I
saw this plane come through MCAS Cherry Point in 1994, piloted by Maj Steve
"French" Fry; he was a former VMA-142 "Flying Gator" when
they had Skyhawks at NAS Cecil Field. The Gators transitioned to Hornets
in 1990 and apparently Maj Fry went to Willow Grove to continue with the
A-4M.
I
started my career in military aviation working on Skyhawks (VMAT-102, MCAS Yuma)
and have always tried to kitbash an -M model; somewhere in my stash is the front
end of the Monogram OA-4M grafted to the Monogram -E, cut in half to receive the
back of the OA-4M. Hasegawa finally made it simple to build one off the
shelf!
I
added the Cutting Edge one piece intakes, avionics hump and ECM "hot
dog" on top of the tail; the decals are also by Cutting Edge.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I
lost the tail mounted pitot (I found an extra with the A-4B kit so I'm not out
of luck!) and the top antennas didn't line up because the kit hump has holes
where the resin one doesn't (my bad!). I decided to forego underwing
stores but next time I might add the ordnance used out in Yuma during one of
their last deployments prior to 160024 becoming a stationary target for bird poo
in Havelock NC.
I
find it odd that she came to rest in NC and Willow Grove's museum has a
different bird (158182) painted in a similar (but not exact) scheme.
The
decals went on with a bit of Micro Sol (this helped immensely with the Insignia
that goes over the vortex generators on the left wing) and I had to nab an anti
glare from another sheet when the Hasegawa one failed me. I painted with
Model Master Gull Gray and White and sealed with Future. An oil wash
completed the weathering.
Hasegawa
has done an excellent job on the M series Skyhawks as you can build a fairly
accurate model of the early, mid and late (Super Mike) versions; all we
need now is a TA-4F/J so we can complete the series!
Max
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