Falklands Dog Fight Double
A-4Q Skyhawk vs FRS.1 Harrier
Airfix (A03029)
1:72

This is my third dogfight double display in 1/72. The project started with my local clubs annual Group Build and the subject this time was the Airfix A-4B Skyhawk. Now there are not too many marking options for the early model Skyhawks (when compared to the later E/F models) and I really was not too interested in doing a US Navy scheme.

I've always been interested in the Falklands conflict, and remember watching footage on TV back in 1982. The Airfix A-4B Skyhawk could easily be modeled as either an Argentine A-4P or A-4Q and I quite like the Armada de la Republica Argentina colors and markings so I obtained a sheet of the recently re-released Xtradecal X72154 Falklands War decal sheet from Hannants. That pretty much took care of the group build subject. Picking which opposing aircraft to model with the Skyhawk was also fairly obvious as the British task force did not have a lot of variety when it came to air-to-air fighters.

Selecting the Sea Harrier FRS.1 kit was not as easy as I had quite a few to choose from. In the end the model you see here has parts from several kits. The main model is the Italeri kit (which is actually the old ESCI moulds). The one piece canopy is from the Fujimi kit as are the sidewinder rails. The AIM-9Ls themselves are from the Airfix SHAR kit. I used a resin seat and hun pods from Pavla and brass pitot tube from Master. The decals on the Harrier are from the Airfix kit as Italeri had the got the roundels wrong (the red center was too large)

I normally like to pose the aircraft in some sort of 'dogfighting' display but given the size of the base I chose I couldn't think of a way to do that and make it look somewhat realistic. In the end I just decided to position them next to each other at slightly different heights to add some interest to the setting. The Skyhawk was finished with Gunze Mr Color laquer paints whilst the Sea Harrier was an experiment with Vallejo Air colors.In the end a fun little project and motivation to continue to add new 1/72 subjects to my stash.