1/32 Trumpeter A-4E Scooter: 8/4/17 Crossed the finish line

[Joel_W]

Cockpit looks fantastic Joel! That IP looks good despite that bluish hue!

 

Shaka,

  Thank you my friend for your most positive comment. Fantastic I'm not sure about, but good enough is more likely. 

 

Joel

[Joel_W]

Joel, You might shoot a PM to LSP_Paul and ask him how he did his decals.

 

 

His build: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=50273&hl=

 

Go to page 8 to see the VGs.

 

Bill,

  Thanks for the link to Paul's build. I read through the paint and decaling part and he ended up having masks made for the Stars & Bars. I've never used masks before, and starting my learning curve with Stars and Bars isn't the right way to go. So I'm going to stick with my plan of cutting the decal into sections, then painting the Vertex Generators before decaling.

 

  I've also noticed that Paul went a completely different route with removing the lip for the slats. I'm going to try his method 1st.

 

Joel

[chuck540z3]

Chuck,

  Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my Scooter build. Your comments  and suggestions mean a lot to me.  As for those black stripes, since I've already sealed the seat in Dullcoat, I'd have to mask and repaint then try those small decal strips. If I don't go that route on this build, next jet will definitely see your technique  being used.

 

Joel

 

 

Hey Joel, one more tip is to use Peter's (airscale) modern cockpit decals.  They are fantastic and you don't even have to paint them!

 

Link here:

 

http://airscale.co.uk/store.php#!/Modern-Placards/c/16298053/offset=0&sort=normal

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[Joel_W]

Hey Joel, one more tip is to use Peter's (airscale) modern cockpit decals.  They are fantastic and you don't even have to paint them!

 

Link here:

 

http://airscale.co.uk/store.php#!/Modern-Placards/c/16298053/offset=0&sort=normal

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

chuck,

 

 

thanks for the link. they're also on my list for upgrading kit cockpits.  As I'm finding out there's a huge difference between 1/48 scale and 1/32 scale on what not only needs to be done, but how to go about doing it. 

 

Joel

[BloorwestSiR]

Joel, your cockpit looks great.

 

I need to get some of those Airscale decals as well.

 

Carl

[FunkyZeit]

VERY nice! I love this airplane. How is the kit to work with so far ?

 

Justin

[Joel_W]

Joel, your cockpit looks great.

 

I need to get some of those Airscale decals as well.

 

Carl

 

Carl,

  Thanks for stopping by and checking the Scooter out. Too late this time for the Airscale decals, but I'm planning on using them on my next build that I'm already doing the primary planning for.

 

Joel

[Joel_W]

VERY nice! I love this airplane. How is the kit to work with so far ?

 

Justin

 

Justin,

   for the little I've done, the fit is pretty good. The Trumpy cockpit is more then passable, considering that so little of it will be seen once the fuselage halves are glued together.  And I really like the Trumpy plastic. Very easy to sand and blend. Not rock hard and brittle like the Hasegawa plastic.

 

Joel

[Joel_W]

   With the completion of the cockpit minus some detail painting, my attention now turned to the quartet of pieces that make up the fuselage which are much better suited to being in the more traditional right and left halves for installation of sub assemblies and detailing as needed.  Here's what one half is comprised of:

 

 

   But before I could work on the halves I had to cut off the top of the Vertical Stabilizers which should be part of the rudder as you can see in the picture below

.

 

 

   Once I cut off each piece, I ended up with the rear sections looking like this:

 

 

  My 1st observation was that there is very little matting surfaces to glue the front and rear sections securely together, as Trumpeter clearly intended for the fuselage halves to be removable to show off the engine. This is something that I didn't want. So I needed to come up with a better fix.  I thought that the standard sheet plastic tabs would do the trick and they would have, but there is an access compartment on each side that I might want to keep open (I'm still not sure about this option), so the tab idea didn't make much sense. 

 

  While reviewing the steps in the instructions, I noticed that there are two bulkheads, one for the end of the front half of the fuselage, and on for the start of the rear section.

 

 

  They're meant to be joined and removable for display as you can see four mounting pins on the one on the right. So why not glue them up and make one bulkhead, then cut it in half for each side. there is a lip for the front and rear sections to also glue to, and thus give me the added surface area for strength I was looking for.

 

 

  
​  When dry, I cut it in half:

 

 

 And then glued then into their respective front end sections:

 

 

 

and the lip looks like this:
 

 

  I clamped each half to a flat board and let it dry for 48 hrs.  I then removed them from the boards, and I had the more familiar right & left fuselage halves.

