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RA-3B Skywarrior in 1:72, Hasegawa


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I like interesting camo-schemes, and the three-tone-grey some RA-3Bs were sporting in Vietnam are certainly interesting!

IMG_5366_zpsznsyn3o7.jpg

I´m using the KA-3B kit as base, using the Furball decal sheet "Killer Whales" as reference for colours and markings. Also a fellow german modeller started his RA-3B some years ago and documented it quite well, so I can use his pictures for doing all the necessary changes on my bird to make it the Recon-version. Unfortunately he didn´t finished his model yet, but the most significant changes have been made in his built.

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As you can see I added some detail to the cockpit, especially opening up the tunnel towards the fuselage.

HAJO

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Interesting project! The Hasegawa kit is a good starter for lots of variations.

What will you do with the canopy?

All of the Hasegawa boxings are bombers. All the rest of the "versions" had different canopy bracing.

Main difference visible from the ground is the small window between the windshield and side windows---triangular on the bombers and narrow-vertical on the rest. Escape hatch is much smaller on the "versions".

Another big difference is the main wheels.

I've considered sanding the canopy and putting on a new frame piece but haven't tried it. Have sanded Mach 2 canopies to good effect so it's do-able.

"Evil"!!! B-66 was much-maligned and I think totally undeserving. I think it was as great as the A3D. Much of the criticism focuses on the engines but if you look at the power ratings they were closer to the J57 than people give credit for. If PW had failed in developing the J57 I think that there's a good chance that the J71 would have been the "standard" and maybe gone on the 707 and DC-8. Hopefully Allison would have overcome the aged-turbine problems.

An excellent book is "Glory Days" from Schiffer. Tells the story of the B-66 from introduction through VN, written by a crew member.

Also recommend:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/125031634243303/ A-3 (which has a camo RA photo header at the moment)

and

https://www.facebook.com/groups/853870154673508/ B-66

Rich

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Thanks for the input!

I´m not sure what I will do with the canopy. I could perfectly live with it as it is, but maybe I´m going that extra-mile and try to change the frames you mentionend (worked well when I did a similar thing with a 1:144 B-52) and making something smaller (the escape hatch) sounds easier to me that enlarging it. What really gives me the creeps at the moment are the multiple holes and openings for cooling vents, not even mentioning to two additional windows!

Well, so far I did the easier things - added paint and decals to the cockpit:

IMG_5374_zpsf38gm0di.jpg

And then I added the crew. Once again I made use of the wonderful pilots set by Revell, the only downside: Too many standing pilots, I use up the sitting pilots quite fast and I´m already using the fourth set...

IMG_5375_zpswujsavfz.jpg

IMG_5376_zpsasfzmtpz.jpg

HAJO

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Loooooo-king good!

I think you can do the other mods.

Did you see the Portuguese SB2C in today's main page?

Builder sanded/polished the canopy to change framing from SB2C-4 to SB2C-5.

While not a model, a direct comparison is an AH-1J (1:1) that I'm polishing the canopy on.

Someone went aggresive on it putting scratches in it that held residue---looked bird-bombed.

One of those headlight polishing kits works great (did it on a bomber nose before).

Lots of other ARCers have done similar.

It's actually easy, just needing to get over that confidence-hump we have for a first-time gulper event.

This makes we want to start on the trainer version that just came out and really do it on an A3 canopy.

Hmmmm....

The difference in opening should be easy---fill, make new ones, which mainly are square/rectangular.

Take a close look at the radome too, for differences, again not hard.

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Yeah, working on clear parts had been an experience I made with some Hobbyboss-kits (sanding the seam-line away) and on a more intensive case with the canopy of a Mach2 Super Frelon. I´m pretty confident it should work.

As for the many openings - I just did some homework on that today and will post pictures later.

HAJO

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Gotta love those cordless drills! I used mine with very small drill bits to open up the vents.

IMG_5377_zpshie0okq0.jpg

This is how it looks now:

IMG_5378_zpsbevmafut.jpg

I also made small plates from plastic sheet to cover the vents.

IMG_5380_zpsznn1x4kl.jpg

HAJO

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Hi Hajo,

You want the A3D-2P/Q Retrofit. That is the original designation, in October 1962 it became the RA-3B: A3D-1=A-3A, A3D-2=A-3B, A3D-2P=RA-3B, A3D-2Q=EA-3B, A3D-2T=TA-3B.

