LCDR John McCain’s A-4E Skyhawk

Thanks Hoss.

Nice! Sharp build. Congrats. 

BTW, I have a buddy who served on the Forrestal (nickname Forestfire). What a story. 

Thanks Bish.

Thats a greta looking build PJ. I do like the look of the A-4, nice looking aircraft.

Thanks for the added info stik, good to know. 

lawdog114

"They've gone to plaid!'. I've never seen plaid striping before, very cool!. Beautiful work. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks LD. Yea me too, this is the first time I have seen plaid used as such but it looks rather cool.

lawdog114

"They've gone to plaid!'. I've never seen plaid striping before, very cool!. Beautiful work. Thanks for sharing.

 

Yes, VA-46 continued the tartan stripes onto their A-7s...

and once they went to low vis schemes they kept it on their flight helmets

"They've gone to plaid!'. I've never seen plaid striping before, very cool!. Beautiful work. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks TB, glad you like how the Scooter came out.

Hi:

 Hey I started my 1/72 version one. I have always said if you've seen one Scooter you have seen them all. WRONG. Nice job man!

Thanks ranger. That is a really cool story and you are lucky you got to talk to him. I have respect for the man and what he endured while at the "Hilton".

I'm a big fan of the Douglas AD-4 (sic) and that kit was and still is a great kit. You did a super job on the build. Before Monogram released that kit in the 1970s the only other "decent" kit was the old Lindberg kit of the A-4 prototype. One of the rockets went through the fuel tank on the left wing of the aircraft next to McCain's A-4 and set the fuel on fire. McCain got out of his aircraft and helped the pilot get out of the burning aircraft. I was lucky enough to meet John McCain and got his autograph on a picture of him AND on a picture of the A-4 he was shot down in. The aircraft was assigned to another pilot and in the picture it was turning in with another A-4 on a bombing run over North Viet Nam. McCain was not flying it at that time. He did not know this picture exsisted and asked for a copy of it. He signed it. We had a great conversation and I later got a wonderful letter from him. Your A-4 is a nice tribute to John McCain, Well Done.   

Hey thanks Chad and teacher. Glad you like how the Scooter came out.

stikpusher

 

 

ikar01

I saw some of the film of the accident.  His aircraft was on the port side and there was a accident on the other side that sent 3 or 5" rockets screaming across  to his side.  He had to climb out on the refueling probe and drop off to avoid the fire.

Carriers would have accidents like this every so often.  Two people from my high school were on the Enterprise when their accident happened.  One stayed with the ship and the other one transferred into subs.

While I was on land at my base, my future brother in law was on the Constellation on Yankee Station.  They had to do a double tour because their releif cdarrier caught fire.

 

 

 

 

Ive only heard of three carrier fires related to the Vietnam War: in chronological order they are USS Oriskany, USS Forrestal, and USS Enterprise, with Forrestal having the worst one. Enterprise had hers after the Forrestal Fire, during work ups off of Hawaii prior to entering the war zone, and it was also caused by a Zuni rocket misfire. Forrestal and Oriskany were already on the line in the Tonkin Gulf when their fires occurred.

 

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/3-aircraft-carrier-fires-1960.html

 

 

Very nice Skyhawk build, BTW.

 

Thanks stik. Can't go wrong with the old Monograms.

Aggieman

PlasticJunkie, that's a great job on your scooter. Nice markings.

Even though I'm currently suffering from "jet fatigue", I always love the look of the early jets, the A-4 included.

 

Thanks Aggie. Yea me too so I'm switching to armor for now.

That's a beautiful A-4!

ikar01

I saw some of the film of the accident.  His aircraft was on the port side and there was a accident on the other side that sent 3 or 5" rockets screaming across  to his side.  He had to climb out on the refueling probe and drop off to avoid the fire.

Carriers would have accidents like this every so often.  Two people from my high school were on the Enterprise when their accident happened.  One stayed with the ship and the other one transferred into subs.

While I was on land at my base, my future brother in law was on the Constellation on Yankee Station.  They had to do a double tour because their releif cdarrier caught fire.

 

Ive only heard of three carrier fires related to the Vietnam War: in chronological order they are USS Oriskany, USS Forrestal, and USS Enterprise, with Forrestal having the worst one. Enterprise had hers after the Forrestal Fire, during work ups off of Hawaii prior to entering the war zone, and it was also caused by a Zuni rocket misfire. Forrestal and Oriskany were already on the line in the Tonkin Gulf when their fires occurred.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/3-aircraft-carrier-fires-1960.html

Very nice Skyhawk build, BTW.

PlasticJunkie, that's a great job on your scooter. Nice markings.

Even though I'm currently suffering from "jet fatigue", I always love the look of the early jets, the A-4 included.

lewbud

Nice job PJ!

 

Thanks!

Nice job PJ!

Greg

You sure did a nice job on the Skyhawk, PJ.

I'm developing an interest in these 50's/60's era jets, and when I think of a Skyhawk it's Cessna 172 that comes to my mind. I really like the looks of your A-4, thanks for piquing my interest.

 

Thanks for looking and posting Greg. Yea I think the early jets are really cool. I have a 1/48 Kitty Hawk Banshee, F-94 and TF-9J Cougar in the stash along with the fantastic Monogram Panther and gorgeous Revell F-89D. Too many to name in the stash. 

Thanks Crown and John.

Very sharp build.  I saw a documentary on the incident. Pretty dramatic watching him hop off the refueling probe.

Nice job on the A4 .

You sure did a nice job on the Skyhawk, PJ.

I'm developing an interest in these 50's/60's era jets, and when I think of a Skyhawk it's Cessna 172 that comes to my mind. I really like the looks of your A-4, thanks for piquing my interest.

HooYah Deep Sea

Nice job, OOB or not. It's nice to see the slats down like they're supposed to be, you'd be amazed at how many models of A4's and TA4's don't build that way. And by the way, it should be LCDR, not LTCDR, just so you know.

 

Thanks for your input. Tittle was corrected too. 

Nice job, OOB or not. It's nice to see the slats down like they're supposed to be, you'd be amazed at how many models of A4's and TA4's don't build that way. And by the way, it should be LCDR, not LTCDR, just so you know.

Hey thanks Bruce. Yea thought about the special characters in the tittle May have caused a stroke on the system lol.