thaipham101

oh so the JetMad A-37 is 1/18? Somehow I remembered it being 1/32. Good to know.

Yeah I still haven't done much research on the B-57 and Canberra yet but I believe the general shape and components should be pretty similar, being a licensed built

Isn't Jetmad doing a 1/32 A-37 already? And Trumpeter doing the F-35 family. I'd prefer to not compete against big guys like those. The B-57 is also because of the USAF B-57G and NASA WB-57, since I live near Ellington Field and got to see those WB-57 a lot. Btw does the belly of the updated fuselage look good enough Tim?

Hi Tim, Thanks for the advice but another California trip is pretty much impossible right now but I do have some people who I can get more documents and pictures from, plus you guys, so I think all should be good a SLUF isn't really in my plan, I'll try to finish with the AD-5 family first and if the sale goes well I'll either go for the B-57 family, I really want one that was "transfered" to VNAF in the later years of the war, and of course a AD-4W, we need some AD-4W

Hi guys, another update. Got new resin so I tried it out to see how it goes, so it's a pretty rough sample literally since I ripped off all the supports by hand lol Following Tim's advice I've set the fuselage I worked on aside for the AD-5W and modified a copy of it to be the AD-5/5N/5Q variant, smooth as a baby's butt now, I'm redoing panel lines as we speak. Also tested was the bulkhead that separates the cockpit and rear compartment, which turned out as I expected, and some details of the rear compartment. Also I modified the overall shape of the windshield and the piece of canopy between the front and rear canopy a little and tested their fit again. Gonna adjust the seat design and control panels after I finish repaneling and hopefully I can have the whole interior printed by Sunday

Hi Tim, thanks for your advice. I think you're right about the belly recessed area. Unfortunately, most of the online pictures I found are of AD-5W or of 5W restored as 5, so that recessed area are present, plus in the Structural Repair Manual (AN 01-40ALE-3) for all AD-5 variants they said that "all lower skin panels typical for AD-5, 5N, and 5W except panel 3A" so I thought they have the same bottom skin. I'll set this fuselage aside and modify a copy of it to match the real AD-5. For the horizontal stabilizer I based it off of top down drawings from the same manual plus Maintenance Manual for the AD-5N (AN 01-40ALE-2) and the AD-5 Flight Handbook (01 40ALE-1). Maybe it's a matter of photographer's angle/lens focal length or some optical thing at play I guess? I'll look into it regardless. I do agree that the elevators should have a sharper outer corner making the outer edge straighter. Attached are some photos of drawings that I mentioned P/s: Of course it has to come with VNAF marking, no AD-5/6/7 kit is complete without VNAF marking lol. For this one I'm planning to do 52-132633 of 520th FS Thần Báo, I'm gonna reserving the SEA camo scheme VNAF for the A-1G (AD-5N), it carries one pretty distinct feature that American Skyraiders didn't have and single seaters didn't either

I think maybe better countermeasure? Surely nothing stealth can replace the bombtruck capability of the B-52. Or maybe with the rise of AI and drones and smart bombs the B-52 can be a stand-off platform, circling outside of AA range dropping drones/missiles/smart bombs in for the stealth platforms inside to guide them to place? Or somehow they find a way to increase RCS and fit those equipments onto drones as a new kind of countermeasure?

If you check out my thread, I'm finishing my own kit in 1/32. I looked for a Fisher set too and no way I'm gonna spend the $400+ scalper price for one.

I have the same kit and has always assumed that they climb from underneath or the whole thing drops down to get in the sear and pull back up. That canopy looks too small for anyone to climb in. Or maybe the metal part around it opens on a hinge too?

Hi Quang, yeah mostly just redoing the panel lines, also I got a chance to visit California for Tết so I visited the aircraft there, some design changes needed but those are mostly done now. I'm working on some changes to the interior details and they'll be printed this coming week. Turned out the floorboard wasn't that bare and flat as I thought

Hi Mike, I think I recognize that name and profile pic on facebook. Yeah this will be a complete kit with decals and weapons. I'm redesigning/fixing my design right now to match what I saw on the real aircraft at the museum, mostly regarding the landing gear and interior. Interior is expected to be printed this coming week then I'll do the wings and weapon pylons.

