Model Aircraft – September 2019

O

n November 4 1965, US Navy

Skyraider ‘572’ rolled of the

elevator and onto the launch deck

of USS Midway, with a somewhat

unorthodox bomb under its

right wing. There had been much secrecy

about what had been going on below deck

the days before, but a toilet that had been

decommissioned and was supposed to be

dumped over board was rescued in the last

minute for a special mission. Somebody made

a rack and ins for it and a nose fuse in the

front. The technicians involved in the build

carefully positioned themselves to block the

view for both the Captain and the Airboss, as

the plane taxied onto the catapult and as they

successfully launched the plane. The plane

went on to deliver its payload. The aircraft

was also given an unoicial nickname for

the mission, ‘Paper Tiger II’ and the ‘special

weapon’ and designation was aimed to

commemorate the six-millionth pound of

ordnance dropped over Vietnam. After reading

572s’ story, I knew I had to try and replicate

this in scale, so I dug out the A-1H from my

collection and added to this Eduard interior

and exterior etched sets plus the Brengun

‘toilet bomb’ and got to work.

Construction began as with the cockpit and

the control stick, seat and instrument panels.

The original sidewalls and instrument panels

has raised details, but for the etched details to

sit right, the raised details had to be sanded

down. The etched harness was then installed

on the seat. As with most Tamiya kits the it

is excellent and placing the cockpit inside

the fuselage and closing the fuselage halves

around it required no efort. The engine on the

kit is made up from ive very detailed pieces

that it together nicely. I also chose to enhance

it even further using etched details from the

Eduard exterior set. Sadly, the etch isn’t very

visible once the cowling is in place - strange

how we modellers do this. The engine was

then attached to the main fuselage, together

with the exhaust pipes and the air-intake

for the turbocharger. Next up was

the assembling the wings

and this started

with installing

the gear-bay

doors to the

lower half of

the wings, before

adding the top part of the

wings. The wings are a three-

piece section where the lower part also

Operation ‘Paper Tiger II’

Vietnam

Toilet Bomber

Snorre Sandviken adds an unusual warload

to the 1:48 Tamiya A-1H Skyraider

(^42) DOUGLAS A-1H SKYRAIDER WWW.MODELAIRCRAFTMAG.COM