Pete's Matchbox/Revell Skyraider

[stillp]

Nice progress so far.......these big birds were very intimidating to the ground crews that had to handle the taxi and parking exercises. My first experience as a Plane Captain (handler) was to direct one of these beasts around a course and then park it on a lined out parking "spot". Scared Cr*p out of me at the time.........Rick H.

Which unit were you with Rick?
Pete

[stillp]

I wonder where this was moulded?

A little more progress:

The outer wings are hinged, so they can be displayed either folded

or extended:

The join in the upper surface is a bit poor though, as is the fit to the fuselage:

Difficult to show in a photo, but the circular wheel well wall on the starboard side (left in the photo above) doesn't line up with the hole in the lower wing - it's about 1.5 mm too far outboard! Can't blame that on poor moulding technique or shrinkage, that has to be a faulty mould recess.
Pleasantly surprised that all the holes for mounting the drop tanks and the bomb pylons have been drilled.

More later,
Pete

[Mini Me]

Hi Peter, At the time of that experience, I was attached to the Naval Air Training Command at Memphis ,Tennessee. After I completed my training there, I was attached to VT-3 (T28-C) Training Squadron at Naval Air Station Whiting Field for 2 years and then out to sea on the USS Intrepid for Carrier duty with VA-45 Squadron (A4-E). Rick H.

[stillp]

Thanks Rick.
Pete

[boatman]

Hi Peter, At the time of that experience, I was attached to the Naval Air Training Command at Memphis ,Tennessee. After I completed my training there, I was attached to VT-3 (T28-C) Training Squadron at Naval Air Station Whiting Field for 2 years and then out to sea on the USS Intrepid for Carrier duty with VA-45 Squadron (A4-E). Rick H.

COR Rick i bet you could tell some tales of happenings on the carrier
chris

[stillp]

Made a bit of progress, after a lot of filling and sanding that I wanted to finish before adding too many sticky-out bits. The bomb pylons needed a lot of cleaning up but they're on now:

Followed by the flaps, and the mountings for the external fuel tanks.

The clear parts had a couple of visible moulding lines, but looked a bit better after a coat of Pledge:

So, on with the masking

I needed to sand down the partition in the middle of the cockpit to get the canopies to sit down on the cockpit sides. The rearmost section doesn't fit the fuselage very well, and all three canopy sections are slightly wider than the fuselage so gluing them will be tricky. I'll need to use something with a bit more 'grab' than my usual Gator's Grip.
Soon be painting!
Pete

[boatman]

HI Pete she's comin on an will the wings fold up an down when she is finished ? as i like her in both postions as ive always liked the ole skyradier an carries a massive load of munisions more please when you can ?
chris

[stillp]

Hi Chris, yes, the wings are movable, as is the rudder. There aren't any details on the wing fold, but with the wings extended they're a poor fit, so I'll just leave them movable. Yes, apparently this plane could carry more than its own weight of bombs for over 1 000 miles, as well as having 4 x 20mm cannons.
Be patient, grasshopper, painting should start in a few days!
Pete

[JR]

I'm in Pete. No matches, so relax !

[stillp]

Hi John, I bet you're just waiting for the napalm bomb!
Pete

[stillp]

I'd thought this model had a centreline fuel tank as well as two wing-mounted drop tanks, but it seems it's a napalm bomb. Does anyone know what colour this should be?
Pete

[Guest]

Does anyone know what colour this should be?
Pete

I thought they were silver.

[stillp]

Thanks Chris. Revell suggest same colour as the fuselage, but I found a video of planes being bombed up with napalm in Vietnam, and it looked dark grey. A Google image search shows them in grey, silver, pale blue (possibly intended for use on aircraft painted pale blue underneath) and olive green, so it seems hard to be wrong! I'm leaning towards grey but could be persuaded otherwise.
Pete

[Guest]

I had a quick look myself out of curiosity and found the same. Although I was still not sure that the ordinance I was looking at was a fuel tank or a napalm bomb so unable to determine the colour!

If it were me, I’d choose a colour that suited the build. After all, it’s yours and whose to say otherwise.

[stillp]

Always nice to get the canopy on, as it looks more like an aircraft:

The three parts fit together well but don't fit the fuselage too well so I have some gaps to fill (again).
Pete