Hello and welcome back to the Hangar!

One of my favourite jets is the A-4 Skyhawk. Lovingly nicknamed the Scooter, this small but perfectly formed strike fighter has captured my imagination for years.

During the Vietnam war the Scooter had shown that it could down enemy MiGs, with at least three kills over Vietnam-One by LCDR Theodore ‘TR’ Swartz with Zuni rockets in May 1967 against the agile MiG-17 and it was this machine that the Skyhawk would simulate as a US Navy aggressor.

For the early part of the Vietnam conflict, the big, powerful fighters and interceptors of the US Navy and the USAF were found to have a poor return against the likes of the MiG-17, 19, and later the MiG-21. In response, the US Navy began the Naval Fighter Weapons School, known more famously as TOPGUN, and the plentiful A-4 was a natural choice for use.

The first use of an A-4 in the adversary role was as early as 1968: flown by experienced instructors, often stripped of non-essential equipment (they would be around 1,500lb lighter) and with the later, increased thrust engines, they could beat the more powerful F-4 Phantom IIs and later Grumman F-14A Tomcats. The aircraft used included two-seaters, A-4E, F and later M models and they generally carried gaudy and attractive color schemes replicating those of MiG users, in addition to being small and hard to spot. While the US Navy signed off its last A-4 in 1999, the final A-4 adversary aircraft was retired in 2003.

The Scooter is now part of US Naval history and the Adversary squadron’s at NAS Miramar and NAS Fallon flew numerous combat training sorties against TOPGUN students for over three decades. They will always be remembered for their exotic camouflage paint schemes and that is why I love to model them.

The kit:

The Hasegawa 1/48 Skyhawk is well known and has been the go to kit to model the A-4 in this scale for many years and I have happily built several in my time. When the kit was re-released with TOPGUN adversary markings in the box, I couldn’t resist!

Of the two decal options in the kit I chose to model the aircraft depicted on the box cover TOPGUN 56. The kit gives instructions for a two-tone grey scheme, however I much preferred TOPGUN 56 in her previous Grey Ghost scheme when she was with aggressor VF-126 “Bandits” at NAS Miramar in 1986.

So with a cool looking paint scheme in mind, I set to work on building my next scooter. I will not go into many details about the build process as I have gone through this before. My only modifications on this but were to add an Eduard colour PE cockpit set , a targeting pod and I added hydraulic lines to the landing gear.

The Hasegawa kit builds up quickly and the parts have good fit and nicely engraved surface detail. I enjoyed painting this one as I love the Grey Ghost camouflage scheme. The paints I used were :

Mig Ammo-FS35164-Intermediate Blue

Mig Ammo-FS35237-Grey Blue

Tamiya-XF-12-IJN Grey

Mig Ammo-FS36375-Grey

Once the model’s pain had been given time to cure, I airbrushed the entire model in Tamiya X-22 clear in preparation for the decal process. The Hasegawa decals performed flawlessly, and snuggled down into the recessed surface details with some help for Microsol decal setting solution.

Again after drying Tim this model was re-sprayed in X-22 to seal in the decal and protect them from the weathering process. As this airframe was kept relatively clean I opted of a simple enamel wash over the airframe which I feel captures the look of the real aircraft. Everything was then sprayed in VNS satin varnish to produce a realistic in scale finish to the airframe.

To enhance the look of the model, I added an aggressor pilots helmet left on the cockpit wall and a boarding ladder that is included in the kit.

Here is the completed model, I hope you enjoy it.

Here is the finished model mounted on its display base:

Thanks for stopping by to look at my model, I hope you come back to see the next one.

Happy Modelling!

Darren.