May 03, 2025

Build Review Pt.III: 48th scale USMC A-4 Skyhawk from Magic Factory...

Today, Gary takes the next steps with his 48th-scale A-4M kit from Magic Factory where he improves the wheels, nose & refulling probe amongst others. See how it's coming along before paint in Pt.III...

Build Review Pt.III: USMC A-4 Skyhawk light attack aircraft
From Magic Factory
1/48th scale
Kit No #2007
Plastic injection model kit
Two marking choices in the box
Price: $102 USD from Hobbylink Japan
Today in Part Three, I will continue the build of Magic Factory's 48th scale A-4M Skyhawk that has been steadily making progress from Part I  & Part II of this build. Let's see how we can delloop and improve on this kit even further!


A little visual representation of where we left off in part II...

The build, Part III...
About the time I was considering how best to deal with the rubber tires, John from Matters of Scale released a brand new 3D set of main and nose wheels designed specifically for the Magic Factory kit. Perfect timing and even better they were available as a digital download for you to print yourself. The download includes STL files for two types of main wheel (treaded and slick) and nose wheel.
After printing them on my Elegoo Saturn 2 printer, I did a side by side comparison with the kit supplied rubber tires. As expected the 3D printed parts have far finer detail, including a Goodyear logo on the sidewalls.
It occurred to me that now I had the printable file that I could also use these wheels on my Hasegawa kits, for both 1:48 and probably 1:32 as its super easy to scale up (or down) STL files with no loss of detail. I was a bit surprised to find that the kit supplied Hasegawa main wheel was noticeably smaller that the Magic Factory items. According to information I found on the internet the Hasegawa wheel is a tad too small and the Magic Factory is a tad too large, so perhaps when I 3D print more I can adjust the Matters of Scale wheels down a bit. These are just some of the many benefits of being able to control the printing of these digital parts yourself at home. To me it's the future.
A dry test fit of the landing gear struts and new 3D printed wheels revealed everything was good to go. Magic Factory has provided deep slotted holes to house the main struts and this ensures they are perfectly vertical and solid.

Much like the gear bays, the Magic Factory gear doors are very finely detailed. Each main gear bay has two doors, whilst the nose bay has a long single door.
To ensure perfect alignment, Magic Factory have designed the door hinges with accurate mounting holes inside the gear wells. Whilst most kits come with something like this, in the case of Magic Factory it actually works and the doors don't flop around when seated. At this point I've started some of the painting with the chrome section of the oleo stut being painted (ready to be masked) and the interior of the doors being primed in black. The 3D resin wheel has received a coat of Rubber Black.
Being designed for carrier operations, the A-4 was fitted with "Carrier Approach Lights" in the leading edge of the port wing. These are three small angle-of-attack indexer lights which were visible on approach by the LSO (Landing Signal Officer) standing at the end of the deck. The lights indicated Amber - on speed, Green - fast, Red - slow. This information was relayed back to the pilot by the LSO so he could correct his approach. Magic Factory provide not only the clear cover which forms part of the wing leading edge (seen here masked over) but also the three internal lights.
The starboard main gear door had a single landing light fitted. Magic Factory provide the light as a clear piece and to simulate the rear of the light I painted it using Alclad Chrome. This would be visible through the front of the clean lens once painting was finished. I also add some copper wire (0.25mm) to simulate the power cable for the landing light.
As mentioned earlier, Magic Factory have provided the option to display the engine maintenance access doors in the open position. I believe they are the only manufacturer to offer this option out-of-the-box and I wanted to take advantage of this because its common to see these doors open when Skyhawks are parked on the line. Likewise the option to display the airbrakes open is also included.
The A-4's airbrake actuating strut was hydraulically operated, and it’s rare to see photos of Skyhawks on the ground with the airbrake doors fully extended. Typically, once hydraulic pressure is lost after engine shutdown, the doors droop slightly due to gravity rather than remain fully closed.

Magic Factory provides the struts in the fully open position, but modifying them for a more realistic, partially open look is a simple task - just shorten the struts accordingly.

For painting, the most common color scheme observed was red for the inside of the airbrake and gray for the well and body of the strut.
Magic Factory has gone all out with the nose section of their A-4M kit, including every possible access panel that opens and closes. While this level of detail is impressive, it can make things a bit tricky if you prefer to build the model with all the panels closed, as fitting everything neatly together can become a challenge and the end result is less than stellar.
For this build, I wasn’t interested in displaying the nose panels open. Up to this point, I had been impressed by the precision fit of the kit’s parts, which showed a high level of engineering. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case when closing up the side access panels on the nose. Large, unsightly gaps appeared around all three doors, and even the fit between the two main nose sections was less than ideal. This was genuinely surprising, given how well the rest of the kit had come together.