 

 

the joint and it's bulkheads are solid to say the least.  And there is room for the access compartment if I deem to go in that direction.

 

 

   I taped up the fuselage to check for fit, and it's really pretty close. The joint does need a little sanding, and finessing, but it's no longer an issue.

 

 

 

Joel

[Guest Peterpools]

JA

Nice work-around and it worked out really well The fuselage is going to be solid and secure when glued up for sure

Keep 'em coming

Bro

[Joel_W]

JA

Nice work-around and it worked out really well The fuselage is going to be solid and secure when glued up for sure

Keep 'em coming

Bro

 

Bro,

  thought you'd like the direction I went with the Rube Goldberg fix.

 

Joel

[Joel_W]

Excellent work Joel, and great catch on the rudder.

 

Tony,

  Thanks buddy for stopping by and liking what I've accomplished to date.  I wish I can take credit for the rudder/vertical stabilizer correction, but I got it from Anthony in NZ's Scooter build. Just incredible work might I add.

 

Joel

[Joel_W]

I'm trying to figure out just how much weight I need in the nose to keep the Scooter on it's gear. 3/8 oz seems to do the trick with a dowel under where the main wheels should be. Is this correct, or do I still need more wt?

 

Joel

[Joel_W]

Work on the Scooter has finally progressed far enough for the next update. So the next logical step was to install the cockpit/front landing gear bay. I was really quite surprised at how well it literally snapped into position. Not a drop of sloppiness, yet I didn't need excess pressure to get it to pop into position.

 

 

 Next up was the engine assembly. Since I was not going to have the fuselage split fore and aft, I assembled the basic engine including the exhaust pipe. So my attention turned to the massive front intake and fan assembly. I primed all the parts with Mig Ammo Gray primer, then I airbrushed the intake Tamiya XF-2 flat White. When dry I gave it a coat of 50/50 Testors Dullcoat and Glosscoat. The fan and shaft were primed with Mig Ammo black primer then Alcad Gloss Black. I gave the Gloss Black a few days to cure, the air brushed on Alcad 2 ALC 115 Stainless Steel.

 

 

A quick dry fitting showed that the engine assembly was properly positioned.

 

 

  There is a air vent only on the right side that should be a tube. so I drilled it out, and inserted a small piece of plastic tubing, then drilled it out, and puttied it in. Some Tamiya Gray Primer Filler helped to fill any voids I missed.

 

 

 

   In pre-planning the build, I decided that I didn't want any of the access hatches opened, so I carefully fitted, glued, and sanded the 3 hatches in the nose section. The engine access hatches on either side of the fuselage fit just about perfectly.

 

 

 

   Anthony had pointed out in his Scooter build, that there is a hole that goes completely through the tail for the horizontal Stabilizer plate assembly. I'm not at all sure what it's purpose is, but I did find pictures of Navy Scooters with it. The only time you can see it is when the Horizontal Stabilizers are in the forward down position as such.  Here's a picture of the hole, but you have to look carefully to see it.

 

 

   Trumpeter didn't have this cut out, so I followed the general outline from various pictures and drew it on the tail assembly. I wasn't too concerned about how high I was going to make it, as both horizontal Stabilizer plates would be covering more then half of it.  So I drew two upper lines, but decided on the lower one.

 

 

Then I drilled guide holes, and carefully cut it out, then filed and sanded to shape. I still have small notches to cut out on the lower section of both sides.

 

 

  Next up was the two engine intakes. I decided on using the kit supplied  ones. Each intake comprises of three pieces. I had to fill the front ejection pin holes in both intakes, then primed with Mig Ammo Acrylic gray primer, then Tamiya XF-Flat White.

 

 

Then I assembled them and roughly sanded to shape.

 

 

  Once glued into position on each fuselage half, I sanded them to final shape, Puttied with Bondo as needed, sanded, polished and primed. Then sanded the primer to see where more work would be needed.

 

 

    Now it was finally time to glue the fuselage halves together. the fit was excellent.

 

    I'm modeling a aircraft from VMA-211  Wake Island Avengers Chu Lai 1969, and their A-4E's were a mixture of electronic humps or no humps.

 

 

 

   At this point I'm inclined to go with CF-6 152061 with the hump.

 

Joel

Edited April 17, 2017 by Joel_W

[Anthony in NZ]

Very awesome mate! Great to see you incorporating the mods, certainly will make a difference!

 

Cheers

Anthony