the build (photo 005) as usual i began with the cockpit and ......2012/12/12 · curtiss sb2c...

RoR Step-by-Step Review 20121212* – AD-6 Skyraider 1/48 MGRM 85-5312 Kit Review

The Douglas Skyraider was developed toward the end of World War II to fulfill a US Naval requirement for a carrier-based, single-seat, long-range, high performance dive/torpedo bomber, as a follow up to the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver and Grumman TBF Avenger. The first prototype Skyraider (the XBT2D-1) made its maiden flight on March 18th, 1945. The Skyraider was developed too late to see action in World War II, but became the mainstay of U.S. Naval carrier and USMC aviation during the Korean War (1950-1953). Powered by a Wright R-3350-26WA radial engine producing 2,800 hp, the Skyraider could carry up to 8,000 lbs of weapons on 15 hard points for up to 10 hours. Its weapons load and flight time far surpassed and of the newer jet aircraft available at the time. The Skyraider continued in service during the Vietnam War and U.S. Navy Skyraiders shot down two North Vietnamese Air Force (NVAF) Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 jet fighters: one on 20 June 1965 and one on 9 October 1966. As they were released from Navy service, Skyraiders were introduced into the South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF). They were also used by the USAF to perform one of the Skyraider's most famous roles: the "Sandy" helicopter escort on combat rescues. USAF Major Bernard F. Fisher piloted an A-1E on the 10 March 1966 mission for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor for rescuing Major "Jump" Myers. USAF Colonel William A. Jones, III piloted an A-1H on the 1 September 1968 mission for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. In that mission, despite damage to his aircraft and suffering serious burns, he returned to his base and reported the position of a downed US airman.

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For the modeler: Revell’s model box top represents an AD-6 Skyraider, but the decal & painting guide is for an AD-4E or an A-1H. The model consists of 75 parts, 72 molded in grey plastic and three molded in clear plastic (photo 004). The molds date to 1980 and almost every part shows some flash. This is not an excessive problem but does require a good deal of clean up before opening the glue bottle. The decal sheet includes decals for two aircraft. The first is an AD-4E of the Naval Ordinance Test Station at China Lake California in overall white and International Orange. The second aircraft is an A-1H of the 1st Fighter

Squadron of the South Vietnamese Air Force, Squadron Commanders aircraft. The A-1H with its 3-tone camouflage scheme and black and yellow checkerboard fuselage stripe was much more interesting to me and so I chose to build that aircraft. This basic but aged kit makes a great display subject if you have the right information to perfect your build. Adding realism to the guns and exhaust; dealing with excess flash and sinks; cockpit detailing paint selection and highlighting with a silver pencil; glass tints; seam filling; ejection pin locations; cowling modifications for fit; camouflage paint selection and methods; masking techniques; weaponry color selections; prop detailing; canopy detailing with a liquid mask; decal preparation and application; use of Future for sealing; tail wheel height considerations are all fully examined in this 12 page, full-color Step-by-Step review.

The model consists of 75 parts, 72 molded in grey plastic (Photos 001,002,003) and 3 pieces molded in clear plastic.

(Photo 003) The molds date to 1980 and almost every part shows some flash. This is not an excessive problem but does require a good deal of clean up before opening the glue bottle.


The Build (Photo 005) As usual I began with the cockpit and there was nothing surprising here the 4 parts fit together well with no trouble. The cockpit interior was painted Light Grey, the seat Olive Drab, the seat belts Tan, and the buckles were highlighted using a silver Prisma-color pencil. The control stick was painted Light Grey with a Flat Black grip. A decal is used to represent the instrument panel. The gun sight is a clear plastic piece so I painted the mounting bracket flat black and the ‘glass’ Tamiya Clear Green. The completed cockpit tub, front lower air scoop and tailhook/tail wheel well were added to the right fuselage half and the fuselage closed up.


(Photos 006 & 007) The fuselage seam required a good bit of filler to obtain a smooth seam.

(Photo 009) The landing gear doors mount from the inside of the lower wing half, but they all have some pretty significant ejection pin marks that needed some serious clean-up. Once they were cleaned up and glued in place the inside surfaces were painted Flat White as was the inside of the upper wing corresponding to the wheel well areas.

(Photo 010) The upper wing halves were then joined to the lower wing and after cleaning up seams the completed wing was joined to the fuselage. A bit more seam filling especially where the rear of the wing joined the fuselage. Once these seams were cleaned up the horizontal stabilizers were added. Here I ran into the only real difficulty with this kit, the cowling. The cowling had no location pins and is supposed to fit over the exhaust after the exhaust has been attached to the front on the fuselage.


(Photo 010a) In my sample the molding of the cowl, in the area of the cowl flaps was too think to fit over the exhaust without leaving a significant gap between the cowling and fuselage. Some work with a Dremel and I was able to thin the inside of the cowling enough to allow the cowl to meet the fuselage without too much of a seam. Getting the cowl to align straight with the fuselage was a bit problematic since it was really nothing more than a butt joint with no locating pins, notches, or any other helpful means of alignment. I actually removed the cowling twice after gluing until I was happy with its appearance and I’m still not sure it is 100% correct.