Hi Dutik, Ideally, if I can reach around 200-300 orders I'd rather do injection moulded part despite heavier cost. 3D printed clear parts aren't of that high quality yes, plus they continue curing and get more brittle by the day under the presence of UV light so that's a no. If I can't do injection moulded then it'll be a mix of 3D printed frame and details with vacu "glass"

And now for the big news. Some shots of the printed fuselage. I'm fine tuning the print and support setting for these but it should be good. Since I'm designing this as a base fuselage for all AD-5 variants, armors would be separate to add on as needed. Expect to see the interior furnished within this week. I'm redesigning the floorboard and sides since they don't look that flat and bare as I thought. Also need to finish my logo and furnish the webstore. P/s: The elevator is the piece I printed earlier in the post, gonna print new ones with updated panel lines too, couldn't squeeze them onto the build plate. Any suggestion and critics are welcomed guys

Hi guys, again sorry for the long wait. California weather doesn't like me, both I and my girlfriend go sick as a dog after the trip. This is a long post so brace yourself I'm finally able to rework the fuselage and just have it finished printing a few hours ago. Just some minor faults due to my impatient ass wanting to rush the print time but overall it turned out quite well. Reprinting the rear half as I'm typing this. I think I'll need to thicken the exhaust strakes a little more and redesign the fuselage connection plug for a better fit tolerance. Somehow Photobucket doesn't let me upload photos as a batch today, just one at a time. A little about the trip to March Field Air Museum. They're just incredible. I emailed them ahead asking about measuring the AD-5W they have and Sherry quickly gave me the ok. The staffs were fun to talk with and they even loaned me Alex the restoration guy to meet me at the aircraft and let me pick his brain. Good news are I was able to get some reference pics and measurements that I needed. Bad news are that this aircraft doesn't have any weapon pylon on to measure, no guppy radome of the AD-5 either. That is both good and bad because I can't photograph and measure the radome but without its presence, I was able to photograph the recessed area that would have been covered by it. as previous post, when doing research on the aircraft I found that fuselage station 90.500 indicates a recessed area around there but most kits on the market portraits it as a flat area. Then there's this photo of the A-1E Bu.No. 135152 looking like the recess ends abrubtly at fuselage station 90.500, made me think that there's a vent or something there. turned out there's no vent there but it conforms with the fuselage a little further beyond fuselage station 90.500. You can see the row of fasteners indicating where 90.500 is. I'm looking port, forward is to the right. From what I can gather that's a removable panel to install radar equipments. Next is the rear canopy/fuselage joint. Canopy doesn't sit flush with the fuselage at all. Unfortunately, the wings were down so I couldn't measure and photograph the wing fold either. Alex was nice enough to open the rear canopy for me to have a peek, front canopy is totally stuck, but the Navy stripped it almost bare before handing it over to civilian so not much to see in there but the radar operator's side panel and the floor structure. Overall a pretty nice trip and nice museum, definitely I'll be back.

Hi guys. Sorry for going AWOL the past couple days. It's Lunar new year so I was little busy preparing and celebrating, plus my girlfriend wanted to go to California to celebrate with our friend so here I am. Took the chance to visit March Field Air Museum in Riverside to do some measurements on parts that I don't have good info/drawing of and also to check some details on the underside, especially the recessed area between the oil cooler and wing leading edge. Originally I interpreted the drawing of fuselage station 90.500 that the fuselage has something recessed around that area, but I couldn't find any good reference pic of it, took a while to find one in flight with its belly exposed but it wasn't clear the front of the recessed area has any vent/opening or not, given that the same area is the oil cooler vent on single-seat variants. So I was able to confirm that it was just a recessed area and doesn't have any vent or anything, just an access hatch. Also got some good reference pics for areas that don't show up that well on pictures and drawing. So back to the drawing board once I am back in Houston this weekend