Hasegawa 1/48 IDF A-4E/H Skyhawk

"Bill Woodier" schreef in bericht news:aWA1e.24493$191.8791@trnddc02...

According to pics in the Isradecal book: short exhaust 1968-1972T he longer one is intruduced after the yum kipoer war.So.... build it OOB. Reg Han

The very earliest A-4H's were externally similar to the A-4F, although they lacked the fuselage hump. About the only visible differences were the squared off tail tip and the drag chute container under tail. The early A-4s also had the 20mm cannon like the US birds. In short, the Hasegawa kit is correct for an early A-4H, and in fact is correct for the markings in the kit.

Only later on did they get things like the 30mm cannons, humps, uprated engines and bulged air intakes, and extended tailpipe, but it wasn't that long before they started getting the first mod, which was the cannon, so there is only a narrow time window for when the kit configuration is accurate. The IDF got their first A-4H in December 1967 and by the time of the 1973 war most, if not all A-4Hs had been fitted with the 30mm guns (the first aircraft with 30mm guns flew in 1970). In 1972, the IDF began an upgrade program to bring their A-4Hs up to almost A-4N standards by adding nav/attack avionics and the fuselage hump, and the uprated engines and bigger intakes. The 1973 War interrupted the process and a mixture of fully upgraded, partially upgraded (with either the hump of engine), and non upgraded aircraft were used in the conflict. The extended tailpipe was a post-1973 War modification for all IDF A-4s. If you want to do a 1973 War bird, I think you at least need the 30mm cannon.

As a note, the plastic in the A-4H and A-4E/F kits is exactly the same.

HTH

Dave

Thanks to those who responded to my question with info and comment.