Navairfan Posted April 9 Report Posted April 9 For my next project, I chose the 1/48 Tamiya kit of the Douglas F4D-1 Skyray, colloquially known as the 'Ford'. Like many, I was surprised (and elated!) when in 1998 Tamiya released a kit of this relatively obscure late-fifties Navy aircraft. But I've always loved the look of this jet, with its' sleek, futuristic lines. The Skyray, and its' contemporary, The Vought F7U Cutlass, were perhaps the most radical aircraft designs to enter full production. It's a shame that engine problems (with the Cutlass) and control/stability issues (with the Skyray) prevented these innovative designs from realizing their full potential. For a jet with a short service career, there are a number of excellent references. The ones I used were: Warpaint Series No. 117, Douglas F4D/F-6 Skyray & F5D Skylancer, By Tony Butler; Killer Rays - Story of the Douglas F4D Skyray and F5D Skylancer, by Mark Frankel; Naval Fighters Number 13 - Douglas F4D Skyray, by Steve Ginter; US Naval Air Superiority - Development of Shipborne Jet Fighters 1943-1962, by Tommy Thomason. I also purchased Modelers Airguide 20, Douglas F4D Skyray, by Any Evans, and I must say, for the price, it was a huge disappointment. It's beautifully printed, on high-quality paper, but with just 38 pages, and with only one or two photos on most pages, there isn't much bang for your buck. And none of the photos have captions. You'd think a publication geared specifically toward modelers would have photos or drawings of the cockpit and other details, and at least have captions for the photos, but nope. This was my first purchase of an Airmark/Modelers' Airguide publication, so I don't know if this is typical of their products. But for $30, I felt cheated after buying it. Construction began with the cockpit. I used the Cutting Edge resin F4D cockpit set, which is an improvement over the kit parts, especially the cockpit coaming and instrument panel. I assembled and painted both the kit cockpit and the resin set, just in case I had issues fitting the resin cockpit in the fuselage. Both cockpits were airbrushed Model Master Dark Gull Grey, with side consoles painted Tamiya Semi-Gloos Black, and details picked out with dry-brushing and colored pencils. The instrument panels were detailed with individual instrument decals by Airscale. To be clear, once painted, the kit cockpit, which comes with the original Douglas ejection seat, looks fine. But it's very simplified compared to the real thing, and is missing a lot of details, mainly in the instrument panel coaming. The kit coaming is featureless, with just a hole in the top for the gunsight reflector glass. The actual coaming is open on top, through which you can see the back of the instrument panel, and the top of the gunsight mechanism and reflector. The Cutting Edge set replicates this very nicely. Late in their service careers, many F4D's had the Douglas-designed ejection seat replaced by a Martin Baker Mk V seat. The jet I was building had this upgrade, so I substituted the factory seat with a proper Martin Baker Mk V seat I had in my spares box. It was airbrushed Tamiya Acrylic NATO Black, with cushions various shades of green and drab, and seatbelts painted light grey. The ejection seat pull handles were from a pre-painted set by Eduard. Before closing up the nose halves, I glued a lead fishing weight in the tip of the nose to keep the kit on its gear. The kit engine exhaust is simplified, and lacks an afterburner nozzle. I added a photo-etched flame holder from an Eduard detail set, and used a spare exhaust nozzle from a Revell F-18 Super Hornet to fashion an afterburner nozzle.The rear fuselage and exhaust shroud and nozzle were sprayed Tamiya Titanium Sliver. I then over-sprayed the nozzle and exhaust interior with Tamiya Metallic Grey. There is no intake ducting, so I just painted everything inside white and moved on. The landing gear was assembled as per instructions, and detailed with brake and hydraulic lines made of wire. They were sprayed Tamiya Acrylic White, and gloss-coated with Future. A wash of Tamiya black Panel Line Accent Color was applied, which really popped out the nice detail on the struts and wheel hubs. Like its' cousin, the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, the Skyray was designed with leading edge slats, which deployed automatically based on dynamic air pressure. On all Skyhawks, the area under these slats was painted Insignia Red. But on the Skyray, photos indicate this wasn't usually the case. Very few squadrons had red under the slats. The few photos I could find of Fords in the markings I wanted to use seemed to indicate that the area under the slats was painted Gull Grey, instead of Red, so that how I painted mine. The drop tanks were painted white, with Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black noses. This color is a good match with the black on the Cutting Edge decals I used. The