trietmcam

Some walk around

One final update, I added the walk ways after someone pointed out. I had totally forgotten. I sprayed very dark gray, and left off some spots to get that worn out look.

Here's the real thing in 1970. It's actually an A-1G. From exterior, there were no differences between the E and G. The G version were more dedicated to night operations. Many of the South Vietnamese two seaters were actually the G version minus night time radar equipment in the back. Probably had no usage purposes in Vietnam. Record showed this aircraft was lost in Feb/02/1972, no indication where. Checking with sources who knew think it was shot down over the battle of Kontum in Region II. It was downed while returing home from mission. It was later learned that it was hit by a missile.

Overall view. Summarize the build: The model was kit bashed with the Monogram wings, and tailpanes. I mate along the lower side of the fuselage, to minimized fillers and sanding as much as possible. It's still a lot of work involved though. Other modelers tried to use as much of the donor kit as possible (ie. Tamiya) by joining the two higher up. I saw this could have some potential difficulty fitting in the cockpit floor, if it's not done right. There were a lot of work mating in the resin nose/engine set. The fuselage diameter had

I wasn't totally ok with the canopy. Both the kit's and the vac form were off, but I made best with what was available. I added Archer raised rivets around the framing. Yeah, it's supposed to be flushed rivets in the real thing, but still better than nothing there. The lights are from MV Products, 3.3mm clear lense. Exceelent product, too bad they no longer exists. The red bar (coke can) next to the cannons is the wing fold indicator. They extend when the wings are folded, and retract flush when wings are extended.

I've crossed the line - the finish line. Just shoot some overall pics.

If I read your post right, yeah I don't make it supper flat finish either. It doesnt seem to look right. I tend to keep it satin like finish. What I do is go 50% flat, 50% thinner. That way the gloss coat underneath can shine through a little bit.

Seems like the goal line keeps moving away as I get closer. Still working on the side canopy, as well as weathering. I replaced the canopy with a vac form. It is a little flatter at the center support bar, which is correct. It's still not 100% correct though, because the side profile is a little flat when it should be more of an oval bulge like the real thing. It still need to get evenly distributed dirtiness at the bottom. But other than that, it's getting closer to the goal line.

I hear ya. Same here. I kept procrastinating and by the time I was ready, it was too late. I actually was planning on mating the ZM A-1 since it was more accurate in many ways. Hopefully one day his business is back up. Cheers

Yes, I used Tamiya panel line wash. I mixed black and brown to get the dark brown finish. The stuff is great. Cheers

After decals set, the model was hit with 2 coats of Model Master flat laquer. I did started some small weathering with Tamiya weathering sets, just to test out. Just some more things to finish up: dirty up the old boy to resemble war condition, the sliding canopy still haven't start yet, the original props need some fixing up, landing lights on the gear doors need to attahc, and the napes need to load up. The next update will be the final finish model.

Heading into the 9th inning. Markings are on, and it's the Caracal sheet that was released in 2014(?). I had a little trouble with the checker band, where it had some crack while forming around the fuselage. It was pieced together and brushed over with Microsol, the decal fused together nicely without leaving witness mark.

Another task is to fix the gear doors. The 2 seater sported a couple of versions. One has the short "pants" like the one behind Bernie Fisher. The other is the longer pants is more commonly seen like the 2nd pic. Then there were some wore the same door as the single seater. Either case, the kit's door accuracy fell short. Since the one i'm doing is the longer door, fixing up is necessary.

Bottom view. Checking with ref pictures, I noticed I had left off the linkages on the trim tabs at the wings ailerons. The Archer rivets worked quite well. Looked just like part of the kit's molding after the paint top coat is on.

I put on a gloss coat right away to protect the paint from rubbing off due to handling. It's necessary to do multiple coats to get glossy level, in this case 4 coats of X-22 mixed with half Tamiya brand thinner. This mixed has worked well for me. I always had problems in the past with the gloss coat creating pebbles finish in the corners. By thinning the gloss paint down, the problem went away, though it required repeated coating to get the shine level. The first 2 coats pretty much eaten up by the flat paint. Once it's dried for handling, the gloss coat has a tough hard surface that can withs

The painting is done. Because I already painted the front, the rest of the way went fairly uneventful, though I did have to retouch the over spray back and forth a few times. The top was painted first with Tamiya mix. The bottom was painted last. The bottom was Model Master enamel FS36622, lightened with 50% white to get to scale color effect. I used Blue tack putty rolled up putty to mask the outline patterns, and sprayed perpendicular to the surface where possible to get the sharp demarcations. These planes were slow movers, so the paint didn't fade out like the jets in Vietnam. Everyone of

Just checking to see how the stand measure from left to right. It's been about 2 months since this project was started. This had been a tough kit bash job. Now's a good time to take a break and resume later. I find it always help starting fresh and energized. Thanks for following. Be back a little later and hope to complete it in a few months. Regards Triet C.

We have a plane, sort of. But this look like it's ready for the paint shop. Some of the misc errors were taken cared of. The rear leg height was shorten. I cut part of the strut off to lower the height. The nose cone appeared to be in the corrected angle.

Things are moving closer to painting. But before that can happen, all the little things protruding out needs to be taken care first. Gun barrels made from brass and steel tubes added. Static probe on the tail mounted. I did add a middle rudder hinge to the model. Seems the original kit missed this detail. ADF and VHF antenna added on top spine, as well as IFF antenna bladed added on the bottom fuselage.

The front nose was added a 1mm thick shim. This was necessary in order to tilt the nose a little down for a proper position.

Starting on the clear parts. I had to sand most of the thick framing off. Finishing off with Tamiya polishing compounds. After getting them to acceptable shine level, I went ahead and spray a coat of clear blue on the inside rear canopy. It took 3 coats to get a deep blue. I added a final coat of Tamiya clear smoke to get the blue a bit darker to get that deep blue look like the real one. The front windscreen needed a little filler. I used a small pointy brush to get the Mr Surfacer to fill in the gaps. I made a homemade sanding device small enough to sand around the

You didn't mention how many coats, I'm guessing one? Usually it takes multiple coats to get glossy level. The first coat usually gets flatten out by the flat paint. This one took 4 coats of X-22 over Tamiya flat paint. I used their brand thinner 50% mix with X-22.

Build detour. I started thinking about ordnance. The Skyraiders were so well known for dropping Napalms during the war. They were often seen with 6 to 8 loads across the wings. I decided to put on the BLU 10 across the wings. These are the old True Details I bought about 6 years back. Haven't seen them around lately. It says 500 lbs on the package, but I think the BLU-10 were 250 lbs. The details are not really great. I added Archer weld beads to represent the weld lines on the housings, and the fuses in front and rear. I tested out various aluminum shades, but ended up using Testors chrome.

The Skyraiders had some very large rivets in some areas. I used Archers rivets decals to add them on along the wing roots and wheel wells.These decals are a real time savers. They stick well to flat paint too. I was worried they may come off. I had totally forgotten about it until the paint was already on. ]