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Hasegawa Blue Angels 1/48 A-4 Kit


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Does the Hasegawa Blue Angels 1/48th A-4 kit include the portable boarding ladder "bullet" fairing

located on the port leading edge ? Any other Blue Angel external differences ? What differences doe the

ProModeler Blue Angel A-4 kit include if any..

 

Which kit id recommended ?

 

Thanks gang

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The Hasegawa Blue Angels A-4 includes a white metal ladder housing for the wing root, and includes the A-4M intakes that were used on the Super Fox A-4Fs that the Blue Angels flew.

 

THe Promodeler kit is a standard Hasegawa A-4E/F kit that does not include the ladder housing or larger intakes.  If you can find it, get the Hasegawa, but it was a special edition so I don't know how available it is.

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I have a couple of the Promodeler releases of the A-4 in Blue Angels markings and as mentioned no tube for the boarding ladder included. In fact Monogram tells you to fill in the location of the wing root guns with provided pieces.

 

It also looks like Hasegawa did not include the parachute housing located below the tail pipe. I was impressed that in the instructions Monogram does say to cut off the tabs for the leading edge slats since the Blue Angels have these locked in place. Speaking of the slats I also think you have to remove the small fences on them as I don't see them on the pictures of the real thing.

 

I have a Victory Productions decal sheet so not worried about the included decal. I built my Blue Angels A-4 many years ago using the monogram kit and believe it or not an ESCI decal sheet. Looks ok but skills have improved since then. I still have it in my display case as an example of my ability at the start of my "serious" model life.

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21 hours ago, Darren Roberts said:

Steel Beach makes an update set for the standard Hasegawa kit. It contains all the major modifications. There are a few small ones that can also be done, such as the padding on the inside of the canopy and the smoke pipe installed in the sugar scoop. 

 

Hey Darren thanks for the info. Was not aware of that. I will have to go to SB and see if it is still available.

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3 hours ago, skyhawk174 said:

I have a couple of the Promodeler releases of the A-4 in Blue Angels markings and as mentioned no tube for the boarding ladder included. In fact Monogram tells you to fill in the location of the wing root guns with provided pieces.

 

It also looks like Hasegawa did not include the parachute housing located below the tail pipe. I was impressed that in the instructions Monogram does say to cut off the tabs for the leading edge slats since the Blue Angels have these locked in place. Speaking of the slats I also think you have to remove the small fences on them as I don't see them on the pictures of the real thing.

 

I have a Victory Productions decal sheet so not worried about the included decal. I built my Blue Angels A-4 many years ago using the monogram kit and believe it or not an ESCI decal sheet. Looks ok but skills have improved since then. I still have it in my display case as an example of my ability at the start of my "serious" model life.

Pretty sure the parabrake housing is included.  There are 2 different ones, one for the US Blue Angel and A-4M jets, and another for the Israeli versions.  They're done as separate housings and endcaps, but they are there,  For the BA jet, use the housing that is more square on the front and use the flat endcap rather than the bullet-shaped one.

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1 minute ago, Joe Hegedus said:

Pretty sure the parabrake housing is included.  There are 2 different ones, one for the US Blue Angel and A-4M jets, and another for the Israeli versions.  They're done as separate housings and endcaps, but they are there,  For the BA jet, use the housing that is more square on the front and use the flat endcap rather than the bullet-shaped one.

 

Hey thanks Joe I will have to go take a look. I was talking about the Pormodeler boxing though. I looked over the sprues and instructions and did not see it mentioned or indicated on the instructions. Maybe Monogram used the wrong version for their boxing?

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Here's my BA A-4 I did for an upcoming FSM article. The article will detail all the changes to make a BA Skyhawk. Yes, the parabrake housing is included in the basic Hasegawa kit.

4807006_orig.jpg

Edited by Darren Roberts
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17 hours ago, Joe Hegedus said:

Darren is correct.  The Promodeler boxing is a standard Hasegawa A-4E/F kit, which includes the Parabrake housings.  Promodeler neglected to mention them, though.

 

Joe yup you are correct. I went back and had a closer look at the pieces. The housing in on sprue D and the end cap is on sprue E. Actually, from the pictures I have and on line, it looks like you need to use the flatter door for the the BA jets. Hasegawa has 3 types of ends.

