1/48 Monogram A-1J Skyraider

by Pablo Girgulsky

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Oh! Man! Another skyrider...and a Monogram one!!  We will call you back...next one please!!!  Ok, after tender work on this, I think it deserves to be seen.  This kit is a classic, that said.......I remember building it when I was 9...unfortunately, the original decals where useless, so I got the Superscale set for 2 raiders.  I wanted to do the camo one, but then I realized that the folding wings up would be nicer.  Great, I have to cut the wings for that and hollow the plain pieces on the ends as I wanted the machine guns to be seen.  Those came from a B-24.  I scratchbuilt the folding mechanism and as I usually do with this kind of kit, I cut every moving part: rudder, ailerons, flaps and the airbrakes.  The difficult part of this is to fill what is under.  This is triple trouble with the raider, but styrene sheet an some detailling do the work quite quickly.  Assembly went pretty fast, no gaps little fill, some sanding and decaling.

Click on images below to see larger images

Raiders are known as dirty beasts, when weathering, I tried to made it smooooothhhh....I failed.  This plane  wants more and more.  I use Humbrol enamels and oleos washes mostly in rust tones.  For the fuel tanks I did the "salt trick": first paint it rust, then put some water with a pencil wherever you want, split salt and finally paint white.  Rip the remaining salt and voila!

Hope you like this one and please, give classics a chance!

Pablo

Photos and text © by Pablo Girgulsky