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Hasegawa 1/48 A4G Skyhawk

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  • Built: 2013
  • Aftermarket Used: Steel Beach Tailplane plates
  • Decals: Hawkeye Australia

A little more effort was put into this model of the skyhawk than my last one as I wanted to display it with the tailplanes tinted up exposing the hole through the fin and the hellhole open.

Cutting off the moulded tailplane rub plates was trickier than expected, but I got there in the end using a thin razor saw. These days I would use a P.E saw.

I made up some rudimentary innards through the open hell hole door. The door itself had its interior detailed with plastic strip and some foil to replicate the small bag for the R.B.Fs. These doors were commonly seen open on the flight line.

The air superiority scheme consisted of light and dark admiralty grey. At the time of modelling, no off the shelf paints were available from any of the major manufacturers.

The paints for this came from a local company that actually made model railway colours. As far as I kno, these paints were their only foray into aircraft sets.. The practise bomb carrier seen so often on Aussie skyhawks was scratch built from plastic card and strip.

McDonald Douglas A-4G Skyhawk 805 SQN R.A.N F.A.A H.M.A.S Melbourne

Hasegawa 1/48 A-4G Skyhawk

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  • Built: 2013
  • Aftermarket Used: Nil. OOB
  • Decals: Ronin Decals
This is one of my older models.  The still nice Hasegawa 1/48 Skyhawk from when Hasegawa were a big name in model kits.  This one has been modified into a Royal Australian Navy A-4G which were basically E models anyway.  All the parts to make a G are included in the kit.  I decided to do an early Skyhawk before colourful unit markings became all the rage in the R.A.N.  Mainly because I had not seen one done before. As well as completing this one, I also did one in the Air Superiority scheme as a parallel build.
Decals came from a Hawkeye sheet for R.A.N Skyhawks, which was an early ALPS printed sheet.  The decals were thick and the underlying white shapes for the decals that needed them were oversized.  In a word they were crap, but Steve Evans is completely redoing the sheet under his Ronin Aviation Graphics label.  The decals released under this label bear no resemblance to his earlier Hawkeye sheets in either printing or performance  The latest sheet –  when he finally gets around to releasing it –  will allow you to model any skyhawk that saw service. 
Centre line TER came from Aerobonus and bombs came from a hasegawa weapons set.  There are lots of mistakes if you look closely, but I am happy with it. It remains as a timeline marker as to how my skills are slowly improving.  I remember the kit as being easy to assemble with some fit issues around intakes and the gun inserts.

A-4G Skyhawk 805 SQN. H.M.A.S Melbourne. Royal Australian Navy

 

Hasegawa 1/48 F-18A Hornet

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  • Built: 2012
  • Aftermarket Used:
  • Decals: Hawkeye Australia
  • Bomb: Hasegawa Weapons set

Theres not too much I can remember about this build, being as Im writing it up about ten years after completion. The gunship grey scheme the RAAF trialled appealed to me, and I thought it would make the jet stand out from all the other Aussie hornets you see.

In fact the jet standing out is why the RAAF did not go ahead with the scheme

Decals are Hawkeye decals which, although quite thick performed adequately. There are much better decals on the market now, although up to date markings for RAAF “Classic” remain rarer than hens teeth.

For some reason, even our own Australian decal manufactures can not come up with a decent decal sheet. The long OOP Afterburner sheet remaining the best out there still.

This model no longer remains ion my collection having been sold off in 2021. I will replace it with a hopefully better RAAF Classic Hornet build sometime in the future.

McDonnell Douglas F-18A Hornet 77SQN R.A.A.F Williamtown Australia

Airfix 1/48 Hawker Hunter F6

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  • Built: 2019
  • Aftermarket Used: Eduard P.E Flap set . Eduard dedicated cockpit set
  • Decals: Xtradecal

Ive previously mentioned I’m loving Airfix’s new releases. The Hunter was a monty for them to put out in 48 scale, but I feel they have rushed this kit a little. It is decidedly lacking the detail of some of their other releases such as the Walrus and Blenheim. Lacking in both cockpit and surface detail, the flap bays are also strangely devoid of detail despite Airfix offering them as separate parts, so the lack of moulded ribs and stringers is mystifying can be displayed down. Airfix have also missed a door actuator off the front nose wheel leg, as only one is provided.

The model builds quickly and easily. I cant remember too many issues. ( for some reason, I failed to write this up after completing the kit, so this is being written up about two years after building the kit) The blue tac I used to hold the canopies to an old paintbrush handle whilst spraying them left a stain that could not be removed, even using Mr Thinner, which normally removes everything else. A reaction to the blu tac is the only thing that comes to mind that would have caused the stain as it would not polish out or wipe off using the afore mentioned Mr Thinner. This forced me to cut apart the closed canopy as the model would be displayed with open canopy.

The hunter had many interesting schemes, airfix though provide options for three simply camouflaged machines, albeit, from two different Air Forces. A more interesting scheme was found on an Xtradecals sheet which had been in the decal bank for some years, looking for an excuse to be used.

Gunze Shine Red stood in for a very passable R.A.F. Signal Red. Gunze was also used for the Light Aircraft Grey with M.R.P Light Arctic Grey which is an off white being used for the white. It looks white out of the bottle, but when compared to the white of the roundels one can definitely see its a very pleasant grey. Its defiantly a masking intensive scheme, but certainly is eye catching.

And thats the Airfix Hunter, a decent, but not outstanding kit. I am perplexed though why Airfix has not followed it up with the F.G.A.9

Hawker Hunter F6