Airfix Skyraider - Resuming work after about 20 years

[Possibly Apocryphal]

It's a while since I've done any serious work on historical model subjects.  For the past decade or so I've concentrated mainly on wargame figures, but my interests tend to go in circles (or perhaps downward spirals), and I'm redirecting my focus back to aircraft.  Up until the mid to late 90s, my scale of choice was 1:72, but then I switched to 1:48, and I embraced all the aftermarket stuff with as much enthusiasm as anyone, but I do miss the days before then, when all your extra detail had to be scratchbuilt.  So I've dusted off (literally - it was covered in it!) an Airfix 1:72 Skyraider that I put quite a bit of effort into back in the day, but never finished.  Here it is as it now, having waited patiently for so long for work to resume.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems the rudder has gone AWOL, so i'll need to scratchbuild a new one.  That's probably where I'll start, then detail and mount the engine.  Still a lot to do, but I'm looking forward to it!

[arbrownra]

Lovely work so far.

 

I look forward to following your progress!

[spaddad]

with you for this one

[Martian]

Lovely work, modelling just the way I like it!

 

Martian

[Spad]

Spad's in hot!

Lovely work so far!

 

Edited April 27, 2017 by Spad

[Possibly Apocryphal]

Well, it's certainly nice to see a few of you are interested!

 

Here's the first progress report.  As promised, I've replaced the missing rudder with a scratchbuilt one.  Also done some work on the ailerons and flaps to get them to fit better.  They still need a few details, including the prominent flap hinges under the wings.  I've also put some work into reshaping the propeller blades, but more on that next time.  Here's the new rudder:

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Great detail work.

I'm looking forward to the end result.

[Possibly Apocryphal]

Pete, I think the model itself is too!  It's certainly waited long enough.

[Tentacles]

Impressive stuff. Got one of these in the stash, so will be following this!

[georgeusa]

Great rudder build. I am always impressed by the skill shown in scratch building on this site. Makes my woeful efforts look puny in comparison. Looks like you did some considerably nice detail work prior to letting this kit "rest" for a while. 

[Brandy]

This is my kind of modelling, and it's pretty damn good for 20 years ago! I'm sure this is a stunner in the making..

 

Ian 

[k5054nz]

I absolutely LOVE seeing old kits get updated like this. Bring on the next update!

[Raygunsnap]

Great SPAD!  Really nice update to an elderly kit.

 

What paint scheme and markings will you use?

[Possibly Apocryphal]

Thanks for all the kind words.  I'm really feeling the love here!

Raygunsnap, I'm planning on a VNAF machine.  516th FS, 41st TW.  This one, in fact

 

[Hamden]

 

 

Nice work updating this old Airfix offering! Looking forward to more of the same!

Will follow along as well if you don't mind?

 

  Roger

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

Blimey that looks good. Great work mate.

 

Cheers

 

Iain

[Radar]

Great work, pity I only saw this thread this morning as I'm sure I have an Airfix Spad fuselage you could have had the rudder from. I have two Aeroclub AEW's in the pipeline. Will watch closely for tips.

cheers

Ian

[Possibly Apocryphal]

16 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

 

Nice work updating this old Airfix offering! Looking forward to more of the same!

Will follow along as well if you don't mind?

 

  Roger

Of course I don't mind, Roger, the more the merrier!

 

14 hours ago, Radar said:

Great work, pity I only saw this thread this morning as I'm sure I have an Airfix Spad fuselage you could have had the rudder from. I have two Aeroclub AEW's in the pipeline. Will watch closely for tips.

cheers

Ian

No worries, Ian, I actually had a spare Airfix fuselage myself, but I decided it would be just as easy to scratchbuild a new rudder as to make a decent one from the kit part.

Edited April 30, 2017 by Possibly Apocryphal
typo

[Possibly Apocryphal]

Today's update:  I've done most of the detailing now on the upper fuselage.  Added an extra armour plate from 5 thou plastic card, added the armour bolts and step plus the lateral plates above the upper exhaust.  I assume they're to shield the glowing exhaust outlets from the pilot's view so as not to ruin is night vision.  Also added the rear bank of engine cylinders on a spacer and added the exhaust pipes from 1mm plastic rod.  And finally, added the blade aerial just behind the cockpit.

 

 

 

With the engine cowling in place (not glued on yet), it's starting to look quite Skyraidery.

