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Mojo Shmojo, Skyraider Eyes of the Fleet conversion.


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Good day everyone! Its been along time since I started a new build. I was steamrolling on at the beginning of the year but then in April (Violins ready!) I broke my elbow and that was that for a couple of weeks, and I have since struggled to get enough interest going. Then when Photobucket threw a spanner in the works with their blatant blackmail scam I just hit the stage of 'I really cannot be bothered!'. I didn't even contribute that much on the forums over the last few months. Just blindly scrolled through with apathy then slowly but surely this hobby will eat away at you and after a couple of false starts I managed to finish off a 109 that was part of the group build earlier (may appear in RFI later this week), even dusting off the airbrush as well. Life past summer has started to quiet down a little what with kids back to school and Uni. So I was looking for something to make to kick things off again. I also experimented with Flickr to try and banish my PB demons, which seems ok so far!

 

So what to do? I do have a 48th Wessex, Wasp, Canberra and a 72nd CP140 still in progress but I wanted something nice, fresh, goodlooking and easyish to get me going. That's where I stumbled upon this on line for a decent price

 

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She is a good looking bird, should be easyish to put together as its a modern Tamiya kit and will look good straight OOB. Lots of plastic and loads of weapons!

 

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But here is the problem, that those who know me, know I am WAFU, Fleet Air Arm, Navy stock through and through, and to do an Air Force plane, especially a darned Yank Air Force plane is not something I can really do (No offence intended to our beloved Air Force Brethren :P), so luckily I have this tired old beast kicking around as well

 

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So to spice things up a tad I am going to simply merge the two together into one beautiful Royal Naval aircraft, simples, what could go wrong? A quick dig into the decal pile produced this delightful selection

 

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I did think they were a recent release but looking at them I think they are nearly 10 years old (showing my age lol, thought they were only released last year!) but they are still looking in good order, with this version as the only option.

 

20170921_184948

 

So the plan is a Skyraider WV183 of the mighty 849 'B' flight, Fleet Air Arm. I'm not going to bother with any suez stripes or anything like that, just glorious blue, and I even have a fresh pot of Model Master FS15042! So there is the background, I have seen a couple of Tamiya AEWs attempted OOB (should be OOB2!) and it is perfectly achievable. I'm not going to bother doing the observer station either, the window curtains will be firmly drawn for that. I know about the armour issue around the cockpit and will look into that to see if it is worth removing or just pretend it isn't really there and I will only use the minimal number of parts from the Esci kit as they aren't of that good a quality really.

 

So there it is, the build is afoot!

 

Bob

Edited by moaning dolphin
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Wow, this will be good!

Gotta love the AEW.1 Skyraider. 

Never seen it done this way using the Tamiya kit,  so in your hands this is a must follow!

 

Sorry to hear of your breakage, not an easy thing to get over, especially for modelling dexterity.

 

BTW did you finish the TT.18?  It dropped of my gadget sadly.

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14 minutes ago, 71chally said:

BTW did you finish the TT.18?

No unfortunately that was a casualty of the de-mojo-fication process, I think that will be next to get up and running once (not if!) I get through this!

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So the first thing to look at is to de-mod the wings and airframe back to an unarmed Naval variant.  First up were all the holes for the weapons pylons

 

20170922_175114

 

I intended to fill the holes with plastic rod which is slightly fatter than the holes, so it was out with the right size drill  for a snug fit

 

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Bits of rod were the cemented in, along with the gun ports which are also redundant.  This gives a hedgehog feel which will be blended in tomorrow sometime when the glue has welded the bits in

 

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While that goes off I glued in the side airbrakes as these are also redundant.  

 

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These will be blended in along with the fuselage strengthening plate in front and then the edges filled so they disappear. The observers access door will be scratch in later. I am also looking at the armour plates under the cockpit. I think I may have a go at blending those in later.......maybe :D. Off out now for a few pints so more progress later!

 

Bob

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Nice work underway there Bob.

 

I'm guessing you've seen these, but definitely mojo building info,

849 D Flt AEW.1s in colour, http://skyraider.org/skyassn/memberpics/cowell/cowell.htm

 

And your chosen subject courtesy of the SDSAM Archives (San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive) Flickr page, 

16960323449_23dd3818b7_o.jpgDouglas AD-4W Douglas Skyraider AEW.1 WV103 849Sqd. Royal Navy by SDASM Archives, on Flickr

 

Edited by 71chally
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Sorry to hear of your unfortunate experiences this past summer. Will follow your build throughout its progress. Many years ago, actually the summer 1981 I modified a 1/48th scale Monogram kit into WV181 421 B flight using the book "The History Of The Douglas Skyraider AEW.1. At that time, no decals were available. Everything was hand painted. Going to attempt to insert an image.

