ESCI/AMT 1/48 AD-4W AEW Skyraider
Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2025 9:40 pm
Progress on an AD-4W over the last week. It is turning out to be a fairly simple build, since I am not going to try to stuff any resin and PE in to it. The fuselage has insert panels where the side dive brakes are on a standard AD and those were fit after installing the bubble windows. The area behind the windows was painted flat black. There were two crew positions back there for the radar equipment. The wing had fixed slats on the outer panels. The slats were supplied but there was no indication of supporting hardware so I made that up from some photos that showed a good view of the area in a David Doyle book on the AD variants. The fuselage interior and cockpit parts were painted Nato Black and decals were applied for the right and left switch panels and the instrument panel. There were some locating pins to align the cockpit into the fuselage, but it was easier to clip them off and do it by eye as there was plenty of access through the front and bottom of the fuselage when it was assembled. I hate crooked cockpits! As you would expect with a black cockpit interior there will not be much to attract the eye other than the decals. The canopy on the -4W is shorter in length that a usual AD, stopping at the back of the seat. Inserts were supplied to fill the aft gear recesses in the wing, as they were round on the AD-3W and 4W, with no gear doors in that area.
