|
The Tamiya Skyray is a very nice kit; it can be assembled
very easily, although there might be a number of problems in order to make it
look realistic.
| The first and major difficulty is in the
assembling of both internal and external air intakes. Inside, the pipes’
internal bulkhead is divided exactly in half into an upper and a lower
part; once assembled, it will be very hard to fill the seam, seeing as it
should be painted in white.
Outside, the air intakes do not correspond to the wings
so it will be necessary to use a file to make them fit.
I decided to show the plane on the ground with scratch
built plasticard covers just to reduce the assembling time. |
| Click
on image below to see larger image |
 |
|
Of course the model must be assembled with folded (and not
unfolded) wings, seeing as the thickness of the external folding parts of wing
is slightly higher in the internal section. It will also be necessary to use a
file in this area. Luckily in this area there are no lines to carve.
The 2 tailerons must not be assembled according to the
instruction handbook: they must be set apart from the axis which connects them
and then assembled later, so that the metal portion of the tail might be
easily painted.
The interior is quite finished and I do not think it needs
any additional parts; a few things can be added by using common material: the
engine lever and some other little levers shown on the photo and on the
pictures.
The seat represents the early series and it must be detailed
by piercing the slides holes (where the detail is only hinted at) and by
adding the telescopic tube at the back and the belts with the buckles, which
represent the only exception in the use of photoetched parts.
More attention should be given to the canopy,
seeing as the interior was full of details; on my model they were scratch built
in plasticard according to BURIN-DO pictures.
|
Click on images below to
see larger images |
 |
 |
The 3 landing gear must be detailed with the usual small
brake pipes. Careful anyway to pierce all the torsion compasses with
elliptical holes.
The colour of my Skyray mainly follows the US Navy standard
in the 50/60’s, with slight variations according to the operation area.
The Marines model I reproduced, belonging to VMF-115, was
land based in Japan, in a base with far away parking areas and it had quite a
dusty look.
On the BURIN-DO photo the plane looks quite worn out: the
external folding parts of wing have been replaced by others, clearly
cannibalized, where the US emblem was diagonally placed, like on the first
F4D-1 models. The paint used to cancel them out was in the right Light Gull
Gray shade and it seams to be in good conditions, even if it clearly was not
enough to cover out the whole folding part of the wing, seeing as the whole
end portion of the previous emblem is still uncovered. The rest of the model
is painted in F. S. 26440 semigloss Light Gull Gray lightened with 20% white
on a dark grey preshaded base. On the right lower surface of the folding part
of the wing, although I had no photos to refer to, I thought that the white
paint used to cancel the emblem out could show the emblem bar, and so I
painted one in light red and blue, and then I painted it over again in white.
Unfortunately in my photos the camera flash on the white
paint has attenuated the effect, that live is more effective.
Francesco
|
