Oldbaldguy

You guys are over thinking this a bit. Single seat Spads all look pretty much the same except for the weapons pylons. Actual configuration changes were few and far between with upgrades being mostly inside where they could not be seen. No idea when they started flying the things, but the AD-6 is an upgraded AD-4B - the one that was strengthened and modded a bit to carry a nuke. AD-4s did all the heavy lifting during the Korean mess; AD-6s came later as a result. I will check my dad’s cruise book, but I’m pretty sure the AERO racks on the wings are post-Korea and the large, pointy pylons next to the gear did not appear until the AD-5 hit the scene. A good rule of thumb is that if it is painted blue, it did not carry the more “modern looking” racks. Having said all that, there were several different versions of the -4. Some were single seaters, some had two guys in the aft fuselage with doors and windows, some had one guy, some had winter/de-icer gear and leading edge boots, some had radar pods but some did not, some had all the above. The list goes on and on. And then there was the -4W. I guess what I’m saying is that you can build an AD-4, an AD-6 or an AD-7 out of any of the extant Spad kits and it will look like what it is supposed to as long as you know which version you are building and are willing to scratch some parts. A Spad is a Spad is a Spad; the devil is in the details. Whatever you do, do not paint your model blue then put late pylons and high speed tanks on it and claim it’s a -4 from Korea. Just don’t.

This is still a work in progress because, like everyone else in the known universe, I took pix of the prints with my phone but now my phone is refusing to send the photos to anyone else. I have considered fine tuning it with a ball peen hammer but will pursue other solutions first. For background: There are 36 prints in all. Most are in decent to excellent shape. Most are modern equipment, mostly Navy, but there are a couple of tracked vehicles in the stack. In some cases, I have duplicates. Nearly all can be rolled and sent in mailing tubes. There are a few that are dry mounted which may be problematic. Subjects include the Blue Angels, RA-5C, Harrier, C-130, SR-71, OA-4M, a couple of Cobras, and some other stuff. I also have several original drawings that I might let go as well. Hoping to make some progress with emailing the pix in the next day or so. Patience is a virtue and all that.

Thank God for motor boats.

I wonder if you could not find and adapt appropriate sized O-rings from a plumbing, auto or big box store? They would certainly be more convincing if you could make them work.

A surprising number of you good people have offered to take prints off my hands. I think I have found them all - but maybe not; still cannot find the Jim Deitz prints, but that is beside the point. I took phone pix of each print yesterday and will send them to all who replied in the order I received your responses. Be patient; this may take a while. Check your in boxes for PMs from me. Thanks to all who responded. I’d much rather give these things away than to trash them. I’m finding that my kids have little or no interest in things I have accumulated over the years, so don’t be surprised if I find other stuff to give away at some point.

Wow! Great pix of just about every detail I need to finish this thing. Thanks for posting - I never would have found them otherwise.

Ooooo! Very nice. Must have cost a small fortune to matte and frame.

Not sure where/how to do this. We are downsizing, which means we have lots of stuff that needs a new home. While rummaging here and there today, I discovered that I have squirreled away several very nice - meaning well done and in great shape - aviation fine art prints. Some are signed by the artist, others are signed to me by the artist and the rest are just decent prints. Mostly Keith Ferris, a couple RG Smiths, some of my own, and a handful of dogs and cats. Mostly modern jets, I think. None of my kids or grandkids want any of it and if none of you all want them, they will soon grace the local landfill. They are free to whomever might want them and, depending on where you live, I might even pick up the shipping tab. PM me and we will work out some photos for your review. Oh! And I also have the full size fuselage template set from the plans for a Rutan Long EZ if anyone is interested. OBG

Additionally, the driver is either a major or light colonel, the first row of fasteners below the canopy rail is not rivets but countersunk screws, and while the girl is wearing finger nail polish and what looks like a leather flight jacket, she appears to have mislaid her hair brush.

Well, the Argentine Vipers will likely live longer and happier lives. Nice looking paint scheme.

Wonder how long it will be before somebody releases CAG bird decals for these.

Moving along with a degree of rapidity as I up-market my ancient Revell Wildcat, I am about to tackle the wings but find myself stymied by having not laid hands on a real one in a decade or more. I cannot remember; did Grumman flush rivet the wings on that thing? They look deceptively smooth in all sorts of photos, unlike the way Revell has them covered with a million tiny evenly spaced zits.

Indeed. And who knows? It may look absolutely marvelous once you are done. Trying something new/different is how we move things forward. Will be interesting to see how it turns out.

I absolutely agree! Those old Revell kits were not that bad. Coincidentally, I’m doing exactly the same thing as W777 right now with a Revell Corsair and a Revell Wildcat using bits and pieces of more modern kits. It is great fun and the results are well worth the time. Highly recommended.

Sorry. Not sure what is happening here…

While Irish linen and Grade A cotton are both a natural white color, standard practice in the US for fabric covering resulted in fabric surfaces getting a final coat of aluminized clear dope before color coats were applied. In other words, fabric surfaces were silver under the blue color coats. My fabric covered 1:1 airplanes always showed silver through the color coat when it started to wear thin.

