Tamiya A-1 Skyraider

Nitpicking department:

I think it's an AD-4.

Nah, it's an AD-6 or AD-7 - or more correctly after 1962 an A-1H Skyraider. Looks very good, pity you didn't give us some more info on how the kit went together and so on.

The AD-4 didn't have the doors covering the wheels of the main undercarriage. The books sat they didn't make it to Vietnam anymore, and definitely not from the Navy to the Air Force.

Thanks for sharing and have a nice day

Paweł

Nice paint, and especially like the exhaust plumes.  Only nit I would have is the unbalanced loadout on the tanks on the centerline and right wing, otherwise nice little build.

Have the Tamiya in the stash for a future project.

Thanks for comment.

Kit went together very well (that's what we expect from Tamiya).

Tamiya provides two configuration for the weapon load and I chose  the 2nd config which only has 2 fuel tanks, 1 under fuselage, and 1 under wing. However both wings don't have exact same weapons.

Hey, it's cool.  After walking around Erickson's Spad, wouldn't really surprise me to see one in the air with an A-4 Scooter strapped under one wing.

goldhammer - please note that there's an SUU-11 7,62 minigun pod on the other side from the wing drop tank. Together with the other stores you see here what is almost canonical "Sandy loadout" - that is, a mix of weapons used on downed airman rescue missions, where a Skyraider would asume a radio callsign Sandy. Those funny pipes on the outermost hardpoints are SUU-14 bomblet dispensers for ejecting to the rear baseball-sized bomblets. Some of those contained tear-gas for situations where a downed pilot was effectively overrun - then you would gas the whole area, make everybody unconscious and have para-jumpers pick up the friendly.

cnq - I don't see it from the photos, but what is suspended between the rocket launchers (with the red tips)? There should be WP/phosphor bombs there.

By the way, did you know that if you strapped three  drop tanks on a Skyraider, fill 'er up and go on flying, it would run out of engine oil before it ran out of fuel?

Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel,

  Thanks for the info. It looks like a different type of rocket launcher suspended between the ones with red tips ( sorry I don't know much about US weapon  ). Like I said I followed the weapon configuration outline by Tamiya and I'm not surprised they got it wrong  .

cnq - I don't say it's wrong - maybe it is, maybe just less typical.

Have a nice day

Paweł

Very cool build across the board. What did you use for exhaust stains ?

Thanks. I used Tamiya smoke paint for the exhaust stain.

Great job ! I had to look twice to see if it was a pic of the real thing.

No complaints from me! Looks great! A model I need to build. I build somewhat clean models but ya gotta have those oil/exhaust stripes on a Skyraider. Part of the deal! Good job.

Max

You did a fantastic job on the camoflauge.  I built this same kit and loved how Tamiya engineered this kit.  The only aftermarket piece I added was an Eduard Interior PE.  I painted mines gray.  It’s great to see your work!  Thank you for sharing.

Your friend, Toshi

Very nice build! I really like the camo. How did you mask/paint the camo?

cnq - how about fixing the thread title - to A-1? You can do this by editing the title of the first, original post. Thanks in advance, have a nice day

Paweł

Awesome job!

Thank you friends.

Here is frontal shot showing the weapon load a bit better

Great job on the Skyraider. She is a great old bird. They could carry the bomb load of a B-17. As stated above they could hang arround for a long time. The jets (fast movers) zipped in and out, but the SPADs hung arround and covered our buts. Love those SPAD pilots. The AD4 was long out of service before the conflict heated up in SEA. There were several "odd" versions of the AD and the "4" had the strangest variations, e.g. the one with a huge radar pod under the belly and a door on the left fuselage side behind the wing where a couple of radar operators sat (AD4N if I recall correctly). There are a significant number in private hands and they can be seen at air shows on a regular basis. I love 'em.

Really nice work on your Skyraider. The camo and exhaust staining are well done. I also have this kit which I'm looking to do in the infamous toilet bomb configuration. Thanks for sharing. Well done.

Cheers, Joe

Thanks again friends. You are too kind :)

I'm looking forward to build my 3rd Skyraider below since I still have spare decals to do it

and here is the othe one I have in my collection

Here is a set of decals for the mig killing Skyraider‘s lawdog.

http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/sbm010.htm

Nice job job on the Spad.