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Dynavector 1/48 Douglas A2D-1 Skyshark- The Skyraiders "Younger Brother"Finished


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Once more into the breach for God and Country. Nothing like Winter weather, and waiting for enamel paint to dry along with waiting for parts to print to get antsy want to build something. I know I could have done something useful like shovel snow , break up ice and whatnot but I'll leave those for when it gets warmer🤔. So for this afternoons enjoyment Dynavectors 1/48 Douglas A2D-1Skyshark. After doing a Sea Vixen recently I realized how good Dynavectors Vacs really are. Almost like building your typical Tamigawa plastic. Plus I need some extra practice time on Vacs for 3 1/2 builds on my shelf of Doom that have been plaguing me for an eternity. Well that and I had the proper colours paint for this build in sufficient quantity. I thought about doing the Sea Hornet as a follow on to the Sea Vixen but I used up my supply of dk sea  gray so I need to order more first. Don't worry it will be started on son enough I daresay.

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I do know that Our esteemed Fearless Leader @Mike built this sometime years back and He had adjusted  some things that I had already noted, such as the  Cockpit and flaps / control surfaces. I'll probably do some added extras to the wheel bays. So I'm hoping @Mike will give me a heads up on anything to watch out for. This won't be your typical slap and smash project., but by the same token shouldn't  take that long or be a horrendously difficult monster to tame. So lets see what we can see on this little jaunt. Like usual, Kibitzing, straying from topic, and general mayhem is welcome and encouraged. 

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Taking stock Instructions are the" just the facts Ma'am" basic. More info on decal placement than anything else but I do have a copy of Ginters Naval Fighters #43 to assist.

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Which will help a lot.. Then looking parts over.

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Lotta lead in this plane. I don't know that I'll use all of it. I may scratch build/ print some. I managed to gain a lot of "nose weights" from the Sea Vixen. This build may add to that collection.

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Parts wise it' not a whole lot. There's more Metal parts than plastic. Easy-peasy.

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Marked the parts then trimmed away excess. I'll spend the rest of the day sanding down  parts for fitment then begin work on the office.

Something I'm considering for this build  Since the Skyshark has counter-rotating props, the possibility of making a basic mechanism to fit in the cowling and recreating the spinning.

I have an old Convair Pogo and Lockheed Salmon I might be able to use as refence. See this is what happens when Snow and Boredom meet. God I love it when a plan comes together!

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Great choice these Dynavector kits are great, I was informed that the chap who done these was a member of our club for a while before he moved back to Japan, some of the members helped him with the vac form process

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I loved building that kit all those years ago, but I'm damned if I can remember much about it now :blink: I do remember the plastic crazing after using too much CA accelerator on the plastic round the tail though, so maybe avoid that ;)

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I studied your build at length for the little bits of wisdom. then drooled.

Noting like studying ancient history on a long cold  winter night, Of course this was nothing like ancient history if you know what I mean.🤔

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37 minutes ago, Massimo said:

Very interesting subject!

Those exhauast which remind me of a Gannet and Wyvern and the Vacuform format: all the right ingredients are there!!!!!

I'll be following with attention!!!!

Ciao

Massimo

Thanks for following along Massimo. The Skyshark was of the same line of thought as both the Wyvern and the Gannant. The Navy like the FAA wasn't entirely sold on the idea of Jets operating off of Ships at the time. Jets being slow to spool up and slow on speed changes and not to mention real gas hogs. But they wanted something Fast as a jet but all the attributes of a prop. The development of the Turboprop  was hoped to be that answer. And in many ways was as fast and under certain conditions faster than the early jets of the day. The Allison WT-40 Turboprop put out 5100 eshp and the Skyshark was supposed to have a   rate of climb of 7690fpm.Whne you figure the F9F Panther's ROC was 6900fpm. not too shabby for a prop plane. Problem was the WT-40 was more Proof of Concept than working engine. Prone to failure in the turbines (which were located under the floor of the pilot, pilots weren't happy about that.) and the Gearbox for the counter rotating props  wanted to shatter under stress. Not a great combination. We never really got the hang of a counter rotating prop system like the British. You would think we would have used British designs, Like we did with everything else we "borrowed"., Nope. But the WT-40 did become the "parent" for all the 1000's of turboprops Allison has made since then. So I guess it balances out. Besides can you imagine the look on an Air Force pilots face when looking in the rear view mirror  and seeing this beast on his tail wanting to pass in a climb?

