[1/48 Sea Harrier FA.2, 800 NAS, Op Allied Force, 1999. Update 22/04.]

Finally, a start! As always, the ordnance to begin. The kit's AIM-9s are fairly soft in detail so I replaced these with a pair from a Tamiya F-16. The AIM-120s are nicely done and the correct B version of the missile, with the larger rear fins. The fuel tanks needed a good tidy up along the seam, but of course I made a mess of re-scribing some detail so will need to be re done!

 

 

Pylons next. More seams to tidy. The Jet Passion BOL rails are excellent.

 

 

Wings:

 

 

Not much but we're off.  A set of lovely 3D printed intakes arrived a few weeks back, courtesy of @wellsprop.

 

 

Finally, I think I've settled on a serial number, simply because I have a picture of it ... ZE693!

 

 

Hoping to get a little done on the cockpit at the weekend.

 

Dave

[1/48 P-51D, 'Old Crow', 363rd FS, 1944. Update 22/04.]

6 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Very nice progress Dave, the IP looks great and I really like how the wheel wells have turned out.

Cheers Craig!

 

More done over the last couple of days. Wings on, some re scribing done then on with the IP and windscreen.

 

 

I used one of the surplus canopies that Eduard provide as a mask for the cockpit. 

 

 

I'm not a fan of the etch pylon shackles so I found some better ones in the spares:

 

 

All sub assemblies ready:

 

 

The lovely drop tanks were removed from their blocks and tidied. These really are exquisite - I did find however that to get them to seat correctly on the pylons, I had to trim down the ridge on the upper surface. The etch fuel lines were an absolute pain, really a hateful job, but they look good once fitted.

 

 

Just about ready for a lick of primer. All the various bits of painting - the stripes, nose and so on - are the bits that have put me off building a Mustang! Lots of 'firsts' to come

 

Dave

[1/72 Airfix B-17G decals]

P-47 sourced thanks to @chrisrope!

[1/48 A-1H Skyraider, BuNo 139768, VA-25, USS Midway, 1965.]

Thanks chaps!

[1/48 P-51D, 'Old Crow', 363rd FS, 1944. Update 22/04.]

8 hours ago, Wings unlevel said:

Worked really well. - the free handing gives the impression of uneven wear. Might borrow that!

Glad it looks that way, truth is I couldn't be bottomed masking it all up

[1/48 P-51D, 'Old Crow', 363rd FS, 1944. Update 22/04.]

14 minutes ago, Wings unlevel said:

Excellent progress Dave, looking forward to seeing this come together. What was your technique for painting the wheel wells?

Thanks mate!

 

For the wheel wells, I sprayed a base coat of black then MRP ‘Super Silver’. The instructions suggest Old Crow had the yellow chromate rear panel, so I used Tamiya XF-4 for that then painted the bits in the centre free hand with thinned XF-4. Flory wash to finish.

[1/48 P-51D, 'Old Crow', 363rd FS, 1944. Update 22/04.]

On 4/12/2024 at 9:00 PM, Farmerboy said:

Drop tanks look the business, word of warning, attachment points on the Eduard kits are minimal to say the least l’ve had to pin drop tanks to get a secure fit.

Thanks for the heads up, will take a look when I get to that stage!

 

Managed a good bit of progress since the last update. Wings first, generally a good fit, though I did have some warped undercarriage parts (I've noticed this has been mentioned on other builds) and needed a little sprue goo to tidy up a bit of the leading edge join:

 

 

Undercarriage bay was painted and weathered prior to fitting:

 

 

Fuselage was also closed up. A good fit, though I do think I had a point out by just a hair which gave me a bit of a bigger seam line to clean up. Stabs and rudder on, along with the various vents on the underside:

 

 

A question for those in the know regarding the large air scoop at the back, just fore of the tail wheel, would the roof, i.e not the door, be painted in the D-Day stripe colour or left as bare metal since it a visible part of the fuselage? The inside of the door and radiator or whatever it is are sprayed silver as things stand.

 

The IP was also assembled, ready to fit:

 

 

A little re-scribing and re-riveting (is that even a word? ) to do on the nose then I'll get the wings on.

 

More soon.

 

Dave

[1/48 A-1H Skyraider, BuNo 139768, VA-25, USS Midway, 1965.]

