The Big Banshee, A Demon or Two, The Neglected Orion, An Interesting E-3, and a Plastic Butcher Bird

That Big Banjo

When last we met, we were discussing that almost-famous workhorse of 1950s American naval aviation, the McDonnell F2H Banshee. The type was a mainstay of the early 50s Navy and saw action in Korea, but its most capable variants were destined to serve only in peacetime, holding the fort until the advent of more capable platforms. It's a really spiffy airplane, and well worth another look.

Much like the F2H-1 and -2, there are no decent kits of the larger -3 and -4 variants. That's a shame, too, because the type had all the color you'd expect of the Navy during that era, even if its performance was somewhat lacking. What follows are several prime examples of why we really ought to have a kit of one of these seminal McDonnell fighters.

Beauty. This ATG-1 F2H shows the Banshee in its final livery of Light Gull Grey over White. The "Banjo's" flight refuelling probe was often decorated with a barber pole treatment as seen here, in this instance adding the only color other than the arrows on the wing tanks. The photo was taken in August of 1956; the changeover to the new scheme was mandated in February of 1955, with all carrier birds delivered after July 1st of 1956 to be in compliance. Existing glossy sea blue airframes were to be re-painted within one year of the original spec change. The Glossy Sea Blue Navy was going away, never to return.  Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

This is more like it! 127686 is an F2H-4 from VF-11's Red Rippers, June, 1954, while assigned to Air Group 10. The Navy flirted briefly with natural metal finish for its carrier fighters. That proved to be a Bad Idea all around, but sometimes you have to learn the hard way. This "Big Banjo" shows the transitional silver scheme to good effect.  Fahey via Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

The Reserves made extensive use of the "Big Banjo". This four-ship of -3s is in the grey/white scheme and has little to offer in the way of color other than the orange Reserves fuselage band. Nobody would ever descibe the F2H series as being long-ranged and the lack of tip tanks guarantees these guys won't be going very far. Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

It pretty much goes without saying that the Marines had their own F2Hs. BuNo 127614 is from VMF-214, once again in the grey and white scheme and, once again, without a whole lot of color. There's a band of small stars around the nose of the wing tank (which appears to be painted gold but could easily have been painted silver as well) but that's about it for flamboyant markings on this bird.  Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

Canada once had an air component to her Navy and operated F2H-3s for a brief period of time. I think the "Big Banjo" looks pretty goofy without wing tanks, but maybe that's just me. When all is said and done, all I want is a decent 1/48th scale kit of any F2H variant. But I''m not going to hold my breath...  Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

That Airplane in the Middle

There was another McDonnell fighter that came between the F2H and the F4H Phantom. The F3H Demon was another one of those successful failures that were so common during the halcyon days of the 1950s. Military aviation was progressing by leaps and bounds, lept sometimes it leapt and bounded just a bit too far. The Demon wound up being an ok fighter, but never a great one, its primary contribution being the design elements it leant to it's younger brother, the F4H Phantom. Today isn't the day for an extensive look at the type, but it's a nice opportunity to run a couple of photos.

The F3H first flew in Glossy Sea Blue, but all of the production aircraft were delivered in the later Light Gull Grey over White scheme. This pair of Demons are sitting on the ramp in St Louis and show how a little paint can make an airplane look completely different. This shot was taken in October of 1955. Those test booms went away when the airplane reached production. Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

This is a little more like it. This VF-14 F2H-2 preps for launch in September, 1956. "Fighting Fourteen" was the first squadron to equip with the Demon, and got to learn first-hand that the type wasn't quite ready for prime time. Greater Saint Louis Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

The shape of things to come. An F2H-3 towed to the cat while a well-worn F4H-1 is prepared for launch. The intakes and horizontal stabs on the F4H belie the Demon's parentage---the F3H wasn't much of an airplane but it gave birth to one of the world's classic fighters. McDonnell's gone now, and so is its offspring McDonnell-Douglas, but the aircraft The Little Company That Could sired became legend. Greater St Louis Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

Something You Don't See Every Day

Time was when military aviators were concerned about enemy aircraft and highly sophisticated ground defenses. The times began to change during the latter days of the Vietnam War when shoulder-launched SAMs first came into common use. The earlier weapons of that sort almost invariably used infra-red sensors for target acquisition, thus leading to the developement of flare dispensers so that potential targets could have at least a modicum of protection. Here's an example of the sort of countermeasures that were developed.

