Background:
Under
the Perista scheme, the Malaysian government purchased a mixture of 88 A-4C and
A-4Ls from the Untied States. These aircraft were refurbished by Grumman
Aerospace in the U.S and redesignated the A-4 PTM or Peculiar to Malaysia. A total of 40 odd aircraft made its way from the states to
Malaysia
in the eighties to fly with 6 and 9 squadrons of the RMAF. The main role was
ground attack and support flight. They replaced the CL-41G Tutors and flew with
the RMAF for a good 10 years. In
the nineties after a lot of bad press on the aircraft and spare problems, most
of the PTM’s were decommissioned where some of them were converted to Tanker
configuration. By the late nineties all PTM’s were withdrew from service and
replaced by the Hawk 108 and 208s. Today they stand as gate guards in certain
airbases as well as some other places.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The
Kit:
The
kit is based on the Hasegawa offering of the A-4C, It is a gem of a kit with
perfect recessed lines, good profile and etc. The cockpit is a bit sparse, so I
managed to get a verlinden seat to replace the original – Thanks to my mate
Aidy. Nose weight was needed on this model as well, but not a problem as the
entire nose cone was filled up with melted solder.
Making
the PTM:
The
A-4C kit by hasegawa is a good base for a PTM. It has most of the bits needed to
make a PTM. The drag cute, the avionics hump and the spine antenna as well as
the antenna on the nose wheel bay cover are all included in the kit. The kit was
finished using the delivery scheme colours of a variation to the S.E camo
scheme. I used gunze and model master acrylics on this build. Dark green(Gunze),
Olive Drab (Model Master) Dark Tan (Gunze) and Flat White (Gunze) for the
underside. Decals were from the VFA Malaysian scooters sheet. Aircraft was
weathered with pen ink and watered down. Camo was applied following free hand
and a mixture of paper masks in certain areas. Paint chipping was achieved with
sliver pen.
I
have always liked the scooters as I have seen them close up and when flying.
It looks very agile and graceful while it flies. I have another Hasegawa A-4L
to take on the operational scheme which will be in the works soon. I hope you
enjoyed my article and my scooter. Thanks again to Aidy and Thomas for helping
me out with this build with some reference and for the Verliden seat.
HAPPY
MERDEKA !!
Brian
Param a.k.a Mr B
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