015; Last modified on Friday, May 01 2015