_IMG_0148

 

Edited by f111guru
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Work has continued slowly but surely. Airbrush snags are causing problems but I will persist.

I did want you cover some of my references, I have a copy of the warrant book and can also access the walkaround series, so that gives me my paper refs. A good few years ago when I was leaving the Navy, my colleagues arranged a trip for me to go around the FAA museum as a special treat. This included an in depth guide around the stripping of the Martlet  (who new paint schemes and scratches could be so interesting!) And also access to the storage hall over the road. We had in effect unrestricted access but unfortunately my camera couldn't cope! I did however get a few shots of their Skyraider.

 

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So not a great mix but better than nowt. I just wish I climbed up on the aircraft and scanned the cockpit. I'm sure the cockpit seat is different to the kit version but haven't been able to confirm it yet. 

 

Hopefully get a couple of progress shots up soon

 

Bob

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Great photo references Bob. I purchased the AEW.1 book from the FAA museum way back in 1979 when I was there recovering an F-111F out of RAF Lakenheath with engine problems. Didn't have a camera when we went through the museum. Will keep track of your progress despite your airbrush problems. Been down that road many a time.

 

Ron

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And so we continue the build at the pace of an asthmatic snail in a dust storm, but progress is moving on. I concentrated on the fuselage and filled around the air brake area to just blend all this in. I used Humbrol filler which transpires was a poor choice because I have to rescribe over the filler and it doesn't react well to my method of scribing, but more on that later, The filler mess:

 

20170923_163952

 

Not very noticeable in this pick is the removal of the cockpit armour, this wasn't as traumatic as it looked and I didn't really loose out on a lot of detail so was quite chuffed at how that went. The fuselage was then rubbed down and looking at all my available references I transferred over some new panel lines and the door for that area

 

20170924_193348

 

I did also use the kit part from the Esci kit for reference, lining up the raised panels with the Tamiya lines gives me a reasonable representation of the layout. The window will be cut out for the Esci Bubble window and the door will be scribed in, more later on that.

 

The next area of interest was the wings, again we have a major difference here. The Naval version does not have the main undercarriage doors fitted and of course Tamiya are extra nice here and give is wheel well inserts attached to the undercarriage doors! So before fitting the inserts it was off with them doors.

 

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It took a bit of dexterity as the hinges and actuators are quite heavily molded into the doors and I had to go carefully so I didn't destroy the detail. The flash has bleached a lot of the detail but hopefully you can see what remains. And now the completed assembly with the wing ejector chutes blanked, I still need to fill the gun ports but that will be easier with the wings together.

 

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Then it was into the cockpit, nice and easy, there are more parts for the seat than the actual cockpit! This was assembled and then painted black, I don't have a nailed on reference for this but it was appropriate for that era. The back of the bulkhead behind the seat was chopped down as my version has a different set up, I add a bit of fictitious colour in there as otherwise it is just a deep black hole. The instrument panel is a kit decal and the whole lot was given a highlight to make it more visible. The flash has again bleached the effect of the highlight, it is a lot more subtle.

 

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So with that done there was nothing stopping me smashing the two fuselage halves together. At this point I test fitted the turtle back which fits remarkably well considering.

 

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I have since scribed the panel lines on that, behind the pilot however is a bank of black boxes and not a blank bulk head so started to remove that.

 

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And with the bulkhead removed and the edges blended nice and thin

 

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I will fit a false bulkhead to give it some depth and then put in some racking, boxes and wire to liven it up. Next was a test fit of the wings to see how that looks.

 

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So in the image above you can see the exploits of my rescribing, I had to go back over certain areas with PPP filler because the humbrol stuff just gave way or fell out making it look really messy, I think my scribing is a touch too deep (not matchbox deep though!) and there were mistakes which you can see as bright white lines. Overall I think it will do...

 

Finally it was the seat, I built it up, sprayed it with the other cockpit stuff and then found out it is completely different.

 

20170924_192903

 

I think this version is a very basic ejector type seat on rails, The kind I need is well totally different, but it will still slide in and out the cockpit opening so I am not too bothered at the moment and will do this slow time as it can slot in at any time.

 

And that is where I am at, still a bit of a struggle, especially when it came to the rescribing the fuselage but I shall persevere and we shall get this thing cracked!

 

Laters!

