A-1K Skyraider, -Desert Storm- USMC ***FINISHED, Pg. 9***

[kitnut617]

Also... does anyone know if this needs nose ballast?

Um! it's a taildragger Brad ----

[TheChronicOne]

     Just noticed.....         I was like, "Where the hell is the nose gear!?"     So I looked at the instructions, "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"      Not sure what gave me the idea it had nose gear. I guess I wasn't off the mark at all when I said, "I'm no skyraider expert." I'm not even a Skyraider amatuer! Ha! I guess I'm not used to stuff after WWII being taildraggers or something. Oh well. So that's sorted, then! 

So anyway. I'm trying to knock out some of the smaller more piddly things right off the bat. Sometimes I don't relish working on gear or painting canopies so you know what.... time to do them first and get it out of the way.



EDIT: OK... I've since dragged up a build page/review for one of these and ol' boy said his tail was WARPED.....  So, I'm wondering if that is what is on my hand instead of an intentionally offset tail fin. 

[zenrat]

You could always give it nose gear...

...and you could always leave it as a tail dragger but add nose weight just to be obstreperous...

Skyraider was the last taildragger in the US Navy inventory.

The tail is offset IRL due to torque.  Something I wish i'd known before I accused Heller of having crap moulds and spending ages straightening one up.   

[kitnut617]

Not sure what gave me the idea it had nose gear.

Maybe you're thinking about the T-28 Trojan Brad, they have sort of the same look only the T-28 has nose gear.

[Scotaidh]

You could always give it nose gear...

...and you could always leave it as a tail dragger but add nose weight just to be obstreperous...

Skyraider was the last taildragger in the US Navy inventory.

The tail is offset IRL due to torque.  Something I wish i'd known before I accused Heller of having crap moulds and spending ages straightening one up.   

As I understand it, all single-engine aircraft (Cessna, Piper, etc.) have their tails offset to compensate for engine torque.  With civilian aircraft it's not usually enough to notice, but military engines are another matter ...

My father worked on Sea Furies.  He told me that a max weight take off was a problem, because full throttle was needed to get off the deck, but too fast opening that throttle and the engine torque would put the starboard wingtip onto the deck.  The resultant ground-loop hazarded everything on the carrier deck, to the great displeasure of ... everyone.

[TheChronicOne]

Not sure what gave me the idea it had nose gear.

Maybe you're thinking about the T-28 Trojan Brad, they have sort of the same look only the T-28 has nose gear.

I think you're right. I just built one and it's fresh on my mind and I was even contemplating building a Skyraider companion for it. Royal Lao. Has to be what happened.

[TheChronicOne]

You could always give it nose gear...

...and you could always leave it as a tail dragger but add nose weight just to be obstreperous...

Skyraider was the last taildragger in the US Navy inventory.

The tail is offset IRL due to torque.  Something I wish i'd known before I accused Heller of having crap moulds and spending ages straightening one up.   

As I understand it, all single-engine aircraft (Cessna, Piper, etc.) have their tails offset to compensate for engine torque.  With civilian aircraft it's not usually enough to notice, but military engines are another matter ...

My father worked on Sea Furies.  He told me that a max weight take off was a problem, because full throttle was needed to get off the deck, but too fast opening that throttle and the engine torque would put the starboard wingtip onto the deck.  The resultant ground-loop hazarded everything on the carrier deck, to the great displeasure of ... everyone.

Thanks , fellers. Pretty interesting stuff. I bet that dude in the review didn't need to mess with his tail at all!! And here's to old-Airfix for keeping this aspect accurate although I'm not sure how they fudge the air-intake area and the cockpit being set a fair bit too far back. I'm explaining this away as the modifications that make this a "K" aircraft. More junk in the engine comparment or blah blah blah.

The Idea HAD occured to me to create a nose sitting tail dragger and go around posting pics of it asking people, "Why.... poor me, what ever has happened here?!"  just to mess with people not telling them I did it intentionally. I think it would be funny anyway just as an exercise and to make something unique; a nose-sitting tail dragger.

[kitnut617]

You could always give it nose gear...

...and you could always leave it as a tail dragger but add nose weight just to be obstreperous...