Maddog John Kerr sent this photo to me about twenty years ago and I never could figure out what to do with it. Today I did. 152758 was a P-3B used briefly for testing defensive systems by the NATC; here she's seen dumping a load of flares for the camera. It's a neat photo and the markings are pretty spiffy too; just the thing for backdating that Hasegawa P-3C that's been sitting in your closet all this time. 758 was eventually transferred to Australia.  John Kerr Collection

The Navy's patrol community were no strangers to offensive warfare, having chased the Japanese navy with bomb and torpedo-armed PBYs during the Second World War. The P-3 has long had the ability to sink surface ships as well as submarines, although that fact is not well appreciated, it seems. This shot was taken on 18 November, 1969, and shows an Orion of VP-10 armed with an AGM-12 Bullpup. Bullpup's guidance parameters were limited and would have made ship-killing with the P-3 a dicey proposition at best, but it was better than nothing. US Navy 1147444

Here's an AGM-12 on the wing of a P-3C from VP 36 out of Sigonella, date unknown. This view provides a really good look at the tracking flares in the aft end of the missile; Bullpup was command guided, and the pilot of the aircraft aimed it by watching the flares and guiding the missile via a tiny joy stick mounted in the cockpit. Guidance parameters were limited and the launch aircraft pretty much had to fly in a straight line and follow the missile until it impacted its target. Operational use of the weapon in Vietnam proved it wasn't particularly useful, but it stayed in the inventory for a number of years.  US Navy K-116380

Evolution of Some Classy Nose Art

For those of you who might not know, friend and frequent contributor Rick Morgan was with VAQ-141 during Desert Storm and killed a couple of SAM sites with well-directed AGM-88 HARM shots. He also took a photograph or too, including these immediate post-war photos of VAW-124's E-2C 161552. They're of particular interest because of the evolution depicted in the nose art, from "Classic" to "Miss B. Havin". The word "classic" is appropriate indeed. Thanks to Rick for these photos.

Here's the way it started. The name is "Classic", and the nose art isn't too shabby, but there's change in the wind...   Rick Morgan

"Classic" morphs into "Miss B. Havin". Note the addition of the squadron commander's name under the cockpit window. The nose art was on the left side only.  Rick Morgan

Special Note from the Replica Staff---this photograph has been deleted. Ed.

And a closeup of the nose art. This artwork is as good as any we've seen on an airplane, of any era. That painter was good!  Rick Morgan

It's Not As Bad As They Say It Is

It, of course, being the 1/48th scale Tamiya Fw190A-3. The kit was, if the truth be known, an absolute revelation when it first came out, being pretty darned accurate and, wonder of wonders (at least in the  World of Quarter-Scale Wulfs), easy to build. It was, not to put too fine a point on it, the Focke Wulf Gold Standard for a number of years.

Time has passed, more than just a little of it, and times have changed. It's not that the kit has all that many competitors, because it doesn't; the museum-quality Eduard kits don't include any of the short-nosed "Butcher Birds" as of this writing, and the Hasegawa kit isn't enough of an improvement to make it a quantum leap of any sort. The Tamiya Fw190 has aged gracefully, it seems.

Still, the internet is full of complaints about how bad the kit is. Those complaints seem to fall into two camps; the interior is too simple (true, sort-of), and the landing gear is gooned up. That's true too, but the condemnation falls into the "sort-of" category too. Let's take just a minute and talk about it.

That oft-criticised interior consists of a well-detailed bucket, a pretty nice instrument panel, and a seat, along with a couple of detail components. It can look pretty good if it's carefully painted, but it's definitely not up to contemporary standard, which leaves room for (dare we say it): Aftermarket. There are probably other detail sets out there but I'm a big fan of Eduard, and they offer two sets that will work for the Tamiya A-3; a complete set that replaces the interior and adds additional detail to other areas of the airframe, and a Zoom set, which is mostly for the interior. I've gotten to be really cheap of late and prefer to use the Zoom offering, although I've worked with both and would recommend either. That takes care of the interior.

