Skyraiders! Three of them in 1/72.

[Dennis_C]

Hello!

 

Almost spontaneously I stopped my efforts to resist buying a mini stash of Skyraiders and thus I became a happy owner of the three nicely looking boxes.

My rule is that regardless of how many kits in progress I have - whenever I got a single type trio set - it's getting to the desk!

 

And to warm up myself and have the things going smoothly I thought to also open a WIP thread here. 

 

So please take your seats and of course any advise and helping hints are warmly welcome!

 

Cheers!

Dennis

[Dennis_C]

Besides a set of three boxes I also went wild and acquired some aftermarket bits that are primarily produced for Hasegawa A-1H box but I guess these should be just right for practically any SPAD. 

Of course cockpit photo etch or antennae are only for single seater but other bits - I'll see what of the three kits would be benefiting of those.

[Dennis_C]

Of course I opened all the three boxes last night and here we go:

Hasegawa (packed by Hobby 2000)

Sword

A&A 

 

You can see how different the three kits are in terms of their carbon footprint. Hasegawa has many more sprues than Sword but that is primarily for external stores. A&A kit (originally Skale Wings) is in the best tradition of modern Ukrainian kitmakers and gives us huge number of tiny bits. More on that later. 

Edited September 1, 2024 by Dennis_C

[Beard]

I've had my eye on the A&A/ Skale Wings Skyraider for a whileand I'm interested to see how it goes together so, if you don't mind, I'll tag along.

[Dennis_C]

10 minutes ago, Beard said:

I've had my eye on the A&A/ Skale Wings Skyraider for a whileand I'm interested to see how it goes together so, if you don't mind, I'll tag along.

Let me then start with this to show some close ups. 

Fuselage sides, wing, wheel bay insert, engine, tail wheel, propeller. Some generous amount of flesh, panel lines on fuselage are rather mmm... 'childish'.

Next is a little more concerning. Some strange love to split fairly simplistic bits like chairs into many parts without making them actually more detailed. Heavy sink marks on thicker bits. More childish panel lines. On the other hand there is full interior for rear cabin. Let's see how realistic it is. 

Mmmm... Lovely!

Does anybody happen to know if that hollow on the fuselage was on real thing? The fuselage from inside looks quite hmmm... neanderthalic?

[Dennis_C]

Okay. Moving along with A&A kit. Transparency macro:

Not too bad, but I think panel lines are not best and the plastic itself is thick. 

There is a small pe fret with seat belts. Thanks for that touch. 

The kit decal set. As you can see some homework had to be made due to missed decals and typos:

However decals themselves are printed well and my experience with Decograph has been good so far. 

 

Instruction is a large A4 format detailed brochure. Printed nicely. Let's see how many errors are there inside as my experience with instructions of Ukrainian kit makers tell me I need to double check.

 

 

Edited September 1, 2024 by Dennis_C

[Dennis_C]

Last point on this one - kit decal options does not correspond to electronic Skyraiders flying in Vietnam. They are for the missions in the Mediterranean or from training unit. As I kind of have soft spot for US aircraft in Vietnam, I looked around and thought Caracal A-1H sheet can provide me with right USS names and tail codes

 

I was sure it only contains single seaters. But surprise, surprise!

Hey - that's exactly what I need!!!

 

Edited September 1, 2024 by Dennis_C

[Dennis_C]

Moving along to other kits. Hasegawa kit is super well known. Neatly made but pretty basic in cockpit and other areas. 

Some parts got detached in the bag so I put them to a small packet together with a set of rubber rings for the propeller.

Unfortunately canopy frame was loosely placed in a large bad with all the frames. Even worse the main canopy part also got detached and received some scratches. Nothing major but some otherwise unnecessary polishing would be needed.

 

Instruction from Hobby 2000 is small and simplistic. Same is a decal sheet.

 

 

[Dennis_C]

Lastly Sword kit does not bring much surprise too. 

I would say that Sword quality varied from time to time but this one is actually very good. Neatly molded. Quate frankly I could say it's somewhat better than Hasegawa.

