Tailspin Turtle

Also see http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2016/01/grumman-6b-iron-hand.html but Rick and I were collaborating so there might not be anything new.

For what it's worth: https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2009/10/grumman-panther.html

Thanks - although the color actually varies to some extent in real life, it's always better to start with the closest approximation. Now, what do you do for "white"?

The forward section of the rudder was actually the trimmer panel. The aft section was the rudder itself. A big enough rudder for single engine operation at take off and landing speeds was far too big at cruise speeds.as North American was to discover with the AJ Savage. During single-engine operation, the trimmer panel responded to rudder-pedal movement like the rudder itself.

In 1/72 scale, I use a thin strips of the kind of white high-quality "wrap" tissue paper that a present is wrapped in before being put in the box. It can be painted after been draped and tacked in place with white glue by just touching the brush to the center of the tissue. It naturally wicks out to the edge of the strip and no farther.

Kittyhawk appears to have used VMF-312's FJ-3M color scheme with the WR tail code on its FJ-2 kit cover art.

Also: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2013/04/things-under-wings-va-25-1-skyraider.html

That was my plan but things got in the way, like new-to-me material. Steve Ginter has finally made me commit to a hard deadline so the monograph can be available by Christmas. It should be worth the wait for hard-core Phantom Phans.

I’d be happy to help since I know a bit about the Skywaririor family but at best I’ll be an advisor because 1/48 is not my scale and I therefore don’t have any of the kits. All my comments to date are second hand based on photos and assembly instructions.

Thanks for the prompt response. That was my second guess and clarifies the DECM antenna involved (A's had a boom-mounted DECM antenna on the outboard pylon).

Red Dog, please see http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2015/09/grumman-6a-vs-6e-intruder.html. I noticed the change in location of the fence but didn't know why or when (effectivity/retrofit). Do you have any specifics on that?

This may help in deciding what to do: http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2018/05/eka-3b-aft-fuselage.html Note that there are so many significant and relatively minor errors in the Trumpeter family of A-3 kits that you might want to limit yourself to addressing only the more egregious ones, e.g. the canopy and the engine nacelles for which Jeffery provides excellent substitutes.

I don't have the kit, but my understanding is that the aft end of the bomb bay doors are properly located. See Jeffery's post here: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/trumpeter-skywarrior-findings-t484504.html The problem is that the front end of the main landing gear bay should be located ahead of aft end of the bomb bay doors, not at the fuselage station at the aft end of the bomb bay doors. See http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2014/04/trumpeter-148-3-skywarrior.html Jeffrey's original estimate was that the gear bay is too far aft by 4 to 5 mm relative to the aft end of the bomb bay. My assessment from Douglas drawings is the overlap was an actual seven inches, which is about 4 mm in 1/48th. See http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2015/06/a3d-2-3b-skywarrior-bomb-bay.html

The tanks were removable and replaced with wingtip fairings but not jettisonable (the fuel in them could be dumped - the motive force to do so was provided by the hole in the nose of the tank). The Blues originally intended to fly displays without the tanks and only install them to fly longer distances between venues. The time required to remove/replace them and lack of notable performance improvement without them quickly disabused the team leader of that concept. Plus at some point it was realized that you could put colored water in the tanks for a cool visual effect.