As for those horrible landing gear, they really aren't too bad. The wheels are definitely too small in diameter; everybody says so and for once everybody's right, and it's really easy to get the angle of the main mounts skewed if you don't pay a lot of attention to what you're doing when you install the gear. Replacement wheels are available through the aftermarket and a little bit of Modeling 101 will fix the landing gear problem unless you plan on entering your model in a national-level contest, in which case you probably aren't reading this missive anyway. That pretty much addresses the Major Issues, such as they are.

But we digress. (I do that a lot, in case you haven't noticed.) Let's take a look at the model.

Here's your basic Fw190A-3, this one marked for an aircraft from the 9th Staffel of JG-1 when based at Hasum, Denmark, in March of 1943. The decals came from Third Group sheet 48-026 and seem to be pretty accurate, although I may not be the best judge of that. The interior of this model has been enhanced with photoetch from the appropriate Eduard Zoom set, and brake lines are made from extremely fine brass wire. An antenna was also added, made from stretched sprue. Otherwise the kit is bone stock, right down to those "horrible" wheels.

A different view of the same side. Paint is Testor ModelMaster, which is pretty much reviled by some folks. I wasn't there when this airplane was flying for real, and the folks who don't like the Testor colors weren't around either, so I'm guessing the colors are about as close to right as anything else. Then again, I could be wrong. Point is, the paint looks pretty good and the tonal values are where they should be if you convert a color shot of your model to black and white. Of course, that whole color thing can get the best of friends rolling around on the floor, kicking and screaming---I would suggest you do your best to figure out the paint thing (there are a lot of really good references on the topic available these days) and don't beat yourself up too badly if somebody you don't even know decides to criticize what you did. This is a hobby, remember?

Here's what the other side looks like. I'm a big fan of the Tamiya Fw series for one simple reason; they're all quick and easy to build, with no surprises and, for the most part, no significant accuracy issues. This model looks ok, I think, but it does suffer from skewed landing gear, which I noticed after everything had set up hard as a rock. (I use Tenax, so when it's set it's set!) I didn't fix it, either. Such is life...

One final note. The Tamiya kit does have a couple of minor issues with panel lines. The Third Group instruction sheet for these decals addresses that and provides line drawings of what needs to be changed. That constitutes a Class Act in my world and I thought you should know about it.

The Relief Tube

Of which we don't have very much this time around. Tommy Thomason wrote to ask that I remind you all that the McDonnell F2H-1 Banshee was actually longer than the prototype F2H-2. That in turn reminds me to remind you all to check out Tommy's excellent blog site at   http://tommythomason.com/  or his companion site at tailspintopics.blogspot.com. Tommy does excellent work and his site is a must-read if you're interested in American naval aviation. Trust me on this one. (And read this week's Relief Tube, please!)

Additions to This Installment's Relief Tube

One of the things I really enjoy about this project is the feedback I get from our audience. Only a few hours had passed between the time I posted this installment of the blog and I'd already heard from both Rick Morgan and Tommy Thomason offering comments and corrections. I figured you'd be interested so here, a whole week early, are those comments. First, from Rick:

Phil: F2Hs are such a fascinating subject- the ATG-1 shot is from VF-52 on Lexington about 1956. They had a typical Group (if you can ever call and ATG ‘Typical’, because they were not) for that period, a day fighter unit (VF-111 F9F-8), night fighters (VF-52), jet attack (VA-151 F7U-3), and prop attack (VA-196 AD-6) as well as the cats and dog dets: VAW-11 AD-5W, VFP-61 F2H-2P, VAAW-35 AD-5N and VAH-6 AJ-2s. I suspect the F7Us and AJs spent a lot of time on the beach during cruise though.

Aviators I’ve talked to from that period thought the F2H was a great airplane to fly; steady, long-ranged (longer than the F9F at least) and a good boat plane. RADM (and F6F ace) “Whitey” Feightner, who was CO of VF-11 with F2H-4s was a big proponent of the type although it was still a whole generation behind its shore-based contemporaries, like the MiG-17 night fighter.

