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I was
looking forward to the release of this kit as it is a favourite of mine but I
just never got the time to start it, then Cutting Edge sent in their folding
wing set of resin parts for review so I just had to start. I am not a fan of
folded wings as they never show the aeroplane in its natural state but I
thought I might like this one.
The Skyraider design was started
in 1944 as the Dauntless II and in 1946 the name was changed to Skyraider (it
was later also known as Able Dog or Spad) and later that year the designation
BT2D was changed to AD which in turn was changed again when in 1962 the AD-6
was revised to A-1H and the AD-7 to A-1J. The AD types ran from AD-1 to
AD-7 and most of these had sub types built for specific operations. It saw
almost 30 years of service in two wars, Korea where it was one of the very
first to launch an attack and in Vietnam where it was used extensively, then
in 1956 the Royal Navy used the AD-4W during the Suez crisis.
The kit comes
moulded in light grey plastic with finely engraved panel lines, the flaps can
be set deployed and the three air brakes can be displayed open or closed and
have fully detailed interiors. The cockpit is quite small for such a big plane
but the consoles and instrument panel are nicely detailed with raised
instruments, which will benefit from careful highlighting. There is a separate
tail wheel bay with detailed walls and Tamiya have taken a leaf out of
Monogram's book with the main bays side walls moulded in one piece with the
gear doors, I like that idea. The engine is fairly basic but you
assemble it with a poly-cap on the inside so the propeller can be pushed in
easily at the end. Two sets of cooling gills are provided both the front and
rear in the open or closed positions, a separate exhaust ring with stubs in
the correct positions backs up the engine which fills the cowling, all these
have good locations so you cant get any of them upside down then you pop the
whole assembly on to the nose section.
| One thing that newer
modellers can easily get wrong is to arrive at the correct dihedral on the
wings when they are cemented into the sides of a fuselage so I like Tamiya’s
practice of making the lower wing half a one piece moulding including the
fuselage centre section as in this kit which is well detailed including the
heavy armour plating beneath the cockpit.
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The Skyraider is well known
for the weapons it can carry on those underwing pylons so Tamiya have provided
quite an array for you, there are 5 in. HVAR rockets, 250Lb bombs, 2.75in.FFAR
rocket pods and 2.75in. triple rocket tubes. You also get a couple of 2000
pounders and three external fuel tanks all of which are mounted using the
poly-caps in them so you can change the load on the aircraft as you
wish.
The instruction sheets
explain fully all the construction sequences and painting details you could
possibly want. Three sets of four view drawings give all the camouflage and
marking details but the paints listed are Tamiya’s own which are not widely
available in this country and they fail to give the correct FS numbers so you
can buy an alternative brand, I personally asked Mr Tamiya if he could alter
this and he said he would try but no result as yet.
The decal sheet gives three alternative markings, VA-176
“Thunderbolts” which I always thought were the “Stingers”, VA-25 “The fist of
the fleet” and VA-52 Knight Riders. The sheet is well printed with no register
problems and various pieces are printed separately to allow for moving
surfaces even the number nine has slits to accommodate the open cooling
gills
An excellent model in its own right
well recommended.
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| The Cutting
Edge wing fold set is specifically for the Tamiya kit and you get the top
halves of the inner wings and complete outer wings plus lots of tiny delicate
internal items,
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| Construction Firstly you
need to cut off the outer wing panels from the lower wing moulding but do make
sure you cut outside of the line and when you have the new top halves in
position you can sand back carefully to level them up. I had a small problem
matching up the port wing half but a quick word with Meteor Productions and I
got a replacement part. You have a choice to make armed or unarmed version as
you get inboard 20mm cannons, feed mechanisms and ejection chutes all
separately moulded but that’s not all you also get all the internal structures
for the wing right down to the locking pins to hold the wing down. The parts
are very delicate and need careful removing from the pouring blocks and the
outer wing halves with delicate hinge mechanisms come taped in card to protect
them, finally there are a set of dust covers you can enclose the wing joint
with if you need to as I did. |
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After adding the wing unit
to the fuselage, install the cannon, shell chute and feed mechanism after
painting each item and then mask off the area whilst the main painting is
carried out. The instructions warn you to take care of the hinges on the outer
wing and I tried, but managed to break one side three times and gave up, my
solution was to drill a tiny hole in edges of each wing part where the hinge would be then I
inserted a length of floral wire between the two and bent the wing up
to its appx position. |
| Using some stiff cardboard I cut a template,
a triangle with one side at 55 degrees to it's base, and resting it
on the top surface of the inner wing, I finally bent the wing panel to
meet this. Cement was not applied until all the decalling was
finished, some exhaust stains were added and the missiles were fixed
to the pylons. When Skyraider wings are folded, two braces between the
wing and fuselage are used to take the strain, I made these from
florists wire app. 42mm long, the locations are depicted by small
circles on both parts and these I drilled out very slightly to allow
the ends of the braces to locate properly. Once all this was in situ I
added the covers and the small rod between the two wing parts plus the
wiring bundles as shown on the instruction sheet then popped in the
propeller. |
| Painting. I like the grey over white schemes used
by the navy as it is so easy to paint, I can add all undercarriage legs,
gear doors and pylons etc. etc. before spraying the white (Hu No130) including
the upper surfaces of the control surfaces. Leave for a day to harden and mask
off those control surfaces and spray the grey (Hu No129) freehand. Take care
when masking the antiglare panel as any faults will stand out then give it a
short blast with matt black. I have used strips of Baremetal foil to show the
Corruguard leading edges on wings and tailplanes but I used Humbrol silver
(No11) on the fin and nose cowling. The photos of the model were taken just
before it was completely finished and it now has a full compliment of
guns |
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1/48 AMT/ERTL AD-4W Skyraider
Although not generally available at
the present time the old ESCI kit is worth a mention here. While not the most
accurate kit it looks like a Skyraider and with new panel lines inscribed and
a few mods it can make a companion to Tamiya’s model yet look altogether
different.
| This is the machine sometimes referred to as “Guppy” built for an
AEW role it has the large radome slung between the wheels, a long fairing
behind the cockpit, small finlets on the tailplanes and doors on the fuselage
sides for the extra crew member. The aeroplane is finished in sea blue gloss
and the kit supplies markings for the Navy, Marines and our Royal
Navy |
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Matchbox/Revell
AD-5/AD-5N
This kit was issued in
the early eighties and represents the side by side two seater with lengthened
fuselage, taller fin and larger canopy It was used mainly by the Navy but the
Airforce did use some for counter insurgency work.
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not bad for it's age
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I hope you have
all enjoyed my selection of Skyraider models
Ted
Drop by
Ted's Website to see more of his models. Ted
Taylor's Modelworks
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