1/48 Tamiya A-1H Skyraider

by Rolando Raffaut

--------------------

 

This is my first time posting anything on the internet, it’s my latest labour of love, Tamiya’s 1/48 A-1H  Skyraider with Cutting Edge wingfold conversion, as well as numerous refinements and additions. I began this project 5 years ago as a “quickbuild” after suffering a bout of AMS from a previous project. Thinking that since it was a Tamiya kit, I’d have it together in no time at all, well……lets just say the road to hell is paved with good intentions!!

 

I knew that I wanted to depict the kit on a carrier deck with the wings folded, and the aircraft chocked and tied down and using those great VA-176 bumblebee markings. For those not familiar with these markings, the kit depicts one of only a few Spads that engaged and successfully shot down North Vietnamese Migs during the Vietnam war. The callsign for this particular aircraft was “Papoose 09”. So on to the kit……. 

I began by cutting the kit’s wings apart and was well into scratchbuilding the wing fold details when I came across Cutting edge’s resin conversion and nabbed it, consigning my own efforts to the spares box.

Click on images below to see larger images

 I modified the resin wings by grinding the ailerons off and cutting the plastic ailerons off the kit’s wings which I added to the resin ones in a drooped attitude via delicate scratchbuilt hinges. I then began construction of the kit via the normal way, i.e starting with the cockpit. This was used from the kit, save for a few minor mods: I shaved off the “lumps” on the L/H console and added my own throttle, prop condition, mixture and boost levers made from scrap brass and stretched sprue. Lead foil seatbelts were adorned with P/E buckles as well as adding a canteen and its mounting bracket to the right of the pilot’s seat. I punched the kit instruments from the decal sheet and added them to the instrument panel. The area behind the pilot’s headrest was “busied up” by adding details from copper wire and styrene bits and pieces. I painted the cockpit in oils, which was a first for me. A Verlinden map was added to the coaming under the windscreen and the kits gunsight was modified by adding a disc from punched clear styrene for the reflector glass, and a P/E mirror added to the windscreen frame. The canopy had handles added either side of  the frame from brass rod.   

 I also detailed the undercarriage and the wheel wells, the latter of which was a waste of time as nothing can be seen with the model mounted on it’s base!!!, oh well. The oleos' had tie down eyes added from Grandt Line and  hydraulic cylinders added to their leading edges from stainless steel tubing  as well as brake lines from copper wire. I cut and repositioned the tail wheel for a more candid appearance as well as reinforcing all the undercarriage struts with brass rod that was drilled and inserted into the axles as well as down the struts themselves

Click on images below to see larger images

The engine was detailed by wiring the cylinders from the magnetos with copper wire and I built a delicate prop condition linkage by using magnetic watch parts!, this was achieved by cutting up watch pieces and re-assembling them to resemble the mechanism behind the prop hub, since they were magnetic I didn’t have to use any CA glue. A “second hand” was used for the linkage itself !!, it just goes to show that you can use anything to scratchbuild those miniscule assemblies

I wanted a really bombed up Spad so I began to rummage through my Hasegawa weapons sets to come up with the required ordnance. In the end I settled on a combination of some of the kits weapons as well as 2 Zuni rocket pods from Hasegawa. I didn’t like the way the pods looked in that the “rockets” were depicted as small mounds on the face of the pods so I drilled them out and substituted 72nd scale Hellfire missiles that were re-profiled to match the open holes and had tiny fuses added to their tips with stretched sprue.

 

The bombs had the fuses removed and Daisy Cutter extensions added from Evergreen styrene rod before refitting the fuses to the ends of the extensions. Copper wire was added for the arming wires, suitable bomb graffiti was added with a white colour pencil. The sub-munition dispensers had their electrical wires and canon plugs added also from copper wire and styrene, which are barely visible when painted. I added all the sway braces to the pylons, these were made from the True Details P/E set as well as my own punched styrene discs. Again I pinned all the stores with brass rod to prevent inadvertent weapons releases!!.

