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Able Dog, Sandy, Hobo, Firefly and Spad.
All were names that the venerable Skyraider, one of the most versatile
light attack bombers ever produced had applied to it.
Designed by the Douglas aircraft company after the USN cancelled the
BTD-1 Destroyer programme, it was spurred on by the need for Douglas to retain
its place among aircraft suppliers to the USN.
It was dreamed up over one night in the Statler Hotel Washington, D.C. by Ed
Heinemann (Chief Engineer), Leo Devlin (Chief Designer) and Gene Root (Chief
Aerodynamicist).
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came up with was named the Dauntless II after its famous family ancestor, but
was a radically different beast. It
was originally envisioned that the aircraft, powered by a massive R-3350 Cyclone
engine driving a four bladed 13’6” propeller could carry up to 1 ton of
external stores, but someone had not done their math properly and it was soon
found that 3 tons was achievable!
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As
with all classic designs the Spad had a variety of different upgrades and
changes made to it over its career. It
was also used in a variety of tasks including, Submarine hunter/killer, Night
Fighter, Target tug, AEW, COD, and
attack. Probably its most famous role was that in support of SAR operations
during the Vietnam War, where the sight of a couple of Spads flying cover for
the rescue Jolly Green Giant was one that downed aircrew wanted to see.
Having read some of the combat accounts and watched a variety of
documentaries on the war, I can well understand the high regard the Spad drivers
are held in and believe that those blokes probably needed a wheel barrow to get
from place to place, due to the problem of a couple of large brass ones getting
in the way of them walking!
Well
on to the Kit, Tamiya answered a few prayers by bringing out the definitive (at
this moment) 1/48 Skyraider kit, first an early USN version with Aluminium
Bucket seat, the A-1H. More
recently the A-1J has been brought out with additional weapons fit, the Yankee
extraction system seat and decals for 3 USAF machines in the attractive SEA
colour scheme. The kit built here
is the A-1H USN Version with the bucket seat retained.
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and detail of the kit was excellent, the only additions to this was a set of
Reheat USN Seatbelts. A point to
note is that the Tamiya decal for the instrument panel did not like decal
setting solutions, curled up in a little ball and refused to play. No filler was used at any point in this kit and construction
was extremely swift and easy. A
quick swipe with a sanding stick was all that was required to clean up any join
lines.
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The only difficult point in
construction, would be due to the fact that the undercarriage doors are fixed in
place during construction of the wings and this could prove a problem for
masking of any dark winged USAF schemes.
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Originally
it was planned to do a USN Scheme for an aircraft based on the USS Midway, but
due to the decals wrinkling too much with setting solutions, an alternative
scheme was sought. Well having seen
the Cutting Edge VNAF Skyraider sheet (48097) my choice was then made.
Some excellent advice was given to me by Mark Hoffmann concerning the
finishing of the Skyraider, when he told me that if there were no oil leaks then
the pilots would not fly them! Thanks
Mark! So a well weathered scheme was embarked on to represent one of
the original Spads transferred to the VNAF by the USN, in the gull grey and
white scheme, before they were over-painted in FS36373 grey by the VNAF.
The kit was painted using Lifecolour acrylics, which were thinned with
Halfords windscreen fluid which is easier to find in the UK than Isopropyl
alcohol.
The decals were then
applied and it should be mentioned here that the red sash fitted absolutely
perfectly, even the white arrows lined up on the top so well done to cutting
edge for that one! Panel lines were
accented with Tamiya smoke and then a propelling pencil with an HB lead was run
along the lines to bring them out.
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exhaust stains showing a well used engine were made by spraying, firstly a deep
red-brown, then sand yellow, black near the exhaust outlets and finally light
grey to represent the lead used in the fuel.
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It was during the masking of the blade aerial above the red sash that one
of those modelling moments happened. When
I carefully removed the Tamiya masking tape a little bit of the sash went with
it, Bugger!!! So a touch up with
red paint and a bit of silver to represent wear was then made.
I am not even going to contemplate trying to do the arrows as I am not
that mad, however if there is anyone out there who has the same decal set and is
not going to use the red sash, let me know and we might be able to come to some
sort of arrangement! Final
finishing was by a mixture of 50/50 Xtracolour satin and flat varnish thinned
with Xtracolour thinners.
Well
it was a really enjoyable kit to build and looks the part.
I took it into work to use the digital camera and even the lads I work
with thought it looked the dogs dangly bits. This surprised me as normally for a
British Army Sapper to be interested in something, it has to have a large pair
of breasts attached or contain at least one pint of beer!
And for all you modellers out there who think that big really is
beautiful, one of the members of the model club I go to is producing a 1/32
scale resin kit of the Spad. I’ve
seen the test shots of the cockpit, undercarriage, weapons set, decals (USAF,
USN and VNAF) and other bits and pieces and it looks like one hell of a kit.
Roll on my early Christmas present to myself Roy!!!
Greg
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