Bob 

 

 

 

 

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Bob I see what you mean by spattering. Still those painted parts look great. Excellent workmanship on the cockpit. Was intrigued by your progress and stumbled through my waiting to get back to modelling cabinet and came across an AD4W that was started  more than 10 years ago. A Swedish tow target aircraft and stalled waiting on a decal source. I was wandering the internet today and came across this site that may help in the seat in the cockpit.  http://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/douglas-skyraider-in-detail/ 

Hopefully this helps.

Ron VanDerwarker

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Back again!

 

On ‎10‎/‎3‎/‎2017 at 2:34 PM, 71chally said:

Lovely work, coming on very nicely.  The Esci fuselage top looks like it was molded to fit the Tamiya!

Its not far off, it needs a little tweak here and there especially to get the back end to sit flush but like I say its not far out and the panel lines match up perfectly too. The Esci kit is very basic but looking at the two they seem very similar in size and shape.

 

On ‎10‎/‎3‎/‎2017 at 5:46 PM, HomerJ_757 said:

speaking o which, how many fixed wings have you got? 😉

Welcome along, and I'll just say its not how many you have its what you do with them that counts........apparently! :P

 

On ‎9‎/‎30‎/‎2017 at 12:01 AM, f111guru said:

Bob I see what you mean by spattering. Still those painted parts look great. Excellent workmanship on the cockpit. Was intrigued by your progress and stumbled through my waiting to get back to modelling cabinet and came across an AD4W that was started  more than 10 years ago. A Swedish tow target aircraft and stalled waiting on a decal source. I was wandering the internet today and came across this site that may help in the seat in the cockpit.  http://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/douglas-skyraider-in-detail/ 

Hopefully this helps.

Ron VanDerwarker

Thanks for the link, I remember seeing that page when I did my first look on researching but couldn't find it again afterwards so thanks for posting that reminder!

 

I have been at it quite sporadically this week, I am working evenings which doesn't give me a lot of spare time but I have chipped away at it when I can. There is no real logic to the way I am building this, I am randomly picking areas to work on as and when I feel. I haven't really been up for seat work so today sat down and had a look at that gert great mushroom that hangs underneath it. I am of course using the Esci parts so stuck them together and tried to see how it fits. To do this properly there are a couple of things I need to assemble first. Obviously the wings would be better secured in position, so after remembering to fit my observer blackout blinds (black paper stuck over the window aperture) I fitted them wings.

 

20171004_135943

 

 

As expected a near perfect join, you can see here that I have filled and blended the gun ports in the leading edge, with the extra ton and a half of equipment for the radar I don't think there was much spare capacity for any armament! And on the flip side

 

20171004_140006

 

I have fitted here the underside airbrake, I am not sure if the AEW had this or not and cant really decipher all the references. I don't think it would have and I am inclined to fill and blend it in. I mean with that whacking great blob underneath would you need an airbrake?

 

Next up is the mushroom, suitable assembled and joints blended

 

20171004_135919

 

Does slightly resemble a Martians egg, Also just noticed in the background work carried out on the turtle back area behind the pilot, more on that later! I have offered it up to the fuselage and took a picture but to be honest the picture is too blurry to put up, needless to say it doesn't match the contour of the kit very well. Where it touches at the front just need a small blend and was a good fit. The sides however fitted where they touched, namely at the front and at the rear! The mushroom has far too much of a curve on it so will need to be reprofiled. I will have to do most of this off aircraft because when it gets fitted there is no room under there to get filler in let alone anything to sand it. So I have fitted some plastic strip so I can build up some filler.

 

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The stick is just there to hold the plastic in place. That will be slightly reprofiled and then I can get a bit of filler in there to give it a smooth transition. It wont be plain sailing all the way though as there is also a large gap up front.

 

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I think this gap will have to be worked in situ and I'll have to blend in the airframe side as well. Should be interesting! I also have to do some work on the middle 'protuberance' coming out the engine as you can see on the 1:1 below

 

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The fitment of the radar covered an air vent, so I have to box that 'protuberance' in as that is where the vent was relocated, nothing too difficult about that I suppose! So to just finish up here is the radar slapped in place for the underside

 

 

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And from the front

 

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She almost looks happy with the smiley vent and certainly there is a guppy taking shape. Coming up more work on the turtle back, boxing the vent exhausts and a little tiny bit of fill and blend.......I wish!

 

Cheers now

Bob

 

Foot note: While reviewing the article I have seen while comparing the real radome with the Esci version there is a slight difference......ie the kit part isn't particularly accurate! I can feel the artistic license card coming out!

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More seat pictures here including the rears, http://imodeler.com/2015/12/douglas-ad-4w-skyraider-target-tug-cockpit/

 

My memory from crawling over the one that used to be at Flambards was that there wasn't an underside airbrake and that it was a smooth undersurface, unlike the AD-5s that kept the airbrake compartment bay.