As for the Demon, it probably ended up as the best of a bad lot of aircraft, certainly better than the F4D or F2H-3/4 as a carrier-based night fighter but still a generation behind land-based aircraft. As you state it DID lead to the world-beating F4H; I’ve always maintained that the F-4 is the result of a mating between the F3H and F-101.

The VAW-124 nose art story was a good one. They tried the first version, “Classic” and pretty quickly decided it wasn’t that good, so they painted it out and found a squadron member that knew how to handle an airbrush, which is how “Miss B Havin” came about. They ended up winning the CVW-8 nose art contest after the war with it and somehow managed to hide it through fly-off to Norfolk after every other squadron followed CAG instructions to remove the art prior to the first port call (Haifa) in late May. (OBTW: I was with VAQ-141, not 140 during DS) (Now corrected. pf)

Rick

Rick also sent along a couple of photos that we'll look at next time.

Tommy had a comment as well, which corrects a major clanger I dropped in the second Banshee piece:

"Tommy Thomason wrote to ask that I remind you all that the McDonnell F2H-1 Banshee was actually longer than the subsequent F2H-2."

 NOOOO - See original email below. The F2H-1 was longer than the XF2H, not longer than the F2H-2. The -1 and -2 were the same length. (Now corrected. pf) Attached is the old Tailhook Topics article on converting the -2 to the -3/4. This is now OBE in 1/72. In 1/48, you need to add a bit more stretch to the Hawk Banshee, which is an XF2H in length (see above). F2H-2to-4.jpg (132KB)

Best regards,
T

Thanks for keeping me honest, guys!

And now back to our regularly-scheduled program:

Whoever sent me that spiffy T-Bird from a couple of issues ago still hasn't come forward to claim credit for the photography and I really wish he'd do that. If he, or you (I'm not any too sure how to phrase that) is out there, please get in touch with me so I can credit the photos properly. Please?

In the same vein, I'm always looking for original photography for this site. By now you've probably figured out where the emphasis lies around here, so feel free to get in touch with me at replicainscale@yahoo.com if you have anything you'd like to contribute. It's the right thing to do.

And that's what I know, so be good to your neighbor and we'll meet again soon.
phil

A Little Late But Better Than Never

A Photo By Request

A couple of days ago we ran a photo of an A-4C tanking off an A-26. I'm still looking for details of the test program in hopes that we can do a small feature some day, but in the meantime I've been asked if there are any other photos of that A-26 tanking incongruous aircraft. By the oddest of coincidences (and thanks once again to the kindness of John Kerr) there is one other shot that might be of interest. It's another NATC bird, this time an A3J-1, getting ready to engage the basket. Jim Bates, who posed the question regarding additional photography, tells us that the A-26 was possibly owned by Beech, and that the pod on the Invader  ended up as a production item, most notably being used on the CC-137s of the Canadian Armed Forces. Thanks, Jim, for your input on this one!

Can We Have a Day Without a Scooter?

But of course! Today's not the day, though, just in case you were wondering. There's been precious little progress on the Hasegawa effort presently underway over here, but I've managed to dig up another couple of photos that might be of interest to anybody building (or contemplating building) the model.

Our first shot is another one taken by Frank Garcia when he was assigned to the FDR back in 1961. It's a VA-12 (Flying Ubangis; they have another, extraordinarily rude, nickname, but in the interest of maintaining a site that anybody can visit we aren't going to mention it here) A-4C and the photograph is notable because it illustrates the use of a TER rack on the centerline. Note the date; this is not a wartime bird. FDR was in the Med at the time the photo was taken.

Next up is a shot of an A-4C sporting a load of Mk76 practice bombs. The aircraft is an A-4C of VMA-225, and the photo was taken at Roosevelt Roads in 1963. Of interest is the Corrogard on the leading edges of the deployed slats and the wing station, and the "No Push" lettering on the slat. Note the general level of filth on the wheel. This is an operational aircraft! USMC via Wogstad

Finally, here's a shot of an AGM-12 Bullpup undergoing trials with the NATC.The aircraft is an A-4B (BuNo142837) and the photo shows to advantage the way the missile mounted to the wing station. This bird is somewhat cleaner than the VMA-225 specimen in the photo above! USN via Wogstad.

