A-3 Skywarrior 'Q***r Whale' WIP

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Introduction

Howdy!

I’m not an active poster 'round here, so I may be new to y’all. My story is similar but different than many. Built a lot while I was younger, but my ambition was bigger than my skill set. My difference is that I never gave modeling up. All through college, post school and early family years, I built; albeit very occasionally and very slowly.

Always comparing my work with the pros, first in print and then on the web (yeah, guys I’m talkin’ 'bout you!) along with my lack of skill and frequency has led to concerns that my stuff wasn’t good enough to show or talk about.

After screwing up my courage, I asked if the Carrier Group build would take a newb. Clemens graciously accepted, and took me under his capable wing. After a bit of thought, I decided to tackle a project that I’ve had in the stash for quite some time, a Douglas A-3 Skywarrior in 1/72 by Hasegawa.

This build will require me to stretch my skills quite a bit. I’ve never built with PE nor resin, but I’ve got both for a number of other projects yet to be started. In addition, I’ve never really scratch built anything other than simple modifications. This project will require a bit of some of these techniques, and I’ll share what I can for those of you who might be looking for some tips or more likely, mistakes to avoid.

Feel free to watch and comment as I share my experiences. I hope that I can inspire some the way you many of you have helped me.

Best, Marty

My apologies to the mods if my title is offensive, I see that I set off the nanny 'bot!

2

Marty,

I look forward to your build. I met a friend of my sister’s last week who was a navigator / gunner on the “Whale”. He flew off the USS Forrestal with VAH-5 in the early sixties. Might like to do a model for him some day.

Gary

3

Aircraft History

After thinking about a project for the GB, I decided that the time was ripe for the Hasegawa A-3B I’ve been dragging around for about 15 years.

Like many of you, I’m an aircraft buff, and after meeting a neighbor at the block party who flew for American, it turned out he was a Naval aviator. I asked what he flew, and when he told me the A-3, I was sure that he couldn’t be right. “Are you sure you don’t mean an A-4?” This was in the days before the intarwebs, so it wasn’t as easy as you young’uns got it. Note to self, don’t argue with a pilot about what he flies! As he told me, and Greg Bale gently corrected me, the Whale is the largest aircraft ever to regularly fly from a carrier. (Seems the Navy in their wisdom tested a Herc. Youtube that for some interesting viewing!).

I found a Squadron “In Action” and a kit. Actually ended up giving Steve my book just because it meant more to him than me. Turns out he flew an electronic warfare variant originally called the A3D-2Q and thus it picked up the nickname ‘Q*eer Whale’. This variant was subsequently renamed the EA-3B, and was used for Electronic Intelligence, Signals Intelligence and Anti-Aircraft Suppression duties.

The EA-3B had a crew of 7,three in the cockpit, and four in the converted bomb bay of the aircraft running the electronics packages.

At some point I managed to find a Cutting Edge ERA-3B resin set and a set of adhesive masks, and got another copy of the “In Action” volume, and was ready to build when the appropriate time presented itself.

4

Gary,

Welcome sir! As you can see from my aircraft history, I too know a Whale driver, and while this one may not be for him, I do want to build him one as a gift. I’m doing his unit but not his livery for this build.

5

For WHAT did I just sign up???

I stumbled upon the GB before it kicked off, and after confirming that my desired bird met the rules for participation, I started research in earnest. After examining my sole reference in extreme detail, I realized that building an EA was not as easy as I first thought: Glue on the Seawing (long) electronics canoe and call it done.

My research showed that the EA-3B actually had 3 windows and a crew door on the starboard side of the aircraft. OK, well that isn’t so bad, just cut a few windows into the side, scribe a door and I’m off the hook right?

I grabbed out my calipers (virgin use - you will get used to that phrase) and started measuring all sorts of pictures and corresponding plastic to lay out my mods. I traced the starboard fuse half onto some graph paper to give me a working model to check out my measurements and confirm placements on the air frame.

Kit and AM stuff. Note initial modification blueprints.

I cut some ‘stickers’ of the appropriate size for the windows out of a post it note, and stuck them on the model to confirm location. All fits pretty well and I’m feeling pretty good.

Years ago, I had identified one simple scratch mod I wanted to make: the flight crew door drops down out of the middle of belly, between the bomb bay and the nose wheel well. A couple of the pictures showed it down, and it has some nice detail, so it would be a nice simple addition. I found a nice bit of Plastruct along the way for my internal structure. I was golden.

Then the devil inside started talking: “If you’re going to have a window in there, you can’t just have an empty plastic tube can you? Well CAN you??” You know how that discussion ended. So now I’m committed to scratching something up beyond my most ambitious effort to date: the EW station for 4 crew members.

Now what to do? Hit the web of course!

6

Gary,

From Aerograph 5:

Heavy Attack Squadron Five VAH-5 “Savage Sons” (Hatron 5)

“With A3D’s, VAH-5 won several awards while completing a brilliant record and made 5 Med deployments. Returning to NAS Sanford in March 1963, the squadron began transitioning to North American RA-5C’s and was redesignated RVAH-5 in May 1964, thus ending its 5 year association with the Skywarrior.”

7

I will be following your build as I want to do a diorama of USAF Major Casteel’s KC-135A doing the first tri-level refueling in 1967 with a KA-3 Whale hooked up and fueling, while tanking an F-8, with another thirsty F-8 waiting, with cover provided by two semi thirsty F-104’s. Casteel and crew won the 67 McKay Trophy, but the back story is that the AF brass wanted to courtmartial them for refueling Navy planes, but that was squashed when the Navy wanted to give the crew medals for saving their pilots.

