Tamiya 1/48 A-1H (Kit No. 61058*3400) and A-1J Kit No. 61073*3000) (U)
Dating from 1998 and 2000 respectively these two kits will be reviewed together as they are, except for decals, instructions and a few odd bits pretty much exactly the same.
To date these are the best Skyraider kits to ever hit the market in 1/48 scale, and until the advent of the ZM 1/32 kits arguably the best in any scale. Nothing surprising there, they are of course, from Tamiya.
Having said this, it is also true the Tamiya of 20 years ago is not the Tamiya of today. These kits can be used to produce the most accurate quarter inch scale AD’s and A-1’s around, but they’re a long way from perfect; nothing to match the almost breath taking standard of their recent F-4B kit. Learning must take place however, and certainly, Tamiya have been moving up the curve. Sadly, I have little hope the Skyraider will be revisited by them or anyone any time soon, so, we’re best advised to move forward with what we have in hand.
Which isn’t really that bad all in all; the fit is outstanding and all dimensional aspects of the airframe are right on the money. Detail fidelity…uh, hit and miss; we’ll get to this momentarily.
Can you build a decent model with nothing but what is in the box? Definitely. Is it “shake and bake” a la their latest P-38 and F-4? Not even close; if you want anything more than standoff fidelity from this kit, you’re going to have to get your fingernails dirty. If you want fine accuracy and better detail, aftermarket and/or scratch building will be necessary.
Here are the problems which must be corrected:
There is a lot of clunky semi-scale “representative” engineering in this kit. This is most evident in all aspects of the landing gear; struts, doors and wheels which seem to have sacrificed anything like scale appearance for ease and rapidity of assembly. In my opinion this is way too toy like for this scale, and cannot be made to appear as anything else. The bottom line is, if you want any aspect of the gear to pass any sort of muster it will necessary to radically alter and rebuild everything except the “knuckle” strut doors-basically the whole schmagiggle, wheels and all.
This same Lego style approach is taken with the weapons and their pylons. It’s awful, and cannot be made to look otherwise without a major rework. Only AERO-14 outer racks are provided and only late style MK-51 stub wing stations. This is okay as far as they go because they are dash model appropriate but both the outer racks and their attendant weapons have big triangular lugs with matching recesses molded into the various stores to make it easier to align, I guess. Again this might be good for a toy but not so hot for an accurate model; likewise the MK-51’s and the split, semi scale MK-3A centerline rack and their long pins which fit into poly caps buried in the stores provided to hang there. I’m not a fan.
It has the wrong propeller. The AD-6/7 cum A-1H/J Skyraiders were equipped with either the Aero Products A642-G804/M20A2-162-0 or A642-G805/M20A2-162-0 prop* which the one in the kit is not. I’m guessing Tamiya made the mistake of doing their research in the warbird world and found an A-1 swinging something else and derived their drawings from there. If you set out to build a Korean War AD prior to a dash 4 or 4B, you’re pretty much good to go with the kit part, you’ll still have to reshape it a bit, but for one of the later models it’s not exactly right. The one from the old Monogram kit was a lot closer, but it’s a little under scale, Meteor Productions produced a good one, but they’re OOP and kind of hard to find. Our best hope is for Roy Southerland to read this review, take mercy on us and produce his outstanding 1/32 scale replacement Skyraider prop in 1/48 scale as well. I’d be good for ten or so. A new one in braille scale wouldn’t hurt anything either.
The wings hog like a broken-back coal scow in a force 9 gale. Built from the box the look is ridiculous when viewed from the front; they begin at the root with a promise of some sort of dihedral only to droop like a slice of four day old pizza with a big unmistakable hump in the middle and the wingtip definitely pointing toward the side which should have won the Civil War. The Skyraider’s wings are straight seen from head on with 6 degrees of dihedral even with every wing station fully loaded. This one’s an easy fix involving removal of a couple of locating pins and a different assembly sequence, but if not corrected does represent some major doodoo in the old punchbowl.
Air Force A-1H/J landing lights are not provided. This isn’t necessarily a show stopper because the photo record shows not all USAF Skyraiders had them at every point in their career. Check references on the airframe you’re building, if you need them on there, then some A+B putty and a couple of MV lenses will see you through the crisis.
The antennae are all molded onto one or more fuselage halves. Cut them off, re work them separately and reattach; it's easier and it looks better.
From all I’ve just said, you’d think I didn’t like this kit. Well, I’ve built it, conservatively, ten or eleven times, presently have three on the bench with at least five or six back in the stash yet to go, so what does that tell you? I'm very pleased Tamiya has kept it in production all these years; it can be made into an exceptional and historically accurate miniature. It is brimming with potential; it just takes some work is all. “Some modeling skill” required is not necessarily a bad thing; this is art after all. I list the “complaints” only in an attempt to explain, after a good deal of experience with the product, where the rocks are so anyone who hasn’t yet assayed the project will know where not to stub their toe.
I am presently working on a tutorial directed at how to get the best out of this kit. When finished I will publish it here on the site as a downloadable PDF. Stay tuned for that on in the future.
*Ref US Navy A-1H/J Maintenance Manual 01-40ALF-2, 2/1/1966, page 244 paragraph 5-165