 

You get a resin engine (not much different in its look from plastic in Hasegawa set though. 

 

Also you get typical Sword instruction (not checked for errors yet!) and a nice Techmod printed decals sheet.

I'm still not decided if I do British or American option. Anyway I will have dark blue, light grey/white and SEA camouflaged birds in the end. Should be looking nice some day!

Edited September 1, 2024 by Dennis_C

[Dennis_C]

Fuselages and wings left their positions on the sprues. That means time to compare the parts!

Sword and Hasegawa fuselages are totally spot on. 

 

A&A and Hasegawa not exactly. I think A&A lost maybe a millimeter between wings trailing edge and tail wheel. See view from bottom. Cabin on wide Skyraider should be moved forward so seems that's all right. Taller tail is a feature of AD-5 either. That one probably should be checked to some more references. 

Wings.

Dimentionally all are exactly spot on. From the wings it's seen that Heasegawa could be in inspitational point for both Sword and A&A. Sword seems to have adopted certain corrections for earlier type. Not sure yet whether all changes are done as needed. One nice touch from Sword is this - no risk of thick trailing edge (but some painful sandwork on joint line on outer flap).

 

A&A seems to went further in its inspiration:

In fact because it is a direct copy of Hasegawa molds - A&A has really good wings with nice panel lines and even with location pips. I still suspect AD-5 and AD-6/7 wings could be not exactly identical... something else to look up

 

[David H]

Speaking as somebody that has a protracted AD build on the Shelf of Doom, i found that the Quickboost elevators are good if you want to depict the plane parked with the stick lashed to the seat belts ("Up" elevators, when parked, are a thing). I have the Reskit wheels, which look nice though i haven't cut them from the casting blocks yet.

 

The Quickboost antenna set in my view is a waste of money; i prefer to saw the molded on antennae and re use them. The Hasegawa tail wheel is pretty good, and were i to do it again i would go with the Hasegawa underwing pylons instead of the Quickboost ones. Quickboost pylons are very "gappy" where they mate with the wing underside, which makes filling the gaps after painting more or less impossible. Cleaning them up without breaking the sway braces is also a challenge.

 

The MASTER gun barrel and pitot boom set is money well spent. Now if only i could work up the courage to paint that characteristic exhaust plume....

 

Good luck in your quest!!

 

-d-

[Dennis_C]

Thanks, David. I'll see what quickboost goodies go where. I still have a less neat A&A kit

Agree antennae looks very good as molded by Hasegawa. Chances are I'll have quickboost more or less as a replacement in case I knock out Hasegawa's and can't grab them from the floor before carpet monster does so. And you've probably got the point it's easier to just cut original antennae in advance. 

Have you used quickboost exhaust pipes or just drilled original Hasegawa bits?

Edited September 1, 2024 by Dennis_C

[David H]

2 hours ago, Dennis_C said:

Thanks, David. I'll see what quickboost goodies go where. I still have a less neat A&A kit

Agree antennae looks very good as molded by Hasegawa. Chances are I'll have quickboost more or less as a replacement in case I knock out Hasegawa's and can't grab them from the floor before carpet monster does so. And you've probably got the point it's easier to just cut original antennae in advance. 

Have you used quickboost exhaust pipes or just drilled original Hasegawa bits?

i need to go back and look, but i know i used the Hasegawa exhausts. What i can't remember is, if i drilled out the stubs or not. I'll report back via PM when i find out.

[Dennis_C]

I decided that my approach would be to work on the same element of all three Skyraiders simultaneously. So I started with oil coolers.

Again A&A is a full copy of Hasegawa with locator pin but without footprints from sprue pushers. After same sanding A&A insert matched perfectly Hasegawa fuselage but not A&A fuselage which is completely amorphous inside and I think needs good dremel session. 

Sword - as you can see - went ahead here and provided the intake in two parts with mesh imitation. 

[sandros]

It's a pity that after all these years, Hasegawa kit is still the winner.

I'll be watching closely since I am planning of building the Hasegawa model in the near future.