It's worth noting, and the Bullpup photo shown above is a fine example of it, that the AGM-12 family was based on bombs of the Aero-1A shape developed by Ed Heinemann for the F3D. The family encompassed bombs but the shape also extended to drop tanks and, consequently, the Navy's "Buddy Store" refueling pod. The photo shows this to considerable advantage; the guidance package on the nose is clearly defined, as is the mounting of the fin section aft. The Mk82 bomb shape is extremely evident in the mid-section of the weapon.

A Rough Day at School

I'll admit it; I'm one of those folks who think you can never have too many Zeros on the shelf! (My friend Frank tells me it's bordering on being an obsession. He usually tells me that just before he shows me another 58th FG P-47D that he's finished---I think he's up to Number 15 or 16 now...) In my world the A6M series pretty much has it all: a unique design in many respects, a world-beater when it first entered service, and a sad relic of better days by the end of the war. The aircraft was dangerous in the right hands, but by August of 1945 the danger was primarily to the largely unskilled pilots tasked with flying the aircraft in combat, although some of the Imperial Navy's "old hands" were still around to ruin your day if you got too cocky.

This isn't about the fighters though, but rather about one of the lesser-known variants of the Zeke; the A6M2-K two-seat trainer. The aircraft first showed up as a 1/48th-scale model a couple of years ago when Hasegawa released their extremely limited Zero set, which was comprised of one kit each of every significant A6M variant ever built, including two prototypes and, wonder of wonders; the A6M2-K! Not many people built the kits in that set, prefering instead to set it back as either a Treasured Possession (a Good Thing in my book) or an investment to be sold for an outrageous profit at some yet-to-be-determined time. (Not a Good Thing in my book, but then I've never really understood the collecting mentality either...) You couldn't get the thing by itself, making it a rarity of the highest order.

Then Hasegawa began to release the Zero kits in that set as individual boxings, one at a time and in random order. There was no doubt they'd release the two-seater in that fashion too, since it was part of The Set. It was all a matter of when, not if.

And they did indeed release it. My Favorite Local Hobby Shop in Austin didn't have it on their radar so they only ordered a couple, and they were gone before I even knew they'd arrived. Bummer! Frenzied telephone calls to other area shops revealed that yep; they'd had the kit, but they'd only gotten one or two and they were sold the day they came in. Double Bummer! Well, there was still the internet, but it was a dead-end too. Every single on-line shop that said they had the kit didn't have it anymore, because they'd all sold out almost immediately. Bummer yet again!

So there I was, Triple-Bummed, and visiting my friend Frank. "Hey Phil; look what I found over at (un-named national-chain mega-hobby-shop); a two-seat Zero!" My immediate verbal response was one of kind enthusiasm for his good fortune, but deep down inside I was bummed yet again! Still, I wasn't ready to break up that set to get the kit. It would come when it was time and not before.

Fast-forward to last Christmas. Frank and I are friends, which I suspect I've mentioned a time or two before, and our families always exchange gifts. Frank had one of those "you're really going to like this one" grins on his face when he gave me my present and, without doubt, it was special, because he'd given me his A6M2-K kit! Remember a few entries back when I said that we needed friends in the hobby, and that Frank was one of mine? There's a lesson there, ya'll. Good things happen. It's karma.

Anyway, on to the kit. I've read a couple of reviews of it that suggest that there could possibly be some issues with the fuselage shape and certain details thereof. There may well be, but if they are they're not corrected on my model, nor will they be! The model you see before you was built box-stock except for the usual addition of Eduard Zoom belts and, in this case, a mish-mash of decals to allow the construction of an A6M2-K from the Genzan NAG, who were a training establishment based in Korea and operating a mixed bag of single and two-seat Zeros. The American invasion of Okinawa brought a halt to that, and the unit was largely depleted flying Special Attack missions against the US Fleet operating off the coast of that island.

