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

[Joel_W]

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

 

Cheers

Anthony

 

Anthony,

  Thanks so much for stopping by, it's very much appreciated. Believe me, your build really has been a huge help in figuring out those little details and modifications.

 

Joel

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent progress, Joel!

 

Kev

[Joel_W]

Excellent progress, Joel!

 

Kev

 

Kev,

 Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out the Scooter. It does mean a lot to me.

 

Joel

[Guest Peterpools]

JA

Terrific progress on the Scooter and totally agree about closing up those panels.  Intakes look good but I still question not glossing the white. Compressor fan looks really nice and stands out well against the white background.

Keep 'em coming

Bro

[Joel_W]

JA

Terrific progress on the Scooter and totally agree about closing up those panels.  Intakes look good but I still question not glossing the white. Compressor fan looks really nice and stands out well against the white background.

Keep 'em coming

Bro

 

Pete,

 

   Thanks for stopping by, but then again I knew you would. Glad to see that you like my efforts to date. 

 

  I thought about really glossing the white intakes, but I'm doing a Marine Scooter, not a Navy one. Here's a picture of the aircraft I'm modeling.  I'm planning on doing it at an earlier date in its deployment so it's not so dirty and weather warn.

 

 

Joel

[Guest Peterpools]

JA

Going to be a good looking Scooter but I still think the intakes should be at least semi gloss.

Of course since I am no longer leaving the house, I'll never know

Bro

[Joel_W]

JA

Going to be a good looking Scooter but I still think the intakes should be at least semi gloss.

Of course since I am no longer leaving the house, I'll never know

Bro

 

Pete,

   It's easy enough to semi gloss it at the end of the build. Odds are no matter how careful I am, I'll manage to get some Light Gull Gray into the intakes and have to repaint anyway. Then I'll semi gloss it.

 

  If you never leave the house, how will we meet for our Sunday breakfasts? I can't eat two full meals these days.

 

Joel

[Guest]

Coming along nicely Joel.

[Joel_W]

Coming along nicely Joel.

 

John,

  Thanks for stopping by and checking out my Scooter. It's much appreciated.

 

Joel

[BloorwestSiR]

Great progress Joel. The panels that you closed up look great. I know sometimes they don't always fit well and can be a real pain.

 

Carl

[Shaka HI]

Moving fast here Joel! I swear I enjoy your interaction with your brother as much as your builds!

[Joel_W]

Joel, the intakes and fan section look phenomenal. I love how smooth the white is and the fan blades look perfect. Also, great fix on the open section on the tail. My only complaint is your giving me the itch to build a 1/32 Scooter. I already have enough projects going!

 

Tony,

   Thanks so much my friend for stopping by, and those really kind words. Believe me, the painting just looks good, not very hard to accomplish. The open section took a little more work but it was worth it. As I recall, you already built one  really rock solid TA-4J on a fantastic base, but Scooters are addicting.

 

Joel

[Joel_W]

Great progress Joel. The panels that you closed up look great. I know sometimes they don't always fit well and can be a real pain.

 

Carl

 

Carl,

  Thanks so much for checking out my Scooter build, and liking what you saw. I've never really found any panels on a build that fit very well, as they seem to all be designed to be in the open position. One really nice thing about the Trumpeter Scooter kit, is that the plastic is on the soft side, and is very easy to sand and contour.

 

Joel

[Joel_W]

Moving fast here Joel! I swear I enjoy your interaction with your brother as much as your builds!

 

Shaka Hi,

  Almost lightning speed my friend. Pete and I are like this all the time. Modeling wouldn't nearly be as much fun without him. That's for sure.

 

Joel

[Joel_W]

 I decided to take a break from working on the fuselage, and start the wings which have a few issues that need to be addressed. The 1st, and most serious issue is the slat area of each wing on the leading edge. Trumpeter copied the incorrect design of Hasegawa who just assumed that the slats needed a recessed area to help blend them into the wing when they're not deployed. Unfortunately, as must of you know, there is no such recess on the real Scooter wings. The slats just lay on top of the wings.  So I was faced with this issue:

 

 

    You can plainly see that there is a huge recessed well area that has a nasty step which needs to be removed. The most accepted method has been to just cut out the leading edge, glue on two pieces of sheet plastic to replace the lost plastic from the removal process, then glue to the top of the lip.  That does indeed remove the step, but now the top leading edge is shorter then the bottom leading edge, which is something I was leery about both for the proper placement of the slat actuating arms, and that it would throw off the proper angle of the slats.  I've seen a few builds where putty was just built up along the step, then sanded to shape. That method does indeed work, but the issue I have  with it is that the gradual slop down to the top of the leading edge would end up being to shallow and thus causing a concave look, when it should be a smooth consistent transition.

 

   So after a few days of thinking about how to proceed I decided that I'd build up the area right in front of the step for a more controlled and gradual taper. I started with a strip of Evergreen .020  x .040 glued right up against the lip but leaving a slight lip for the start of the contour shaping.

 

 

then I glued an additional strip of .010 x .040 to help with the contour.

 

 

When the Extra Thin had dried, I sanded the to form the basic shape but didn't want to feather it out completely, or the transition would have a slight concave look to it.

 

 

I then applied a layer of Bondo Glazing #3 putty, then lightly sanded it to a feathered edge.

 

 

 Then I air brushed on a coat of Mig Ammo Gray Primer and looked for errors, which I had several, so a hand brushed on coat of Tamiya Gray Primer Sealer, and when dry sanded and polished it.

 

 

   You'll also notice that I have addressed the other Trumpeter issue, and that's the Vortex Generators that are way to thick. I really didn't like the option of removing them, then being replaced with the Eduard PE ones, as I'm 101% sure that I would have not only made a mess of the wing, but the end results wouldn't have been up to standards. So I taped off the front and back around them, and using a file thinned them out about to half thickness.

 

   Here's the other wing that came out better of the two. While the Vortex Generators aren't in focus, you can get a sense of the narrowing I was able to accomplish.

 

 

 

 

   Joel

Edited April 21, 2017 by Joel_W