Rob Colvin Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 (edited) Built these 2 a while back. The A-4c is a hasegawa kit with an old Condor conversion applied. Lady Jessie is a Trumpeter kit with a few extra parts added. Honestly I thought they were pretty close in shape. After filling, sanding, and rescribing.....they are about the same shape....close enough for me. Your mileage may vary. Edited December 30, 2020 by Rob Colvin VintageEagle, jeroen_R90S, ziggyfoos and 5 others 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark P Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 IIRC, Trumpeter only supplies the straight in-flight refueling probe. AIM did the "canted" one but I believe itmay not be available at the moment. I am not sure which would apply to any of these options but it may be something to pay attention too. BTW, nice builds! Mark Proulx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeroen_R90S Posted December 30, 2020 Author Share Posted December 30, 2020 12 hours ago, Rob Colvin said: Built these 2 a while back. The A-4c is a hasegawa kit with an old Condor conversion applied. Lady Jessie is a Trumpeter kit with a few extra parts added. Honestly I thought they were pretty clorse in shape. After filling, sanding, and rescribing.....they are about the same shape....close enough for me. Your mileage may vary. Those are some great models Rob, thanks for sharing! Are those the Hasegawa kit decals on the Trumpeter kit? 36 minutes ago, Mark P said: IIRC, Trumpeter only supplies the straight in-flight refueling probe. AIM did the "canted" one but I believe itmay not be available at the moment. I am not sure which would apply to any of these options but it may be something to pay attention too. BTW, nice builds! Mark Proulx Thanks for the heads-up, Mark. I only have the Hasegawa kit and that comes with both styles. If I ever win the lottery I'll get a Trumpeter one as well ----------------- I've also made up my mind and ordered AOA Scooters part 2, I could not choose between part 1 or 2 so I let my wife pick one and the VMA-311 markings won out. They are also some of the less-precise fit sort, so double-win Jeroen ziggyfoos and Rob Colvin 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziggyfoos Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 Good choice, -311 is my personal favorite (followed by -144). They all had the original straight probe. Ya the main decals that had to be specific for the Trumpeter kit for the -311 (and -223) options were the tail markings. Pretty much every A-4 squadron at the time had tail markings based on one or more of the angles around there, mainly the tail/rudder break, others the angled panel lines on the rudder itself (like the -223 black/yellow line). As mentioned earlier posts, easier anyway to simply paint the squadron colors on the tail/rudder, leaving only the WL to deal with vertically, horizontally, and slant angle. I didn't have a Hasegawa kit to see how it would compare. Being a pretty simple "WL", you could always just mask and paint that as well for the Hasegawa kit. Only common decal I can think of that may be off to fit the Hasegawa kit is the size of the rescue panel square. [PS. Also note my goof on the profiles, the forward wingtip shouldn't be navigation light. Didn't get to catch that screw up before the instructions were printed (fixed later in the 1/48 release).] jeroen_R90S 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 16 hours ago, Rob Colvin said: Built these 2 a while back. The A-4c is a hasegawa kit with an old Condor conversion applied. Lady Jessie is a Trumpeter kit with a few extra parts added. Honestly I thought they were pretty close in shape. After filling, sanding, and rescribing.....they are about the same shape....close enough for me. Your mileage may vary. Oh my word...they are stunning! Rob Colvin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthumbs Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, ziggyfoos said: Good choice, -311 is my personal favorite (followed by -144). They all had the original straight probe. Ya the main decals that had to be specific for the Trumpeter kit for the -311 (and -223) options were the tail markings. Pretty much every A-4 squadron at the time had tail markings based on one or more of the angles around there, mainly the tail/rudder break, others the angled panel lines on the rudder itself (like the -223 black/yellow line). As mentioned earlier posts, easier anyway to simply paint the squadron colors on the tail/rudder, leaving only the WL to deal with vertically, horizontally, and slant angle. I didn't have a Hasegawa kit to see how it would compare. Being a pretty simple "WL", you could always just mask and paint that as well for the Hasegawa kit. Only common decal I can think of that may be off to fit the Hasegawa kit is the size of the rescue panel square. [PS. Also note my goof on the profiles, the forward wingtip shouldn't be navigation light. Didn't get to catch that screw up before the instructions were printed (fixed later in the 1/48 release).] 