 

I began painting the kit by pre-shading with Tamiya matt black, then used enamels for the white and grey, I accented the panel lines with a wash of Tamiya Smoke heavily thinned. For the more grubby areas of the kit, ie the engine cowls and gun access panels I made a grungy brown mix with Tamiya smoke and Tamiya red-brown and delicately post shaded some of the panel lines. Grease and oil splotches on these areas was simulated with the same colour as was the exhaust stain. Boot scuff marks were done with black colour pencils around walkways and boarding steps. I used a 2b lead  and silver prismacolour pencil on edges to simulate worn areas. To simulate paint fade some of the upper surface panels were sprayed in a lighter shade of grey. The leading edges of the wings, vertical and horizontal stabilizers had a strip of Bare Metal Foil added to simulate the coroguard anti-abrasive coating. 

 

  The overly thick Tamiya decals were made to snuggle down with coats of Gunze Mr Mark Softer, I find this product perfect for Tamiya decals. Instead of spraying the kit with Future I apply a puddle of it where the decal location is then simply apply the decal straight onto it. After the decaling was done I sprayed a few coats of Future over the decals and when cured I hit it with a spray of Testors DullCoat from a bottle over a decade old!.

 

I wanted to add a few “human touches” to the kit so in selected areas (speed brake and undercarriage wells) I added some graffiti with a black micron pen. Additionally the gun barrels and pitot tube were made from telescoping lengths of brass and steel tubing.

 

I experimented and developed a technique to depict the chipped and eroded paint on the prop tips. I’m not overly satisfied with using a silver Prismacolour pencil alone for this as I feel it doesn’t do a realistic job in my opinion. So I sprayed the props and other high-wear areas with Floquil bright silver as this lacquer-based paint eats into the plastic, next apply whatever colour needs to go over the top. For the prop blades I used a well worn, fine grade Flexi-File strip and gently dragged it across the surface until it removed the paint and exposed the silver in a nicely feathered edge exactly the same way the airflow does, the tiny chips and scratches were achieved by taking a syringe needle and grinding it even pointier with a Dremel tool, then using it to actually scrape and pick away at the paint, this leaves perfectly “In scale” scratches that little silver blobs of paint just can’t do

 

      Lastly came the fitting of the folded wings. In order to get the angle right I measured the wing fold angle from Squadron’s Skyraider Walkaround. There are a couple of sets of drawings in the book so I used a protractor, then I cut wedges from stiff cardboard corresponding to those angles and lay them on the wing, I delicately placed the folded wing portion against these cardboard templates and after much tweaking and cussing ( I think I invented my own language!!) I flooded the joints with super glue. I used my airbrush to gently blow the super glue into all the nooks and crannies of the wing fold to ensure a good bond. After it had cured I delicately removed the wing templates and low and behold I had folded wings! then I took a couple of aspirin and lay down for a week….WHEW!. Now with solid resin wings and a full ordnance load the model was painfully fragile so I braced the wings with struts made from telescoping stainless steel tubing, once fitted and glued they made the whole assembly quite robust.

 

 

Now I needed a base to display the model on so I went to a local trophy shop and had one made from MDF, as well as a little plaque to go with it. The much-coveted Naval Aviator wings were cast from an original set and I made resin copies. The carrier deck was made from a sheet of wet & dry paper with panel lines carved into it with a razor saw, effectively blunting it in the process!, The deck tie-downs are P/E from Toms Model Works. Their places were marked and drilled and then glued in with Super Glue. I arranged all deck stripes and panel lines so as to be asymmetric to the base and the model. The model was mounted to the base with brass pins and I made a set of chocks from Evergreen square and rod stock. Lastly the tie down chains were made from model railway chain and the ratchet mechanisms from styrene, the hooks themselves from bent brass rod.

 

So there you have it, a Skyraider in 5 years!,( OK I was actually overseas for 3 of them). Anyway modelling’s supposed to be fun right?, that’s what my therapist keeps telling me! 

 

Happy modelling,

 

Rolando 

 

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by Rolando Raffaut