Israeli Air Force A4 Skyhawk - Shalom

[Peter Garsden]

Had a go at making the hump out of foam last night. First of all I made 2 templates, and then drew the top profile, cut it with my trusty Japanese reverse cut saw, and then pinned the side templates to block and cut again. I then sanded off the profile with my Permagrit file and it produced a nice shape. I might still go back to balsa - we will see. It is, however much lighter and will be strengthened with cloth and resin.

Then decided to have a little assemble to see how she looks - like an A4 Skyhawk amazingly.

[Phil Cooke]

Great work Pete. A new A-4 is born!! Is the canopy fit ok now the fus is sanded?

[Peter Garsden]

Thanks Phil - yes the canopy now fits OK. I did have to trim it down a bit at the back, and there is a tiny gap at the front, but it is close enough.

Awoke early again, so applied a bit of 25gram fibreglass cloth to the fin and tailplane before assembly. It is important to do this and pin them down to stop them warping - had that problem with P51D Mustang I built. Also serves to straighten things out if not straight, so treat it like tissue and shrink dope. I am using Eze Cote water based resin, which is probably why it can shrink on drying.

One can see that I did not attempt to bed the cloth down in the fluted rudder because it wouldn't have stuck properly. I will just treat that with the resin to act as a sealer.

Incidentally it is important to do one side at a time, then sand off the excess on the edges. It just comes off clean if you do it that way. No point trying to wrap it round because it won't work.

Edited By Peter Garsden on 03/06/2016 08:40:53

[Peter Garsden]

I decided to make the exhaust outlet guard, which is shown above in Phil's picture. It is a piece of quite tightly curled sheeting, which Phil suggests be made out of 1/16" balsa. I had some 1/64" ply which would curl round without the application of ammonia or vinegar, so I decided to use that.

I first of all cut a slot to take the elevator sleeve, and stuck the end and top with cryano with accelerator. The exhaust juts out to the end of the elevators which is quite far and curls round, joining at the side of the fuselage. Stage 2 was to curl round the exhaust and stick down the sides with accelerator again.

[Peter Garsden]

Before I can stick down the top hump, I have to glue the canopy in place, so I attached it with canopy glue - a clear rubbery adhesive, and pins

[Shane Talbot]

Thanks very much Peter your blog it is showing me quite a few things I needed sorted and is most helpful. I was having trouble with the wing joiner triangles too, not able to line them all up but I now think a straight cut with a saw will sort that out.

[Peter Garsden]

Thanks Shane, glad some of this was helpful.

I have now fitted the hump in the middle made of blue foam. I think it should have been balsa really. It would have been easier to carve. Still it is on now with some gorilla glue. There are one or two gaps which I have covered with 25 gram fibreglass cloth. I have also covered the rear exhaust with cloth, again covering joins which is handy.

If you look, you can see a scuff mark on the canopy - not a problem as this part will be painted and covered up. I am going to mask off the clear parts of the canopy to protect them from damage when man handling the model and to protect from unwanted paint spray.

Edited By Peter Garsden on 11/06/2016 08:25:39

[Peter Garsden]

I have noticed that the gap at the front of the canopy is wider than I thought when looking at it side view. I am going to put a sliver of balsa under it, not only to make it look nicer, but also to seal what would otherwise be a wind gap, which might blow the canopy off?

[Peter Garsden]

Well spot the deliberate error here

Spotted it? This is the method I used to shape the fairing for the bottom of the wing to match it with the fuselage. Unfortunately this is the TOP of the wing not the bottom. I glued it to the top after sanding it!.I then had to plane it off and make another one for the bottom which works fine. Obviously one lines up the wing then attaches masking tape all round to protect the balsa whilst planing and sanding to shape.

[Peter Garsden]

Then some masking of the canopy ready for spraying - I used Tamiya masking tape for the first time excellent stuff.

I also added some scale detail using clear plastic supplied with the BAE Hawk kit. It is flexible in the event of a rollover

[Peter Garsden]

Grey primer layer now on.

