Strikemaster and A-4G Skyhawk

[typhoon1]

Hi There
New to this excellant site and been a fond modeller of RNZAF aircraft for some while know, i live in the UK so finding pictures of RNZAF aircraft is some times difficult .
I am at the moment building a 14 SQN Strikemaster and a 75 sqn A-4G Skyhawk,but finding pictures is difficult.
For the Strikemaster i beleive they had a weopons training role and most of the piccies i can find are recent ones which where sold tp private owners when they where retired i would like to do my kit carrying some training stores.
The A-4G i am doing is in the two tone dark grey/light grey scheme when they where transfered from the RAN .
If anyone can help with some pictures of these two aircraft to help me with kits i would be most greatful.

Kind Regards

Craig

[FlyNavy]

Craig, Follow the links at the bottom pane of this message for much info about the A4G in RNZAF service before colours changed. I'll repeat them here again. However first the smallest PDF file at FileFront has all the RNZAF / RAN A4G info when they were transferred and afterwards. Otherwise this forum (Probably the current RNZAF section) has a few photos: 900MB PDF all about this subject:

files.filefront.com/RNZAF+A4K+stories+16aug08pdf/;11514393;/fileinfo.html

3 RNZAF Official photos below (taken in mid 1984 & later I guess) credit to RNZAF Museum



(OLD original A4K official markings here: (4Mb PDF) files.filefront.com/A4K+markings+1970+80+RNZAFpdf/;12286100;/fileinfo.html)

GO TO: hosted.filefront.com/SpazSinbad/ for PDFs & Videos about RAN FAA A4G Skyhawk & others. Also: 2GB PDF about (A4G & K) SKYHAWKS at: www.adf-history.com/ran.html including a 4.4GB PDF in 3 parts - RAR/EXE — See similar PDFs at: www.a4ghistory.com/index.htm & A NEW VF-805 & VC-724 Ex-Personnel Forum at: www.aussieskyhawktales.org/





Sean Strang (RNZAF) took the next two photos at NAS Nowra on days indicated. I believe I have credited these in my PDFs but put them here because no one seems to want to download the Kiwi version as indicated above. Boo hoo.





I'll check on photographer in the PDF for this one: Bevin Stringer (now a civvie but formerly an RAN photog) took this suspended pretend 885 A4G photo at FAAM sometime or other - a few years ago.

[FlyNavy]

A-4 ALLEY about Kiwi Skyhawks (with info about A4G also) is probably the most productive website but there are others (GOOGLE is your friend):

www.gibstuff.net/a4-alley/RNZAF-Skyhawks-page-2.html
&
www.gibstuff.net/a4-alley/



Next two photos would be RNZAF official from Museum:

[Dave Homewood]

Welcome to the forum Craig!

[typhoon1]

Thank you for all that information Fly Navy everything i need there superb.
Thank you for the welcome to the site Dave loads of good ideas i can find for my kits.
I am struggling a little with my Strikemaster kit cant seem to find any pictures could anyone please help.

Kind Regards

Craig

[FlyNavy]

I took this photo. ;D Nah kidding right? RNZAF Official date as indicated:

[phil]

Contact:
[e-mail]

He's the boss at Central photographic at Ohakea. He has previously made a CD of Strikemaster images, I'm sure he still has the files and would be able to send you a copy.

[corsair67]

Craig, this official photo was taken by the RNZAF in 1981 over Tekapo in the central South Island - and although it has been posted in a couple of other threads on this forum I will add it again:




RNZAF Museum photo.


I'm not sure what kind of weapons the Strikemasters carried during their RNZAF service, but whenever I saw them they always seemed to have at least two drop tanks attached.

[phil]

In RNZAF service they carried the LAU-5002 6 shot CRV-7 rocket pod, and a modified PMBR (Practice Multiple Bomb Rack). The PMBR was a specially modified version with only 4 stations.

They also had internal MO32 7.62mm machine guns.

[Dave Homewood]

Phil (FlyNavy) - please remember to credit those RNZAF photos to the Air Force Museum of New Zealand. We are privileges here on the forum to have RNZAF official approval to use their photos, but they must be credited properly. We don't want to lose that privilege.

[FlyNavy]

Photo credits almost corrected.

[mumbles]

Mar 3, 2009 4:51:56 GMT 12 FlyNavy said:

I took this photo. ;D Nah kidding right? RNZAF Official date as indicated:

Interesting that 1076/ZK-ENB provides the radial element in the shot. I wonder what 1015 was up to at the time?

