Old School Spad, Monogram's 1/48 A-1 Skyraider VNAF, Finished!!!

[modelling minion]

Well as a result of looking for references for @stevej60's potential A-1E build and after seeing the simply fantastic job that @SoftScience is doing on his Tamiya A-1, not to mention our Glorious leaders ( @trickyrich ) brilliant looking 1/32 resin A-1E I fell into the trap of getting caught up in Skyraider research, a truly dangerous trap for which there is only one way out, build one!

So off to the stash I went and I pulled out an anonymous looking cardboard box;

 

The keen eyed among you may well be able to read what has been written on it by it's previous owner, Skyraider, Monogram, 1/48. Lets see whats inside shall we;

 

Lots of bits loose from the sprues but after having a closer inspection all appears to be complete. In fact a good many of the parts are for the underwing stores, the actual airframe doesn't have that many parts. I have decided to build the kit OOTB complete with the ( deal breaking for many) raised panel lines and with the cockpit which has the seat moulded as part of it.

Well thats the kit sorted, now what about the markings? Well I have long thought that the part played in the Vietnam War by the VNAF is often overlooked in favour of the various American air arms and I don't believe that this is correct as the crews of the VNAF fought a very long and very hard war and were fighting for their country and their families and at the end a great many of them lost everything, including their families. So with this in mind I will be building my Spad as a VNAF machine and am leaning heavily towards one of the early ones in the all over grey scheme with large national markings and a colourful band around the rear fuselage, I shall be building one of the options from this Cutting Edge sheet which I have had for a long time;

 

I really like the bottom one with the swirly Tiger stripes.

I have a couple of reference books which will come in handy;

 

Perhaps I should have started with " my name is Craig and I have a Skyraider problem".  

I shall be making a start soon as an antidote to the ongoing T-28 build, not a lot of fun, and hope that it will be a relatively quick and painless build.

So there you have it, thanks for looking in and any comments and criticisms will be gratefully received.

 

Craig.

Edited October 20, 2020 by modelling minion

[SoftScience]

I just know you'll make this look great. The Monogram kit is every bit as good as the Tamiya. Maybe more troubling fit, but otherwise.

[stevej60]

Great choice Craig it does build well  too this would have been my choice had I not wanted to stick to 1/72 for my Vietnam builds.

[modelling minion]

11 minutes ago, SoftScience said:

I just know you'll make this look great. The Monogram kit is every bit as good as the Tamiya. Maybe more troubling fit, but otherwise.

Thanks, the Monogram kit isn't bad at all. It's quite nicely detailed in places, especially the cockpit as is typical of Monogram. I expect the fit to be worse than the Tamiya kit but at least its all pretty straight forward areas to clean up.

7 minutes ago, stevej60 said:

Great choice Craig it does build well  too this would have been my choice had I not wanted to stick to 1/72 for my Vietnam builds.

Cheers Steve, lets hope it does build up nicely!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Nice choice Craig... Chúc may mắn...! Any chance you're not interested in the VA-176 Thunderbolts decals are there ? 😉

[trickyrich]

haha....you alway have to be careful opening those brown boxes.....you never know what could be inside them! 

 

Mmmm resistance is futile as we all know. That model use to be the standard until Tamiya bought out theirs.

 

I have to admit I will have to add a 1/48th version to the stash sometime soon I think.

 

good luck with this one, should be an awesome looking beast when done.

[Triet Cam]

Ahh! An old Cutting Edge Skyraider decals. Brings back some memories when I did 2 reviews for Modeling Madness, back when internet modeling was a rave hit. Looks like you're fully armed and ready Craig. I've never seen so many references. 

 

You have a perspective of someone who spent time in a battle filed there. What you said, so true,  hit close to home. 

Edited September 14, 2020 by Triet Cam

[CliffB]

VNAF  

[modelling minion]

11 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Nice choice Craig... Chúc may mắn...! Any chance you're not interested in the VA-176 Thunderbolts decals are there ? 😉

Thanks Dennis, and thank you for the message of good luck. Do you want the Monogram decal sheet my friend? Its yours if you do but it is quite old and I cannot say whether it will work properly or not.

10 hours ago, trickyrich said:

haha....you alway have to be careful opening those brown boxes.....you never know what could be inside them! 

 

Mmmm resistance is futile as we all know. That model use to be the standard until Tamiya bought out theirs.

 

I have to admit I will have to add a 1/48th version to the stash sometime soon I think.

 

good luck with this one, should be an awesome looking beast when done.

Cheers Rich, I'm hoping to do this one justice, it is a nice kit. You should add a 1/48 Spad to your collection, every collection should have at least one!

10 hours ago, Triet Cam said:

Ahh! An old Cutting Edge Skyraider decals. Brings back some memories when I did 2 reviews for Modeling Madness, back when internet modeling was a rave hit. Looks like you're fully armed and ready Craig. I've never seen so many references. 

 

You have a perspective of someone who spent time in a battle filed there. What you said, so true,  hit close to home. 

Many thanks for your support and interest, I hope that I can do this one justice as the VNAF deserves it. I will happily listen to any advice of points of view from somebody who was actually involved in the war, there is no better source of information.

