This is the famous A-1 Skyraider used extensively in Vietnam. This is the
H model. This
plane was very successful in the war and was used primarily for close air
support and
downed pilot air cap duty as the "Sandy". It also went by the nickname
"Spad" and
"Dump Truck". It's great endurance allowed it to loiter for long times
over the target area
and it's great weapons load made it a lethal combination to the
unfortunate enemy below.
This is based on the old Fujimi kit. As with all Fujimi kits the fit is
excellent and surface
detail is great. No problems were encountered in assembly, but the decals
were a royal
pain in the butt. They apparently were old and they had to be slowly
peeled off their
backing with a pair of tweezers to loosen them before applying them to the
model. I was
afraid that the glue would be dissolved in the water, but they still had
plenty and
conformed with a little setting solution. The standard light gull gray
over white of that era
was used for this Navy bird. Fortunately there was an abundance of
reference photos on
the internet. The only disappointment was the ordnance. The bombs were the
wrong
shape and I wanted to include napalm canisters. The 250 lb. bombs were the
wrong size
and could not be salvaged. I could have used them as phosphorous bombs,
but not on
this one. The 500 pounders were salvageable by reshaping the nose to a
more slick
configuration and I added the extended fuzes to be unique. I scratchbuilt
some napalm
canisters from styrene. I only wanted to mount a central drop tank, so I
removed the
pylon from both wing tanks, used one to make a pattern to scratchbuild two
replacement
wing pylons for the napalm. An overall nice kit.
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