RA-5C Vigilante
Closed up in a dry fit and you might see what I'm intending to improve. Lots of detail missing here.
The top of the intake is reasonably sized, I'll see about what the reference drawings suggest.
My challenges will begin with addressing some off-center and overly thick intake trunks. I'm also going to need to work some scratch build variable intake ramps.
The leading edge extension makes this a later Vigilante. Better modelers than I have cut these back to fashion the early A model. I'll keep it as is.
The "bomb" bay is going to need some contour work to fashion the step demonstrated by the real craft. I don't think I can paint this in place. Some trimming will be necessary.
Here's a better view of the main gear. The strut is to fit into the molded slot. Strong glue joint to be sure, but leaves a lot to be desired for detail.
Regretfully, the doors are not molded to fit this space, they are too think and cannot be trimmed to fit the curvature. If I seal it, I'll have to use putty.
As you can see, the main gear bay are not inset. I wonder if I can cut away and scratch build some bay material. Or shall I just make this an in-flight model.
The seam though is fairly good without any pressure. Once I do put a clamp force on it, this tightens up to leave a bare gap. Should be ok to conceal.
Glad I was still able to source the RetroWings cockpit. Here's a couple views of the kit version alongside.
Ordering from RetroWings was great btw. I bought a couple other things for future projects and can't wait to dive in. Very nicely detailed cockpit, a wash will look great in there.
Nose gear bay suffers from the same issues as the main gear. The bay is too shallow and while I was able to find a few walk around photos. I'm thinking more and more that I'll simply seal it up and make this an in-flight model.
Regretfully, the underside of the cockpit has some surface issues. I'll seal and sand this a bit when I work on the closed bay.
Here I have taped off the main gear bay and a molded slot for the lower door. Now to loosen up my putty and get to work.
The inner walls of the intake needed to be completed as they were not molded all the way up. Some plastic card served the purpose.
I then came in and shaped it until it fit against the upper fuselage.
A little putty to smooth the joint should do it. I'll come in later to create the intake ramps.
I made the inner wall purposely higher so I could ease down by shaping and sanding.
almost there.
Showing the intake closed and ready for assembly.
Yea, that'll do.
I shot primer on the model after filling the gaps so that I could better see my progress.
I don't have card to fill it. Maybe epoxy putty?
Test fit of the kit nose section.
And a test fit of the aftermarket nose. A review I read noted the gap present and I saw that too. I'll have to even that out as best I can.
I hope I didn't take too much off the area behind the rear cockpit canopy.
Ended up with a sizable step in the port fuselage where the nose connects.
A little better on the starboard. I hate filling steps.
The tail section is pretty poorly modeled.
Getting there.
I didn't like the way that door looked. It wasn't smooth enough so I put on another layer of filler and reshot the primer coat.
I worked my way around with a chisel knife to try and get the step that is present on the rear birds.
Trying a couple different angles to catch the light. Small pock marks require polishing in between shoots so that I can mark them and apply small, direct filler without compromising the surrounding details.
Here's my progress on the port main gear door.
Continuing my hatred with the back and forth of filler, primer and sanding. But at least I can see the progress.
Here's the starboard gear door.
Coming back to the nose transition.
I also resurfaced the underside of the nose and nose gear while I was here. I'm going to hate scribing. I'm not good at it.
I added these ramps to the intakes to better match the real intake profiles.
There's a few R-5s in static display that show the ramps in reasonable detail.
I had to add card stock to the sides of the intake to build up the interior and then trimmed card to fit the width if a little longer than was really needed.
I pre-folded the card stock and then used CA glue to secure the forward connection.
For final positioning I used pick from the front and dowel inserted from the open engine nozzle at the rear to get the ramp angle just right.
It was quite a challenging task.
And on to the cockpit. I did have to source the spares box for the pilot and order a RIO from eBay. Both took some surgery to fit, but it's alright.
I lost the overhead ejection handles though. I should have waited until final detailing. There was little hope that they wouldn't have survived being covered from the painting.
The detail available from Retrowings lends it self well to dry brushing and highlights to capture the raised instruments. But I'm going to have a job ahead of me to trim out the canopies. The front windshield looks alright though I hope.
I used Vallejo Air paints for the SEA camouflage adjusting the dark green slightly for scale.
The pattern was free handed based on some photos and drawings online. I started with the tan, then medium and finally forest green.
I did run into some problems with overspray into the tan area, but I overshot that afterward and adjusted the airbrush settings and I think it came out okay.
I didn't worry so much about weathering. I just used a black panel wash to highlight the panel lines.
Regretfully, the canopies met a poor end. I will need to use the provided formers from RetroWings and recreate them. That'll take some time, and I'll just have to be patient.
Yes, the rear fuel/bomb pod could have been painted differently. There are several variations available online. I went with simple having spent considerable work on this end already.
For the transition to the white underside, I used some specialty pinking sheers to cut masking tape.
Thanks for watching. Hope you like how this build turned out.
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17 20 August 2023, 18:43
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My build of the 1/144th scale ARII Vigilante. I'm excited about the kit. The build should come together quickly. Famous last words. Decals are going to be an issue though. The kit decals are pretty aweful, and there's part of me that wants to paint it in the SEA camo pattern. But I'm not sure I will get much in the way of decals online. A couple great references I'm going to be making use of include slideshare.net/Tahir..ican-a5-vigilantepdf and Aigore's build and gallery pices from Aircraft Resource Center arcforums.com/forums..ents#comment-1501433.
