Monogram Skyraider question for FastEagle107 and rangerj

Mike,

I just thought I would throw my "two cents" in. I didn't spend much time on the bombs but later regretted not mixing up the load more. I've got a wing load of the extended fused bombs. I did put snake eye hight drag bombs on on the inboard wing pylons. I built mine back in the early "80's". My next one will be the Tamiya AF "Sandy" version.

Thanks Mel.

I noticed the 20mm cannon barrels in the wings are wrong on this kit too.
They have flared muzzles and photos I have found such as this one do not have a flared muzzle at all.



Mike

Mike,

I replaces the plastic fuses with aluminum tubing. It is straight and smooth and a lot less work than doing all the sanding. I replaced the cannon barrels with tubing also. You are right the flared barrel ends are not correct. I have never found any photos of an A-i with flared cannon barrel ends, including Korean War early ADs. Monogram does give you a nice mixed load of odinance, especially for Viet Nam era A-1s.

Note that the ribs provided for a folded wing are not used if you do not cut and fold the wing(s). I did a folded wing version of a Marine aircraft with the cowl opened up. I used the P-61 Black Widow engine for a base and modified it to resemble the A-1 engine.
It is white with day-glow orange panels. It is in a box somewhere. I'll see if I can find it , take some digital pics, and post them.

My next A-1 will be the Tamiya kit with an Aries cockpit kit, wheel well kit, and some other detail items. The Korean War Non-Specular Sea Blue paint scheme keeps calling me! Then maybe a Matchbox A5 with Tamiya wings modified, etc. The SPAD is just a great old bird.

Thanks rangerj for all the info.

Did you just put one piece of tubing in for the cannon barrels or did you use two pieces to simulate the barrel's diameter getting smaller about a foot out from the wing?

MIke

Mike
I used a single piece of tubing. You could use two pieces for a more accurate appearance. The K&S Engineering products sell a wide variety of brass and aluminum tubing. The outside diameter (OD) fits into the inside diameter (ID )of the tubing as they go up in size. This makes it easy to "telescope" the sizes.

You should be able to find their products at most hobby shops, especially ones that have radio control kits and accessories. If I remember correctly Sqaudron has vacuum formed canopies for the A-1. Enjoy the build.

Mike,

I used some different guages of hypodermic needles to make the long pitot probe on my F-100. If you have access to them they worked out well because of thier thin walls. E-mail me if you want a picture of my F-100 to see the results. I still haven't persued finding a "host" site to post pictures yet.

Thanks guys.

Have any of you ever tried the Evergreen plastic tubing?
I have seen it online and it looks like it might work good and it is much cheaper than aluminum or brass tubing.

http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/Shapes.htm

Thanks

Mike

Mike Evergreen has a great line of plasic products for modelers. I have used their tubing as well as their sheets of varios thicknesses. Its good stuff.
I got to digging through my referrences on the Skyraider last night and found several instances of AD-4s, AD-5s and AD-6s with flared or funnel shaped ends on the cannon barrels. AD-5 = A-1 E, AD-6 = A-1 H, AD-7 = A-1 J (I think, this is from memory.)

The M-3 20mm cannon did have a flared barrel end. I do not know if the barrel style was changed, or the cannon was changed. I do know that the barrels are changed fairly often and it could be a design change.

The Monogram A-1 can be built as an A-1 H or J and could be correct with the flared gunbarrel ends as I did find AD-6s with this type of barrel. Have fun!

Thanks for the update rangerj.

That's interesting as I haven't seen a photo yet with flared cannon barrel muzzles on an A-1.

I'm off to the local HobbyTown USA to see what I can find for the barrels and bomb fuses.

One other thing: Did you have a problem with the gunsight not reaching up to the top of the cockpit where it can be seen?
Mine is below that point and doesn't look that good, but I think I may have glued it in there in haste years ago. It would be hard to change it now.

Mike

Well I just got back from HobbyTown USA and I found some Plastruct round rod styrene in .060" 1.5mm size that should work great for the new bomb extended fuses on this Skyraider. They didn't have the tubing I needed for the cannons though so I am going to have to go and find that elsewhere.

They also had the Hasegawa weapons set D that I needed for my F-15E also, so I guess it wasn't a total wasted trip.

Mike

Mike,

Check "on-line' for Plastistruct and Evergreen. I think you can mail order from both of them direct. As I recall I did have some fit problems with the gunsight on the A-1.

QUOTE: Originally posted by MikeV Thanks for the update rangerj. One other thing: Did you have a problem with the gunsight not reaching up to the top of the cockpit where it can be seen? Mine is below that point and doesn't look that good, but I think I may have glued it in there in haste years ago. It would be hard to change it now. Mike

On my Tamiya version... the gunsight came up high enough... It just did not fit all the way forward in the notched out section. Had to Zap a Gap it.

Oh... thats right... you are building the Monogram version. Nevermind...

rangerj,

I have both Evergreen's and Plastruct's web sites saved in my bookmarks already.
The Hobby Shop had a complete rack of the both of these companies lines of plastic tube and rod, but they don't make the tube small enough diameter to use for the cannons in the wings. The smallest tubing they have is 3/32" which was still too big. I wanted to buy some aluminum tubing but they didn't have that either so I guess I will have to look at Hobbies Unlimited which is a nice, well-stocked store or I may have to travel across the bay to the big store....San Antonio Hobbies.
What did you use for the ends of the extended bomb fuses?
You said you used tubing but what did you use to fashion the silver pieces on the tips of the fuses?

Mike

QUOTE: Originally posted by Babva Oh... thats right... you are building the Monogram version. Nevermind...

Yes, I have the kit that I can buy three for the price of one Tamiya.

Mike