The two seaters could carry a centerline store as well as a couple of small (60kg) bombs under the wings. The model shows an aircraft with a centerline gas bag and the wing-mounted bomb racks. I'm not entirely certain that the model properly depicts the colors on the spinner and prop blades; by the invasion of Okinawa Mitsubishi had changed over to brown spinners and blades, but there are photographs of A6M2-Ks with the natural-metal prop blade faces and spinners in plenty, and the photos of the Genzan that I've been priviledged to see are taken from too great a distance to confirm anything more than that the airplane I modeled had a light-colored spinner cap on a dark base. I chose to model it with a brown base and yellow cap; it may be correct, but then again it may not be. It was a Best-Guess, ya'll. There was also a small "4" in a circle, both in yellow, on the fin above the aircraft number. I'll add it someday, presuming I ever find a decal that will work, but it's not there now. Life is difficult and then you die...

I like the way the model turned out, though. It looks like The Real Deal, which is what matters to me at this point in my life, and like all members of the Hasegawa Zero family it's an easy date. Who can ask for more?

And that's what I know for today. See you again soon,
phil

Time to Talk of Things That Hang

Are we ready?

Not by a long shot, at least if the topic is modeling the A-4. There's been substantial progress, but the simple fact of the matter is that it's been slow going, primarily due to the unscheduled interference of Real Life. No matter, though, because there's still quite a bit we can talk about. Friends, and I actually do have some, tell me that I can always find something to talk about. I'm not entirely certain that was meant to be a compliment, but that's how I'm taking it. Let's talk!

Loading for an Alpha Strike

First, a premise. The Douglas A-4 was designed and built to drop bombs and shoot rockets at people judged to be Bad Guys and worthy of such attention. It could also tow targets, pass gas (with a Buddy Pack attached), and give a truly spectacular aerobatic demonstration with folks like the Blue Angels but, when all was said and done, it was a bomber pure and simple. The aircraft could be fitted out with a variety of weapons, some of which had the capability to melt sand into smoking green glass, but we're going to discuss the conventional stuff as used during The Late Southeast Asia War Games. There's no intention of this ever being the last word on same; for that we need to hope that either Jim Wogstad or Jim Rotramel will finish up and publish their respective projects on United States aviation ordnance. What you're reading here is a modeler's look at what to hang on a Vietnam-era A-4C and nothing more. With any luck you're ok with that.

Where Do We Hang That Stuff?

OK, here's some basics: The A-4C (originally the A4D-2N) is a three-station aircraft, as were the A-4A and A-4B that preceeded it in service. Subsequent variants had four-station wings with an additional pair of hardpoints outboard that, in combination with the centerline mounts, made for that five-station aircraft we mentioned. In other words, the A-4C can carry ordnance on the centerline and on one hardpoint on each wing.

Early in the Scooter's career the work was begun on racking systems capable of carrying multiple weapons at one time. That work led to the MER (Multiple Ejector Rack) and TER (Triple Ejector Rack) of the Vietnam era. The MERs could carry up to six individual weapons, while the TERS were restricted to three. The MER was the rack most often found on the Charlie, and was usually mounted on the aircraft's centerline station. All three stations on the A-4C were plumbed and could be used as pylons for fuel tanks as well as weapons.

Gas Bags

Let's get the fuel tanks out of the way first. They came in two varieties; 150 and 300 gallon, but wartime aircraft are almost never seen with the smaller tanks. The 300-gallon tanks can differ in appearance too, for very practical reasons. The "normal" configuration is the one most folks expect to see on an A-4 and has a pointy tail cap with fins. That one shows up under the wings. There's a variation of that, with a bobbed and rounded cap at the tail, that also shows up mounted under the wings. Then there's a third variation with a flat cap at the rear; that one is intended specifically for use on the centerline station and has the flat cap to allow complete access to the Scooter's "aft hell hole", a hinged access panel between the flaps that provides access to the aircraft's single-point refueling system (and also prevents the possibility of the extreme tail of one of the "pointy" tanks striking the deck during the catapult launch of a fully loaded aircraft, an extremely rare occurance but a possibility nontheless). The "bobtailed" tanks (as opposed to what I'm going to call the "flat-caps") could be found on any station, but the Scooter normally carried its extra gas on the wings, with the centerline reserved for ordnance.

Then there's the Buddy Store. You won't see one on an aircraft configured for combat, but if you decide your model needs one it goes on the centerline only. I think you may have to make your own if you go that route, but it's been so long since I've built a jet I'm just not sure. It's an easy mod in any case.

