A-4 Skyhawk Airfix

why it is upside down? 

again... sorry guys it is not like this in my album, but you can see the dials on the instrument panel anyway 🙂 

close pics of the tube finished 

close pics of the tube finished 

close pics of the tube finished 

close pics of the tube finished 

masking canopy (I hate this) using my special tecnik: I google search for pictures of canopy masks for my plane, than I print in some sises that I feel that is going to work, than I protect the print with a thick transparent tape for boxes, to cut over it 

some wires going on to represent the brake hidraulic lines 

standing very well with the pylons in there and primed for the preshading 

the pilons are not glued yet, by the way, my plane is sharing the same space in the shelf with my daughter´s puzzle :-/ 

Snake eyes primed, painted, faded, washed, dry-brushed, gloss-clear-coated, decalled, flat-clear-coated and then.... Ufa! Finally readY!!! 

Some preshading going on 

Looking so nice with the full load hanging under the airframe! I just love this "armed to the teeth" look! 

I never stop having fun with preshading🙂 

Time for some nano touch up  

Masking the threads  

And painting the wheels  

Basic paint done, nice light gull gray from AK interactive! 

one accident with the masking tape and the paint pelled off with primer and everything, I cutted the paint in the panel lines and pelled them off so i can respray it 

just after I painted the white uper surface, I found some pictures that show that Airfix instruction completely misplaced the panel were the white should be painted 

that´s how it is supose to be, come'on airfix, a little more research on google and you could had passed without this mistake, it is embarasing....  

masking on the front wheels (didn´t worked as good as the rear ones...) 

Panels on the movable surfaces repainted (including the tail), slats in place, wheels and ir´s covers in place, the insignia red painted down... 

and a nice coat of clar varnish from humbrol clear (exatly the same stuff as the old Klear of Future floor ) ready for decals, God knows how it is going to conform in this vortex details... :-/ 

Ordenance 

Half of the decals on! 

seems that airfix decals works well using Revell decal set solution 

 

and than do the wash, but I am thinking that the panel lines are already very deep and visible, so not pannel line wash is going to be required, maybe some streaking of oils here and there will do 

Post- shading done using tamiya smoke and some masking tape/ post it sheets, first time doing this  

Some areas went out little overdone but I'm happy with the overall result  

It is a tricky technique, it seems that nothing is happening until you, Opps! Overdone.... 

Further weathering using oils and pigments  

Finally decent pictures of the finished plane, sorry for the delay! 

 

 

navigation lights was painted silver and than clear red / green from tamiya / gunze, it give to my eyes a much better effect than the kit decals 

 

the matt varnish I sprayed over the hole model kind of "faded" and "whitened" the vibrant colors, I like the effect, helped to unify the kit so it look less like a toy. 

lau-10 navy rockets and mk 82 snake eyes, weapons for low altitude atack, the most dangerous possible mission for the scout! 

the weapons came from hasegawa's weapon set, the internals of landing gear are very detailed! I scrach builded the landing light inside the landing gear door 

I did this light out of the clear part sprue, I sanded one edge round than sawed with a photoetch razer saw, than I glued, painted it´s rounded back silver, and insignia white on top of it 

than I putted a drop of clear coad on the clear flat side, and that is the efect you get, a bit of tinny job, very small to be seen, but I don´t know why I love so much to do it... also we can see the efect of tires's tread with the masking tape trick! 

one Carrier Deck printed to be one base. 

Some efects from my Iphone 🙂 

the final one! now, to the next project!!