There is  a really nice underside view photo of an AEW.1, trying to locate it.

 

Excellent progress there with yours!

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  • 2 months later...

Well after nearly 2 months of tinkering slowly away on this project I think it is now fair for an update. First up was a tad of filling before fitting the radome on, The Esci kit dome was assembled and given a darn good filling, along with the airbrake well underneath.

 

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Then it was onto the tail planes. These are just standard kit items but have the distinctive winglets, which aren't supplied by the Tamiya version. I took these from the Esci kit but their initial fit was rather poor.

 

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I pondered on trying to make the winglets fit the tail or tail to fit winglet, I wanted to keep the tail in one piece so decided to cut the winglet. This was cut in half and then the internal faces were shaped to fit the contour of the wing, I also drilled a hole in the winglet and tail to accept a piece of plastic rod just so I have something a bit more substantial to fit to the tail. Here we have everything is situ but with an ugly gap....

 

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So I went for overkill and heavily glued a large chunk of plastic in the gap

 

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Once in position I actually managed to put it aside for a week rather than tinker with it straight away (as is the norm, zero patience!) This was then shaped and blended in (with a bit of filler as well) and now looks quite pukka, but alas I didn't take a final phot so this long distance version will have to do with that tail planes just slotted in.

 

20171211_195813

 

So what else have we progressed with, after quite a bit of fettling and tinkering I got the radome to sit well enough to secure, so this was well glued in! and then well filled with PPP, I preferred to use this type as I could get a wet cotton bud into the tiny gaps to fair it in smoother rather than try to rub it all down with wet and dry once hard. Also visible you can see the catapult hook recess filled (again would have been easier BEFORE fitting the radome!) and also the boxing in of the oil cooler exhaust protuberance (more on that in a bit).

 

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So now onto the seat, This is totally different to the kit version which I believe is an early version of AAES (Aircraft Assisted Escape System, ie ejector seat). The AEW version just had a basic type bucket seat so this was made up from a basic spitfire bucket seat and then plasticarded and miliputted into something totally different.

 

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with a quick check to ensure it would fit in comfortably

 

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A little more shaping and painting produced a reasonable effort

 

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Also in the above photo you can see I have fitted the fairing behind the headrest. This was the original Esci kit part and fitted reasonably well. I opened the end of it up to show some electronic wizardry boxes, on an operational aircraft this was covered by a fabric cover so I showed this for a bit of interest and will add a fabric curtain in there later made from tin foil, just to show a bit more interest (I did already have a 'curtain' fitted but what with my sausage fingers didn't stay secured in place very long!). The seat just needs a couple of harnesses and then that'll be good.

 

Now onto those protuberances, when the radome was fitted it covered a cooler exhaust (I think oil cooler?) so this exhaust had to be moved and it was split either side of the airframe and boxed in (see earlier fots of the real thing). I used an existing fairing for basic shape, size and positioning and just continued that with some plastic card. It was all done by eye as trying to cut pieces to fit the contour of the aircraft was (to me) surprisingly difficult. So I made it way oversize and just trimmed it down. Here you can see how it blends in behind the engine covers, the other side being near as darn it the same.

 

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From overhead the two of them look slightly unequal but I think there may be a bit of parallax going on (that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!)

 

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Finally for now I added the slats for the wing tips, again taken from the Esci kit and made to fit.

 

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So there we are for now, I think we are all caught up, just got to add a couple more bits, mainly leading edge extensions above the undercarriage area and to make the inserts for the mainwheel undercarriage bay. Then its out with the primer to see how much work is required prior to proper painting. My only regret so far in this build is that I should have painted and primed the landing gear wells BEFORE putting the wings together!

 

Hopefully wont be another 2 months before I am back!

 

Bob

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Very nice work...it reminds me of a commission build I did a few years back for a customer.  It was a 1/48 A-1E conversion with the C & H Aero Miniatures / Matchbox kit.  Like yours a bit of work to get all the bits correct. 

 

I know there is a conversion now for it --rather expensive I believe too.

 

 

Good work


Steve,

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Coming right along there, Bob. Looking good. I have thoughts to take one of the old revell odd scale skyraiders and make it into an AEW1. Press on with your build. Again looking good.