I picked the Jungmeister, the Bearcat and the Turbo Commander because I could actually fly any of the three and not kill myself. The Jungmeister is regarded by some as the acme of traditional small bipes for its fine handling qualities, while the Bearcat is reported to be relatively easy to fly - considering what it is - and looks like it is about to explode and kick somebody’s ass even when tied down three ways to Sunday. The Commander has wonderful lines and would take me anywhere on the planet in style and comfort at a decent speed. So we’re talking fun, testosterone, and practicality.

Wow, Dan! Your 3D skills have improved exponentially over time.

As my sainted wife often sez, do not get me started.

As big as I dared. After a certain size, the airplane lost its famous Piper lines and looked like something Disney would draw.

My wife and I just got back from seeing a specialist and are giddy after learning that the scare was no scare at all. All is well, so we celebrated with my famous chicken soup known for its magical restorative powers and a bottle of organic Pinot noir. The soup was grand but the wine would have been better left in the bilges of the wine boat. No matter the label, wine often leaves me waxing eloquent. So I will share a true “There I was” story with which hardly any of you can relate. Maybe not even Pete. Once upon a time I was a young USAF officer on a major base down south that played host to flying units from all the services save the Coast Guard. There were F-15s, A-7s, OV-10s and OV-1s, C-130s, etc based there. All but the C-130s did their best to out do each in the break at mid field. Of course, the F-15s won but the A-7s held their own, while the rest were mostly pitiful. Since I am not rated, I never got to play their reindeer games to prove my prowess. Later in life after I had retired from the blue suit, I bought a very nice Piper PA-12 and proceeded to fly the hooey out of it nearly every day for seven years. Now, the PA-12 and I became good friends once it had taught me how to fly and we shared many adventures. We went where most airplanes don’t, flew at airspeeds slower than most cars, flew formation with a B-17 with a tailwheel problem, took off behind a Dauntless, tried to catch the Goodyear blimp on a cross country flight, hovered over one spot on the globe at 10,000’, etc. I think you get the idea. The airplane and I liked each other and got along very well. One day we were returning from having great fun zipping along down low among the low hills of a neighboring state when I heard on the radio a local group at my home drome called Tiger Flight. Tiger Flight was several nerdy guys in flight suits who flew Ercoupes (If you don’t know, google Ercoupe and try not to laugh.) painted in orange and black Tiger stripes. Their stated goal was to introduce teenagers to aviation but they mostly were involved in self admiration. Their leader took great pride in teaching his pilots formation flying and could be heard over the local freq reporting in, switching to “Tac 2”, shifting left and right, etc - all at less than 100 mph. I found these wannabees laughable as did others on the field, including a retired USAF fighter pilot who raced a very specialized Lancair at Reno every year. His airplane was a maintenance nightmare and he was forever blasting about the countryside trying to work out one bug or another. On this particular day he was up on a check flight when Tiger Flight cruised down the center line of the runway in an echelon right and called for a midfield break. The Lancair was close enough to see it all and had several disparaging things to say over the radio, ending with, “You want to see a break, watch this.” At which point he came screaming along at the speed of heat and pulled on the pole until you could actually hear his airplane grit its teeth under the g load. Tiger Flight went “Oooo! Ahhhh!” like so many Minions. Tiger Flight 0; retired Air Force Guy 1,000. Well. The PA-12 and I were next in line for a landing and had a quick discussion concerning whether we should or not. We decided we should so we arrived over the numbers with all the speed we could muster. I announced our intentions and at midfield, I slammed the stick over and pulled as hard as I dared. The Cub was feeling its oats that day and surprised me. Instead of a cheek sagging groaner of a break, we simply pivoted on a wingtip and were headed back in the direction we had just come, directly over the center line where we started. It was all very helicopterish. The Cub was very proud of itself, but now what?? The radio was dead silent and I had no idea what to do next. It was all very embarrassing. We had no choice but to land and taxi past Tiger Flight and the Lancair to my hangar, mortified. We obviously had no Right Stuff at all. Tiger Flight tried to think of a witty rejoinder, but being nerdy guys, was limited to fart noises on the radio. The Lancair guy simply turned his back, disgusted with all of us. The PA-12 refused to talk to me for at least a week and fouled two plugs on our next flight out of spite. We eventually got over ourselves but it was an uphill battle. At least that’s the way it seemed at the time. No real relevance here or even a moral to this story and maybe not as funny as I first thought but, damn, that was a good bottle of wine.

Bucker Jungmeister; Bearcat; Rockwell Turbo Commander. If you know anything about airplanes, you know why.

Oh no. Those books are like potato chips - once you start, you can’t stop til the bag is empty.

Ah. Thanks for clearing that up. Now it all makes sense. I agree with Paul, BTW. Tommy’s Tailhook site has a wealth of information about exactly this subject. Well worth a look.

Sorry. I am confused. Are you planning to build an AD-4W or an AD-5W? As I am sure you know, they are two very different airframes. Either is a noble endeavor but your post reads like you are attributing details found on the -4 Guppy to the -5W which did not share things like doors in the fuselage or leading edge slats. Or did you mean that you are looking to adapt some of Paul’s AD-5 or 5W parts for an AD-4W build? I don’t wish to be a dolt, but I’m just not following….