1/48 Tamiya AD-4 Skyraider Part 3 of 7

Gallery Article by Vince Pedulla on Jan 20 2014

 

 

1/48 AD-4 Skyraider converted from the Tamiya A-1H kit

AD-4 Skyraider, US Marines, Korea 1951 - Part Three of Seven

The AD Skyraider - A Modeling Journey in 1/48th Scale in Seven Parts

This was the third Spad in my series and the first where I started branching out into other variants besides the “out of the box” A-1H or J.  At the time I was planning on backdating one of my Zoukei Mura 1/32nd scale kits to the earlier AD-4 variant and decided to again test techniques on the smaller, cheaper Tamiya kit.  (This plan was later made moot with the release of the excellent Trumpeter AD-4 kit!)   

A note: All my Skyraider models share a few common traits. All of them (except the AD-6 & AD-5W (coming soon!), have gun barrels & pitot tubes made from hypodermic needles. All were painted with Testor’s Model Master or Tamiya acrylics and weathered with oils. I also used AK Interactive washes to replicate the always present oil and fuel stains on this dirty bird. Aerials were created with EZ Line strands. Beyond that I used a variety of aftermarket parts & decals as described in each model’s individual article.

A word about the Tamiya kit…wonderful! Goes together without any drama and is very nicely detailed straight out of the box. And it is highly convertible!!

 

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I began by planning and researching the differences between the AD-4 and AD-6/A-1H.  The primary visible differences are the lack of armor plating on the AD-4, no rudder top beacon and a simpler antenna arrangement.  I obtained a decal set from EuroModels, which had the desired Korean War era Marine markings, and also bought a CMK resin cockpit detailing set.  This cockpit is very suitable for the AD-4 as it has the proper circuit breaker panel and early Navy style seat.  The final details procured were a set of Model Design Construction (MDC) resin fuel tanks and the smaller pylons which backdate them to the Korean War era versions, very different from the elongated tanks included with the Tamiya kit.

I began my carefully and laboriously sanding off the raised armor panels from the fuselage sides and bottom of the wing.  I took my time with this, using only Squadron sanding sticks, and later fine sandpaper.  No motor tool involved!  Go slowly and carefully and it is not too tough of a job.  I re-scribed the lost panel lines using my new MMU scribing tool.  This is by far the best tool for scribing tool out there, and I highly recommend it.  It’s like 10 bucks, too, so quite the bargain.  I removed the un-needed antennas to represent the early Sandy. 

After sanding and polishing the model, I primed with Tamiya fine white primer and pre-shaded with black.  I observed that the Korea ground based birds were usually very weathered and faded, so I started by lightening MM Gloss Dark Sea Blue and base coating the model.  I then post shaded panels lines and highlighted the center of the larger panels with a more faded blue.  The EuroModels decals went on great and responded well to decal softener.  I attached the MDC tanks, and added the HVAR rockets and centerline 1000 lb. bomb from the Tamiya kit to arm the Spad.   A very light spray of Testor’s semi gloss lacquer sealed the paint job.  These birds were not shiny but a totally flat finish looks, to me, rather dead and lifeless.  Exhaust stains were then done with thinned Smoke, and topped with a custom grayish mix to go over the Dark Sea Blue.  A very satisfying model and I was now officially hooked!   

In part four, we fold ‘em up and make it colorful!!

Vince Pedulla

ModelerV Studios

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Photos and text © by Vince “ModelerV" Pedulla