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Reviewed by Brett Green
In their ongoing quest to explore a wide range of variations on Tamiya's 1/48 scale Skyraider, Cutting Edge has now released a "Skyraider Non-Armor Conversion". The conversion comprises thirteen parts in dark grey resin and two pieces in clear resin. As expected from Cutting Edge, the quality of the resin is first rate. No bubbles or other imperfections are evident on my sample. This kit will permit an unarmoured AD-3 or 4 Skyraider to be built. It is also possible to build an AD-6 or 7 with the armour removed. The clear parts are the oval shaped "car doors" in the fuselage sides. New bombracks and other details are supplied too. Cutting Edge's instructions are consistently good. Helpful text supports various diagrams. I also appreciate the honest assessment by the instructions about the degree of difficulty during various aspects of construction. The instructions describe this conversion as "extensive but simple" if you are building the non-armour section only. Nevertheless, significant cutting is required to complete the non-armour section. The first task will be to carefully remove the rather tricky casting block from the resin lower wing centre section. In contrast, the replacement forward fuselage comes ready for use. Sidewall instrument detail is cast in place, and each half is fitted with tabs to assist accurate alignment with the kit parts. Dry-fitting the halves shows the fit to be good. The kit wing and fuselage will have to be cut in preparation for the resin parts. This will be reasonably straightforward as all the cuts are along kit panel lines. The instructions warn that the car-door option will be complex to complete. They are quite correct! Kit dive brakes must be filled and sanded, and two oval holes must be precisely cut into the kit fuselage sides. For the really ambitious, the doors can be left open and the interior detailed. I like the fact that the entire door is moulded clear. The convex window is simply masked off and left unpainted when the surrounding door is sprayed. If you want to build a non-armour Skyraider, this is certainly the way to go. The basic non-armour conversion should present few obstacles, but the oval doors should only be tackled by more experienced modellers. Recommended. Thanks to Meteor Productions for the review sample Cutting Edge Modelworks Resin Conversion Kits are available at Meteor Productions Website Review and Image Copyright © 2000 by Brett
Green
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