richdlc

*update 7th June 2014* It's been a long time since my last update so I thought I'd bring you all up to speed. I've been working mostly on the engine mount and accessory compartment, but I have also detailed the rudder - I'm using parts from the Eduard exterior detail set. Although designed for the AD-4 kit, most of the parts are suitable for the AD-6 too. I cut out the various notches and holes visible on the real thing where the inner workings of the rudder are visible. The static dischargers were added from thin plastic tube and wire. I also added the gadget that prevents the rudder and tailplane from moving when the aircraft is parked. Prominent in my reference photos, and also visible on several photos taken of Skyraiders in Vietnam. I re-positioned the trim tabs to give the part a little more 'life' Next, I once again looked to the engine mount and bulkhead. Once the fuselage halves were joined and the wings attached, I was left with a huge gap where the lower wing meets the bottom of the bulkhead - this is because I stripped back the panels right to the bulkhead in order to show off more of the engine. Rather than mess around trying to fill it, I simply removed all the kit's moulded-on surface details and created a new lower bulkhead from plastic card. I could now start building up the details again. These photos will show you the kind of stuff I needed to add: You'll notice that many of the pipes on the bulkhead have their ends taped off - that's because they attach to other pipes and parts of the engine that I have yet to figure out. Also many wires are dangling loose. I replicated what I could see, making sure that I left each exposed pipe 'end' hollow. That way I can attach wires and hoses later, and they will be much stronger.I always work this way so that I can maintain structural strength, although it does sometimes mean hollowing out the ends of 0.2 mm plastic tubing! Any loose, dangling wires will be added later, once I can work out where the other end terminates. Detail was built up in layers. I tried to be as accurate as possible, although there is a little bit of artistic licence here and there, due to fit issues with other parts.

ask on the luftwaffe experten message board... failing that, there are plenty of reference books that will help - Luftwaffe camouflage & markings 1933-45 volumes 1 and 2, and German Cockpit Interiors by Merrick, The Monogram Guide to Painting German Aircraft by Hitchcock, Luftwaffe Colours by Ullmann etc etc etc

looks mega tom - never mind the 32 SIG table mate, this should be in the competition!!

cheers tom! Yeah I was pleased with how it turned out - trouble is, once you do one bit you can't back out of the rest... I imagine a lot will be hidden under the SEA camo scheme I'm going to use, but if the light is right you get a very nice 'shadow' effect. Also it doesn't matter if you add a few dings and scrapes anywhere on the airframe, as long as you polish them out - it all adds to the realism. One thing I would stress is that you should try your best to get each line as straight as you can, to better approximate the rib / spar positions under the skin. Anyway, follow this guide here and you can't go wrong: http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/stressedskineffectkh_1.htm

Here's how it turned out - not bad for a first try! The macro photos exaggerate everything of course - once I shot a coat of primer over everything, the effect became much more subtle: According to the next stage of the process, you are supposed to go along each 'trench' with a riveting tool - I'll decide whether or not to do this after studying more photos. If the riveting is quite apparent on the real airframe, I may have a go replicating it on the model. Next we have one or two small fuselage details - just above the tailwheel is a small hole (on each side) through which the locking device for the wheel is located - to replicate this I chopped out sections of fuselage & replaced with pieces of drilled plastic sheet. If you look carefully at the photo of the real aircraft you can see the mechanism through the hole. I replicated this on the inside of the fuselage halves with small pieces of plastic and wire. Finally for this update, I added the port side gun camera - strangely Trumpeter decided to only engrave its outline into the plastic. I chopped it out and used a simple piece of clear plastic to replicate the glass, before closing up the inner wing sections. there is a little scratchbuilt camera behind it, but it's virtually invisible! That's it for now - more updates soon! Rich

