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TAMIYA 1:72 DOUGLAS F4D-1 SKYRAY
Reviewer: Myself (smakr@bigpond.com)
Aircraft:
A number of new avenues were opened up when the USAF and other US forces
absorbed the inferences of German aerodynamic research captured at the end of
the Second World War. The US Navy was particularly impressed with the
tailless delta planform, which seemed to offer great potential for a jet-powered
interceptor needing a high rate of climb and good performance at altitude.
In 1947 the US Navy contracted with Douglas for initial work into such a
machine, and in December the following year ordered two XF4D-1 prototypes.
The first of these flew in 1951 with an Allison engine because the planned
Westinghouse version was not yet available.
The second prototype was fitted with a Westinghouse J40 engine and subsequently set a world absolute speed record of aprrox 1212 km/h in 1953, and the F4D-1 production type with a Pratt & Whitney engine set several world time-to-heigh records. The F4D-1 was given the name Skyray and entered service in April 1956 with nearly 420 built. The Skyray equipped 17 USN and USMC squadrons as well as three USN reserve squadrons, most of them land based for continental defense. It was an important type in the arsenal and much underrated during a period of tension with the Soviets following on from the korean war.
In 1962 the US Department of Defense introduced a new designation system and many types in service were subsequently redesignated. The F4D-1 Skyray became the F-6A Skyray under a redesignation and remained in service for a decade.
The F4D-1 variant was the only production model, and was an elegant design possessing, for its time, great speed at low level and a very high rate of climb.
As a sidenote, four improved aircraft were added in as prototypes for a much improved "F4D-2N" version, later designated F5D-1 Skylancer. Only four prototypes were built of this version before the development was cancelled.
The Kit:
Being a Tamiya kit everything is well packaged and the parts are flash free,
crisp and exquisitely detailed. There is no provision for folding wings
(the 1/48 version does) or tailcone split. The tail fin is split into two
halves, the wings are molded as the main fuselage pieces and split horizontally
up until the intake mouth (which is a separate piece). The forward
fuselage section is separate and split vertically.
Instructions:
These come in the form of an 8 page foldout strip/sheet. The front
page has the history of the aircraft, inside page has the obligatory spiel from
Taniya on symbols, paint callout (which is of course Tamiya brand), model tips
etc. There follows 9 easy to follow assembly sketches which are in the
main self explanatory, and with alignment tabs, grooves, pins, holes etc, you
can almost construct it yourself with just the occasional glance to make sure
you did not miss anything. Painting for individual components is
highlighted as well. The back three pages cover painting and decal
placement for the three versions provided for by the kit, each showing 3 view
(top, bottom and port side) diagrams. The final page even has directions
for applying decals, something you don't find in kits much nowadays.
Construction:
Readers of SMAKR will be disappointed to find out that I didn't actually put
this kit together. When I finally took the shrink-wrap off the model I
shook it and found it made a weird sound of lots of little pieces floating
loosely in the box. Concerned and fascinated I shook it again. The
sound was a little different, slightly harder, a few more shakes and the rattle
became less and less rattle-like until it sounded like a thud banging
around in the box. Intrigued, I opened the box, and voila... one completed
Skyray fell out!!
....But seriously folks!
That is of course a work of fiction. But it might as well not be, for what you see above was basically the type of kit this is. Engineered perfectly and you would need to be less than 2 years old, I am tipping, not to be able to put this kit together... it is a gem. In fact, when you make kits like this one it is almost boring! And if you marvel at the manufacturer's superb workmanship, you are unlikely to buy a kit from another manufacturer again.
This was my first foray into a Tamiya kit of any kind. For some time now I have heard all the hype associated with the King of the hobby and how precise the pieces are, beautifully detailed and all that extra stuff. I have made stacks of well engineered Hasegawa and Revell gems in the past, but Tamiya is still in a league of its own. I have been building kits for many many years and of course have been through some badly fitting limited run examples, and probably to now I thought that the Revell Me-262A was about the best little precision engineering I had put together. That was until I constructed this Tamiya kit and I can tell you now, if all Taimya kits are like this one, then all the hype is justified. Tamiya is the best.
Construction is about as straight forward as you can get, with all the parts fitting elegantly where they should. The chockpit is well catered for, a seat with footrests is attached to its ejector rails and slid into the cockpit tub, which has sidepanel console detail and rudder pedals already included. The main instrument panel supplied also has console detail on it, or you can use the decal provided. A control stick and anti glare panel hood make up the cockpit assembly. There is also a shelf behind the seat and this has lovely molded plumbing, just ripe to pick out with your dry brushing techniques. The whole cockpit received a black wash, but I varied the shades a little to allow features to be distinguished. Dark aluminium (ie: with a few drops of metallic black added in) was used on the plumbing behind the pilot's seat and the consoles were picked out with alumunium dry brushing techniques with good effect.