Finally, the A-4 was essentially a short-ranged aircraft and needed that extra fuel. Distance to target and type of ordnance would dictate how much extra fuel was carried and where the tanks were located, but those gas bags would be there. A model of any Vietnam Skyhawk needs to have a tank or tanks on it.

Things That Go Boom!

With the extra fuel out of the way, it's time to talk about ordnance. Not ordinance, which are rules, but ordnance, which are weapons. Got that? Good! With that out of the way, let's talk about carriage of weapons, and then about kinds of weapons. As always, it's best to have a photo of the aircraft you want to build rather than an active imagination.

First, where do you put your MERs? Fact is, they could be fitted to any one of the three hardpoints on the Charlie, and photographic evidence shows that they were, but the "normal" location was on the centerline (Station 2), with gasbags on Stations 1 and 3. Then, how do you load them? That seems like such an obvious question, since there are six places to hang things on a MER, but there's a catch! Shore-based Scoots, most often operated by the Marines but also, on occasion, by the Navy, generally flew with all six locations loaded. It was different on the boat, though, because the bomb in the middle at the aft end of the rack was perfectly situated to smack the deck during a cat shot, so that station was frequently left empty on ship-board A-4s. I would strongly suggest not putting anything there on your model, either, both because of accuracy and because it looks pretty cool too---most people don't expect to see that empty rack back there.

OK, now you've got racks and tanks. Let's load 'em.

Bombs

The bomb was the most common ordnance used by the Skyhawk during the war. The Navy's standard bombs for most of the conflict were the Mk81 250# General Purpose Bomb; the Mk82 500# GP Bomb; the Mk83 1000# Bomb; and the Mk84 2000# Bomb, in either low-drag or "Snake Eye/SERET" high-drag configuration. Of these the Mk82 is far and away the the one you'll most often find on the Scooter and, I think, the biggest one they could lug around on the MER. (I've seen photos of Scooters with fully-loaded MERs on the inboard wing racks, thoroughly unapproved due to weight restrictions but apparently done at least a couple of times, probably by Marine aircraft, in combat. Yikes!) Early in the war a modest amount of stored ordnance (from WW2 and Korea) was expended but was considered to be largely ineffective and unreliable and its use was discontinued fairly quickly. Limited use was also made of the 750# M117, primarily by the Marine Corps at DaNang. That particular weapon was unsatifactory to the Navy and was rarely carried by their A-4s.

One point to watch, at least if you're using one of the Mk-Something-or-Other bombs, is the surface finish of the items you put on your model. The bomb casings were in an as-manufactured condition for most of the war, but the horrific accidents on the Oriskany and Forrestal led to the introduction of an ablative coating late in the conflict, in the hopes that it would delay the unintentional detonation of bombs involved in a shipboard fire. That coating appears as a highly wrinkled surface finish on the body of the bomb only; not on the fins. Standard paint color is olive drab for any bomb used during the war.

Napalm

Ask anybody serving on a carrier during the Vietnam era which weapon made them the most nervous and most will reply "napalm". The stuff isn't as dangerous as you might think, and is in truth extremely difficult to ignite without a detonator, but it's scary stuff nontheless. It was used throughout the war for antipersonnel work, and was highly effective in that role. Nape cans were rarely painted and most often appeared in natural aluminum with minimal stencilling. The standard loads were on the front three positions of a centerline MER, or on the lower and/or outboard stations of wing-mounted MERs or TERs (and, as with a centerline rack, on the front half of a wing-mounted MER).

Rocket Pods


We're talking Vietnam here, so rocket pods will basically come in two varieties utilizing two types of rockets, the 2.75-inch FFAR and the Zuni. The 2.75s were carried in either the 7-round or 19-round variations of the LAU-3 rocket pod with the 7-round seeming to be the more commonly used of the two, while the Zuni was launched from the 4-round LAU-10. Aerodynamic fiberglass covers could be fitted to either end of these pods, although they worked just fine without them. From a practical standpoint either of these pods could mount to any station on the Scooter, but as a modeler you need to let Good Sense prevail. You could, for example, mount a LAU-3 to all the stations of a MER as long as you left off the protective caps, but the fallacy of that sort of madness should be pretty evident to you without me even having to say anything; in Real Life the rockets in the pods at the back of the MER would have to fire through the pods attached to the front of same, a practice that would severely limit the ability of the shooter to collect his retirement pay. And yes; this is an absurd thing to mention, except that somewhere, sometime, some modeler will do it. That person need not be you.

