Z M Douglas A1-H Skyraider

[LSP_K2]

Looking quite nice so far Brian. Keep cranking.

[mark31]

Impresive pit.

 

Mark

[Phartycr0c]

Beautiful work thus far Brian. Seeing the Eduard PE im sorely tempted to go doawn that line myself.

 

On the question of the Wing fold ZM have issued a downloadable PDF Herewhich adds a lot more detail to the kit instructions. It appears that these will make the most of the articulation.

 

The PDF takes a short time to download. print it off and the jobs a good un.

 

Keep up the great work.

[Out2gtcha]

Strewth! Speed of light on this one mate!

You must be nearly ready to close up the fuse!

Awesome the way you bent that pe over the side consoles without the paint flaking off.

Always does it to me!

That fuse/switchgear panel on the side console really looks terrific as do all the wee handles.

Love the tea tray too.

 

ONWARD!

 

 

 

 

Yes, gives 4 Oclock tea a whole new meaning in Nam yes? The PE on this bugger seemed fairly durable and seemed to bend over a round exacto handle with ease. "Normally" there would be no way Id even be close to closing up the fuse as there would be a BUNCH of fiddly work and a lot of painting left to cover on just the side dive brakes alone..............however......................since I glued these shut (im not into the whole open dive brake thing on the ground as unless they were working on it, I dont believe they would ever have been open) Im pretty well on my way.

 

I actually got the tail wheel well painted and glossed last night in prep for a wash so im ahead of the game there.

 

 

Looking quite nice so far Brian. Keep cranking.

 

Thank Kev.....................im forging ahead on this one for sure. So far the kit goes together SO well in fact and since my "closed hatch and engine cover" policy is in place, my pace seems a bit faster on this one.

 

 

Impresive pit.

 

Mark

 

Thanks Mark, kind of you to say. I like the way it turned out. Still not sure how I feel about the blue, but the PE is WAY better than I could paint and in the dark pit, think it might actually be better than black.

 

Beautiful work thus far Brian. Seeing the Eduard PE im sorely tempted to go doawn that line myself.

 

On the question of the Wing fold ZM have issued a downloadable PDF Herewhich adds a lot more detail to the kit instructions. It appears that these will make the most of the articulation.

 

The PDF takes a short time to download. print it off and the jobs a good un.

 

Keep up the great work.

 

 

Thanks for the kind words Pharty...................Ive been giving this area a LOT of thought lately. I do have the .pdf already and it does shed some details on the folding mechanism..............................................however, after careful consideration and possible gaps, I do want to eventually take this thing and enter it in a contest or two; this means transporting to and fro.....................judges possibly picking it up..........................possible larger than normal gaps in the wing parts. This leads me to think I may end up just gluing the wings in the down position.

 

I know this eliminates some cool features of this kit, but to be honest the ONLY reason I would even have the wings folded is for their purpose on the 1:1; space savings. If I had unlimited room I would likely glue the wings down for sure, as I think folded wings IMHO destroy the look of a plane.

 

Im in the process of acquiring two very large display cabinets (even hopefully capable of containing the Flanker as well) so im thinking space may not actually be an issue. Considering Im not going to be folding the wings up and down a lot as it would only be to and fro contests and if no room on the shelf, working folding wings would just provide more opportunities to break off something on the wings..............or a wing itself.

The wing folding stage is still a ways off so im going to give it some more contemplation.

 

 

Thanks again guys. Im off to put a wash on the newly painted wheel wells and see if I can get this fuse slapped together this weekend!

 

Cheers,

Brian

[A.Wolf Grant]

Whoa! This is quality stuff - both the kit and, more especially, the build. I think both are way out of my league but I'll thoroughly enjoy following this nonetheless.

 

Grant.

[LSP_K2]

Once again, I'm with you Brian; leave the guts to someone else. You've already proven without a shadow of a doubt that a drop dead gorgeous model can be built without all the innards hanging out.

[LSP_Ron]

Here's a few pics for you from my Midway visit two days ago

 

 

[Loic]

Good job mate !

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks for all the kind words gentlemen! Great pics BTW Ron. J I wish that I had the AF load out from ZM sometimes and still may get it eventually for other projects that they may be appropriate on.