*update 3/5/14* Hi - time for another update! This time we're concentrating on the weapons pylons, as well as adding some oil canning to the fuselage halves and the wings.. The kit supplied pylons are quite accurate, but can benefit from some extra detail. I decided that I wanted all my pylons to be clean - this is supposed to be an aircraft undergoing maintenance and there wouldn't be any weapons loaded. On each pylon there are large gaps into which the kit's sway braces fit - I went with a photo I fouled in the Squadron walk around book which showed the outer wing pylons clean, without braces fitted. and here's one from a French Skyraider restoration: I then replicated the details as best I could - it's not 100% accurate but close enough for me. This was then repeated ad nauseum with all 12 outer wing pylons. In addition each one had 9 holes drilled on the sides and two on the underneath: after some cleanup and a little more work, here they are with some grey primer: Next up are the inboard pylons - Skyraiders used two types - the early variant with rounded fore and aft sections meeting the wing undersurface, and the later Mk.51 pylons - Trumpeter provides both styles, but the instructions make no mention of why / when to use either one, so be careful. Mine being a later A-1H I went with the later style Mk.51s. I left the sway braces on these, but adjusted them to show the natural 'sag' they display when no ordnance is loaded - again be careful because the kit only provides sway braces in the maximum 'extended' mode - ie supporting a bomb etc. I added some rudimentary details to the underside, but as I had only pen photo as reference this will have to suffice. I also drilled out the relevant holes again - the sway braces have little locking pins that pop into place through these when they are attached. I thought it was more realistic to drill them out & have the detail from the sway braces showing through, rather than leave them filled. The centre pylon got similar treatment - again, i had only one photo so I could only add very basic details - fortunately this will all be hidden on the finished model so I wasn't too fussed. all painted up: After I'd finished that, I decided to attempt some 'oil canning' - I've never done this before, but decided to take the plunge & I'm glad I did. First, you find a cutaway diagram showing where all the ribs and spars are - then mark the relevant lines out thusly with a permanent marker: carefully scrape along each line with a rounded knife blade until the required amount of plastic is removed - the key is to remove a wider, shallower trench than you initially thought, to then sand thoroughly with 1200 grit sandpaper and finally to polish with a dremel and a polishing tool - you should end up with a glassy smooth and shiny surface on which can be seen a subtle stressed skin effect. Keep repeating the sanding and polishing until you're happy.

thanks a lot :-)

cheers guys! Glad you like it & thanks for the comments :-)

great update fozzy, coming along nicely :-)

I started by modifying the inner wings - they both need part of the rear raised moulding cutting off at an angle, as per the real thing: The 'plug' for each inner wing half isn't bad, but I decided to scratch my own rather than modify them: Here's where the reason for that angled cut becomes apparent (view form the rear) it was then a case of patiently building up layers of detail on one side, and replicating it on the other for both the inner and outer wing halves: The actuator rods for each outer wing flap are complex - replicating them accurately required removal of a piece of the leading edge & replacement with round tube and plenty of interior details And the end result: The inner wing folds were less complex - here's the right wing. You can see that I used the kit-supplied mounting pegs, subtly modified, as they were good enough in terms of detail & strength. Real Skyraiders, like many aircraft with folding wings, have a support rod that attached between the wing and the fuselage. I will add this at the final assembly stage. As it stands now, the dry-fitted and folded wing is quite strong, and the kit parts take the strain well. Now compared to the real thing - you can see that there are some hoses and wires to attach, plus a couple of support rods - all to be added later... Next, here's a shot of the field modification peculiar to Air Force A-1Hs - the drop down wingtip light. I searched for ages for photographic proof as according to my sources, it was the E model which had this feature - after a while I had irrefutable proof that this H/J model at least had this modification. Note also that the wingtip leading edge landing lights have been eliminated / faired over. I am assuming (afficionados please correct me if I am wrong) that this mod could also be found on the right hand wing... To make my own, I simply used slivers of appropriately sized plastic tubing, glued and sanded into shape - I will add suitable lenses from the Little Cars range at a later date. I also attached the kit's wingtip landing lights - as they will be painted over there was no need to worry about keeping them clear, and I sanded them smoothly into place: The final part of this update shows what are know as 'beer cans' - little gadgets that pop out of the wing leading edges near the wingfold, to indicate that the wings are indeed in the folded position. Trumpeter incorrectly has then directly on the leading edge, when in fact they are located a few inches below it, and are a particular shape. A simple fix with plastic rod. Note that this photo shows also the gun camera found on the left wing - it is included in the kit, but only scribed into the plastic - I'll need to cut it out and replicate it properly with a clear part: That's about it for now, hope you enjoyed this update comments welcomed as always, Rich

