This
is my first time posting anything on the internet, it’s my latest labour of
love, Tamiya’s 1/48 A-1H Skyraider
with Cutting Edge wingfold conversion, as well as numerous refinements and
additions. I began this project 5 years ago as a “quickbuild” after
suffering a bout of AMS from a previous project. Thinking that since it was a
Tamiya kit, I’d have it together in no time at all, well……lets just say the
road to hell is paved with good intentions!!
I
knew that I wanted to depict the kit on a carrier deck with the wings folded,
and the aircraft chocked and tied down and using those great VA-176 bumblebee
markings. For those not familiar with these markings, the kit depicts one of
only a few Spads that engaged and successfully shot down North Vietnamese Migs
during the Vietnam war. The callsign for this particular aircraft was “Papoose
09”. So on to the kit…….
I
began by cutting the kit’s wings apart and was well into scratchbuilding the
wing fold details when I came across Cutting edge’s resin conversion and
nabbed it, consigning my own efforts to the spares box.
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I
modified the resin wings by grinding the ailerons off and cutting the plastic
ailerons off the kit’s wings which I added to the resin ones in a drooped
attitude via delicate scratchbuilt hinges. I then began construction of the kit
via the normal way, i.e starting with the cockpit. This was used from the kit,
save for a few minor mods: I shaved off the “lumps” on the L/H console and
added my own throttle, prop condition, mixture and boost levers made from scrap
brass and stretched sprue. Lead foil seatbelts were adorned with P/E buckles as
well as adding a canteen and its mounting bracket to the right of the pilot’s
seat. I punched the kit instruments from the decal sheet and added them to the
instrument panel. The area behind the pilot’s headrest was “busied up” by
adding details from copper wire and styrene bits and pieces. I painted the
cockpit in oils, which was a first for me. A Verlinden map was added to the
coaming under the windscreen and the kits gunsight was modified by adding a disc
from punched clear styrene for the reflector glass, and a P/E mirror added to
the windscreen frame. The canopy had handles added either side of
the frame from brass rod.
I
also detailed the undercarriage and the wheel wells, the latter of which was a
waste of time as nothing can be seen with the model mounted on it’s base!!!,
oh well. The oleos' had tie down eyes added from Grandt Line and
hydraulic cylinders added to their leading edges from stainless steel
tubing as well as brake lines from
copper wire. I cut and repositioned the tail wheel for a more candid appearance
as well as reinforcing all the undercarriage struts with brass rod that was
drilled and inserted into the axles as well as down the struts themselves
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The
engine was detailed by wiring the cylinders from the magnetos with copper wire
and I built a delicate prop condition linkage by using magnetic watch parts!,
this was achieved by cutting up watch pieces and re-assembling them to resemble
the mechanism behind the prop hub, since they were magnetic I didn’t have to
use any CA glue. A “second hand” was used for the linkage itself !!, it just
goes to show that you can use anything to scratchbuild those miniscule
assemblies
I
wanted a really bombed up Spad so I began to rummage through my Hasegawa weapons
sets to come up with the required ordnance. In the end I settled on a
combination of some of the kits weapons as well as 2 Zuni rocket pods from
Hasegawa. I didn’t like the way the pods looked in that the “rockets” were
depicted as small mounds on the face of the pods so I drilled them out and
substituted 72nd scale Hellfire missiles that were re-profiled to
match the open holes and had tiny fuses added to their tips with stretched sprue.
The
bombs had the fuses removed and Daisy Cutter extensions added from Evergreen
styrene rod before refitting the fuses to the ends of the extensions. Copper
wire was added for the arming wires, suitable bomb graffiti was added with a
white colour pencil. The sub-munition dispensers had their electrical wires and
canon plugs added also from copper wire and styrene, which are barely visible
when painted. I added all the sway braces to the pylons, these were made from
the True Details P/E set as well as my own punched styrene discs. Again I pinned
all the stores with brass rod to prevent inadvertent weapons releases!!.