 

Down to business………

got a lot more done this past weekend. I started things off by re-scribing the fallen panel lines around the rear fuse section where it was a tiny bit off when joined to the middle fuse section. This was my fault here, as the ZM alignment was pretty much dead on.

 

For those of you who are into, and hoped to get a how-to-install demo on, all the fiddly/cool features of this kit, I apologize, as I will be completely skipping said steps on my build; im just not that into them.

 

That being said, I have no interest in open dive break hatches, especially when on the ground, so first step is to bypass all the fiddly (IMHO) steps to get the side dive break operational and glue them shut. The panel lines were also easier to get right this way, as was getting the dive breaks themselves nice and smooth/flush, with the large exception of the raised re-enforcing panel for the attachment point for the dive brakes. This is raised and has raised rivets on the real deal, so I left as is for the OOB aspect –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got the inside of the front of the fuse halves painted dark sea gray after adding the pit sidewalls in as well –

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this was done, I aligned installed the rest of the internal bulkheads, painted the rear part interior green (not knowing exact how much could be seen through tail hook hole) and put a wash on after a quick gloss coat –

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, I started painting the tail wheel gear, gear bay, and bulkhead, then threw on a slight black wash. This will be further refined and cleaned up a bit after install –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main problem I had then was when I dry-fitted the tail hook itself, which was a part of a single piece containing the tail hood hydraulic cylinder, it seemed that after installation, this would interfere with the ability to close off the fuse seem right above it, or even paint the fuse overall on the bottom by the hook. This hood stuck out quite a ways and knowing my ham-fisted tendency to break things off at this stage, I decided it would be wise to find a way to remove this thing, and re-install it later once things were more complete and painted.

 

Here is what I did.

 

You can see here how the OOB parts all together sit in the fuse. The first pic is the OOB tail hook part before my chopping. You can also see how close the tail hook is to the bottom of the currently unpainted fuse. –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First I cut the tail hook away from the main attachment point cleanly. I took some appropriately sized hypodermic tubing –

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I drill the corresponding hole in the tail hook itself (and one in the main attachment part as well) –

 

 

 

 

 

YET AGAIN MORE…………………

[Out2gtcha]

I then imbedded a piece of the tubing in the main part containing the hydraulic ram –

 

 

 

 

 

 

After gluing in the hypo tubing,

 

Viola!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the altered and painted part in place. This too will get a bit of cleanup prior to install. After dry fitting this part, I dont even know why I painted it (1/2 arsed job of painting anyway) as you can really see nothing of the part anyway –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things are now in place and all glued in (almost) the starboard side of the fuse and are ready to rock on closing up the fuselage –

 

 

 

 

 

The way ZM has chosen to set up its Spad fuse is actually very convenient, as since they leave off the whole middle bottom part of the fuse, you can easily get to the underside of the top fuselage joints to glue and re-enforce things. Fit here too is very good, and I only had one little issue with the area shown here near the base of the tail but again this was me not paying enough attention to how my glue was drying and NOTHING to do with the fit of the kit.

 

I used this advantage to re-enforce the underside of the joint with CA –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Presto-chango, we have 1 assembled fuselage! (minus the turtle decking) -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here now you can also see the Skyraider fuselage "twist" that people were freaking out a bit over at first. This is a factory made feature of the 1:1 bird to counter act the forces of torque the engine puts on the airframe during flight -

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks again fellas, its always a pleasure to show work around here, good, bad or indifferent.

 

Cheers,

Brian

[Guest Peterpools]

Brian

Awesome work the the Spad OOB build. Pics are razor sharp and really show off your delicate touch.

Keep 'em coming.

:speak_cool:

Peter

[A.Wolf Grant]

Very nice !

Grant.

[Ripaman]

That is impressive Brian very nice indeed

 

 

Regards

Richard

[Cunumdrum61]

That's looking real sweet. Do you think the kit is over engineered at all and if so is it affecting the fit of parts etc? This will look really great when she's done. I like your choice of markings also. Oh and great job on that P-40 in RAAF markings. It is the best example of the P-40 I've seen.

 

Waiting for the next installment

[scvrobeson]

Brian, this is looking really awesome man! Good to see you're not resting after the Flanker! The Skyraider is looking like an awesome kit, even without all of the add-ons, but they seem worthwhile. Keep it up man, hope that the folding wings work out well, and you can make them moveable. Can't wait to see what's next Brian!!!!

 

 

 

Matt