Airfix 1/72 A-4B Skyhawk
By Robert Hill
Overview
There are few aviation enthusiasts who haven't heard of "Heinemann's Hotrod". The diminutive attack bomber, designed by Douglas Aircraft's Ed Heinemann (also responsible for the Skyraider and Skywarrior among others) first entered service with the US Navy in 1956 and still continues in service with Brazil and Argentina today. Designed to carry the highest nuclear or conventional load with the smallest airframe possible, the Skyhawk is best known for its stellar service in Viet Nam. In 1974, the Blue Angels came calling and used the small airplane's turning radius and quick handling to thrill airshow goers until it was replaced by the Hornet in 1986. The Skyhawk truly is a remarkable airplane.
The Kit(s)
For many years, Airfix has had a 1/72 Skyhawk in its catalog. That kit was very basic, and while it generally looked like an early A4D-1 (A-4A) it was missing modern touches like recessed panel lines and a detailed cockpit.
Fast-forward to 2012 and Airfix has finally produced a very nice Skyhawk to compete with the 1/72 standard-bearer. Fujimi has produced several variants of the Scooter by utilizing different forward fuselage molding while retaining more or less the same aft fuselage. What this meant to the modeler is that you had to carefully mate the two sections of fuselage before adding wings and tail feathers. In addition, some early variant (A-4B/A-4C) kits have become harder to find over the years. Airfix has taken a different tack, and created a model that can only be built out of the box as an A-4B or a variant of this short nosed version (A-4P/A-4Q/A-4S).
Airfix has produced a stand-alone kit of the Skyhawk with and without paint and glue, as well as a "Dogfight Doubles" that commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Falklands/Malvinas War and includes the nicely new tooled Sea Harrier. The Skyhawk plastic sprues are the same for all three editions. The decal options are different between the stand-alone kits and the "doubles" offering.
Upon opening any of the boxes, you will find a kit in 75 light gray parts that should be an easy build into an accurate model. Surface detailing is finer than other recent new releases (trenches not as deep) but the fuselage recesses become shallower as you approach the top of the airframe. Some rescribing will probably be needed here. The sprue attachment points are very thick in places so care will be needed when cutting parts free. No ripping off by hand allowed here!
Fuselage
The shorter exhaust of the early airframes is represented by a two-piece affair, and the intake and exhaust turbines are well represented and reminiscent of those found on the larger Hasegawa 1/48 kit. Speed brakes can be opened or closed and have basic detail. Small fuselage intake scoops are molded in, but these are for later A-4B/Q/P airplanes. Check references for the airplane you are building. There is an odd wedge-shaped raised detail around the starboard oil breather, and the port oil breather is only represented by a recessed oval and should be drilled out. The dorsal avionics pack seen on Argentinian A-4B/Q aircraft is included as a separate piece but will need to be reshaped to match reality. At the very front of the nose there is a prominent avionics cooling intake that will need to be drilled out. This was only seen on the early (pre A4D-2N/A-4C) airplanes.
Cockpit
The cockpit is a very basic tub, with colored decals used to represent the side consoles and main instrument panel. The lower floor makes up the nose gear well. A stick is provided, and a basic seat ties it all together. A resin aftermarket seat from Pavla would help a lot here, but you can get by with the kit seat and some scratchbuilding of seatbelts. Unlike the Fujimi kit, the canopy is only provided in front and rear sections, with no out-of-the-box way to have the canopy raised. It does look like the two halves will mate up well if you decide to close the lid.
Wings & Landing Gear
The gear is molded well for this scale, but the nose wheel and tire is molded into the front fork, causing more work during painting time. The nose gear retraction arm is molded separately, and the gear represents the correct non-steering version. The main wheels are the earlier spoked style. The wings are thin, and the slats are molded separately. As in all Skyhawk models of any scale, there is a step to the slat well that doesn't look like the real thing, so you have to decide if it's worth fixing. The flaps are molded into the wing tops, which will provide a nice line when mated to the lower wing, but makes it very difficult to drop the flaps.
Wing top vortex generators are thin and look good. The starboard underwing antenna/rotating beacon is crudely molded as a stick. Also the port underwing radar altimeter is molded in, but probably shouldn't be on a US Navy A-4B. As always check references for detail. There are no A-4F-style wing spoilers engraved on the wing tops, which is correct for an early Skyhawk and always a gotcha on the Fujimi kit, which has them. There are 5 weapons pylons which is incorrect for this airplane, including the A-4Q/P, so you'll have something to add to the spares box. Two additional outboard pylons were only added to the A-4C in Argentine service.
There are a number of stores represented. A single large bomb, two Snakeyes, two smaller bombs, a central tank and two (what appear to be) 150 gallon drop tanks. You will have to get additional stores from the spares box to do a Viet Nam or Falklands airplane.
Decals
The "Dogfight Doubles" kit comes with markings representing an A-4P from 1 Grupo 5 in June of 1982.
The stand-alone kits have decals for an A-4B of VA-95 from the USS Intrepid in 1966.
Conclusion
Airfix has created a Skyhawk that is head and shoulders above their old offering. This is a nice, simple kit that will match up well in a display case next to the Fujimi A-4B. Combine this with the many old decals from Micro/ScaleMaster and others, or with the new set coming from Xtradecal and the opportunities to build many colorful Skyhawks will be like Lay's potato chips – no one can have just one!