**update 19/4/14** Hi guys - it's been a while since my last update, so I thought I would bring you up to speed with the Skyraider build.. I've mostly been working on the wing fold mechanism and the main gear bays. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I've been very impressed with the level of detail of the Trumpeter kit - nearly every time I spot something in reference photos, Trumpy have at least attempted to replicate it. However, with the obvious limitations of injection moulding, there is always room for improvement. For starters, I managed to get the other main gear leg finished - a virtual copy of the first one. Here they are ready for priming: Next I painted the main wheel bays - first of all in US Interior green (Revell SM352) and then in US Camouflage Grey (Humbrol 20) - I attempted to use the salt weathering effect before I applied the Grey, with mixed results - it kind of looks like the washed out winter camouflage you'd find on a WWII German or Russian tank. After I had applied a dark wash it all kind of blended together. I am happy with the result though, and it doesn't look terrible. At the final stages of construction I will add some dust pigments. Here's what we have at the moment: Next up, I started on the wing folds. I was debating earlier in the build whether to show the wings folded or not - in the end I couldn't resist showing all that nice wing fold detail! The left outer wing is going to be removed and displayed next to the aircraft, which will be in a maintenance diorama (I found a nice inspirational shot of just such an occurence in the Wayne Mutza book 'The A-1 Skyraider in Vietnam' published by Schiffer) - I'll also leave the inboard cannon out of the airframe and detail it up for display. The right wing will be shown folded on the aircraft. with both of its cannons in place. First off, here are some inspirational shots of real machines - as always, images are from the net and I take no credit for them - they are for illustrative purposes only.

looking awesome tom :-)

thanks guys

thanks a lot mate! It's just mimicry though - copy what you see ;-)

*update 23/3/14* Hello again - time for my latest update. I've been working on the main wheel wells, and the inboard guns / wing folds. I have been consistently surprised by the high detail levels of this kit - I'd like to think this was all Trumpeter's doing. I haven't seen the Zoukei Mura kit, but I imagine the Trumpy effort comes close in terms of details. Nevertheless, there was plenty more I could add... I decided early on to replace the kit's landing gear strut with a white metal alternative. I'm not usually a big fan of Scale Aircraft Conversions sets - from what I can tell, the only real advantage is that you get a main gear strut that's much stronger than the kit part - the rest is pretty crude. For over £15.00 a set, I would expect better - but then again, I guess there are even more limitations with using white metal than there are for plastic / resin. I would much prefer just to get the main gear struts for a cheaper price, rather than a box full of extra stuff that is more or less useless.. Anyhow, I bought the set, used the main struts and discarded the rest. I then proceeded to make everything I needed from plastic sheet, strip and rod, as well as fuse wire for all the wiring, and pewter sheet for any data placards etc... Step 1 - here are the components from the Scale Aircraft Conversions set, alongside the Trumpeter wheel hubs and a set or replacement resin tyres from Zoukei Mura - they are for the ZM kit and some modification of the Trumpeter parts is needed to get them to fit inside the ZM tyres. The ZM parts are much better than the rubber tyres supplied in the kit, but I was a little disappointed to see that there is no lettering on them whatsoever - the real thing has prominent Goodyear raised lettering - I would have thought ZM would get this right?? No matter, the wheels are now assembled and there's no turning back... only the main gear legs of the Scale Aircraft Conversions set were used - modified kit hubs can be seen on top, unmodified on the bottom. Zoukei Mura wheels designed for their kit, but can be used on the Trumpeter one with some modifications: support struts - Trumpeter on left, S.A.C. on right - both pretty useless: These struts are part of the retraction mechanism and are pretty prominent on the real thing (the inboard ones are slightly different from the outboard ones) Here's the S.A.C. white metal ones on the top, and the various stages of manufacturing plastic replacements below: A bit better: I started to build up the other pieces I would need for each gear leg. The S.A.C. set is a direct copy of the Trumpeter part, except in metal. Both manufacturers would have you attach the 'spats' so they protrude ahead of the sponsons (?) at the wing's leading edge - this is incorrect. On the real aircraft they are slightly recessed behind the sponsons. Here's the real thing (photo by Sergey Kazak for scalemodels.ru, for illustrative purposes only): And the solution: Here's the result of that simple modification: Each 'spat' also has a pronounced curve outwards - the kit parts do not, so out came the sandpaper (photo by Sergey Kazak for scalemodels.ru, for illustrative purposes only): Note that this is the spat from the opposite side to the above photo I then proceeded to add all the details I could see from my reference pics - here's some photos of the real aircraft - you can see that the retraction mechanism is quite intricate.. And here's the left wheel strut: I couldn't get it 100% accurate but I tried my best... The wheel's inner face got some modifications - the real one has a nice 'busy' look to it: Here's mine: et voila: The left gear strut is more or less finished - just have to replicate everything for the other side now... ------------------ Next up I made some modifications to the inboard 20mm cannons - they are fairly well detailed to begin with, but warrant some extra attention. I added the recoil springs and everything else I could see from some shots of Oerlikon cannons I found online. I am assuming that the American designation of 'M3 cannon' is another name for the Hispano Suiza or Oerlikon. In any case, they looked pretty identical to images I found, so I went with them - here's one I found: And here are my cannons after modifications - note that I only detailed the side that can be seen! I've learned my lesson (not) That's it for now - questions and comments welcomed & thanks for checking in! Rich