3 hours ago, CliffB said:

VNAF  

Thanks Cliff.

[trickyrich]

15 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Cheers Rich, I'm hoping to do this one justice, it is a nice kit. You should add a 1/48 Spad to your collection, every collection should have at least one!

hmm considering what I've been buying of late I need to step away from the online shopping!!!!   

 

my latest is THAT 1/32nd Viggen!

[modelling minion]

9 minutes ago, trickyrich said:

my latest is THAT 1/32nd Viggen!

No chance of sneaking that one in unnoticed is there!

[trickyrich]

well even worse!!!!! I was so excited at getting it I ran to SWMBO and told her what I did!!!!  Needless to say I surprisingly survived that encounter!!!

 

Just have to make sure she doesn't see the others! 

[modelling minion]

Does this mean we need to be honest about our purchases??

[RODH2]

I was bought up on the old Monograms, and I think they are great, even with raised panel lines. They always look like the aircraft they intended, and if you look at any 'plane up close, Monogram has validity.

 

[helios16v]

1 hour ago, trickyrich said:

hmm considering what I've been buying of late I need to step away from the online shopping!!!!   

 

my latest is THAT 1/32nd Viggen!

Well the Viggens won't be flying across the pond for another 6 months yet...so there is time.

 

I've just 2 things to say....RBT & BM.  You know you want too.

 

 

 

.....now if we could only get enough others to bite on the STGB proposal.

 

 

 

And back on track.  Should be a fun build Craig.  There is actually a Sandy that flies pretty regularly during the summer here.  Former Navy bird, then went to France.  Currently painted in USAF SEA, though it never served w/ the USAF nor in Vietnam.
https://heritageflight.org/aircraft/a-1-skyraider-the-proud-american/

[Triet Cam]

One odd thing about this kit is the panel lines. I had the orginal boxing, the attacking bumble bee USN version and a glossy sea blue version. Both were released in different years, with the GSB being later by a few years. The original boxing had very thick panel lines. But the GSB panel lines were very thin and evened, one of the best raised panels I've seen from Monogram. 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

P/M inbound. 

[Hewy]

Your skyraider fetish looks to be out of control sir, maybe some counselling would be in order, still, one more can't hurt 👍

[modelling minion]

3 hours ago, Hewy said:

Your skyraider fetish looks to be out of control sir, maybe some counselling would be in order, still, one more can't hurt 👍

You can never have too many Spads in your collection, or books on them, in fact that is only about half of my Skyraider books.

[modelling minion]

Well with a night off work I thought I had best share the progress on the old Spad so far.

I have been slowly plugging away at her with most of the work being in the cockpit area so that I can get the fuselage halves joined together. Other than the addition of a piece of painted and shaped fuse wire to represent the handle for the Yankee Extraction System that was fitted to all of the early VNAF Skyraiders as they came from US Navy stocks the cockpit has just been painted and dry-brushed, here's a couple of pics of how it looks;

 

 

The cockpit sidewalls in the fuselage have also been given the same treatment;

 

As well as the cockpit I have also got the wing assembly together, an easy task that just required fixing the undercarriage doors in place as they come as part of the wheel wells, these kits are designed to be built with the undercarriage down. I have had to apply a small amount of filler to the leading edge which looks worse than the fit actually is;

 

 

One area that does need filler is on the undersides, the way Monogram have designed the wings has a joint along a panel line but the joint isn't particularly good so some filler has been applied;

 

With this work out of the way I can now make a start on joining the fuselage halves together.

 

Thats it for today so as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

 

 

[trickyrich]

On 9/14/2020 at 8:08 PM, modelling minion said:

Does this mean we need to be honest about our purchases??

if i don't want my purchases going "missing" while i'm away with work.....though amazingly every one i buy just happens to be at this amazingly cheap price!!!     

 

The detail in the cockpit looks pretty good for a model that age. You've shown nicely what some nice detail painting can do..well done! 

[modelling minion]

Cheers Rich.

 

I see you've found that mysterious internet site where everything is a Bargain price too, good to see that they deliver world wide.😁

[Hewy]

Your Cockpit is looking bang on,sharp work  

[modelling minion]

58 minutes ago, Hewy said:

Your Cockpit is looking bang on,sharp work  

Cheers Glynn, more down to Monogram than myself.

[modelling minion]

More progress to report on the old Monogram classic.

 

She now looks very much like a Skyraider.

 

On the whole the fit has been very good, take your time and test fit and things will be okay. I added a section of sprue inside the fuselage where the cockpit is and it helped to spread it a little which greatly reduced any gap there was at the wing roots so that only a small amount of PPP was needed.

 

The tailplanes were also a very good fit;

 

The only area of concern has been the under fuselage joint, it was quite bad on the under side airbrake as it was dished in in the centre so I gave it a good lathering of filler and then sanded it down nice and smooth;

 

Don't worry that isn't a nasty crack in the filler, just a mark.

 

My next job is to get some paint on after fitting the front canopy, I just need to decide which paint to use. The decal sheet states FS 36440 which is US Navy Light Gull Grey but I have also seen where FS 36373 is quoted as the colour so any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

So thats how she looks at the minute. Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.