Brenhen Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 When I found the picture below online, I knew right away that it would be my next project. I don't take much convincing when it comes to building an A-4 anyway, but I loved the look of this Argentinian OA-4AR I had a Hasegawa 1/32 OA-4M kit that I planned to use for this project, however there were 3 issues: 1. The Hasegawa kit has raised panel lines, and I wasn't looking to rescribe the whole thing 2. The kit aslo does not have full intakes. Instead, there is a flat plastic wall just inside of the intake lip 3. Almost all of the pictures of Argentine A-4's I found on the ground showed them with engine access and upper service doors open, so I wanted to incorporate that into the finished model My idea was to combine the nose from Hasegawa's kit with the wings and rear fuselage from the Trumpeter A-4M. The two kits actually fit together pretty well. Both have the intake splits on the fuselage at almost the exact same spot, so that the natural place to make the cut for adding the nose. The Hasegawa nose was wider at the bottom than the Trumpeter, so there was a little bit of cutting and reconstructing that needed to take place on the bottom of the jet, but the rest fit together well. I hope you enjoy the pictures! florin13, Emilio, Lud13 and 17 others 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Paul Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Very nice work on the Twin Scooter! Nobody would have known you worked that hard mating the two kits you did it so well. Thanks for sharing. Paul Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reconspit Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Oh man, what an awesome looking Skyhawk! Great job, absolutely cool! Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerhard Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 That is stunning. I really like the base you used, it is simplistic yet very very effective. Certainly an inspirational build for all of us. Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Awesome! Love that little base, too. Kev Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Beautiful! Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfighter Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Awesome result! I've been thinking about doing the same since ages; do you have any pictures showing the necessary modifications on the underside? Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenhen Posted December 19, 2017 Author Share Posted December 19, 2017 Thank you guys for the comments. It is very appreciated! Awesome result! I've been thinking about doing the same since ages; do you have any pictures showing the necessary modifications on the underside? Starfighter, I do have a few pictures, but I didn't take too many. I'll try to explain what I did with the limited pictures that I do have. This picture shows the similarities in the fuselage design between the two kits. As you can see, it's a fairly easy cut to visualize This shows the two fuselage halves after making the cuts and test fitting the nose pieces. Rather than cut straight down the Trumpeter nose, I cut an extension forward at the bottom to keep the wing root. This provided a little more gluing area and made keeping the Trumpeter wing a lot easier Here are the parts attached on each fuselage half. The very thin plastic strip on the top of the Hasegawa nose pieces (upper part of the intake base) was very thin and weak. This, mixed with the weight and instability of the nose section until the major construction was fully completed, made for a very weak area of the build. If you do this conversion, strengthen this area early or look for a more practical way to make your cuts and connections. This was my first time combining two kits like this, so I am sure that there is a stronger (and probably much simpler way!) of doing it! This is the bottom area that didn't line up between the two kits. I wanted to keep the Hasegawa nose gear box for simplicity, so I glued it into the front of the nose, keeping the rear part of the nose gear box unglued. I could then squeeze the Hasegawa nose section to match up with the Trumpeter fuselage section on the bottom of the kit. It wasn't a perfect fit and required some filling and sanding, but it wasn't too bad. What I was left with was what you see in the picture. The nose section sides over lapped the gear box. I carefully recut the opening for the nose gear box until it was flush with the box itself. I'm sure it is not the most accurate, but overall it looks pretty close to the real thing This shows the plane once the major construction was pretty much complete. The lighter grey plastic is the Hasegawa stuff. The avionics hump from Hasegawa worked pretty well, it just needed to be widened at the rear to match up with the Trumpeter tail fairing I hope that helps a little bit. If you have any other questions, please ask Thanks again everyone! alain11, Greg W, LSP_Kevin and 4 others 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alain11 Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 daring surgery , for a very nice result .......we don't see enough twin scooter at the big scale , I like !!!!!!! Alain Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koralik Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Fantastic job, The model looks fantastic. Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Totally awesome!!! I have considered this conversion also....you made it look do-able! Thanks for your photos and explanation, much appreciated! Anthony Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kagemusha Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 As others have said, thanks for sharing your superb build, and how you went about it, think I'll be doing something similar, cheers! Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Great show of a favorite aircraft! Sincerely, Mark Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stusbke Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Lovely work..great job all round... makes sense cutting it up like that and by the looks of it its not that daring or mind bogling hard to achieve tempting to do one as well Thanx for sharing Cheers Frederick Jacobs Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfighter Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 Thank you very much for your detailed explanation, this is exactly what I was lucky Ikone for - it'll make my life mich easier! Thanks again! Brenhen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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