*update 28/2/14* Hi - here's another update. I have been working on the main wheel wells - the kit parts are generally very good, with some nice details. However, they certainly benefit from some brass update parts from the Eduard AD-4 exterior detail set (which can be used with the AD-6 as the real thing was virtually identical in this area) as well as some scratchbuilt additions. Here's the front bulkhead of the main gear well as provided by Trumpeter - as you can see it isn't terrible, but I have never liked the moulded on piping you get in injection moulded kits, so I scratched my own replacements: replacement parts: left well right well and a photo of the real thing - both wells are essentially the same apart from some extra wiring for the pitot probe on the right well (photo courtesy scalemodels.ru for illustrative purposes only) now here are some photos of the wells for the main gear struts (photos courtesy scalemodels.ru for illustrative purposes only) - there's a lot of details that can be added to the model, but not a lot that will be seen... Eduard brass parts - I built up false bulkheads behind them & added some piping and wiring and from the other side - they are a definite improvement on the kit parts, but warrant some further detailing: the pipe sticking up in this shot will be bent to shape and disappear into the hole on the top right of the forward wall once I glue the wing halves together. This is the right hand wheel bay - the other side is essentially a mirror image: all of this is naturally completely pointless as it will no doubt be hidden from view...but it's nice to know it's there. Plenty more detail to add, but before I can join the wing halves I also have to think about the wing fold mechanism...and the guns....and a million other things. until next time!

thanks guys!

*Update 23/2/14* Hi - I'm long overdue for an update, so here goes... I have more or less finished the cockpit - I'm using the resin upgrade set from Aires to enhance this area - although it is in fact designed for the Zoukei Mura kit, with a bit of fiddling it can be squeezed into the Trumpy fuselage with few problems. Here are some shots - I was very impressed overall with the Aires cockpit tub and sidewalls - they are about 95% complete and very nicely done. I added the throttle levers (which broke off on my set in transit - a common problem with these tiny details, unfortunately). To get the rudder pedals in the right position I had to add a few pieces of plastic card. Fortunately everything is more or less hidden once the I.P. and coaming go on As I had built the ejector seat by dead reckoning, it was slightly overscale and sits too far forward - for this reason I had to move the control column forward towards the I.P. - I then covered everything up with a canvas 'boot' made from tissue paper soaked in superglue. One final modification was to hollow out the recess on the right hand side of the cockpit tub control panel for the wing fold lever - it's important to note that the Aires set has this in the 'wings unfolded' position - if you want to display the wings folded, the deployed lever needs to be added. I want to show one wing folded, and the other removed for servicing. I will add the lever at a later date. Aires cockpit with some extra modifications and details - armour plating panel at the rear is a kit part, as is the forward bulkhead (which is also the engine mount bulkhead) canvas boot added to control column, and recess for wing fold lever added at top right of picture: sidewalls with some rudimentary extra details added - a lot of this will be hidden but it's nice to know it's there: Next was the I.P. - the Aires set is very nice, but is designed for the smaller, narrower Zoukei Mura cockpit (which makes me wonder, which company, Z.M. or Trumpeter, has got it right??). I used the bottom resin part from the Aires set, and scratched the top part from plastic card. The etched brass and instrument film are from the Aires set, and very nicely done they are too. The thing in the middle of the I.P. is the pull-out map tray. Next I finished painting the Yankee seat. Colours seem to vary widely on the real thing, so this is an amalgamation - general consensus is that it was light grey with green cushions and headrest, so that's what I went for. cockpit was then painted up and seat / I.P. attached. Any data panels you can see are from Airscale. I added a very nice remove before flight tag to the seat from HGW. These are lazer-cut paper and very realistic, and I prefer them to the other available options (photo-etched from the likes of Eduard etc) The I.P. coaming provided in the Aires set is a vast improvement on the Trumpeter part - unfortunately it is too small and narrow, not being designed for the Trumpy kit. I therefore used the kit part but heavily modified it. Kit part of left, Aires on right modified part (sorry for the poor photo of this one) and painted up - the gunsight is one of the AIres kit parts, but I added the lens (from the Little Cars range) and replaced the HUD glass with some suitable clear plastic. Various other details form plastic strip & rod, plus various gauge fuse wire. The instrument faces are from the spares box and are by Reheat (if memory serves): The last thing for this update is a shot of the replacement tail wheel I made, with kit part on the right - my machine is a USAF one, and as far as I aware it used an inflatable tyre better suited to land-based operations, as opposed to the solid rubber one used by Navy machines for carrier use. I am really enjoying building this kit - the overall level of accurate detail is great, but it's fun to add more. Hope you enjoyed the update, more to come soon! Rich

