1/72 Airfix Skyraider converted to AEW1

[David Womby]

 

Douglas Skyraider AEW1 WV183/419/R of 'B' Flight, 815 Naval Air Squadron based on HMS Ark Royal in 1958.  Sadly she came to a bad end in a crashlanding on HMS Albion two year later (nobody was hurt).

 

The kit is about 2/3 Airfix Skyraider (wings, tailplanes, cowling, engine, prop and undercart) mated to a solid resin two-part fuselage from a defunct outfit called Final Touch.    Details were white metal parts from an old C Scale set (antennae, undercart door reshaping parts, flap tracks, pylons and slats).  The C Scale and Final Touch vac canopies didn't look right.  This is an unknown teardrop one from the spares box cut down to fit. I put together this montage to show some of the build.  

 

 

Paint is Testors Enamel Sea Blue.  Decals are a mix from FreightDog Brits at Sea Part 2 and Model Alliance Ark Royal Air Wing sets. All went well except the underwing serials (from the MA set) are too large and do not fit on just the outer wing sections as they should and overlap a bit onto the non-folding part of the wings.  I lost one tiny decal below the starboard tailplane.  It detached when applying the top clearcoat.  Odd.    

 

I know she's a bit too glossy really and, oh,  I missed off a few spindly antennae.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.  Comments and suggestions welcomed.

 

David

[stevej60]

Great job David.

[canberraman]

A terrific rendition of the FAA Skyraider. Can't understand why the AEW variant hasn't been kitted by an established manufacturer.

 

Thanks for sharing your inspirational build.

 

Mark

[Dermo245]

Great stuff David. 

 

@canberraman Sword do an AEW kit https://www.scalemates.com/kits/sword-sw-72126-ad-4w-skyraider-aew1--1210414

[theplasticsurgeon]

Great model David.  Looks a challenging build.

I vaguely remember Final Touch, always advertising in old mags that I pick up.

And my first conversion was their RF-8G Photo Crusader.  Crude, rough parts, that just didn't fit - very nearly enough to make it my last.

 

 

[Toryu]

Excellent conversion! Another fine model of those after-war Navy planes that I like.

[corsaircorp]

Well done Sir !!

CC

[flashlight]

Excellent conversion work there! Very well done!

[fatalbert]

Excellent work,love it,Final touch,wow thats a blast from the past,i have a few bits and bobs from them,Namely a York conversion and a couple of spitfires.The york is a solid lump of resin,weighs a ton.i spent hours hollowing it out in my lunch breaks at work using a pillar drill and a rotary file.Thats as far as i got lol as i lost the will to live 😀.Still in the loft somewhere.

[georgeusa]

You cannot tell this is a Frankenstein build as the finished model is seamless and looks the part.  Well done on the building aspects of the Skyraider.  Hey, glossy sea blue is glossy sea blue, heavy on the glossy.  This is what the actual aircraft may have looked like after it left the factory and before it saw any real duty.  At some point, all aircraft are bright, shiny and very clean in their life.  The finish looks good.

[David Womby]

14 minutes ago, georgeusa said:

You cannot tell this is a Frankenstein build as the finished model is seamless and looks the part.  Well done on the building aspects of the Skyraider.  Hey, glossy sea blue is glossy sea blue, heavy on the glossy.  This is what the actual aircraft may have looked like after it left the factory and before it saw any real duty.  At some point, all aircraft are bright, shiny and very clean in their life.  The finish looks good.

Thanks for that.  I am no good at weathering and tell my friends exactly that - "well, it must have been clean at some stage in its service!"

51 minutes ago, fatalbert said:

Excellent work,love it,Final touch,wow thats a blast from the past,i have a few bits and bobs from them,Namely a York conversion and a couple of spitfires.The york is a solid lump of resin,weighs a ton.i spent hours hollowing it out in my lunch breaks at work using a pillar drill and a rotary file.Thats as far as i got lol as i lost the will to live 😀.Still in the loft somewhere.

LOL - I seem to recall reading somewhere that Final Touch were accused of recasting other peoples' creations.  Anyway, I  have 4 of their conversion products - this one, the Avenger ECM6 (canopy is squished so that won't ever get built), the Sea Vixen FAW1 (which I might try one day on an old Frogspawn kit) and the Neptune MR1 which is a huge chunk of solid resin to replace the fuselage forward of the leading edges, the tail and the wingtip tanks! 

 

David

[fatalbert]

1 hour ago, David Womby said:

Thanks for that.  I am no good at weathering and tell my friends exactly that - "well, it must have been clean at some stage in its service!"

LOL - I seem to recall reading somewhere that Final Touch were accused of recasting other peoples' creations.  Anyway, I  have 4 of their conversion products - this one, the Avenger ECM6 (canopy is squished so that won't ever get built), the Sea Vixen FAW1 (which I might try one day on an old Frogspawn kit) and the Neptune MR1 which is a huge chunk of solid resin to replace the fuselage forward of the leading edges, the tail and the wingtip tanks! 

 

David

Would love an MR1 Neptune,keep hoping someone will bring  out a conversion.

[David Womby]

8 minutes ago, fatalbert said:

Would love an MR1 Neptune,keep hoping someone will bring  out a conversion.

https://www.hpmhobbies.com/falcon-triple-conversion-vii-neptune-sabre-avenger-kit-1-72/  🙂

 

PM inbound

 

David

[Galligraphics]

Very nice,David. I am reminded that I have the old Airfix kit somewhere in my stash and I might even have the C-Scale conversion bits as well… hmmm… maybe once I’ve finished the nine other kits in various states of completion I’ll dig it out…

[F-32]

That looks very cool, reminds me of summer holidays at Flambards in Cornwall who had one in their air park 

[Bertie McBoatface]

I think that came out very well. It can't be an easy conversion. And why shouldn't it be shiny , maybe it's been polished up for an inspection