[Phil Cooke]

Looking great Pete!!

[Steve Houghton]

Nice blog, Pete. I noticed your comment about Engineer's Squares - I really must get some myself. I currently use plastic ones from a geometry set, or a lead-acid battery if space permits!

I always enjoy reading about your work and tips; mistakes and all.

[Peter Garsden]

Thanks for that Steve. I only purchased my engineer's squares recently. I think I found them on Ebay at about £8 for 3 which I thought was a bargain. They certainly help to line things up like formers.

Anyway, undercoat done and duck egg blue underside now sprayed on.

[Peter Garsden]

Put on the first camouflage coat of light sand with a Tamiya spray can - needed two of them because it was going over a grey undercoat. I then used some small pots of green to apply the first colour with the air brush. Never got it to work properly before, but it went on with nice feathered edges. Just the brown now, and we're nearly done.

[Phil Cooke]

Looks great that Pete almost there!! Colours and soft edge camo look spot on. Don't forget to put a nice photo or two of the finished model in our new 'Completed Model' thread!!

[Steve Houghton]

Pete, I admire anyone who can spray so neatly. I tried it once many years ago, not very successfully, with a cheap Badger airbrush and have never ventured to try again. I must add this to my list of challenges for future models, as well as your favourite 'lost foam' techniques ( I have the Paul Janssens plan for theF4-U Corsair waiting in the build queue - maybe I could also spray that, to kill two birds!).

[John H. Rood]

Oh man... just look at that camo already... this mass-build thing is all getting very exciting.

Edited By John_Rood on 05/07/2016 13:13:34

[Peter Garsden]

Steve I sympathise with you in terms of airbrushes, they are expensive usually (the cheap ones aren't worth bin space). Mine I got from Expo Tools which cost £100 including the compressor which is cheap. There is a lot of fiddling around and you have to clean them each time otherwise paint gets stuck and they don't work. Like all things you usually get what you pay for, and a decent airbrush is about £350.

The problem is that they are really made for plastic kits whereas we need wider coverage. So I use the spray cans for large areas and the airbrush for finer work.

The secret to success is getting the paint thin enough so it flows through the tiny hole in the front but not too thin so that it spatters. Tricky. Like I said, last night was the first time it has worked properly for me.

Have always fancied the F4-U Corsair, good looking model. Looking forward to seeing you start it!

Sorry - meant to say that I saw that J Perkins are supplying a multi nozzle airbrush that apparently doesn't need cleaning for £150, and that sounds a good deal. It has all sorts of attachments.

I have also seen on, I think, the Warbirds site, a big hopper spray gun for about £32 which looked good value - http://www.fighteraces.co.uk/product/fmt4020-high-volume-low-pressure-spray-gun/

Edited By Peter Garsden on 05/07/2016 17:37:42

[Peter Garsden]

Well last night there was an awful programme on Channel 4 so I made my excuses and retreated to do more camouflage on the Skyhawk.

I loaded up the airbrush with paint and it would not work which is usual. I think it was because I was using old paint. Anyway in the end if fired up. I think I thinned it a bit too much but the result is reasonable. I think it will need another coat though, which is a pain.

[Andy Meade]

Looking really nice Pete

[Phil Cooke]

Those colours and patterns look great Pete, super job!

[Steve Houghton]

Pete,

No comment about the purpose of the loo roll, but thanks for the suggestions on airbrushes.

Don't land out in the Orme bracken - you may never find it!

[Peter Garsden]

Toilet Roll? Hmm...to use when you make mistakes like not getting it quite to scale....

Have done the red bits using that marvellous Tamiya masking tape. Also the black jet intakes with black paint using cardboard templates then touching up with a fine brush afterwards.

[Peter Garsden]

Have put in the aileron servo with those very nice Irvine Engine carbon control rods. Unlike Phil I am doing one servo. I put 2 in the Hawk, and JP but just don't need them, so I have saved myself the bother and expense.