A-3 Skywarrior U.S Navy
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Hasegawa model in 1/72 scale kit review and modelling report 
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The Hasegawa kit of the Douglas A-3 Skywarrior was first released in 1998, and at that time, only a few old kits, such as the Revell kit in an unusual scale and the Rareplanes 1/72 vacuform model, were available. The Hasegawa kit, no. K41, depicts an A-3B Skywarrior of the US Navy, and comes with a choice of decals for a VAH-11 and a VAH-10 aircraft in the common gull grey/white scheme.

While the Hasegawa kit is excellent, it is rather simple, and only provides the major parts in this expensive kit. However, with some modifications, you can create a nice, large model.

To improve the accuracy of the model, some changes were made based on observations from pictures of real Skywarriors.
  • The slats and inner flaps on the wings were cut out, as every Skywarrior standing on a platform or carrier deck has them extended due to the lack of oil pressure.
  • The two rear fuselage air brakes were also opened by cutting open the bays in the rear fuselage area for more detailing.
  • Additionally, the cockpit area was detailed by opening the crew access ladder hole in the cockpit floor, detailing the cockpit itself, and opening up the sliding hatch in the upper cockpit glazing. Careful attention was paid to making cuts in the glass without damaging it. Pieces of plastic and scraps from the spares box were used to add further detail to the cockpit area and the lower area near the hatch.
Although the opening within the main undercarriage bay would have provided a "see-through" effect, it could not be seen in pictures, so the hole was covered.

The fuselage comparison shows Hasegawa's A-3 on top, while the wing comparison shows the Hasegawa A-3 and Italeri B-66 kits.


  fuselage comparison, Hasegawa's A-3 on top


wing comparison Hasegawa A-3 and Italeri B-66 kits
 


With the changes made to the main parts, the next step is to glue them together in the next stages of assembly.

Derived from the navy version of the A-3 also a USAF variant was made, the B-66 Destroyer. It has externally some differences to the A-3.
- longer engine nacelles ;
- different  cockpit area ;
- other rear tail area ;
- yehudi (being a chord extension at trailing edge) of the inner wing;
- different slat layout

In parallel, also the Italeri kit of the A-3 family member the B-66 Destroyer was tackled. Check the B-66 kit out here...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Detailing was done on the A-3 by cutting also out the air brakes. Plastic pieces of cart cover the holes with some panels being inscribed . 

The A-3 received it first coat of white; note cut out leading edges and flaps

I assembled the A-3 and this gave no problems.

.. 
The A-3 Skywarrior was given its white underside colours and the upper FS36440 gull grey coat. The slat leading edge areas undercoat was also made white and painted red later on.

Cockpit now awaits the seat belts and the instrument decals. The canopy will than be fitted with some white glue to fill up the gaps and the edges/framing painted.

Go to A-3 next [ page 2 ...]

 
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References
  • Douglas B-166 Destroyer, Minigraph
  • Navy Attack, Osprey series

Also check out the USAF B-66

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Created June 15, 2002