6 hours ago, jeroen_R90S said: Those are some great models Rob, thanks for sharing! Are those the Hasegawa kit decals on the Trumpeter kit? Thanks for the heads-up, Mark. I only have the Hasegawa kit and that comes with both styles. If I ever win the lottery I'll get a Trumpeter one as well ----------------- I've also made up my mind and ordered AOA Scooters part 2, I could not choose between part 1 or 2 so I let my wife pick one and the VMA-311 markings won out. They are also some of the less-precise fit sort, so double-win Jeroen I have this decal sheet and the Hasegawa kit. So I photocopied some of the tail markings at 100% and proceeded to "cut and paste." I think they look fine in terms of proportion and fit. As I mentioned earlier, the plastic pictured here is actually from the Hasegawa TA-4J kit in 1:32. But I can confirm that the tail portion is identical in size and shape to the Hasegawa A-4E/F kit. Edited December 30, 2020 by allthumbs jeroen_R90S, Lee White, LSP_K2 and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthumbs Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 (edited) I spoke a little too soon. As you can see from this picture, the tail letters on the RH side are slightly crooked when lined up with the rudder post on the Hasegawa kit. Masks and paint are the obvious solution here. Even without the aid of computerized die-cutting machine, it does not appear to be too difficult a task, given the shapes involved. In any case, you made a good decision in choosing AOA decals for your project. They're second to none. Rich Edited December 31, 2020 by allthumbs Greg W and jeroen_R90S 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagledocf15 Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 On 12/29/2020 at 9:00 PM, Rob Colvin said: Built these 2 a while back. The A-4c is a hasegawa kit with an old Condor conversion applied. Lady Jessie is a Trumpeter kit with a few extra parts added. Honestly I thought they were pretty close in shape. After filling, sanding, and rescribing.....they are about the same shape....close enough for me. Your mileage may vary. I wish someone would make the A-4c conversion or redo the Condor conversion ! The two kits here are fantastic and well done!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ray Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 AMS offered a new nose and Zotz did decals for a A4-C conversion for the Trumpeter kit. I got one around here somewhere... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthumbs Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, LSP_Ray said: AMS offered a new nose and Zotz did decals for a A4-C conversion for the Trumpeter kit. I got one around here somewhere... AMS Resin and AOA Decals also did a joint venture A-4C conversion set in 1:32. I believe that it, like the other, sold out quickly. Edited January 5, 2021 by allthumbs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ray Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 17 hours ago, allthumbs said: AMS Resin and AOA Decals also did a joint venture A-4C conversion set in 1:32. I believe that it, like the other, sold out quickly. That's the one! I was thinking Zotz, but you know the first thing to go when you get old... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 6 hours ago, LSP_Ray said: That's the one! I was thinking Zotz, but you know the first thing to go when you get old... Zotz made the decals of the first release whereas AoA did the ones of the second batch. So you were not wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ray Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Oh! Now I am wondering which one I have, though I am pretty sure I got it as soon as it came out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziggyfoos Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 As Thierry mentioned, Zotz/AMS were the first original issue, that one also included decals/resin for Argentine A-4Cs. They were OOP for a while before the later AOA/AMS release which didn't include the original Argentine parts. Harold at AMS may still be able to make the C conversion? As I recall he could only get about 15-20 sets made before he had to create new molds each time. Greg W 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziggyfoos Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 (edited) On 12/31/2020 at 1:30 AM, allthumbs said: I spoke a little too soon. As you can see from this picture, the tail letters on the RH side are slightly crooked when lined up with the rudder post on the Hasegawa kit. Masks and paint are the obvious solution here. Even without the aid of computerized die-cutting machine, it does not appear to be too difficult a task, given the shapes involved. In any case, you made a good decision in choosing AOA decals for your project. They're second to none. Rich Looks like it would still mostly work. The WL's varied a bit between each a/c (width, spacing, position, etc), the W slant on the right side not following the rudder angle looked most common. Not sure which one you used there, but the slant of the right side W on WL-16 was right against and followed the rudder angle, the other two WLs on the sheet have different slant angles and weren't up against the rudder. Edited January 7, 2021 by ziggyfoos clarify talking right side jeroen_R90S, Greg W and allthumbs 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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