kit also provides a NavPac, a pod containing VHF navigation and low-frequency marker-beacon gear. It was painted white, with a radome tan nose section. This pod was carried only when squadrons were land-based, and were usually not used when deployed aboard a carrier. Once the nose section was glued to the upper and lower fuselage halves, the topside was sprayed with some of the last of my dwindling supply of Model Master Acryl Flat Gull Grey, and the underside was left in Tamiya white Fine Surface Primer. The underside primer was polished with a cloth to give it a nice glossy sheen. There were a few seams that needed filling and sanding on the leading edges of the wings. The nose radome and fin tip was sprayed Tamiya Semi Gloss Black, and the anti-glare panel was masked off and sprayed Tamiya NATO Black. Skyrays had the leading edges of their wings and pylons finished in Corroguard, a metallic grey-ish protective coating, so these areas were masked off and sprayed Tamiya Titanium Silver. The vertical fin, however lacked this coating. Once painting was complete, the landing gear, tanks, pylons, Sidewinders and NavPac were attached. The distinctive yellow and black 'barber-pole' markings on the drop tank refueling probe were made by first spraying the probe Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black, then wrapping a thin strip of masking tape around the probe, followed by spraying it Tamiya Flat Yellow. The kit provides three markings schemes: two Marine Fords, from VMF (AW) 114 and 115, and a Navy jet with the very elaborate markings of VF(AW)-3, the Blue Nemesis. Instead, I went the aftermarket route and chose a jet in the eye-catching scheme of VF-162, The Hunters, Bureau Number 134757. My references had several photos of this jet during various periods of its attachment to VF-162. The decals came from several sources: most of the markings, including the black with yellow stars decals on the elevons and rudder, came from Cutting Edge Decals sheet #48089, F4D Skyray Pt 1. The national insignias, intake warnings, and stencils came from SuperScale sheet #48336. I used very few of the stencils, because all the photos in my references showed little to no stenciling. Since I included the NavPac on my model, I had to alter the decals slightly to reflect when the squadron was land-based at Cecil Field, Florida in 1960, before it deployed aboard USS Intrepid for three cruises. To do this, I had to change the nose number from 1xx-series to 2xx series, and change the air wing code letters from AF to AH. An AeroMaster letters and numbers sheet provided the necessary markings to make the changes. Like all my model aircraft, I like to display them with an open canopy, to show off the detail. The kit is designed to be built with a closed canopy, but fortunately, it's an easy job to pose it open. The Cutting Edge cockpit set comes with the hydraulic cylinder used to open and close the canopy, so the only real difficulty is in placing it properly. If the Cutting edge instructions are correct, this cylinder is slightly right of centerline, but I could find no photos to conform this. I also added the vertical metal bars seen inside each side panel of the canopy, and a compass at the upper right edge of the canopy. This was made of scrap plastic, with a decal instrument placed on the front. Two rearview mirrors were also added to each side of the canopy bow. The boarding ladder came from one of the 1/48 Hasegawa A-4 Skyhawk kits I have in my stash. It was modified to look more like those used on the Skyray by shortening it, adding wheels and other details to match pictures in my references. It was painted Tamiya Red, and dry-brushed with Tamiya Flat Aluminum paint, then weathered with Tamiya dark grey Panel Line Accent color. The ladder was then attached to the model with white glue. Tamiya's 1/48 F4D-1 Skyray is an outstanding kit despite its'age, with precise fit and sensible engineering. The only real drawback is a lack of intake ducting. With care, it builds easily into a beautiful replica of this radical, delta-winged Navy interceptor.
Mark Deliduka Posted April 9 Report Posted April 9 What a superb and well built model! Your details are fantastic and I love the smooth paint work you did! Congrats on making such a fantastic masterpiece!
Navairfan Posted April 10 Author Report Posted April 10 Thanks very much, Mark, for your kind words. All I can see are my mistakes, but overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
ghodges Posted April 10 Report Posted April 10 Superb Skyray! Your got even more out of what's a nice kit to start! Thanks for sharing! Gil
Navairfan Posted April 11 Author Report Posted April 11 4 hours ago, ghodges said: Superb Skyray! Your got even more out of what's a nice kit to start! Thanks for sharing! Gil Thanks, Gil! I'm looking forward to more of your posts on that amazing scratch-built Martin torpedo bomber you're working on.
Recommended Posts