(Photo 011) I thought I would experiment a little when it came to painting the 3 color camouflage. I began by masking the wheel wells using wet bathroom tissue and spraying the underside XF-52 Sky Grey. I then sprayed a thin line of Model Master Steel around the front of the cowl as well as the shutters (?) inside the cowl. I then cut a very thin strip of masking tape to mask the thin steel area around the outside of the cowling. I was unsure how to get a sharp division between the colors of the upper Camouflage scheme, so instead of trying to cut masks from tape or Frisket film I decided to use liquid mask. I thought would paint the first color (Tan), outline that color with liquid mask, fill in the center area with masking tape, spray

the next color (medium Green), outline it with the liquid masking, etc. So I first sprayed the Tan and then outlined the area I wanted to remain tan using the liquid mask. (Photo 014) Next I filled the center area with masking tape


(Photo 015) Then I sprayed the medium green. Then I masked the medium green in the same way as the tan and sprayed the dark green.

(Photo 017) Once all the paint had cured, I removed the masking in the reverse order of the way it went on. Everything was perfect….until I got down to the tan and – DISASTER! Not quite what I had in mind! The tan paint I used was Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth, an acrylic and the liquid mask I used was water based. The Dark Green and Medium Green were Model Master enamel and were unaffected by the water based liquid mask. Obviously it’s not a good idea to use a water based liquid masking fluid over an acrylic paint – another lesson learned. In order to avoid stripping the entire model and starting over I outlined the areas of missing paint with Blue-Tac and filled in the tan areas. This left a softer edge than I had originally planned but I was not at all unhappy with the result.


(Photo 019) While I had been masking and spraying the camouflage pattern (and then fixing it), I cleaned up and painted the under-wing stores. These include 8 bombs, 4 tube rocket launchers, and 3 fuel tanks. Each bomb, rocket launcher, and fuel tank comprised two halves and required cleaning up flash, and then filling and sanding the seam. Once the seams were cleaned up the bombs were painted Model Master Olive Drab, the nose of each rocket launcher was painted Model Master Steel, the 2 wing fuel tanks Tamiya XF-7 Flat Red, and the central fuselage fuel tank Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey. Once the rocket launchers were dry, I masked the steel tips and sprayed the rest of the body Olive Drab. After they had dried I taped all of the under-wing stores so that I could spray the mounting hard points Sky Grey.


(Photo 020) The separate hard point for the center line fuselage tank required some filling of ejector pin marks so this was taken care of using Tamiya Putty and the hard point was then sprayed Sky Gray.


(Photo 021) During this period I was also busy painting the landing gear, wheels, and separate wheel hubs Tamiya XF-2 Flat White and then the tires Floquil Grimy Black. I also sprayed the front of each propeller blade tip flat white. After the white on the propeller blade tips was dry, I masked them and sprayed the back of each blade tip Tamiya XF-3 Flat Yellow. Once the white and yellow were dry I masked the yellow and using 3 thin strips of masking tape laid out the center red line on the front tip of each propeller blade. The red stripe was then sprayed before all the tips were masked off yet again and the main body of the blades sprayed Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black. Finally the propeller hub was brush painted Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum.

(Photo 021b) I also outlined the canopy frames using masking tape and then filled in the central areas using the Micro-liquid mask. I had first dipped the canopy in Future and set it aside to cure for about 48 hours. I actually dipped the canopy twice. I like using the liquid mask for the majority of the canopy because it leaves no residue.

(Photo 022) Once everything was painted, it was time to add the landing gear and wheels before applying a clear coat (Future) to provide a gloss surface for the decals. The decals went on smoothly with no problems and only a bit of setting solution (Micro-Set & Micro-Sol). The decals conformed well and settled into recessed areas and onto raised panel lines.


(Photos 023 & 024)The only word of caution is to use LOTS of water to position the two checkerboard fuselage stripes because they need lots of adjustment to get them to match up nicely along the upper fuselage spine.

(Photos 025) It really helps if both decals remain movable until you’re happy with the alignment.


(Photo 029) Once the decals were applied another coat of Future was sprayed to blend everything together. Then the under –wing stores were added (these had been coated with Future previously), as was the canopy. Here there was another issue as the rear sliding portion of the canopy does not fit the fuselage top very well. There is really no way to solve this without some serious surgery to canopy part and I decided to leave it alone. Once everything was attached the model was given an overall coat of Testors Semi-Gloss clear. Then the canopy masking was removed and the wing tip lights and light on the vertical tail were painted (a small dot of Tamiya X-11 Chrome silver followed by Tamiya X-27 Clear Red and X-25 Clear Green). Conclusions:


(Photo 026) This is not a difficult kit to build at all. It does date from 1980 and as such you should expect a fair amount of cleaning up of flash, filling ejector pin marks, and filling and sanding seams – none of which is beyond anyone with a few kits under their belt. I did take the time to drill out the 20mm cannon barrels in the wings.

(Photo 027) I also drilled out the exhaust pipes. Other than that the kit is very much straight from the box.

(Photo 036) There are a couple of fit issues involving the cowling and the canopy as well as the under fuselage fuel tank the tail of which touches the ground. Next time around a simple fix for this would be to make the separate hard point a bit narrower. Of course it’s possible I don’t have the tail wheel installed properly and the model should sit a bit higher? The most time consuming difficulty with the painting was of my own making, however this model did require a lot of masking to get all of the parts prepared and painted.


the build (photo 005) as usual i began with the cockpit and ......2012/12/12 · curtiss sb2c...

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