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks for that Phil. It is all the more imperative now that we get copyright permissions and credits right considerign that bloody stupid new law is in force.

I've never seen that formation photo before of the three jets and the Harvard. It's rather nice, though it looks somewhat odd like it has been badly photoshopped to alter the background. Does anyone know the date and circumstances of the photo, was it the Bluntie's last day? I think '66 ended up at the Museum, didn't it?

NZ1015 would have been at home in Wigram Craig, not up at Ohakea. It seldom travelled round much back then. These days she gets out and about more.

[FlyNavy]

Yep understand about the stupid KIWI law NEW - I forgot. One of those things in the land of the free. ;D It was I who has badly photoshopped the formation blunty pic from the badly rendered original which I gather is authentic. I have 'lightened' the original to bring out details that were otherwise lost in original. Also the background was badly damaged somehow which I tried to correct. There is never a photo that I cannot 'fix'. ;D Even if it does not require fixing. I do this for my PDFs and not for future JPGs on the web sake.

The placement in 3D space of the aircraft looks real to me. The photo is authentic but badly reproduced or whatever was wrong with it. The aircraft do look juxtaposed oddly because I think the A4K is well below the propwash of that front oddity, whilst the other jets either side are level with that propo thingo. They are over the ocean also which gives no depth perception from the photo aircraft at an angle to the main formation with the depth angle producing the result. IMHO. OK Harvard.

[FlyNavy]

ORIGINAL but cropped and then resized to forum size (by about half). This example was better than the one used to make the PDF page example seen above. However often I'm lazy enough not to remake pages when better photos of the same page are received. Why? Because I have spent many years making the PDF and I'm sick of it. ;D So what I do to grab photos is go to the PDF page. Take a screenshot then reize / crop that screenshot to forum size. Finding the above 'original' example took about fifteen minutes and I thought it was found quickly. I have terabytes of graphic files in storage offline. AND this is an RNZAF original taken in 1992. Thank YOU mr. RNZAF (whoever you are).

[mumbles]

The respective attitudes of all three jets compared to the Harvard are about what you would expect if they were formating on a slowish piston, the A-4 especially (note the slats are partially deployed).

Its a great pic, I just wonder why I haven't seen it somewhere before.

Note all the unpainted bolts (?) on the Blunty's wings. Gives me ideas for when I eventually get around to building one, after I decide which scale to begin with!

[lesterpk]

Not bolts but inspection covers. At the end of the Blunty's life they were inspected very regularly for spar cracking etc. Holes were bored in the skins for ease of access and normally covered by small silver tape discs.

Les.

[Dave Homewood]

That second version of the photo is much nicer. Doesn't the Skyhawk look small when you see it with the others, I always think of it as bigger than the trainers.

At the later stage of the Blunties' lives they stopped doing paint touch ups on them as they were being phased out (much like when the Skyhawks were on their last legs and looked appaulling worn, paint-wise). I recall seeing a couple visit Wigram in mid-late 1992 and they looked nice and well kept, but about two months later as they were phasing them out of service four or five were sent to Wigram, some to become instructional airframes with 2TTS, and two I think were for musuem exhibits. I'm sure those ones that came to Wigram were the first to leave service and they were utterly rough as guts. I remember looking over them with a couple of other S&S guys, as they parked them in No. 6 Hangar next to our workshops initially as the Friendlies had departed. We were almost ashamed to see straight-out-of-service aircraft looking so poorly maintained, surface-wise. There was no paint on the leading edges and chips and fading all over. The paint was dull and tired. They looked like they'd had a really hard life. They just looked dreadful. Understandable, but it seemed like 14 Squadron had now spurned their once proud workhorses to pander to the "younger replacements" in the Macchis where all the attention went now.

It's nice to know the Museum tarted their exhibit example up and it looks good again. I'm wondering how the 2TTS examples were moved to Woodbourne later when Wigram closed. Were they flown or trucked up? Flying them would have been an adventure,

Does the Musuem still have a secone Bluntie in store? Was it swapped? Or was it never their's and was it just a base rumour they had two allocated? What a shame one never went to the Historic Flight. They did very good airshow acts in them.

[nzjet]

Dave

The Museum has 2 blunties, one is still at ohakea, the one here in chch has a pair of the new wings on it, the engine has 2 minutes remaining.

When the other blunties left 6 hangar they were trucked to woodbourne.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Scraper. I had forgotten about one still being at Ohakea.