One further note while we're talking about rockets: The A-4's only MiG kill of the entire SEA conflict came on 1 May, 1967, when VA-76's Ted Swartz nailed a MiG-17 with a Zuni. That's not the best way to shoot down another airplane, but there's no doubt it works!

Missiles


Although the AGM-45 "Shrike" was carried by the later Skyhawk variants (VA-212 is noted as having done it), only two types of guided missiles were utilized by the earlier, 3-station birds. The AIM-9B "Sidewinder" was used by Scooters employed as CAP aircraft for those ASW carriers still operated by the Navy during the war, with two rounds being attached to a LAU-7 rail on Stations 1 and 3 for a total of four missiles. The other weapon, the AGM-12 "Bullpup", is perhaps the most famous missile ever carried by the A-4, at least as far as scale modelers are concerned. That fame comes not from any operational success, but rather because almost every kit of the A-4 ever issued had a pair of "Bullpups" included with the model.

"Bullpup" was an interesting round to say the least, being a standard 250# GP bomb with a different fin arrangement (which included the tracking flare) and a guidance unit attached to the nose. You can tell when an A-4 has been configured to carry the missile because a small blade antenna had to be added to the nose gear door to allow guidance transmissions to the weapon. A small control panel, complete with joystick, was mounted to the left-side cockpit console so the pilot could "fly" the thing to the target through visual acquistion of that very bright, and sometimes disorienting, flare at the back of the missile; "Bullpup" most assuredly was not of the launch-and-leave variety of weaponry. It had to be steered all the way to the target and it's guidance parameters (I think it was something like 12-degrees on "Bullpup A", which is the round we're discussing here) meant that the launch aircraft had to fly almost directly behind the missile until it impacted the target. If command lock was broken the missile would immediately become ballistic and unguided, resulting in a miss and a wasted mission. Those guidance parameters ensured that "Bullpup" missions were somewhat less than fondly regarded by those who flew them. The AGM-12 could mount to any station on the Charlie but was conventionally carried on the wing positions.

Gunpods

Yep; gunpods. The A-4C could and did occasionally carry the HIPEG 20mm gun pod in combat. This twin-gun weapon was deadly when employed in the strafing role but, as with "Bullpup", required that the aircraft fly a predictable flight path which in turn provided North Vietnamese AAA gunners with a relatively simple tracking solution. HIPEG proved to be far more popular in operations over South Vietnam; in the North, strafing was nobody's favorite pastime and a highly unhealthy occupation as well. As with most weapons found on the Charlie, the HIPEG can mount to any station via use of an adaptor rail.

Is He Done Yet?

Yep. All finished, almost. This is nearly the end of the weapons part of our Scooter Adventure, but I really ought to remind you one more time to look at lots of pictures of early A-4s before you go sticking ordnance on there, at least if you want to end up with an accurate model. As with almost every aspect of our hobby a good photograph, or two or ten, is a Very Good Thing.

Finally, you might wonder about the illustrations, and rightfully so. They were originally generated (or annotated, in the case of the drawing that's so obviously of a technical nature) for a piece that never got published Way Back When; that "technical" drawing was intended for use with the 1/72nd scale Fujimi A-4C and therefore mentions a missing approach light and a "short" refueling probe, neither of which are an issue with the 1/48th Hasegawa kit. The Morgan Brothers, Rick and Mark, helped considerably both with the drawings and with technical information in general---many thanks, Bros!---and your model will be that much more accurate because of them.

The photo is via my old friend John Kerr (where does he come up with this stuff?) and shows A-4C BuNo145070 tanking off a contract A-26. The Scooter is from the NATC but that's about all I know; if you can add anything to our knowledge of this photo please drop me an e-mail at replicainscale@yahoo.com .

We get by with a little help from our friends...

Be good to your neighbor, and we'll see you again real soon.

phil