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Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 4th, 2017, 2:39 pm
by Spaceowl
The Bird Dog is complete and up in the Aviation Modelling section. I'm now working on a VNAF Cessna O-2 as part of the Golden Oldies group build; look under Spaceowl's VNAF O-2 (boring but straightforward) :) .

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 14th, 2017, 12:46 am
by Spaceowl
Right, the O-2 is complete and on the finished build thread on 'Rare and Golden Oldies'. Enough of that for now.

Next up to bat is the A-1E Skyraider, an ancient Monogram kit from (I think) the late sixties, and a rough piece of work it is too. At the moment I'm rescribing the raised panel lines and paring off the weapons pylons before replacing them with aftermarket resin ones. As a result, there's not a lot to see at the moment, but I hope to post some photos soon.
Until then, happy modelling. :)

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 14th, 2017, 10:00 am
by Old_Tonto
Everybody loves a Spad. I've never seen the Monogram kit, what is wrong with the pylons?

I have the old airfix kit somewhere but it looks a bit rough. I did build the Hasegawa kit a while back and can honestly say that it's one of the best kits I've ever had the pleasure to construct.
I went with the US Marine scheme for Korea.

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Good luck with the re-scribing.

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 14th, 2017, 11:30 am
by jssel
If I recall correctly the weapons pylons are just stubs. My issue centered around the airscrew blades. They just don't look right. I have the Cobra Company cockpit insert that really dresses things up.

Any way........ Looking forward to seeing what you do with it. And my apologies for hijacking your thread.

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 14th, 2017, 11:39 am
by Spaceowl
Exactly so, Jeff. They are just stubs, and there is an impression that this kit was slightly more toy than model. All the same, if you want an E model A-1 there's no other choice in 1/72 (one to add to my list of psychotic non-availability rants along with the Mig-19 :) ). I've just clipped the kit pylons off and am replacing them with resin aftermarket ones.
That's a nice Hasegawa Skyraider, Ian. Must have missed that one first time round.

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 15th, 2017, 12:28 pm
by Spaceowl
Here's the state of play so far:

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All of the wing stubs have been cut off, sanded and replaced with resin pylons from a CMK set, the moulded-in and rather unconvincing engine was drilled out of the cowling and replaced with a resin one and the front half of the interior tub has been cut off prior to a complete rebuild in the cockpit area. As I've already said, this is a basic kit but there's a degree of satisfaction in trying to set it right.
I'm not bothering with doing anything to the rear cockpit tub as the aircraft I'm modelling was an ex-US Navy EA-1E (or whatever that is in Navy) that the VNAF converted back to A-1E standard; as a result the rear cockpit is painted over and nothing will be visible back there.
Hit a bit of a bottleneck in the critical path at the moment, as I'm waiting for two replacement seats that need to be in place so I can plan the cockpit around them. Work is called off until they arrive. I might make a start on something else in the meantime.

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 16th, 2017, 2:23 am
by skypirate
The Monogram A1-E is a golden oldie and scrubs up well with a little TLC. And you have a reasonably wide choice of schemes.
Looking forward to it!

David

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 17th, 2017, 8:53 pm
by Spaceowl
skypirate wrote:The Monogram A1-E is a golden oldie and scrubs up well with a little TLC. And you have a reasonably wide choice of schemes.
Looking forward to it!

David
That's my general impression of it too, David. Hope I have the mad skillz to get it into that state.

There's been a bit of progress since last time - the cockpit is built up now and the B-17 seats (about the same size/shape but by no means accurate, which irks the purist in me :evil:) are in place, giving the cockpit its extremely crowded look.

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There is a solid canopy going over the old radar operators' stations, hence the black cabin (nothing to see here, citizen :) ). Still plenty of work to do, but the overall look of it is there.

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Bulkheads in place in the rear crew compartments so you can't see all the way through like a pre-1990 kit.

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The aircraft i am modelling had quite an interesting history - it was previously a USN AD-5Q 'Electric Spad' before being passed on to the VNAF, who gutted it and used it in its basic AD-5/A-1E configuration until the fall of Vietnam. Because of this, I've scribed and masked the small operator's window into the rear canopy, a bit of a struggle to see here I admit.
Upwards and onwards, I'm going to be working on the front cockpit tonight. More pictures to follow.

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 17th, 2017, 8:59 pm
by Old_Tonto
This is a pretty cool project Rob. try not to get too obsessed with it though.

(He says as he rubs down his sugar scoops for a 1/72 Sabre.) :???:

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 18th, 2017, 1:04 pm
by jssel
Two thumbs up . Great progress

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 18th, 2017, 9:27 pm
by Spaceowl
The cockpit interior is finished:

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on Navy AD-5s, only the pilot in the left hand station got a joystick, the navigator was left to navigate (although he got rudder pedals for some reason) so I haven't forgotten the other control column. No matter what you think :ha: .

Tonight should be relatively easy - just sticking the bits together. I'm masking the canopy now, while having a beer and watching 'The Guard' starring the excellent Brendan Gleeson. Who said men can't multitask?

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 19th, 2017, 1:23 am
by skypirate
Great modelling, and great movie, too!

David

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 19th, 2017, 8:02 am
by iggie
Nice work on the cockpit; it looks very busy

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 19th, 2017, 12:21 pm
by Old_Tonto
That's a big improvement on the kit interior Rob.

The Guard is one of my favourite movies too, never get tired of watching it.

Re: Spaceowl's Roost

Posted: September 21st, 2017, 12:15 am
by Spaceowl
Everything just dropped together last night, and the Spad is undercoated and ready for paint:

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Brute of a thing, isn't it? The underside got a bit more attention - I can't overemphasize how bad the fit of the two fuselage halves was, and the airbrake was a mass of sink holes, to the extent that I sanded it right down and replaced it with one scratched out of plastic card. You can just about see it, aft of the trailing edge of the wing.

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I'm nervous about pre-shading this one, but in line with my promise to take a few more risks with my models, I'm going to give it a go. See the results tomorrow.