rings a bell...I remember one of the F-14 - colour foldout centrefold.... dammit!

best Huey I've ever seen , and one of the best modelling projects I've witnessed - thanks for sharing

*update 29/01* Another update! I made a start on the cockpit, namely the Yankee ejector seat. Trumpeter only provides the bucket seat for the Korean War variant. I bought the Aires cockpit set too - this is designed for the ZM kit, but with some chopping and changing, the parts can be used in the Trumpy kit. One of the oddest egress systems ever designed, the Stanley YANKEE system was utilized in the Douglas A-1 Skyraider. This system functions by means of a extraction rocket similar in principle to the drogue gun systems on normal ejection seats. Once the catapult charge fires, the spin stabilized rocket is fired when the pendant lines reach full stretch. Photos of the seat are hard to find, but I managed to get around a dozen from various sources, including the net and the Squadron Walk Around book. Here are some of the shots I used: my seat turned out to be an amalgamation of various different seat styles, with a little bit of guesswork. Anyway, I'm happy with it. I chopped up the kit's bucket seat (on the right, Aires part on the left) Built up the frame from plastic card - nothing too fancy as a lot will be hidden: added parts gradually from plastic card and strip, with milliput cushions: And ended up with this - more bits to add at the final construction stage, but this is more or less done. Lap and shoulder harnesses were made from some leftover bits from a Radu B seatbelt set and some pewter sheet, oxy hose made from 15 amp fuse wire wrapped around 30 amp: Finally for now, I used some parts from the Eduard AD-4 exterior set to dress up the dive brakes on the fuselage sides. The AD-4 set has plenty of parts that are still applicable for, and can be used on the AD-6. I also drilled out the holes you can see to match the real aircraft: More to come soon, stay tuned Rich

more info - I was advised that the interior of the nose should be natural metal for WWII Forts, an that the dark bronze green (and variations thereof) applied to restorations is innacurate....I came to the conclusion that it depends who you talk to (and I guess production batches & manufacturers). I ended up painting mine dark bronze green... also - here's a useful pic of the nose glass heating pipe (with the yellow arrow)

yep - it's in the walk around book - here you go:

Fozzy - Hi. Glad no offence taken! To be honest, when I made my Fort I also missed the shape of the nose opening - I decided I could live with it....ditto the flattened area in front of the pilots. I just thought I would share what others were pointing out in a thread about the accuracy of the HK kit, plus my own observations after looking at bloody fortress pics for 18 months on end! The clear perspex - I've only found one photo - it's in the walk around book if memory serves (either that one of the wings and wheels special book) - I think I lent those two to someone over on LSP (Derek Bradshaw) but I will check for you... Rich

Fozzy - this looks fantastic! Excellent scratching skills. If I might make 3 observations (not that you'll probably care by this stage) but.. the nose (where it joins the nose transparency) isn't circular on the real thing - it is shaped like a 'U' at the bottom. the fuselage is actually flattened in front of the cockpit to aid the pilot/co-pilot and give them a greater view ahead the area underneath the bombardier's seat was actually clear perspex to allow a visual inspection of the chin turret guns Also - modern restorations don't have the heating / hot air tube for the nose transparency, so you'll need to add that.. Hope you don't take that the wrong way! I have hundreds of photos still if you need any detail shots... Rich