Ron VanDerwarker

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Again thanks for the positive feedback! Just a quick update today as I have reached an important milestone. First a quick close up look of those tail planes with the winglets

 

20171214_065553

 

This is after a quick prime so you get the general gist of it. Quite happy with it and under 500 thou of paint should blend in nicely, so back to the progress, I looked at those leading edge extensions that can be seen above the landing gear area. I haven't been able to distinguish whether they are a solid triangular piece (as you can see on a BAe Hawk) or whether it is a simple thin plate arrangement. For now I have gone for the latter. If it turns out to be a solid version I can easily add a bit of filler and shape it to give the desired effect. My effort was shaped from some thin aluminium stock, folded in half and then folded outwards to form a couple of flanges as shown below.

 

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I am now undecided as I think it looks a bit overstated. I will stare at it over the next couple days and ponder on whether it stays as is or if I go for a 2 piece affair which would be smaller and thinner but more fragile. In the meantime I did the same for the other side.....

 

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Happy with that! Then looked through a few more references and noticed something in one of my earlier reference shots

 

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Yep above the landing gear on this side.......There isn't one fitted! So that'll be whipped off pretty soon! As compared to the Starboard side

 

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Hmmmm at least I noticed this now and not much later!

 

So then its onto that milestone! I have at last given her a coat of primer! This is basically to check out my filler areas and see what requires more work. So here she is in all her grey glory.

 

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I am now pondering if my engraving on the fuselage is a bit too deep. I do hate rescribing as I never know when to stop just like when it comes to spraying. I may give it a thicker coat of primer and rub it down to soften them a bit. I haven't given her a good once over yet but initial views are favourable, and the underside?

 

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At least the bulbous blob on the bottom is looking sweet and I am happy with that, but in this view those leading edge extensions are looking even bigger (even though the port one is coming off later!), I think it looks a tad too big..... Oh well back to the drawing board!

 

Going to rest my eyes now and let them recover from all the straining!

 

Laters All!

 

Bob

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Great job so far, Bob; this is not a simple conversion by any means.  I was in Cobham Hall only last week - if I'd known I would have taken more of the Skyraider, but in truth it is still hard to get very near, because there is so much stuff round it!

 

Glad to see your back on this one.

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Sorry I'm late to the party.

Looking very nice indeed.

A couple of points which you are probably aware of,in which case ignore me. Those roundels look a bit dark.see attached photo.

The wheel openings on the AEW1 were round..again see photo. Is that a template in your tailplane photos in post 17?

p1502422748-3.jpg

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Hello again!

 

1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

if I'd known I would have taken more of the Skyraider

That's ok, when I visited last I managed to get quite a few including some internal, but no matter how many shots you take there will always be that little (but highly important!) area that you always miss!

 

41 minutes ago, Scimitar said:

Those roundels look a bit dark.see attached photo.

I hadn't thought that far ahead, they definitely seem more visible compared to the dark background in that photo, certainly something I will look into when I come to the final coat stage, I was thinking of blanking off the roundels and undercoating them white to lighten them especially for the white areas, just hoping my lettering is nice and thickly printed though as I don't fancy masking that off!.

 

44 minutes ago, Scimitar said:

The wheel openings on the AEW1 were round..again see photo. Is that a template in your tailplane photos in post 17?

That is something I saw and the plans are afoot to do that. Before I fit the blanking plug I need to spray the wells blue, so that will be done soon and then it will be on with dem der blanks, but thanks for pointing it out, I have been known to sometimes miss the obvious! and its handy to have a reminder. No those templates are just random tape circles, probably some wheel masks.:D

 

47 minutes ago, Scimitar said:

 

p1502422748-3.jpg

Thanks for posting this picture though, its the best view I have of the underside. I can't make it out clearly but I think I was right to get rid of the underside airbrake. It does give me a much clearer indication of what goes on underneath, see my earlier comment, lamenting not taking enough pictures when I had the chance!

 

Thanks for the input!

Bob

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The stall strip was only on the right wing as you've discovered, triangular and about the width of the wheel well. Too late now and a minor detail in any event but the finlets were angled to the left by three degrees (the fin in the kit probably doesn't have exactly the right twist or airfoil anyway). The forward facing landing gear door, if it was present, was shaped slightly differently because it had to accommodate the catapult hook that had been moved to the landing gear strut (the -4's was also different from the -6's in the width of the fairing). Send me your email address by PM if you would like to have a copy of my notes but you've pretty much figured out the rest on your own.

 

Dang - I keep misremembering that the straight -4 (but not the -4W) had the same wheel well door configuration as the -6/7. The forward facing door on the AD-4W had the narrower fairing of earlier ADs. So did the AD-5. See http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2016/09/skale-wings-172-douglas-ad-5w-skyraider.html and scroll down to an illustration comparing the wide (wheel well doors) and narrow (open wheel well) fairings.

Edited by Tailspin Turtle
Correcting senior moment...
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