A-1E Skyraider 1/48 - Crossed the Finished Line

[11bee]

Fantastic job, thanks for taking the time to post all these updates!   

[trietmcam]

Long over due thank you for everyone's comment. I haven't checked in awhile

 

Regards

TrietCam

[Dutch]

Triet Cam,

Yes, a beautiful build.  You can be proud of this one!  And congratulations for making it across the finish line!  Many of my kits do not, so you should be doubly proud.

Regards,

Dutch

[Sgt Shultz II]

Beautiful build and since I just got my "Revell", "Matchbox" molded in Poland kit you answered a few questions I had but also added a few more questions!

 

One question was how did you make the instrument panels?

 

Second question where did you get the wheels?? The kit wheels look like something a Bush Pilot might use on his Piper Cub! Yours look like small Navy style wheels, would they be appropriate for USAF versions?

[trietmcam]

On 6/18/2019 at 1:51 PM, Sgt Shultz II said:

Beautiful build and since I just got my "Revell", "Matchbox" molded in Poland kit you answered a few questions I had but also added a few more questions!

 

One question was how did you make the instrument panels?

 

Second question where did you get the wheels?? The kit wheels look like something a Bush Pilot might use on his Piper Cub! Yours look like small Navy style wheels, would they be appropriate for USAF versions?

 

Dutch and Shultz, thanks for your comments.

 

The instrument panel came from the now defunct Cobra resin set. The surface had to be sanded smooth, had a lot of grains. I used Mike Grant instrument decals gauges for the individual locations. One caution, the 2 side consoles had to be sanded down and so did the 2 seats in order to fit the cockpit. The True Details seats were actually designed for the single seat fighter version. I think they were wider than the E version. So had to be sanded down to fit. 

 

The way I did it was sand down the seats, side consoles, then lots of trials fitting to see if the cockpit assembly fit to the fuselage. This is the most complicated task of the build because there is no reference point for the cockpit placement to the fuselage. The instrument panel and coaming can be added later. The coaming doesn't fit very well, so required some sanding and trimming. If the cockpit position is off, the bulkhead wall behind the seat is off and the canopy wont fit later. Fitting the cockpit task nearly broke me, so patience is a requirement here.

 

The front wheels came from the KMC cockpit sets, but you can use the Aries set as well. I compared them to reference pics, and seems pretty good. The rear wheel came from the Quickboost. It's the only ones out there if you want to make it a pneumatic inflated wheel version, which was predominantly used on land base operation in VN.

 

Regards

Triet

 

 

[Tailspin Turtle]

Excellent work:

 

Some notes on the non-USN wide-body Skyraiders

 

https://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-1e-yankee-escape-system.html

 

https://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2017/08/usafvnaf-1es.html

 

The difference in the main landing gear doors was that in some cases,  the narrow-body gear doors were substituted. These had to be cut back to clear the catapult hook on the landing gear strut of the wide bodies, since they were not readily removable.

[ELLISW]

On 1/19/2019 at 12:22 PM, trietmcam said:

Originally, I was going to use the KMC set, but that didn't work out. The cowl diameter is a little too small for the Matchbox fuselage. Comparing to the Tamiya and the Monogram cowl diameter, the KMC cowl is in between, with Tamiya the widest. I guess it was originally intended for the Monogram A-1H kit. I used a resin set from a startup cottage company about a year or 2 ago, I think it's called Hypercat, the name slips from memory currently. It matched the A-1E fuselage perfectly. 

 

 

The whole assembly completed

 

 

 

 

On 1/19/2019 at 12:22 PM, trietmcam said:

Originally, I was going to use the KMC set, but that didn't work out. The cowl diameter is a little too small for the Matchbox fuselage. Comparing to the Tamiya and the Monogram cowl diameter, the KMC cowl is in between, with Tamiya the widest. I guess it was originally intended for the Monogram A-1H kit. I used a resin set from a startup cottage company about a year or 2 ago, I think it's called Hypercat, the name slips from memory currently. It matched the A-1E fuselage perfectly. 

 

 

The whole assembly completed

 

 

Originally, I was going to use the KMC set, but that didn't work out. The cowl diameter is a little too small for the Matchbox fuselage. Comparing to the Tamiya and the Monogram cowl diameter, the KMC cowl is in between, with Tamiya the widest. I guess it was originally intended for the Monogram A-1H kit. I used a resin set from a startup cottage company about a year or 2 ago, I think it's called Hypercat, the name slips from memory currently. It matched the A-1E fuselage perfectly.  Does any one know the correct name of the start up cottage company mention in the quote.  Or is a comparable cowl made since this excellent posting.

 

[ELLISW]

Does any one know the correct name of the start up cottage company (Hypercat) mentioned in the quote?  Or is a comparable cowl made since this excellent posting?

[ELLISW]

Answered my own question after some research.

Link below talks about Hypercat Resin and the origin of the cowl

Interesting reveal. 

 

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/viewtopic.php?p=2585914#p2585914

[trietmcam]

9 hours ago, ELLISW said:

Answered my own question after some research.

Link below talks about Hypercat Resin and the origin of the cowl

Interesting reveal. 

 

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/viewtopic.php?p=2585914#p2585914

Is your intention to replace the ancient Monogram skyraider undersize cowl? If yes, I wouldn't bother. It's way too big to fit in the fuselage opening, creating a huge step that you'd have to sand down, making the nose look so out of place. 

 

[ELLISW]

My intention is kit bash replacing the Matchbox cowl with the Tamiya Raider cowl.

[ELLISW]

On 2/11/2019 at 9:14 PM, trietmcam said:

 

On 2/11/2019 at 9:14 PM, trietmcam said:

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

 

Please clarify:  What is ZM A-1? 

[trietmcam]

1 hour ago, ELLISW said:

My intention is kit bash replacing the Matchbox cowl with the Tamiya Raider cowl.

Ah, I see. You could contact Tamiya serive for a part. I lost a horizontal stablizer and they sent a replacemet for freee. But that was years ago, don't know if they still have replacement service. 

 

1 hour ago, ELLISW said:

Please clarify:  What is ZM A-1? 

I was referencing kit bashing a 1/32 Zoukei Mura A-1H with the Fisher Model A-1E conversion set. At one time Paul Fisher did an A-1E conversion set that would have enabled to fill the A-1E Skyraider void in 1/32. You just had to provide an A-1H donor kit, either the ZM kit or Trumpeter. Something tragic happened to his business, I think it was a fire burned down his place, so he's no longer in the business.  It would've been an expensive project; $151 for the ZM kit, and $110? for the Fisher conversion.