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VA 94 A-4E


Brenhen

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After close to 15 years out of the hobby, I got back into modeling 2 years ago thanks in part to Large Scale Planes and this forum. This will be my first project I've ever posted, but this group build looked too fun to pass up. I have a thing for skyhawks, and while building my previous Trumpeter A-4, I came across this picture and knew that I wanted to model this plane at some point.

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I will be using the Trumpeter A-4E kit. The A-4F version has decals for VA 94 that I had not used, though they are from a later cruise. Many of the decals can be used, though some will need to be made. I have not printed my own decals before, so that will be a new experience!

 

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I started by putting together the Aires cockpit set

 

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Next was trying to get the intakes looking good, as well as fixing some of the bigger issues with the kit, thanks to the great tweak list I found in the forum.

 

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The current progress.

 

Thanks again for the inspiration!

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Thanks for the comments guys! I have been able to get a little bit of work done over the past couple of days. Lot's of that little work that takes a long time, but doesn't always show a lot of progress!

 

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fixed the rudder a little, and made a control rod and pivot

 

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Joined the fuselage halves, reattached the slat lower surfaces flush with the wing and glued the eduard detail in place

 

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Got the wings glued to the fuselage, did some seam work, and boxed in the elevator carry through

 

Happy building everyone

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Brenhen, Welcome to the Group Build. :)

 I am sorry for my late response, Work has been extremely insane ( I work in the mental health field ) and as usual, this time of year see's a dramatic spike in need for service.

 Anyway,

 I am very happy you joined in, and I have added your project and name to the  who's building what list.

  Work looks great so far.

 Keep at it!

  Paul 

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I've been able to get quite a bit done on the A-4 in the last week.

 

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All the small bits were assembled and cleaned up. Because it will only be loaded with the external fuel tank to match the original picture, the Eduard photoetch for the A-4 ordinance was useful. The empty pylons should look better with a little detail on the bottoms (if you can actually see it once it's done!). Luckily Trumpeter includes two Triple Ejector Racks, but they don't give any instructions on which pylons to use and how to attach them. They kind of seem like after thoughts from Trumpeter. I finally got it figured out, it just took drilling a new mounting hole into the rack to fit the pylons.

 

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I added brake and hydraulic lines to the main gear. I dropped the plastic nose gear dampner on the ground and couldn't find it, so I had to make a new one. I think it turned out pretty well. Of course, after getting it all finished up, I ended up finding the original piece while searching for another dropped part. Oh well!

 

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All the pieces together and ready for some primer

 

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This will be a first for me. I have never used Mr Surfacer as a primer, but I've heard great things. I've also never used a black base before, instead using grey primer and pre shading, so this will actually be two firsts. I had just bought a bottle of Vallejo black primer when this bottle of Mr Surfacer showed up in the mail. It took so long to get here from Japan that I had forgotten that I ordered it.

 

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I must say, it looks pretty intimidating in all black! Overall, I really liked the Mr Surfacer as a primer. It laid down very easily and feels very strong. I think it could use a light polishing to smooth out the surface a little, but nothing crazy.

 

I thought that I had already bought a 1/32 A-4 ladder, but apparently not, so that was ordered today. Now that it is in the painting stage, I will have a chance to finish up the decals.

 

Thanks for checking in!

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Thanks Harv and Loic!

Here's a little painting progress and a decal question for everyone:

 

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I started with the gull gray on top. This was after the first step of the painting process that DoogsATX described in the post for his incredible looking A-4F in the non-LSP forum.

 

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After the gray had dried, I was anxious to test the decals that I had been designing. Using my very unscientific method of sizing, I was happy that most were very close to the proper size once printed. In this shot, I feel that the paint looks pretty good, with some nice variation in the color. Unfortunately, I started thinking that it was still too much, and put one more light coat on. Now I'm worried that it is a little washed out, and may get more so after some washes and weathering. Trial and error, I guess! On the plus side, many A-4's in the gull gray and white scheme were kept fairly clean, so it's not the end of the world.

 

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Here she is after finishing with the major painting. I may have jumped the gun on the orange tail and wing tips. My original plan was to wait until the final printing of the decals so that I could try to match the paint with the decals. But I already had the airbrush dirty, so why not do all the painting, right? My new plan is to use the extra space on the decal sheet to print a bunch of different shades of orange logo's and use the two that match the paint. As I said, very unscientific! Speaking of the logo's, that leads to my decal question....

 

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It may be hard to see in the picture, but I am having problems with the color quality for the orange Shrike logo's. Rather than one nice color, the logo's print out splotchy, like the ink isn't mixing well. I have tried various printer settings with no improvement. I am using Testor's clear decal paper, which I've read online may be causing the issue. When I testing the print on regular paper, everything looked good, but that may be because the porous paper soaks the ink in more easily. I have ordered some decal sheets from Micro Mark to try out a different sheet, but if anyone has had any experience with this and can offer any advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks everyone!

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Paint looks good. Pics of the decals is hard to tell Flash does odd things in pics, so it's hard to see what you are talking about. I like the work though.....Harv :popcorn:

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  • 2 weeks later...

After being gone for a week, I have been enjoying getting back to work on the A-4. After clear coating, I began the decals. These are mix of Trumpeters A-4F decals and the decals that I have been making on my own. As I mentioned in my last post, the black letters and numbers turned out fine, but the orange logo's have been giving me all kinds of trouble. This whole printing of decals is a little harder than I thought it would be, actually. I seem to get variations in quality and size between the design and printing stages. After giving the logo's one more try, I still didn't like how they were turning out, so.....

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I decided instead to just cut some masks using the decals as a guide. It definitely fixed my problem of matching the paint colors! I used some Tamiya tape, which is very easy to see the design through, and cut around the border with a sharp knife.

 

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The mask was then placed on the model in the correct spot and the color sprayed. I had to be pretty careful with the other decals that were already on so as not to rip them off when I removed the tape. I know, a coat of clear over the decals would have been smart! But I was on a role with the masks and got impatient!

 

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I was happy with how the masks performed.

 

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And finally, the overall look. I have a couple of decals left, then on to the top coat and weathering.

 

Thanks for checking in!

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