 

[Graeme H]

this is really great stuff, hope you don't get distracted, and will get it finished before this years QMHE

[Possibly Apocryphal]

Here's a thing.  I went through my old magazines that I still had stored in moving boxes in my garage from when I moved house a couple of years ago.  I couldn't find my copy of the Skyraider in Detail & Scale (must have found its way into a box that I marked wrongly when I packed it), so I was after a set of scale drawings, and I was pretty sure I had what I needed somewhere.  Sure enough, Scale Aviation Modeller International from October '98 had just what I was looking for - a lovely set of drawings by Richard Caruana, in 1:72. 

 

 

Well that what they would have you believe anyway.  Because, this: (!)

 

 

That's a huge discrepancy!  So the first thing I did was check the scale.  2 metres in 1:72 is 27.78mm

 

 

No problem there, that's bang on.  But I was still sure the Aifix kit wasn't that far off.  Next step is check the wingspan, because that's nearly always the least ambiguous dimension.  According to Squadron/Signal's A-1 Skyraider Walkaround it's 50 ft 1/4 in (15.2m).  Their conversion isn't really precise, it's actually 15.246m, but let's not get pedantic.  In 1:72 that's 211.75mm.  And the wingspan of the Airfix kit is.........................a fraction under 210.  So it's basically correct, and the drawings somehow got reproduced in an incorrectly large scale.  Just goes to show, you always need to verify anything that doesn't seem right (and probably a lot of things that do seem right as well.)

 

 

Edited May 1, 2017 by Possibly Apocryphal

[Troy Smith]

1 hour ago, Possibly Apocryphal said:

Here's a thing.  I went through my old magazines that I still had stored in moving boxes in my garage from when I moved house a couple of years ago.  I couldn't find my copy of the Skyraider in Detail & Scale (must have found its way into a box that I marked wrongly when I packed it), so I was after a set of scale drawings, and I was pretty sure I had what I needed somewhere.  Sure enough, Scale Aviation Modeller International from October '98 had just what I was looking for - a lovely set of drawings by Richard Caruana, in 1:72. 

 

 

 

Well that what they would have you believe anyway.  Because, this: (!)

 

 

 

That's a huge discrepancy!  So the first thing I did was check the scale.  2 metres in 1:72 is 27.78mm

 

 

 

No problem there, that's bang on.  But I was still sure the Aifix kit wasn't that far off.  Next step is check the wingspan, because that's nearly always the least ambiguous dimension.  According to Squadron/Signal's A-1 Skyraider Walkaround it's 50 ft 1/4 in (15.2m).  Their conversion isn't really precise, it's actually 15.246m, but let's not get pedantic.  In 1:72 that's 211.75mm.  And the wingspan of the Airfix kit is.........................a fraction under 210.  So it's basically correct, and the drawings somehow got reproduced in an incorrectly large scale.  Just goes to show, you always need to verify anything that doesn't seem right (and probably a lot of things that do seem right as well.)

 

 

 

I'd be wary of anything by Caruana, without something to check against.

 

if you can't find your Detail and scale, the Skyraider volume is scanned here

http://www.boxartden.com/gallery/index.php/Profiles/Detail-Scale/67-Douglas-AD

 

note most of the others are, plus plenty of other OOP references.

 

very  neat work  going one here

cheers

T

[Possibly Apocryphal]

Thanks for sharing that Troy!  That's a fantastic resource, and I will definitely be making frequent use of it.

[Martian]

This continues to impress! A good job you rumbled those dodgy plans before you started t try and "correct" the kit.

 

Martian

[Possibly Apocryphal]

So, a bit more progress.  I've added a bit of detail to the engine.  I didn't want to go mad with it, since it won't be too visible, but I think I've done enough to make it look ok.

 

 

Now, the propeller.  Well there's good news and bad news.  The good news is, it has the right number of blades (not that that's a huge surprise, Airfix rarely made errors of that magnitude, although if you ever build their SM.79 I suggest you do a quick audit of the engine cylinders).  But wait, there's more!  They got the diameter just right as well.  But that's where the good news ends.  The shape of the blades is simply hilarious.  But when I examined them, I decided there didn't seem to be anywhere where anything was undersized, so I could get them pretty close to correct by carving and sanding the excess materiel away.  As it turns out, they ended up looking pretty close to how they should, although the tips might be a little too tapered, and should perhaps be a little more square.  Here's an unmodified one along with my corrected prop.

 

 

And all put together, it looks like this:

 

There are still a couple of sink holes that need filling, but that's a simple task.