 

[Dennis_C]

I started my research for EA-1F cabin information and I'm pretty sure that A&A did not care to replace cabin parts from original Skale Wings AEW version. You got the following in the kit:

While ECM version had 4 folks in the crew and different equipment in the rear cabin. 

https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2009/12/widebody-skyraider.html?m=1

At least the kit has four seats. Rear cabin instrument panel seems should be scratch built. And because it will be barely seen - I'm definitely not going crazy. Still if anyone has any additional references for the front and rear cabins - I'd appreciate any help!

More specific question - would EA-1F have the partition wall between front and rear cabins? AD-5W (AEW) version had it but not sure if it was installed on AD-5N which served as a basis for AD-5Q (EA-1F).

Edited September 2, 2024 by Dennis_C

[Dennis_C]

46 minutes ago, sandros said:

It's a pity that after all these years, Hasegawa kit is still the winner.

Quite frankly I should say that Sword kit is no worse than Hasegawa (if you want a pregnant belly SPAD of course). Pity Sword never went forward with more versions of Skyraiders. They have a spot for Navy birds and there are tons of possible versions.

[Dennis_C]

One more thing that popped up - seems that engine of AD-5 has been moved forward by 8 inches or approximately 3 mm in 1/72. 

https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-widebody-skyraider-redux.html?m=1

As I've shown above - A&A fuselage matches Hasegawa, so it's 3 mm shorter somewhere between engine firewall and cabin. I'll try to research more based on available photoes but looks like some surgery is upcoming.

[Dennis_C]

A little bit unscientific but I think very effective way of finding where the A&A fuselage lost its length. 

First of all I think I can concur that fuselage lost 3 millimeters as noted in Tailhook Topics article above. If you match engine cowling - tail mismatches - and vice versa.

At the same time the fuselage shape in front of canopy and aft of canopy fairing looks accurate. I think length is lost on top of the fuselage at the aft canopy fairing. I think it's too short and subsequently too steep. 

On the bottom fuselage side i think it's more interesting. 

When you align engine cowling - the wing trailing edge on photoes turn out to be further to the tail!

 

So looks like in order to counterweight larger tail and additional equipment in the cabin Douglas engineers moved the wing back by 8 inches but preserved length after the wing thus adding to the full length.

Do you think there are 8 inches here?

 

My thought now - to fix the length error - this is how to cut the fuselage

Then you insert 3 mm in front of the wing leading edge and aft of the canopy + add an insert to wing part + somehow change the shape of the aft canopy fairing.

 

I need to think now how I live with this knowledge. The most noticeable error is probably the shape of the canopy fairing. It's the most difficult to fix too!

Edited September 2, 2024 by Dennis_C

[alhenderson]

I love a Skyraider, have long been tempted by the Sword machine, or a USN one.  Going to watch with interest..

 

Al.

[bigbadbadge]

The Sword one builds up really nicely, and is an impressive model when built, I did the FAA scheme for one during my Dad's time on Centaur . Really enjoyed it

Good luck with your trio.

Chris

[Dennis_C]

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

The Sword one builds up really nicely, and is an impressive model when built, I did the FAA scheme for one during my Dad's time on Centaur . Really enjoyed it

Thank you. After building quite a few Swords I'm not scared. Harrier, T-bird, Twogar, Thunderflash, Jet Provost and also I think Tunnan and Lansen under Tarangus brand. 

Now my challenge is to build the very early-A-modellishly looking beast.

[Rémi]

Hi
If it can help you, I builded the AD 4W

 

 

[Dennis_C]

7 minutes ago, Rémi said:

Hi
If it can help you, I builded the AD 4W

 

 

Bonsoir, Rémi! 

Thanks for sharing you WIP - should help me to avoid many pitfalls. Hints on reinforcement here and there are particularly useful!

And your Skyraider looks great!

[I Dole]

I built the Sword AEW and enjoyed it.

The stencil decals can actually be read.

But, the placement instructions are wrong, for some of them.

So you might want to get some other references for where they go, if your eyesight is that good.