8

the first tri-level refueling you describe above follows what must have been the first Quad-Level,there are many photos that start with A-1, A-4 or FJ-4B, then FJ-4 or A-4, followed by another FJ-4 or A-4,then an F-2 or F-3 in the rear

one of those is on page 18 of Ginter’s Demon book,it is FJ-4B, F3H, A4D, then A4D in the rear,many different combinations have been photographed

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Rich, That sounds like an awesome diorama. I’ve got a nice pic of a KA-3 refueling an EKA-3 Aggressor with Soviet stars on the tail and Russian style 10 on the nose. That ERA is what my Cutting Edge set is being saved for.

10

Well progress on this seems like slogging in quicksand. I’m not a fast builder, and ‘life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans’ (John Lennon).

To continue the story, I started looking to find some pictures for reference. Somebody’s kit review mentioned that the EA had an escape hatch on the roof to get the EW crew out of the aircraft in the event of a ditching, and if you were going to attempt something other than an out of the box build, you’d better get a copy of Aerograph #5.

So I did.

In the mean time, I decided to teach myself the fine art of casting resin. First time for that as well, I’ve been dragging the supplies around for 15 or so years.

I’m sure there could be a tougher project to start with, but this one hasn’t been very easy. I haven’t been able to cast a set of nacelles yet, but I did get a decent Seawing canoe. The issue with the nacelles is I’m pulling the wide part of the mold (diameter at the compressor face) through the narrow opening in the finished casting.

My seats for the EW compartment (behind my only good nacelle to date and with one of the broken bases in front) aren’t perfect, but with some putty they should be fine.

The book quickly arrived, and based upon the good information in that reference, I felt I had enough info to start the enhancements.

11

Marty! Sounds like that kit is bullying you into scratchbuilding some goodies on the inside! Good on you for going for it!

12

Yeah what Vance said.

13

I have the same kit and want to build it for my dad who was in VQ-2 on the “whale”, so I will be reading this thread as often as I am able to.

14

Vance /139:

Thanks for checking in, reading between the lines, and most importantly, the positive encouragement.

Yes indeed the kit is goading me into stretching my skills. My perfectionist nature wants me to have a complete sub component finished, but I can see that may be a bit to ambitious in many instances.

Please cheer where appropriate and ofter guidance where needed.

Best, Marty

15

Yo 74!

I’m doing a VQ-2 bird as well. See if you can find the Aero Master decals shown above for a VQ-2 livery. Was your dad out of Rota Spain or Guam, and was he a Sandeman or a Bat? My buddy was a Sandeman flying out of Guam and various cruises. Chances are very good this was his aircraft type (EA-3B).

I’m not an expert, but of I can help with a question or two, hit me up.

16

I felt the same way a few years ago. I used to wait on every answer, and finding few, i gave up on full posts. now i just answer a few posts a year. … as for the a-3, I worked on one of those on holloman afb in the late 80s. wierd thing

17

Ap,

Understood. A-3s at Holloman? What were you doing there with Whales? I know they have a storied history as mules for all sorts of tests. My Roomie and I won’t down to Holloman when the shuttle landed there in the early '80’s. That thing flies like a brick.

My buddy’s bro in law was a Tsgt responsible for an F-15 squadron. He let us get out on the flight line, pretty cool for a couple of civilians.

Best, Marty

18

Get Me the H3ll Outta Here!

Early on, I had decided that I would scratch an ingress/egress door, since the part was supplied a a separate piece for the bottom of the fuselage. I had seen a representation in the Squadron In Action, and so that was my muse. The way I understand it, bang seats were deemed too heavy, and so the ingress hatch doubled as an escape hatch too.

As an aside, my buddy the Whale driver said that other than night landings, the other pucker factor item was getting into position on the cat at night. He’s jockeying 2 P&W J-57’s with a deck guy waving at him. A 4" curb separates him from open space and a gray side down landing in the ocean. Belted in and no real way out, they just assumed they were going to Davey Jone’s locker.

Here is a picture to let you know what I started out shooting for:

If you’ve paid attention thus far, my AG #5 is on it’s way, and I’m happy as a clam. Then the book arrives, and I realize that the interior door and the exterior door combine to create a ‘slide for life’. If you need to exit, you open the doors,and jump into the opening and slide out the bottom of the aircraft.

All I need to do is cut out the interior door in the existing cockpit floor and extend my ingress/ egress hatch up to the cockpit. No sweat. Here is a peek at the inside of the slide with the cockpit floor as cut out in comparison.

You can see that I’ve added some card stock to the bottom of the flight deck to serve as a mount for the hatch/ slide.

In the picture below we have the component fitted for size and angle. I was feeling pretty good about all of this, when i realized that I had a couple of issues: My new forward bulkhead for the front of the EW compartment intersected the middle of the flight crew door opening, and you were probably going to be able to see from the cockpit down into the egress tunnel. Tunnel, what tunnel???

Darnitol! Now I need to figure out how all of that stuff works together. In addition, as I thought about my issues, I realized that where and how the starboard windows fit will affect the EW compartment. Time to switch gears and see how that portion is going to build up.

19

If you are having trouble pulling the parts out of the mold, try slicing the mold open. You slice down the sides to just about even with the part. Don’t slice all the way through to the bottom! This allows you to pull the parts out without damaging the mold. You can also use a popsicle stick or toothpick when you pour the resin to go “fishing” for airbubbles if you aren’t using a vacuum chamber. I cast for Steel Beach Accessories and I’ve used that method on a bunch of my projects.

20

Darren ,

Great suggestion. I’m not sure it is going to solve this problem as I’m castig what is essentially a hollow egg shell, and pulling the narrow opening through the wide part of the center mold. But your tip will be invaluable for other castings I am going to do.

Thanks!