Skyraider was the last taildragger in the US Navy inventory.

The tail is offset IRL due to torque.  Something I wish i'd known before I accused Heller of having crap moulds and spending ages straightening one up.   

As I understand it, all single-engine aircraft (Cessna, Piper, etc.) have their tails offset to compensate for engine torque.  With civilian aircraft it's not usually enough to notice, but military engines are another matter ...

My father worked on Sea Furies.  He told me that a max weight take off was a problem, because full throttle was needed to get off the deck, but too fast opening that throttle and the engine torque would put the starboard wingtip onto the deck.  The resultant ground-loop hazarded everything on the carrier deck, to the great displeasure of ... everyone.

In the Squadron/Signal Skyraider in Action book, there's a photo of an inverted Skyraider just feet off the carrier deck and headed for the drink, with unfortunate results for the pilot. The pilot was attempting a go-around and the torque flipped the aircraft ---

[TheChronicOne]

Canopy is painted.  Future made it look really nice! This is the most difference I've noticed so far. Sometimes when I dip the glass the results are negligible but this time it really helped out!


Not a good picture but you get the idea.

I've also cleaned up, glued together the ones that needed it, and positioned as man fiddly bits as I could. I stopped short because I'm running out of room to stage things here...  I wish I had more room on this desk but since I had to add a second monitor things are cramped indeed. So.... there will be another phase of this wherein I do the same for all the rockets and whatever small parts I had to flip and reclamp to cover the areas covered by said clamps.

[kerick]

This is where some guys turn to used egg cartoons to hold all those parts and keep them from getting lost! I really like this project and I'm looking forward to seeing the paint job.
BTW the offset vertical stabilizer is very noticeable on the Corsair!

[PR19_Kit]

I've always thought that an engine failure with a Skyraider would result in a brick-like glide and a rapid evacuation of the crew! 

[Scotaidh]

Seems strange to offset flying surfaces to counter torque, on flying models the engine is often offset a few degrees and that works fine, when the motor stops the aircraft glides straight ahead, these full size machine's would yaw if they had a engine failure, I would have thought that would be undesirable... 

I suppose the thinking is that most powered aircraft are not flown with the engine off.  However, if it does happen, then if they've got time to worry about it, there's always the rudder trim control.  We had an aircraft shed it's prop whilst flying over jungle - I can tell you the pilot was suddenly much too busy to worry about a few degrees yaw! He probably didn't notice it, other than to correct with a few pounds of automatic boot pressure. 

[TheChronicOne]

Update! Should have some pictures of note later but right now just imagine in your mind seeing a pile of painted and glossed rockets, a bomb, and all the landing gear; completely finished and only needing to be glued on. I wanted to do as much fiddly, small, and tedious things as I could early on so I don't get toward the end of the build and say, "AH man, now I have to paint canopy framing?? I have to paint tiny tires? UGH!!!"   This way, it's all done and I can get right into the "fun" part of building the plane itself.

I still need to do a bit of work on the gear doors. I have to paint... like.... 80% of them, let it dry, then reposition them in the clothes pins to do the other half and later repeat this for gloss so they take longer to get finished. I also need to paint the cockpit insert and the instrument panel. I still need to finish painting the proper and the engine pistons..... and the gun barrels.....   I think that's about it for the "smalls?"     Either way, I intend to be done with all these today at least even if I don't get to the plane itself.

[TheChronicOne]

Yes, good advice there, fellas, thanks! I forgot to mention that I'm going to find something to use for next time. It'll be a good time saver being able to prime all these little parts in one pass instead of one at a time. One of those "now why didn't I think of that before?" Things.  Well, now I know, and better late than never!    Thinking of a styrofoam block to hold all the toothpicks and shove some dowels in the sides at strategic places to use as handles. Fantastic stuff......

[comrade harps]

Do you see the chicken on the front smoking a cig?

Thing's a bloody "Rorschach" test! There's a mermaid or similar towards the rear, too!

It's winged so probably an angel, although
a harpy would be more in keeping with the bird
theme.

I think you'll find that it's a rooster...

As for the slim and buxom lass with the long hair:




More at: http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/AWA1/301-400/walk385_CH-53/walk385.htm