 

The more we talk about this I almost started my kit to do it in BA colours. Maybe that is a good thing.

 

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Okay, you guys have had me thinking about Blue Angels A-4s all week. What decal options are available in 1/48? I know Victory had some, but they're way out of my price range on eBay. Are CAM's the only game in town, now, and are they pretty good? I thought their T-Birds F-100s were well done, but I haven't applied them to a model.

 

Darren, do you know what issue of FSM your article will be in?

 

Thanks,

Ben

 

 

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4 hours ago, Ben Brown said:

Okay, you guys have had me thinking about Blue Angels A-4s all week. What decal options are available in 1/48? I know Victory had some, but they're way out of my price range on eBay. Are CAM's the only game in town, now, and are they pretty good? I thought their T-Birds F-100s were well done, but I haven't applied them to a model.

 

Darren, do you know what issue of FSM your article will be in?

 

Thanks,

Ben

 

 

Unfortunately, the only game in town that I could find was the CAM sheet, and they're brittle. I had quite the time getting them to conform around compound curves without cracking and breaking up. They look really good on the sheet, but they don't perform all that great when applied. They are usable if you're careful, though. If you can find the old Victory sheet, that's really the way to go. The BA article was originally slated for the July issue, but we replaced it with the Bicentennial VX-4 F-4J Phantom. They haven't told me when the BA article will run, but I would imagine it will be towards the end of the year.

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On 3/8/2017 at 10:42 PM, Darren Roberts said:

Unfortunately, the only game in town that I could find was the CAM sheet, and they're brittle. I had quite the time getting them to conform around compound curves without cracking and breaking up. They look really good on the sheet, but they don't perform all that great when applied. They are usable if you're careful, though. If you can find the old Victory sheet, that's really the way to go. The BA article was originally slated for the July issue, but we replaced it with the Bicentennial VX-4 F-4J Phantom. They haven't told me when the BA article will run, but I would imagine it will be towards the end of the year.

 

Good to know. There's a set of the Victory decals for sale on eBay, but I don't want a BA A-4 bad enough to drop 40 bucks on a set of decals. I'll risk the CAM set.

 

Thanks!

 

Ben

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20 hours ago, Darren Roberts said:

I haven't heard about that. I sure hope not, because I didn't include it in the article! :-)


I have just checked a load of BA A-4 pictures (including a larger version of the formation picture in this thread). The two small wing fences on the leading edge slats were removed. I am not sure whether a few of the vortex generators were removed too, but they certainly had most of them.

 

Sorry for the confusion.

 

Jens

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1 hour ago, JEN722 said:


I have just checked a load of BA A-4 pictures (including a larger version of the formation picture in this thread). The two small wing fences on the leading edge slats were removed. I am not sure whether a few of the vortex generators were removed too, but they certainly had most of them.

 

Sorry for the confusion.

 

Jens

Got it! You're referring to the barricade deflector fences. You are correct, those were removed from the leading edge of the slats (but not the third one between the slat and fuselage). I did remove those. I believe the vortex generators were the same.

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5 hours ago, Janissary said:

I have the BA decals from the Revell boxing of the Hasegawa A-4E/F:

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/297080-148-hasegawa-a-4f-va-93/&do=findComment&comment=2847579

 

Not sure how the decal quality is but the decal sheet is intact and it looks to be in very good shape.

 

Thanks for the offer, but Sprue Bros has the CAM decals in stock, and I have a give certificate, so I may risk it. :pray:

 

Cheers!

 

Ben

 

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2 hours ago, Ben Brown said:

 

Thanks for the offer, but Sprue Bros has the CAM decals in stock, and I have a give certificate, so I may risk it. :pray:

 

Cheers!

 

Ben

 

Try hitting it with Microscale Decal film. That may prevent some of the cracking. Of course could I think of that when I was putting them on? 

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I was thinking I might try that. :thumbsup:

 

BTW, surfing around YouTube and found a video with a short walk-around of the A-4, including a great closeup of the boarding ladder and cockpit: LINK   It has T-Birds T-38s, too!

 

Ben

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