Released in 1987,
the 1/32 scale Hasegawa OA-4M is a limited edition "Hi-Grade" kit.
I spotted one on Ebay and thought it might be a fun kit to try out, so I
bid an obscene amount of money and was fortunate enough to win it. Being
an older kit, it has a few shortcomings, but with a little work, the final
results are quite pleasing.
The kit is
basically a reissue of Hasegawa's TA-4J kit, and includes new sprues to
convert it to the OA-4M version. In addition, there are some very nice
photo etched parts, as well as some white metal pieces for the landing gear,
various lumps and bumps on the fuselage, and the gun barrels. Rubber tires
are also included.
Since most of
the model uses the old TA-4J sprues, it has raised panel lines over 90% of
the kit. I therefore decided to rescribe everything. This was my
first attempt at this, and it was the most time consuming part of the build.
However, I'm pleased with the results, as it makes using a black wash so much
more effective.
The cockpit,
although upgraded by the photo etched pieces, still needs a little bit more
"help", but for obvious reasons, there were not a lot of
aftermarket products for this kit. I ended up using Cutting Edge Escapac
seats without seat belts, and added belts made from lead strips and buckles
supplied from the photo etched pieces. I didn't have many reference photos
for the cockpit, so I used a little poetic license and added a few items here
and there to jazz it up a bit.
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The fit
of the pieces is very good, and production progressed at a reasonable clip.
The plane was painted in the appropriate three tone grey camouflage using
Model Masters Enamels. After drying, Future was applied as the gloss coat.
The supplied decals are very thick and had yellowed with age, and they were
printed in various shades of grey that are not accurate at all. In order
to correct this, I photo copied the kit decals onto a sheet of pressure
sensitive label stock. Using a sharp knife, I then created painting masks
for the
U.S.
insignias as well as the tail letters and numbers by carefully cutting out
their images from the photo copied sheet. Before final painting, I
sprayed the correct color of grey on the appropriate areas. After drying,
I applied the painting masks and over sprayed the final paint. When the
masks are removed, their shapes remain in the correct shade of grey. It
seemed to work very well. The "Marines" decal on the tail is
from a Two Bob's F/A-18 decal sheet. It was a little too light, so I over
sprayed it with a thin coat of Dark Ghost Grey to blend it in better. I
did the same with the remaining kit decals in order to get them to match as
closely as possible.
The kit only
provides 2 wing drop tanks for under wing stores, which I found quite boring.
The OA-4M did not carry a multitude of under wing stores, so I didn't have a lot
of options to choose from. The kit did not supply a centerline pylon, so I
“borrowed” one from an old A-4E I built years ago.
For the centerline tank, I modified one of the wing tanks by cutting off
the tail section and grafting on the round, finless end I stole from my
Trumpeter F-105G internal tank. The MER's are from the F-105G as well, and
they were modified by adding sheet plastic to "bulk" them out a bit as
they were very thin. One set of the anti sway braces are from
the kit, and the other set is from my old A-4E.
As a final touch, I
added scratch built FOD covers and RBF tags from my color printer.
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It took a little
more work and a lot more imagination than I had anticipated, but it ended up
being a very enjoyable build.
John
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