My initial plan was to reluctantly fill all the panel lines and try and re-scribe them to get a more in-scale realistic look. Thankfully that turned out not to be necessary.
Before I got too deep into my re-scribing plans, Matters of Scale once again came to the rescue with plans to produce a new one-piece nose, covering all three possible configurations for the Magic Factory A-4M. I was fortunate to collaborate with John on the development of these noses, assisting with test prints and fitting them to the kit. Within a few weeks, he had completed the designs, and—just like with the wheels—made them available for digital download and home 3D printing.
The surface detail quality on the 3D-printed noses was vastly superior to the closed-up kit parts, making me wonder why Magic Factory hadn’t included one-piece closed nose options in the kit. Perhaps it was a cost-saving decision, but I believe most modelers would gladly pay a little extra to have this critical part of the aircraft look right straight out of the box.
I'm happy to say that after much testing and tweaking, John and I managed to get the 3D nose to fit close to perfectly with the kit fuselage. For my 3D prints I used my Elegoo Saturn 2 (8K) and Siraya-Tech Fast Navy Grey resin.
To allow for nose weight, the 3D printed noses are hollow (just like the plastic parts). These days I use 2mm lead shot as my weight and secure it in place using two part epoxy glue.
The resin nose was attached to the forward fuselage using extra-thin super glue, and here it is under a coat of primer. Notably, John chose not to replicate the kit’s rivet detail on the nose, as we both agreed that Magic Factory’s rendition was overly pronounced.
Depending on the specific aircraft you're modeling, the pylon configuration and ordnance loadout will need to be planned accordingly. My chosen subject had a simple setup with a 150-gallon drop tank on each wing and no other stations installed. The provided sway braces are well-detailed, and the pylons fit securely into the pre-drilled mounting holes, ensuring a solid connection to the wings
One small upgrade I recommend is replacing the in-flight refueling probe. The kit-provided probe is decent, but it lacks the sharpness and detail that can be achieved with a 3D-printed or metal replacement. I had a spare couple of the Orange Hobby A48-015 1/48 Nato Standard Refueling Probe, so I removed the kit probe and installed the metal version instead. Aside from its superior detail, the metal probe also has the advantage of already being silver, eliminating the need for painting.
Unlike Hasegawa, Magic Factory includes a comprehensive selection of weapons suitable for the A-4 family. The kit comes with a pair of 150-gallon drop tanks, LAU-10/A ZUNI rocket pods, and a generous supply of Mk.82 500lb bombs, along with retarded "Snakeye" Mk.81 250lb bombs.
The join on the tail of the drop tanks wasn’t as clean as I wanted, so I used my new go-to filler, Black CA, to smooth it out before rescribing. The tanks themselves feature raised seams, just like the real ones, but these can be tricky when they cross join lines that require sanding. To fix this, I removed the affected section of the raised seam, sanded the area smooth, and then recreated the seam using stretched sprue. This method ensures that the raised panel lines blend seamlessly with the rest of the model.
The final major step in the model's construction is the canopy, and it was yet another aspect of the kit that really impressed me. Magic Factory includes the internal canopy framing as a separate part, complete with the three rear-view mirrors and detailed canopy latching mechanisms. The canopy is designed to be displayed either open or closed, with alternate hinge and actuator parts provided to accommodate your chosen configuration.
Canopy masks are becoming almost a standard feature in new kits nowadays. Magic Factory includes a set of exterior-only masks for the main canopy and windshield, as well as for the anti-glare panel on the nose, specifically designed for the Diamondbacks paint scheme. Additionally, the kit provides self-adhesive mirrors for the canopy, which are truly excellent. I really wish someone would release these as separate upgrade parts for modern jet aircraft, they would sell like hot cakes I'm sure.
Thankfully, the fit of the canopy masks is excellent. Since I planned to display the canopy open, I needed to mask and paint the interior framing as well. After applying the exterior masks, I scanned the masking sheet and traced the shapes using Inkscape software. This allowed me to generate cutting instructions for my Silhouette Portrait 3 cutter, and I was able to create precise new interior masks as well.
With everything assembled and masked, a coat of Tamiya Rubber Black was applied to the canopy framing, both inside and out. The self-adhesive mirrors were attached and these really are super simple and look the part.
At this stage, I was finally ready to dive into the painting process. After all the masking and prep work were completed, it was time to load up the airbrush and bring the model to life with colors and final detailing. Stay tuned for my next update, where I’ll walk you through the entire painting and masking process in detail, showcasing the techniques and steps that will bring this build to its conclusion.
Until next time, when I finish the construction in Part IV...

Gary Wickham

You can see more of Gary's model making on his website Scalespot.com