A-4K "Kahu" Skyhawk by Anthony Papadis (Hasegawa 1/72)

A-4K "Kahu"

Part Two - Painting and Finishing

by Anthony Papadis

A-4K "Kahu" Skyhawk

Hasegawa's 1/72 scale Skyhawk is still available online from Squadron.com

Painting and Decals

Click here to go back to Part One - Construction

The final scheme that the Kiwi a-4K’s wore was of an overall green, FS 34079, with matt black markings. I used the Gunze acrylic colours as these dry semi-gloss, eliminating the need for a gloss coat and withstand my weathering process, as I prefer to use artist oils.

I used the Hawkeye Models decals for this kit. I have found these to be excellent, being well printed and not prone to silvering when applied to a smooth surface. The decals from Hawkeye are printed with an overall gloss coat so you will need to cut each decal out individually, but you would have to do that anyway. The sheet provides all the tail codes for the surviving aircraft as single blocks, so there are no alignment problems. The only gripe I had was that the instruction sheet for their decals clearly shows the low voltage formation strips, but these are not included!

Kiwi A-4K’s had the markings for both A-4 units painted on all their aircraft, with 75Sqn on the left and 2 sqn on the right. The sheet has these very nicely printed.

Final Assembly

The ordnance was now added to the aircraft, as was the exhaust. The A-4k’s feature a couple of antennas. One of these is a small rectangular blade aerial on the lower fin leading edge. the other is located just aft of the cockpit canopy. Both were made from thin plastic sheet and painted black. There are also a couple of horizontal antennas on either side of the top of the fin, also made from plastic sheet and painted black.

The model was now mounted onto its display base, by placing the acrylic rod into a pre-drilled hole.

Conclusion

Although it seems like a lot of work, the work is really just a few items which if worked on in sections is not a great deal. It took me about a week of evenings plus a weekend to complete. I enjoyed building the kit and although I would have preferred to use the hard to find Fujimi kit, the Hasegawa kit provides a perfectly adequate base kit.

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