vince14 Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Just seen that Hannant's have got in Italeri's 1/48 AD-4 Skyraider. Anyone know anything about it? New tool? Re-box? Good or bad? Vince Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Andre Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Reboxed Esci. It's throughly outclassed by the Tamiya and even Monogram kits. HTH, Andre Quote Link to post Share on other sites
vince14 Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 Thanks Andre - I won't bother shelling out for it then. Vince Quote Link to post Share on other sites
randypandy831 Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 go for tamiya or monogram. i know that monogram released one for 2011. it's $20 and will blow away the italeri/esci stuff. i have the tam and mono kit. both are great. tam is more detailed and double the price but you can never go wrong with tam kits. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
eharrold44 Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 I'm building a Tamiya A-1H right now. Easily one of the best kits I've ever handled. It practically falls together, and the detail is excellent. The office could use some extra work, but you can say that about 99% of the mass market kits out there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DonSS3 Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 The only advantage the ESCI/Italeri kit will have is if you decide to build the AD-4W version. That's the one with the "Guppy" radome and the two doors with bulged windows on the fuselage sides. If you're just building an"attack:" Skyraider, I'd agree with the above statements, go for the Tamiya or Monogram kit. If you want to do an AD-5/A-1E, you'll need the Matchbox kit (re-released by Revell?). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
vince14 Posted May 23, 2011 Author Share Posted May 23, 2011 I'm looking to do one of the AD-4's used by Chad (ex-French Air Force), so I'm thinking of using the Tamiya kit with the MDC conversion (although that doesn't include the fuselage door). Vince Quote Link to post Share on other sites
redwoodmodels Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 I'm looking to do one of the AD-4's used by Chad (ex-French Air Force), so I'm thinking of using the Tamiya kit with the MDC conversion (although that doesn't include the fuselage door). Vince From memory: The ESCI kit has panels that go into the sides of the fuselage so that they can switch kits between the speed brakes and doors. The problem is that fitting the panels is kind of a pain, because the ones I had didn't match the contour of the fuselage very well. I had to fill the slots with some plastic to push the panels out far enough that they could be sanded to shape, then had to rescribe the doors (I eventually cut them out and opened the compartment). The AD-4W has the fuselage hump behind the cockpit and the needed canopy. It also has the bulged windows for the doors. It has the pylons for that version and drop tanks, though I don't remember either being very good. I believe I used tanks from an AMT Tigercat (don't quote me on that one) and pylons from something else. I like the shape of the radome under the fuselage, but the fit was horrible. Where the ESCI kit fails is in the cowl shape, the propeller shape, the wing planform, and the landing gear (especially the wheels). It also has the armor molded onto the front fuselage, so it can't really be used to make an accurate AD-4 without major rework, though every kit on the market will have the same problem. I also didn't like the horizontal stabilizers and the tail wheel/tail wheel well on the ESCI kit much. What I did was kitbash it with a Monogram kit. From that I took the wings, the landing gear, the horizontal stabilizer, the prop, parts of the cockpit, and the tailwheel/tail wheel well. The Monogram cowl is grossly undersized (6 inches too small in diameter I think I read somewhere), but the shape looks pretty good in most respects to me. KMC had an update set out there somewhere that had a replacement cowl. I mated that and some of the parts from that set to the ESCI fuselage. I don't remember having major issues doing that and it looked better to me. I hated the KMC wheels. When I opened the rear compartment, I remember thinking that the seats from a Monogram A-37 are reasonably close in shape to the ones from the AD-4W and that's what I remember using. I don't remember if they were from a resin cockpit upgrade for the A-37 or the ones from the kit. I think I used cut up cockpit/instrument panel parts from the Monogram EA-6B and F-4C to replicate the radars and black boxes in the aft fuselage. The AMT release of the ESCI kit had good decals for the AD-4W that I remember working well, except for the Suez stripes which I painted on. At any rate, it was a TON of work and it got destroyed less than a month later when something heavy fell on it. I attempted a Matchbox AD-5/Monogram kitbash once too but didn't finish it because of the destruction of the AD-4W (lot of work without much benefit, didn't even get to take it to a show). Again the KMC update was required because neither kit has a good cowl. C&H has an AD-5/A-1E conversion for the Tamiya kit. http://www.candhaerominiatures.com/catalog/a1e.htm I've never seen it up close, so I don't know what it's like (fit/finish/etc), but their Voodoo conversions are pretty nice. I don't know of any good conversion for the AD-4. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
redwoodmodels Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Is MDC still in business? If so, where are their products available? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
redwoodmodels Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 Cool. Thank you. They've really added to their product line since I lost track of them. Interesting stuff. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stephen Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 For the doors on the AD-4 you could go here http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/AEC48098 I used the MDC set to build an ADA Skyraider and it is very easy to use although the rockets are very fiddly http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=48373&hl=Skyraider Stephen Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mungo1974 Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 Afew years ago i built a AD-4W using the Japanese North Wing Model Craft Tamiya conversion. Sadly i dont have it anymore,but if you can find it a AD-4 would be easy with this set as they provide new forward fuse sections with the crew doors and of course deleted speed brakes. There was a review on Cybermodeler when it came out. Gary Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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