Airfix 1/72 Douglas A-4B Skyhawk

Big fan of this plane, not a big fan of this kit from Airfix, read on...

Box Art

 

If you want to see the build progress click here

Finished Model

Comments
Ok, this was not a happy build. I don't know if i was cursed, going through a form slump or it was the below average quality of the kit or all three, but I didn't enjoy this kit at all.
It makes into an accurate enough rendition of the venerable skyhawk but putting it together was a bit of a pain.
Firstly the parts:
- Airfix have attached the parts to the sprue with needlessly thick sprue lugs and it made cutting a bit more risky that it needs to be, not to mention the cleanup afterwards.
- There was a large gouge on the left hand fuselage piece. Fortunately a large decal covers it.
- The missiles and bombs slot does not fit into the bomb rack as its too small
- The drop tanks do not fit together evenly and require sanding to make them align properly
- The wing gunport pieces have a large curve at the end of them that needs to be straightened out at the risk of breaking the piece
- The cockpit canopy won't sit flush unless you carve a bit off where it hinges onto the fuselage
-The wheel covers for the main undercarriage do not fit correctly into the fuselage slots because the lugs are too big
- The panel lines oh the panel lines - these are trenches that give the star wars death star trench a run for its money - why Airfix?
- The decal for the "danger" label on the air intake does not fit. The air intakes are convex cone like in their shape and there is no way a straight line red decal is going to fit around it. I had to cut them and somehow work them so they could resemble a red line, but it was an unsatisfactory job.
- No decals for the tailhook striping - what kit doesn't provide that these days?

All in all a very unsatisfactory experience and clearly a kit that was designed by the Airfix "B" team as its nothing like the quality of their other new toolings.
Don't get me wrong, jsut about everyone of these issues is fixable with a little amount of effort (except the decal idiocy) but that's not what I expect from Airfix in 2017.

Rating:
Instructions - 3 - very easy to understand

Assembly Complexity - 3 - very easy to assemble

Quality of Molding - 2 - Ok but can be better, there were some defects in the kit components and very thick sprue attachments.

Part Fit - 1 - Unsatisfactory - quite a few components don't fit well. I have seen much worse, but this is clearly the Airfix "B" team new tooling.

Overall Score 9/12

Paints Used
Fuselage - Tamiya AS16 Light Gray (USAF)
Underside - Tamiya Matt White
Cockpit- Tamiya XF-53 Neutral Grey
Wheel wells - Tamiya Matt White
Jet Exhaust - Tamiya X-10 - Gun Metal
Antiglare strip - Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black
Leading Edge - Humbrol 19 - bright red (Had some left over fmor years ago - never again stuff takes too long to dry and doesn't like Tamiya Gloss Clear)