McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk

Part 1 - Republic of Singapore Air Force

On Target Decal Special

Air-Graphic Models, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

A mouthful of a title for a specialist sheet for one of the world’s best known and popular small fighter-bomber aeroplanes. It comes in the familiar clear zip-lock bag and consists of two large sheets and a small additional one with some striping.  Also included, and very necessary, is a thirty-two-page full colour A5 instruction booklet that covers the range of the possible applications of the markings. This includes a number of colour images of the examples on the sheets. 

The markings cover the period from the mid 70s in Gull Grey over white, through the two-green and tan over grey period up to the final flypast in 2005, some with fluoro patches, along with two display examples in delightful red and white markings. The latter will involve some tricky masking, especially as red and white are notoriously difficult colours to apply. Also included is a paint guide listing the required colours by name and FS numbers produced by Humbrol, Xtracolour, Hataka, Modelmaster, Mr Color, Tamiya and Lifecolor. It's a shame that Vallejo has missed out. Only the first two are enamels, the rest being acrylics.

A couple are for the peculiar two seat trainer examples used by the RSAF, called the TA-4SU with a raised bubble cockpit behind the pilot, and involving a 600mm fuselage extension, quite distinct from the TA-4 used by other forces. There does not appear to be a kit or conversion for this variant ( there is one in 1/48) but a chap on ARCforums shows how to produce one in 1/72 by combining two fuselages ( I’d certainly try to get a scrap fuselage from someone as it becomes pretty expensive exercise).

I’m not going to list all twenty-seven examples, suffice to say that you can build the whole gamut of schemes used by the RSAF, from the high-vis concentric red and white roundel period, through the winged red/white Yin-Yang period and then into the low-vis black markings used at the end of its service. Details can be gleaned from the Hannants site.

As we have come to expect, the decals are beautifully printed in gloss on a mid-blue backing sheet with zero carrier film to worry about. Colour density is great and register perfect - the squadron badges are works of art. There are no stencils provided as the modeller can get those from any of the available kits and there are plenty out there to use. Each aeroplane is treated to a full page four-view set of colour drawings showing schemes and decal placement.

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These are a very interesting range of schemes and markings and if this is your interest area and your stash allows for the number of choices, then the sheet comes highly recommended. A collection of Skyhawks does not take up much room on the shelf!

Thanks to Air-Graphic Models for the sample.

Text Copyright © 2025 by Graham Carter
Images Copyright © 2025 by Brett Green
This Page Created on 26 February, 2025
Last updated 26 February, 2025

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