A-4C Argentininan Air Force Malvinas

On May 30th 1982, a small combined force composed of Argentinian Navy (ARA) Super Étendards 3-A-202 and 3-A-205 (ALA flight) and Argentinian Air Force (FAA) A-4C Skyhawks C-310, C-312, C-318 and C-321 (ZONDA flight) lifted off from Río Grande AB to execute the most daring and controversial mission of the Malvinas war: Attack the British aircraft carrier "Invincible"!
The history of the Douglas A-4C Skyhawk in the FAA is long and complex. After the initial delivery of 25 ex-USN A-4B/P in 1966 and another 25 in 1970, the initial order of 75 Skyhawks for the FAA was completed until 1976 with the arrival of 25 ex-USN A-4C (FAA numerals C-301 to C-325) to replace the aging F-86F Sabres of the Grupo 4 de Caza, IV Brigada Aérea at Mendoza AB. As the A-4B/Ps, the A-4Cs were stripped from most sensitive USN avionics and weapons systems and fitted with British Marconi air-to-air and air-to-ground gun sights, ADF/VOR/ILS avionics, OMEGA navigation systems and first-generation IAI Shafrir air-to-air missiles. Grupo 4 Skyhawks actively participated in deterrence duties during the Beagle Channel Crisis in 1978 between Argentina and Chile.
By the start of the Malvinas war in April 2nd 1982, the A-4Cs had experimented severe attrition and spare parts issues but through the dedicated and highly professional work from the FAA maintenance crews, an unexpected number of A-4C were combat ready.
Through the clever use of electronic intelligence, the British fleet was located at about 110 nm east of Soledad (East Falkland) Island. To achieve surprise, the combined attack force reached the British fleet by the South, when they expected attacks from the East or North and thus pointed their radars and air defenses concurrently. Flying just above the waves after air refueling, the attack force remained undetected until final approach. The Super Étendards had a long range radar (the A-4Cs none) and at 100 nm leaped to higher altitude to check for the presence of large ships and found one identified as the "Invincible". One of the Super Étendards was armed with the last remaining Exocet missile in the Argentinians inventory and at 13.5 nm went up again and promptly fired it towards the target ship, broke the attack run and safely returned to base. The A-4Cs kept flying following the smoke trail of the missile and visually located the fleet. Armed with BRP-250 Expal 500 lb free-fall bombs, the Skyhawks approached the biggest ship they saw (presumably the "Invincible") at high speed (420 knt!!!). Two Skyhawks were destroyed by the British defenses (C-310 and C-312), killing the pilots. Notwithstanding, C-318 and C-321 kept flying and launched their bombs to the big ship. A hail of fire was thrown to the attackers that with violent high-speed maneuvers evaded destruction and left the target ship in a "shroud of black smoke". Curiously, no Sea Harrier followed the Skyhawks and although damaged both returned safely to base...
To honor this remarkable event (Still kept under maximum secrecy by the British), I decided to follow my FAA A-4P project with a 1/72 reproduction of C-321 using the nice A-4C copy from Hobby 2000 (ex-Fujimi), sweetened with a Kelik 3D-printed cockpit, SAC metal landing gear, Aztek Models BRP-250 bombs and markings and a few scratchbuilt details to depict an accurized rendering of the FAA A-4Cs during the last days of the Malvinas War.