McDonnell Douglas OA-4M Skyhawk "MAG-32" - Hasegawa/Trumpeter

[Starfighter]

I'm in the mood to finish some of the projects I have started over the last few years. After finishing Scooby, the OA-4M is the next one on my to-do list. 

 

It's basically a combination of the old Hasegawa OA-4M and a Trumpeter A-4M following Brenhen's receipe - his brilliant OA-4AR conversion convinced me to try the same. Have a look at his gorgeous build:

 

He was kind enough to post WIP photos of his conversion, which made my life much easier - I just did it the same way he did.

 

 

In order to spice things up a bit, I decided to add a Black Box cockpit...

 

 

... Aires nose avionics bays...

 

 

 

 

... Aires wheel wells and AMS Resin intakes. The front gear bay required a lot of cutting, puttying and swaring but I was able to make it fit. 

 

Not my best cockpit, but it looks quite OK. I'll try to touch it up a little to improve the over all look. The engine was detailed with lead wire and Anyz braided lines as the hell holes on both fuselage side will be open.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hasegawa electronics hump had to be widened to fit the Trumpeter fuselage. The rear part is from Trumpeter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Starfighter]

The OA-4M has a different front IP which was 3D printed - on my old Photon back in the day. The part would look better on a 4K or 8K for sure, but those were not yet available back in the day. The photo nicely shows the difference between a part printed flat (on the left) and a part printed at an angle. 

 

 

Eduard offers very nice and useful PE parts for the Trumpeter kits. Whilst I was too stupid to use the ones for the slat recesses, I managed to fit the vortex generators on the wings and slats. They are a huge improvement over the rather rough kit details. 

 

 

After a bit of tidying up, the model was primed and painting could start. 

 

 

As usual, I have used FS36375 and FS36325 from MRP; unlike most TPS Scooters, the aircraft I am building does not seem to have FS36495 undersides.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the aircraft I'd likle to build - BuNo 154306, one of two TPS Scooters with black markings, flown by MAG-32 in 1990. Sadly, there are very few photos of these aircraft - there are only three I know of, including this one (Official Navy photo - source: Wikimedia Commons). All markings will be painted using custom masks. I'll need decals for some small details.

 

 

[Michael931080]

Looking really good so far.  

[A-10LOADER]

She's taking shape buddy.

Steve

[easixpedro]

Ben,

 

Here's the MAG-32 page from the Scooter Association. Has your pic, plus one more towards the bottom: MAG-32 | The Skyhawk Association

 

Here's the photo you posted, but at super high resolution: Members of Marine Aircraft Group 32 (MAG-32) service an OA-4M Skyhawk aircraft - U.S. National Archives & DVIDS Public Domain Search (getarchive.net) Searched both MAG-32 and HMS-32 but didn't find any other photos. Usually this site is pretty good for late 80s/90s pics though.

 

Love seeing you knock things out. Your ability to bring these NavAir subjects to life is always breathtaking!

-Peter

[Brenhen]

Your oa-4m is looking beautiful! I saw a couple of pictures on your Instagram but love seeing all the additional work in progress photos. Keep up the great work!

 

And thanks for the nice comments, but mine is no where near the quality of your build. Very inspiring!

[vvwse4]

Ben,

 

Looks great!! Look forward to more progress (and learning a lot myself)

 

Cheers Rick

[scvrobeson]

Great jump on this one Ben!  Already looks fantastic.

 

 

Can you explain why the IP looks so much different when printed at an angle versus flat? I'm very inexperienced when it comes to 3D printing.

 

 

Matt

[KiwiZac]

Oh wow, the interior parts look phenomenal! Bravo!

[Pete Fleischmann]

Nice job Ben. Love the Scooter and you are doing an amazing job-

keep going brother!

 

cheers

P

[Starfighter]

Thank you all for your kind comments and encouragement. 

 

Peter, thanks for the links - I do know both of them and the photo at the bottom of th eskyhawkassociation page is indeed one of three photos I have of the aircraft. The third one was kindly shared by Anton Kochetov on Facebook and is probably the best photo I have. Sadly, I can't read what exactly is written below the cockpit...

 

 

According to skyhawkassociation, MAG-32's CO in 1990 was Major Bellman.  

 

To me, it looks like:

 

MAJ. J.J. ????MAN JR. (does not look like "BELLMAN" to me)

BANDIT (not sure but would make sense)

C.O.

 

Plane captain was obviously SGT. SMITH.

 

What do you guys reckon? 

[easixpedro]

6 hours ago, Starfighter said:

Thank you all for your kind comments and encouragement. 

 

Peter, thanks for the links - I do know both of them and the photo at the bottom of th eskyhawkassociation page is indeed one of three photos I have of the aircraft. The third one was kindly shared by Anton Kochetov on Facebook and is probably the best photo I have. Sadly, I can't read what exactly is written below the cockpit...

 

 

According to skyhawkassociation, MAG-32's CO in 1990 was Major Bellman.  

 

To me, it looks like:

 

MAJ. J.J. ????MAN JR. (does not look like "BELLMAN" to me)

BANDIT (not sure but would make sense)

C.O.

 

Plane captain was obviously SGT. SMITH.

 

What do you guys reckon? 

I think you're spot on.  In NavAir parlance, the commanding officer is often called "xx 1" in Maj Bellman's case it would be "Bandit 1."  Can't make out a 1 following the Bandit, but it all makes sense.

 

I also dug through a bunch of Naval Aviation News to see if I could find reference to H&MS-32. They went away in July 1990--figured there'd at least be a news release, but couldn't find anything. But that actually makes sense in that a few days later Iraq invaded Kuwait and the news cycle was dominated by what became Desert Shield/Desert Storm.  For future reference, here's the archive of NAN: Back Issues (navy.mil) Can be a good reference for period shots and references to loadouts or what units participated in what op etc. 

-Peter

 

[GreyGhost]

Excellent work so far ..! 

I love the OA-4M, I watched them at MCAS El Toro allot back in the 80s ... 

 

-Gregg

[RadBaron]

Fantastic!

[Timmy!]

On 1/11/2022 at 12:59 AM, Starfighter said:

Thank you all for your kind comments and encouragement. 

 

Peter, thanks for the links - I do know both of them and the photo at the bottom of th eskyhawkassociation page is indeed one of three photos I have of the aircraft. The third one was kindly shared by Anton Kochetov on Facebook and is probably the best photo I have. Sadly, I can't read what exactly is written below the cockpit...

 

 

According to skyhawkassociation, MAG-32's CO in 1990 was Major Bellman.  

 

To me, it looks like:

 

MAJ. J.J. ????MAN JR. (does not look like "BELLMAN" to me)

BANDIT (not sure but would make sense)

C.O.

 

Plane captain was obviously SGT. SMITH.

 

What do you guys reckon? 

I have a small stash of OA-4M photos many from H&MS-32, but not this jet.  I will say the call sign is more likely his personal one.  Every other jet with names on it was Rank, Initials, Last name and Call sign below the name, sometimes with work title below the call sign.  If you’re going to print up decals, why not us your own name and make up a callsign.  Like maybe Waffle because waffles are Belgian too.