A-4C Falklands/Malvinas War

The Hasegawa kit looks awesome from the outside down to each little detail of it. I fell in love with the version offered on the cover box. It is the A-4 belonging to the IV Brigada Aérea of Argentina’s Air Force during the Falklands / Malvinas War, 1982. I thought I had an easy one at hand, nice camo, nice assembly, nice scale until… through a short look into the internet it became clear that references, colors, photographs, locations, etc., were highly controversial, discussed, verified… & with political heat on it!

After hours looking & comparing information – really, many hours - at the end, I found a great deal of differently colored prints / pictures & references regarding the right camouflage. And I mean different colored prints of the same picture! It seems that the airplanes were subject to a series of changes, even during the war period & some printing misinterpretations on colors. I did exchange a couple of e-mails with Argentinean colleagues who basically suggested to work on tone bases rather than FS codes & other “technical” references. At the end, fun is what counts, right?

Click on images below to see larger images

The kit assembly goes nice & easy. Details are great. The only thing missing, were the bombs. I could not find a suitable set on my spare parts box. I decided to weather the model heavily as per “war effects”. I basically used olive green with a shade of brown (I mixed several times until satisfied). The light colors are basically white. Underneath color, is also white with a very light shade of grey. At the end, my bet was that a combination of darker shades underneath plus weathering will throw the expected results if compared with available pictures. Also, with the blue bands on the wings which apparently were corrected several times on the real airplane in the frame of time that the war lasted. Unfortunately, I could not find a clear reference for the underneath surface of them, so, I guessed. Also, a little guessing work went on fuel tanks colors.

At the end, was great fun to work on this model. It also arose a special interest on this period of history. At some point, I did build a Harrier Gr.3 based on this process (submitted here at ARC too). In fact, information was so conflicting, that the Harrier came before the A-4 (& several others…). 

Well, great model, indeed. Much fun! Well, pictures are not that good, clearly not my specialty. The plane is awesome, a great line greatly enhanced by the camouflage pattern. Also a great opportunity to dedicate this to all my Argentinean buddies that know me for “building toy airplanes”. Also, to my wife, who bought me this one “to please once more on of her kiddos”. 

Federico Kunz

Click on images below to see larger images