Nice work on your whale, but I never saw one with red/orange seat pads. All the ones I ever sat in or saw were grey-green, but they were all bombers. There was no back pad, the NB-7 parachute served that purpose. Since you are putting a crew in it probably doesn't make much difference. FYI, I saw one of those camo'ed RA-3Bs in Da Nang in 1969, and the crew was wearing tiger stripe camo flight suits.

Cheers,

Tom

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Tom, thank you for the explanation!

Unfortunately the crew is already finished, which means that I neither can change the colour of the seats nor dress them in tiger stripes (which would have been a really cool occasion to do that! Damn...)

But as you can see the co-pilot wears a helmet with tiger stripe camo:

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Just checked the clear parts of my model: Looks like most of the changes will be easy, except for that small window that´s located right above the pilot. The clear part comes with a small circling line molded exactly in the middle, and I´m not sure if I will be able to sand it away.

HAJO

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As you can see I also opened up the windows, which - if I´m not mistaken - are giving view to the camera-compartment. Any idea if it was possible to look "through" the jet (peeping outside from one window right through the whole bird) or was there enough equipment in the fuselage that would obstruct from doing so?

HAJO

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"possible to look "through" the jet (peeping outside from one window right through the whole bird) or was there enough equipment in the fuselage that would obstruct from doing so?"

As you can see, Hajo, the latter would be the case, unless most of the camera equipment was removed

a3d-2p_zpsd1nl6wyj.jpg

Here are acouple bottom side views of the RA-3B that may be useful:

RA-3B%20bottom%202_zpsnvlgb5ko.jpg

RA-3B%20bottom_zpsjwkwi4o1.jpg

Hope it all helps

Cheers,

Tom

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Tom, this helps a lot!

Especially since I just learned about the design of the smaller "bomb bay"-doors that were used to drop flares!

And the graphic with the inside layout of the cameras is excellent, I will simply try to put a lot of stuff that looks like those cameras in the interiour of the model! Although, by comparing with the pictures from the outside...: It looks like most of the cameras are located behind the windows, judging by the different openings for the cameras in the bottom... Maybe I just put my "cameras" a bit to the aft of the aircraft?

HAJO

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Some pictures. The first one is from yesterday, when I painted on some markings where to cut for the camera openings and where to scribe some lines for the small bomb bay. As you can see, I forgot the middle lines, since I thought the bomb bay doors would be only one per side. The pictures above show two doors on each side.

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I also glued on the side-arrays for the cameras. I simply cut a sheet of 1mm plastic into size. To get it curved, I first glued it on on the lower side, towards the bottom.

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Then I simply cut some lines to make the material weaker on the outside so it will follow the curve. (Of couse I tried simply bending it with my fingers, but the plastic was too strong - or I was too weak. ;) )

IMG_5388_zpsazxigb8r.jpg

I´m planning to add some thick paper over these arrays, with openings for the lenses cut into the material.

HAJO

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Added the camera-openings by cutting squares into thick paper and glueing these on the already attached cheek-pods. That was a hell of super glue-fight, I nearly glued all my 10 fingers together! ;)

IMG_5390_zpssacd5oio.jpg

Here all the different camera-openings in their various positions can be seen. I have to say that especially the cheeks are a bit too prominent, but I will keep them this way.

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And a last look into the interiour I scratched some rudimentary camera-housings and added weight in the nose.

IMG_5393_zpsu9iglrey.jpg

HAJO

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The fuselage halves have been mated. Does anyone know why the main gear wells have these huge gaps that enables you to look into the belly? Anyway I closed them with some plastic.

IMG_5395_zpsa0z3f6be.jpg

An impression of the multiple openings for the cameras:

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And the "Whale" in it´s full beauty:

IMG_5407_zpsfdprjtii.jpg

HAJO

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The fuselage halves have been mated. Does anyone know why the main gear wells have these huge gaps that enables you to look into the belly? Anyway I closed them with some plastic.

HAJO

On the actual airplane, there was no gap between the inboard sides of the wheel well. There was simply a shear panel on the center line of the fuselage that separated the two wheel wells.

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