Pete's Matchbox/Revell Skyraider

[stillp]

I've had this in the stash for a while:

Definitely ex-Matchbox:

Scalemates say it was originally Monogram, released in 1980.
Seems nicely detailed, but quite a bit of sinkage.

I see filler in my future...
Here's the rest of the frames:

And a nice decal sheet:

Looking at the GB dates again, I won't start this just yet, as I want to make a Hurricane for the BoB GB.
Pete

[Guest]

Scalemates say it was originally Monogram, released in 1980.

The look of the sprues kind of makes me doubt that, if I’m honest. Those look like a Matchbox effort to me, with the angular runners.

Ah, OK, I see the confusion now. Looking at the Scalemates page for this kit, it does seem like the family tree connects it to the Monogram kit:

[ATTACH]395259[/ATTACH]

But the vertical lines crossing under 1988 just means that the Hasegawa kit is a reboxed Monogram one, not that the Matchbox kit descends from the Monogram one as well. The vertical line should really be given a little curved “jump” over the horizontal one, if you ask me, to make this clear.

[yak face]

Jakkos right pete , its definitely an original matchbox tooling, if it was 1980s monogram the cockpit tub and seats would have been a lot more detailed , plus the square sprues are a classic matchbox feature . Cheers tony

[stillp]

Well, this might be a bit more challenging than I'd hoped! Large sprue gates, lots of 'draw on the edges of the parts, instructions sometimes a bit vague...
Here are the crew, apparently Darth Vader clones:

They'll need a fair bit of cleaning up.
I do like this parts list in the instructions though:

Pete

[Guest]

The pilots look like scaled-up versions of the standard Matchbox modern fighter pilot. I have the Seasprite kit, and that has newly designed figures with separate arms, but apparently they didn’t go for those in this kit.

[mrtintheweb]

Those moulds do look a bit poor!
T

[stillp]

Well, the crew don't look so much like Darth Vader now. Sadly they don't look much like US crew either.

I might leave them out, although if I keep them they'll partially hide the seats, which are rather basic.
While the paint was drying on the crew I started assembling the engine - why can't kit manufacturers get the two halves of each cylinder to line up properly? :angry: They were offset by about 1/2 a millimetre or more. This is after about 3 hours cleaning up.

I'm not over impressed with this kit.
Pete

[stillp]

Well I gave up on the clones. Even if I was any good at painting figures, the fact that they're posed identically looked stupid, and I don't have any spare 1/48 figures to mix them up a bit.
So, with the engine painted and mostly assembled:

and the decals on the IP and control panels:

I started gluing the fuselage halves.

A reasonable fit, but the two halves are very flexible so I'm gluing them progressively.
Thanks for watching
Pete

[stillp]

Anyone spotted the mistake yet?
Pete:rolling:

[Guest]

Looks good to me Pete.

The only thing I think it could be, if I squint REEEAAALLLLYYY hard, is some of the side consoles are in grey and possibly should be black?

[boatman]

Pete comin on really good an i dint know they had a three aircrew in these planes
chris

[stillp]

Full marks Chris (Archetype)! Yes, the top of all those consoles should be in the darker grey. I was really pleased with the way the decals settled down, until I realised that. We'll blame Revell, it's correct according to the instructions.

i dint know they had a three aircrew in these planes

Nor me Chris, it's a big old bird isn't it.
Pete

[Guest]

I think you’ll get away with it!

[Mini Me]

Nice progress so far.......these big birds were very intimidating to the ground crews that had to handle the taxi and parking exercises. My first experience as a Plane Captain (handler) was to direct one of these beasts around a course and then park it on a lined out parking "spot". Scared Cr*p out of me at the time.........Rick H.

[stillp]

Rick, I can easily believe how scary that must have been!
Pete