SPA Modeler

My next Child of Doom…

This is an old ESCI A-4E that I started sometime prior to 2004 and had gotten to the painting stage when I was mobilized and deployed. During my time away, the build was damaged to where it could not be completed upon my return. The front landing gear strut had snapped and the nose gear fork broken, the left side main gear strut had broken off, the slat extension struts had broken off and a couple of those disappeared, the refueling probe had broken off and connecting tip disappeared, and half of the tailhook had broken off and been lost…



In the years since then, I had acquired new tools, skills, and learned how to repair such damages…

Today I fixed up the nose gear fork, but ended up doing extra work with the strut using brass and aluminum rod & tubing



I also scratch built a new tailhook, and made up the refueling probe using a blend of old parts and some from my spares bin



So now, it’s almost to the point that it was before it was damaged…



More to come over the next week or two….

Would be fun to pose the nosewheel at a funny angle, I think it was free swiveling.

Some A-4s had a free swivel nose wheel and some had a steerable nose wheel. The steering linkage broke off on mine… but that is easily replaced.

Very nice repair work Stik!

Thanks Mike. The hook portion of the tailhook was the challenging one… had to file that from a length of square Evergreen using needle files.

The model doctor!

I will finish this build!

Nice to see a un-repairable getting repaired

A great recovery Carlos!

I have a Matchbox FJ-4 that has the same crumbled landing gear. Someday. The rest of it isn't too bad.