Thanks chaps!

[1/48 A-1H Skyraider, BuNo 139768, VA-25, USS Midway, 1965.]

Thanks all!

[Baby Boomers Gallery 1: Subjects built 1946 - 1964]

1/48 Tamiya A-1H Skyraider

VA-25 'Fist of the Fleet'

USS Midway, 1965

Build thread

 

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[1/48 A-1H Skyraider, BuNo 139768, VA-25, USS Midway, 1965.]

Hello all,

 

Here is my recently completed 1/48 Tamiya A-1H Skyraider, marked as BuNo 139768 of VA-25 'Fist of the Fleet', flying off the USS Midway during the Vietnam war in 1965.

 

Delivered to the Navy in 1956, this Skyraider served with VA-42 and VA-122 prior to being transferred to VA-25 in July 1964. On the 20th June 1965, this aircraft was piloted by Lt Clint Johnson and was credited with downing a North Vietnamese MIG-17 along with Lt Charlie Hartman. 139768 was passed to VA-115 in 1966 and forced to ditch in the Gulf of Tonkin due to battle damage in March 1967.

 

Build thread:

 

Extras used included:

 

Aeromaster - decals

Brassin - wheels and seat

New Ware - masks

Quickboost - canopy shroud

Quinta - cockpit decals

 

Bombs are from Hasegawa, paint is MRP and the weathering is mixture of Abteilung oils, Flory wash, AK pencils and Tamiya sets.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Dave

[1/48 A-1H Skyraider, BuNo 139768, VA-25, USS Midway, 1965. Finished 16/04.]

19 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Excellent Skyraider hopefully my three will come close to this someday. 

Thanks mate, hope the build is of use to you!

 

Final details added so we're done!

 

 

More photos in RFI.

 

 

Really enjoyed this one, something about a Spad that is just right!

 

As always, thanks to all who commented on/followed the build, greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[1/72 Airfix B-17G decals]

1/48 P-47D Razorback added.

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[1/48 A-1H Skyraider, BuNo 139768, VA-25, USS Midway, 1965. Finished 16/04.]

47 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

She looks great Dave, the additions to the canopy really make a big difference and I like the map too, a very nice touch.

Cheers Craig!

[1/48 A-1H Skyraider, BuNo 139768, VA-25, USS Midway, 1965. Finished 16/04.]

20 hours ago, modelling minion said:

In the final stages now Dave, and looking good too. 

 

8 hours ago, Wings unlevel said:

You’ve got a cracker on your hands there, Dave.

Thanks chaps!

 

Rest of the kablooey stuff is now on, then attached the prop for good measure.

 

 

I went ahead and added a little more soot from the exhausts using neat oils. 

 

 

That's the airframe pretty much done so I added canopy opening handles from some Quinta bits that were in the spares.

 

And popped in a map beside the coaming. Necessary before Google maps became a thing

 

 

A few small details to add to the cockpit now. Hoping to have it done by Wednesday at the latest. Quite chuffed with how it's looking!

 

More soon.

 

Dave

[1/48 A-1H Skyraider, BuNo 139768, VA-25, USS Midway, 1965. Finished 16/04.]

13 hours ago, CliffB said:

I'm very impressed Dave.  Great work.

Thanks Cliff!

 

Managed to pop on the undercarriage. Couldn't resist and added both rocket pods and the bombs on one wing, along with the fuel tank.

 

 

A small detail added - the gun camera port is just a void, so filled it some with some Canopy Zap PVA and added a dab of gloss. An idea entirely pinched from @Dads203 .

You can see it between the innermost cannon and pylon.

 

 

Next lot of bombs on tomorrow then just a few details around the cockpit to finish.

 

Dave

[1/48 A-1H Skyraider, BuNo 139768, VA-25, USS Midway, 1965. Finished 16/04.]

43 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Really nice work Dave, the Spad was a notoriously grubby aircraft after seeing any serious use and you have captured that look very well indeed and is even restrained compared to some of the more heavily weathered examples.

Cheers Craig! I was thinking about adding a little more to the wings and exhausts but will see how I go towards the end

[1/48 P-51D, 'Old Crow', 363rd FS, 1944. Update 22/04.]