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Just a little update on an experiment with the counter-rotating props. Wondering if it was possible to come up with a differential gear system that would fit in the prop hub. After some studying and thinking about it(dangerous I know) I stole borrowed an idea used on an old Lindberg VTOL Pogo for their Props.  A simple double gearing attached to the  prop shaft. The rear Prop assembly facing out and the top prop assembly facing in had small nubs or posts that caught the gear. When the rear Prop spun this made the forward prop spin Counter rotationally. Nice simple design.

A little bit of measuring and CAD building plus a little print time and the parts came out reasonably correct. I will have to make a new propshaft. this one is too short, and come up with an idea for collars to hold the gears in place. Something I noticed and will have to ponder on as well is resin being fairly brittle and easy to wear down. Maybe a couple of coats of lacquer to act as a shield to slow down wear, not that I'll be spinning the props a lot.(yeah right and no engine sounds either.:frantic:

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In the meantime back to work on the interior and the fiddly bits. 

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Pressing on, added a little detail to the tail wheel/arrestor hook bay little hard to see but added thin strip for ribbing

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And added some printed braces with lightening holes anlong with the dive brake box. None of the pictures I have really show the interior, although plenty for the Brake itself. so I had to improvise something to fill the space.

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I did add another set of braces for the front and back of the box.

Speaking of the dive brake, that came out better, made an insert for it and some detail plates for the landing gear doors. The first ones I did were too thick and wouldn't bend on the compound curves, so I halved to thickness and carefully applied, one finger broke but was easy enough to reattach and bend.

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Added 90mm of thin strip to stiffen the wings some and added to wheel bays

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In the bays some rod and bits of thread for cabling 

and opened up the holes for the wing ordinance and the MG ejector ports.

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One thing I need more practice on is after separating the fuselage halve from the plastic sheet not trimming too much away from the plastic. even when sanding down to the  black mark, I inevitably take too much off and end up with  some hefty gaps.. I have some BIg projects I want to get back to but I decided to use my smaller vacs as practice to finesse the trimming parts. Thank God for Milliput. makes an excellent  hard as nails filler. just needed a little bit of glazing compound to smooth out.

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Most of the gap was from the cockpit forward, so I at least got 50% of the trimming right. Thats an improvement. :yahoo:

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On the experiment with the counter rotating props, The operation was a success but the patient died. As I feared, the resin is too "soft" for mechanics like this, or at least this small. I coated the interior parts with black lacquer ib hopes of making the surface able to handle the stress of the turning. Worked for about 3/4 of a rotation then stopped and both parts of the prop began to rotate in the same direction.  Oh well nice Idea. maybe if I had used to parts as moulds  for cast metal pieces it might be better, but that skill is beyond me and my pocketbook at present so though they may turn independently just not in counter rotational unison

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I also added some milliput to the inside tip of the prop. during the manufacture the plastic stretched really thin and indented easily. The putty keeps it from mashing in again.

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Nice to see another Skyshark on the go.  I've the main airframe components together on my Dynavector kit but the project has languished in a box for rather more years than I care to remember, along with a load of other partly built kits.  Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

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28 minutes ago, JosephLalor said:

Nice to see another Skyshark on the go.  I've the main airframe components together on my Dynavector kit but the project has languished in a box for rather more years than I care to remember, along with a load of other partly built kits.  Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

Thanks Joseph, Come on in and make yourself comfortable. Progress so far has been steady. Aside from the prop detour and my over indulgent excess trimming not a bad little kit. After doing a Dynavector, it does spoil one when to try another Vac kit.

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21 minutes ago, LorenSharp said:

After doing a Dynavector, it does spoil one when to try another Vcc kit.

For sure.  If it hadn't been for Dynavector, Welsh Models and Aeroclub, I probably would never have attempted any vac kits.  Having some assistance in the form of white metal or resin for detail parts has made all the difference.

Edited by JosephLalor
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