I
began painting the kit by pre-shading with Tamiya matt black, then used enamels
for the white and grey, I accented the panel lines with a wash of Tamiya Smoke
heavily thinned. For the more grubby areas of the kit, ie the engine cowls and
gun access panels I made a grungy brown mix with Tamiya smoke and Tamiya
red-brown and delicately post shaded some of the panel lines. Grease and oil
splotches on these areas was simulated with the same colour as was the exhaust
stain. Boot scuff marks were done with black colour pencils around walkways and
boarding steps. I used a 2b lead and
silver prismacolour pencil on edges to simulate worn areas. To simulate paint
fade some of the upper surface panels were sprayed in a lighter shade of grey.
The leading edges of the wings, vertical and horizontal stabilizers had a strip
of Bare Metal Foil added to simulate the coroguard anti-abrasive coating.
The overly thick Tamiya decals were made to snuggle down with coats of
Gunze Mr Mark Softer, I find this product perfect for Tamiya decals. Instead of
spraying the kit with Future I apply a puddle of it where the decal location is
then simply apply the decal straight onto it. After the decaling was done I
sprayed a few coats of Future over the decals and when cured I hit it with a
spray of Testors DullCoat from a bottle over a decade old!.
I
wanted to add a few “human touches” to the kit so in selected areas (speed
brake and undercarriage wells) I added some graffiti with a black micron pen.
Additionally the gun barrels and pitot tube were made from telescoping lengths
of brass and steel tubing.
I
experimented and developed a technique to depict the chipped and eroded paint on
the prop tips. I’m not overly satisfied with using a silver Prismacolour
pencil alone for this as I feel it doesn’t do a realistic job in my opinion.
So I sprayed the props and other high-wear areas with Floquil bright silver as
this lacquer-based paint eats into the plastic, next apply whatever colour needs
to go over the top. For the prop blades I used a well worn, fine grade
Flexi-File strip and gently dragged it across the surface until it removed the
paint and exposed the silver in a nicely feathered edge exactly the same way the
airflow does, the tiny chips and scratches were achieved by taking a syringe
needle and grinding it even pointier with a Dremel tool, then using it to
actually scrape and pick away at the paint, this leaves perfectly “In scale”
scratches that little silver blobs of paint just can’t do
Lastly came the fitting of the folded wings. In order to get the angle
right I measured the wing fold angle from Squadron’s Skyraider Walkaround.
There are a couple of sets of drawings in the book so I used a protractor, then
I cut wedges from stiff cardboard corresponding to those angles and lay them on
the wing, I delicately placed the folded wing portion against these cardboard
templates and after much tweaking and cussing ( I think I invented my own
language!!) I flooded the joints with super glue. I used my airbrush to gently
blow the super glue into all the nooks and crannies of the wing fold to ensure a
good bond. After it had cured I delicately removed the wing templates and low
and behold I had folded wings! then I took a couple of aspirin and lay down for
a week….WHEW!. Now with solid resin wings and a full ordnance load the model
was painfully fragile so I braced the wings with struts made from telescoping
stainless steel tubing, once fitted and glued they made the whole assembly quite
robust.
Now
I needed a base to display the model on so I went to a local trophy shop and had
one made from MDF, as well as a little plaque to go with it. The much-coveted
Naval Aviator wings were cast from an original set and I made resin copies. The
carrier deck was made from a sheet of wet & dry paper with panel lines
carved into it with a razor saw, effectively blunting it in the process!, The
deck tie-downs are P/E from Toms Model Works. Their places were marked and
drilled and then glued in with Super Glue. I arranged all deck stripes and panel
lines so as to be asymmetric to the base and the model. The model was mounted to
the base with brass pins and I made a set of chocks from Evergreen square and
rod stock. Lastly the tie down chains were made from model railway chain and the
ratchet mechanisms from styrene, the hooks themselves from bent brass rod.
So
there you have it, a Skyraider in 5 years!,( OK I was actually overseas for 3 of
them). Anyway modelling’s supposed to be fun right?, that’s what my
therapist keeps telling me!
Happy
modelling,
Rolando
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