On 4/9/2024 at 3:41 PM, modelling minion said:

Cracking start on your Mustang Dave, the cockpit looks superb.

Thanks Craig!

[1:48 Eduard P-51D SAAF]

Lovely work John!

[1/48 A-1H Skyraider, BuNo 139768, VA-25, USS Midway, 1965. Finished 16/04.]

More progress and this one just seems to have come together really rather quickly! Was able to get the decals on at the start of the week. A couple of the Aeromaster decals silvered slightly, despite the surface being glass like with gloss😫. Anyway, I ended up using more kit decals than the aftermarket set as they behaved a little better. Once set with a top coat of gloss, I fired on some Flory dark dirt wash.

 

 

I left that to cure for a day and bit then got to the weathering. Skyraiders became fairly grubby!

 

 

So I hit the inner wings and the exhaust area the heaviest, using a mixture of Abteilung black, Sepia, Engine Grease and Raw Umber. Once set, I highlighted the soot stains with some Tamiya weathering sets. I then lost the run of myself and fitted the wire running from the tail to the fuselage, antenna, the Quickboost canopy shroud, canons and inner pylons. A note on the latter, these aren't a great fit - I needed a small bead of PPP to tidy up the join.

 

Seat in and windscreen mask off. Some chipping around the frame from AK pencils.

 

 

Not a bad few days off work, despite the rain . Will get the undercarriage fitted on Sunday evening all being well.

 

More soon.

 

Dave

[1/72 Airfix B-17G decals]

Hello all,

 

Recently picked up a 1/72  Airfix B-17G for a great price, knowing it had no decals.

 

Would anyone who has built the first boxing of their latest tooling or the later boxing any decals that they no longer need? I do have some Kitsworld examples but not convinced they're suitable for a G with the Cheyenne tail set up.

 

A whole sheet would be great but will settle for anything at this stage!

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[1/48 A-1H Skyraider, BuNo 139768, VA-25, USS Midway, 1965. Finished 16/04.]

On 4/7/2024 at 7:31 PM, modelling minion said:

Neat painting again Dave, the red Sharpie works wonders on the undercarriage doors.

 

On 4/7/2024 at 10:14 PM, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Yeah it’s a trick I used for many of my navy/usmc builds. 

It's a godsend for that job! One of the trickiest parts of any USN build for me

[1/48 Sea Harrier FA.2, 800 NAS, Op Allied Force, 1999. Update 22/04.]

On 4/3/2024 at 8:37 AM, Marlin said:

Nice choice Dave.

This one I'll be following very closely. 

 

/Bosse  

 

On 4/5/2024 at 10:03 PM, vppelt68 said:

Welcome, I'm sure this build will jump off your bench quickly! V-P 

 

On 4/8/2024 at 12:35 PM, modelling minion said:

Nice choice Dave, these Kinetic Harriers can be PITA to build but I'm sure you will get a great result, especially as this isn't your first one.

Thanks all! Hope I get it done this time round! The GBs are coming thick and fast and I may have overcommitted

[1/48 P-51D, 'Old Crow', 363rd FS, 1944. Update 22/04.]

On 4/7/2024 at 4:35 PM, shortCummins said:

those drop tanks look absolutely spot on 👍

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

Thanks John. The detail on them is incredible!

 

On 4/7/2024 at 10:44 PM, 2996 Victor said:

Very nice work on the cockpit components with realistic weathering. Looking forward to seeing this one come together. 

 

Cheers, 

Mark 

Thanks Mark!

On 4/8/2024 at 10:11 AM, Wings unlevel said:

Cracking start for a day’s work. Oh, if you need me I’ll be searching online for those gorgeous drop tanks…

Well worth the investment mate!

[1/48 P-51D, 'Old Crow', 363rd FS, 1944. Update 22/04.]

So, a long overdue start. Gave myself a shake yesterday and tore into this one. Cockpit first, all went together very well. I added some weathering (scuffing) to the plywood floor and some chipping here and there to the seat.

 

 

Fuselage sides next, again some light chipping and a light wash/dry brush to bring out some details. 

 

 

Finally, these arrived a couple of weeks ago:

 

 

The quality compared to the kit parts is incredible!

 

Next up will be to close up the fuselage and get some work done on the undercarriage wells.

 

More soon.

 

Dave