The main fuselage is essentially just the upper and lower wing pieces glued together - don't forget to drill holes in the lower wing piece if you wish to have any underwing stores, as well as affixing the interior airscoop under the upper piece (could be easily missed). Everything clicks into place perfectly. There is a small or reasonable amount of detail in the wheel wells, as well as on the undersides of the gear doors. The gear doors also cover the bays without any problems for wheels up mode.
The forward fuselage attaches to the front of the completed wing fuselage assembly and again clicks into place nicely, with the intake mouths also added on in this step. The tailfin is affixed together before attaching to the back of the aircraft and the rear exhaust is slid into the rear of the plane - I painted aluminium outside and matt black inside.
There were only two parts of the kit that gave me any semblance of "grief" - the tailwheel assembly and the canopy. The tailwheel was displayed retracted for in-flight mode but would not sit correctly with the wheel poking out through the small hole in the bay cover. This was corrected snipping a little bit off the end, but be wary, too much and it will be hard to even get the assembly to sit properly in the bay. The arrestor hook fits okay around it, and this was delicately painted first with the black stripes (as this is not covered on the decal sheet). The canopy needs careful affixing to the aircraft, it was quite happy to lay off centre and the windscreen thus was a little difficult in fixing. Be careful and it will fit okay.
I decided not to include any stores on my aircraft. However, for the sake of covering the kits contents, you can display a pair of rocket pods, large drop tanks and sidewinders, as well as a NAVPAC.
Finally, just a point of note that no filler or sanding was required at all in assembling this kit.
Painting:
The Skyray is very easy to paint in the Light Gull Grey (FS 36440) upper
and Satin White (FS 37875) undersides. I chose to use Humbrol 129 Light
Gull Grey + 130 Satin White respectively and followed the markings as
provided for in the kit. The nose was painted gloss black and I was also
careful to leave the small 'hinge-like' areas on the nose alone which you can
see in any side profile of the black nose.
Versions:
Three examples are covered for by the kit being VF (AW)-3 with the big
blue spine with white stars, US Navy and this was the example I chose to
reproduce. The other two a bit more bland US Marines versions with only the tail
fin providing any colour. A VMF (AW)-114 example with EK on the fin and
the card four-suite (ie: clubs, hearts, etc) displayed while the third version
is VMF (AW)-115 VE on the fin and a couple of red, white blue horizontal
stripes.
Decals:
As stated above, I chose to replicate the US Navy Blue spine and white stars version as depicted
on the boxart above. The decal sheet mainly has the codes, colour spines
and various roundels with very little in the way of stencilling. The
decals are in excellent register with a semi-gloss to a gloss appearance.
They are what I understand to be "typical Tamiya" (since I have not
built a Tamiya kit before) as they are a bit on the thick side in much the same
vain as Hasegawa sheets. But having said this, they go on very well with
Decalfix and conform to the surface very well. Placing the spine decals
one by one and letting one set before the next was the best way and I worked
with the main spine halves, before adding the huge fin decals and then the
smaller pointy
decal that sits just behind the cockpit. You will need to slit a small
square in this decal, so the decal goes down the air-scoop behind the cockpit. Once the fin
decals were on, there was a bit of excess film overhanging the fins so these were
delicately trimmed off with the excel blade. There is also a black
anti-glare decal to place in front of the cockpit which is excellent, but you
must remember also to put in a small slit for the pitot antenna right in front
of the windscreen. The red Intake decals that also incorporate the Danger
warning are absolutely shocking! I don't know how Tamiya
expect one to be able to place these on over the intake mouth and perhaps should
have been two or three decals (as they did with the spine). That way each
decal could be positioned before placing the next. If you want a proper
looking intake lip and without the frustration of trying to do the impossible
with the kit decals, cut around the 'danger' and paint the intake mouth yourself
- the danger decal can go on next it. The only 'danger' with this of
course is getting the exact scarlet shade to match the paint with the
decal. The rest of the decals were fine. Grey and Black anti-glare
panels and wing-walks are provided.
Accuracy:
By chance I actually have some accurate scale drawings of the F4D
Skyray from an old club magazine and was able to compare the Tamiya kit against
this. It matches all the curves and lines very convincingly but is
underscale by about a millimetre in all departments. Under the
circumstances still quite acceptable.
Overall:
In one word - "classic". This is an absolute gem of a kit
that goes together without any hassles whatsoever and will suit all modelling
skills. Of course its price tag might put a lot of people off but if you
want a hassle free accurate replication of the Skyray then there is no other kit
on the market that will even be competitive. In fact, I would almost say
that this kit is a must have for all model aircraft collections.
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