This is Hasegawa
1/72 A-1H Skyraider. The markings represent the South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF)
518th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Tactical Wing, 3rd Air Division from Bien Hoa,
Republic of South Vietnam. The Skyraider was the only fighter the VNAF operated
from the early escalation to the end of the war. This plane was shot down during
the battle of An Loc city in 1974.
The kit, released 10
years ago, is the best 1/72 Skyraider available today in my opinion. However, it
can only represent the early Skyraider version. Meaning, if you want to
depict the late war fighters for all the H,J and E's (after 1968), the
Yankee extraction seats along with the canopy mechanisms in the back, and solid
wheel hubs must be included. Neither of these are available in aftermarket and
must be scratch build. A gross and noticeable error is in the
propeller. Hasegawa missed this accuracy by a wide margin. A good
replacement is the Monogram F8F Bearcat propellor. Another error is the tall
landing gear stance. At least to me it doesn't look quite right; you might find
it ok.
Click on
images below to see larger images
This was in the Vietnam
War group build last year. To briefly summarize the build descriptions; I
rebuilt the propeller shapes and added styrene sheet to the trailing edges. I
wasn't about to give away my Bearcat prop. The cowl flaps were
replaced with thin brass sheets and posed in the open position. Hasegawa flaps
are in closed position, which was not normally seen in Vietnam. The gears were
shortened by about 1 mm, with added anti-sway braces in the front. The cockpit
was replaced with the nice CMK set. The rear tire was replaced with styrene
tube to represent the pneumatic tire instead of the solid rubber tire used on
Navy carriers. The cannons were replaced with stainless steel tubes. I also
heated them over a flame until they turned dark so I won't have to paint them
later.
This marking is not available by
aftermarket decal companies. All decals were robbed from the spare bin. Even
with the reference pictures taped right in front, I managed to screw up
the serial numbers, with the number 7 and 2 in the wrong place. Painting
was done with Model Master enamel; again, I toned down the tan to a lighter
shade and the medium green toward olive shade. Ordnance came from Hasegawa
weapon set 1. Thanks for checking my article.
Regards
Triet
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