This is my Tamiya 1/48 A-1J Skyraider built oob. I was prompted to post these pics after reading the April fools post, which I enjoyed very much. I love sarcastic humor, and some of you guys brought tears to my eyes. The theme of the diorama in question,to weather our not to weather, I believe is up to the individual. I build models for my own enjoyment. I have never entered a contest and really don’t plan to, and if it wasn’t for this forum, nobody would see my work but me. Some kits i’ve built are not weathered at all. My thinking is ,it depends on the subject. In the case of a Skyraider, most reference photos show a very dirty plane, and in retrospect, I wonder if I should have gone even further! Leaks,steaks, and stains…Oh Yeah!!! [:D][:D] Anyway if a guy wants to weather up his kit, I say go for it. So right or wrong, here’s my dirty bird. My only regret was the cheezy little pilot.[:I][:I]
Looks just like the 602nd SOS birds at NKP. I’ve got one in the stash to build but will be of the 22nd SOS w/black bottom. Great looking build, Ihope mine turns out half a good.[bow][bow][bow]
Your A-1 is very good. As you said, the full scale ones were usually much worse than that. I love the exhaust stains making an arch over the wing. Most modelers just have the exhaust stains going straight back, while in real life, they did do the arch bit due to the airflow over the curvature of the wing. Two extremely minor nit piks. (1)The barrel of the first 20mm gun is pointed up quite a bit from it’s next door neighbor. That would produce an interesting strike pattern on the target. (2) the bulge at the top of the fin just above the pitot tube is a red, rotating beacon. The top portion should be red. Again, EXCELLENT work on the Skyraider.
THanks to all!! I’m still a little embarassed about that cheezy, little pilot figure. I didn’t have any belts,so I thought Iwould just throw him in there. He’s got some stupid look on his face that always makes me laugh when I see it.
