John H. Rood

A4D Nose Profile: Now drawing in a TOP VIEW. I don't know why the photo is flipped sideways! Some kind of forum website software quirk? No matter -- see that line marked "DOUGLAS REF LINE"? I incorporated it here because, to my eye, that appears to be the place -- a structural firewall, if you will -- where, forward of there, Douglas designers made future modifications to the nose profile. So I can use it as a reference point for "backdating" Phil's A-4E plan profiles to the earlier A4D configuration.

Dry fitting the avionics box to former F2 and the balsa/ply F3. The balsa base is 1/8" medium-hard that I found in my stash. Lying down up front is former F1, which will be modified to accommodate the A4D's shorter nose profile. The box, too may need to be shortened a bit -- we'll see as things come together. On the plans I've now shaded in a preliminary side profile for the A4D's shorter nose, including a centerline (C/L) that runs below but parallel to the existing datum line. Edited By John_Rood on 19/03/2016 04:08:37

OOPS -- I didn't think to mark the lines for F2 and F3 ahead of time... so I had to back into it... AND IT SHOWZ Because of this tardiness on my part, it proved to be a bit of a hassle to get these lines correct; in fact, from Phil's build thread I see that, to some degree, the fuselage alignment DEPENDS on them to be true. The lines on the sides are intended to slope a bit, as the box is at an angle to the fuselage reference line -- but the lines on top and bottom must be at 90 degrees. And hey yes my lines kinda LOOK a mess -- but I will be careful as this fuselage build proceeds because we really MUST have things straight and true.

Stiffening fuselage structure for wing attach fittings: Laminating balsa with ply, and epoxying-in the lock washer for the wing TE attach point.

Heavy 90 degree angle stock to keep things more or less right.

The shorter nose profile of the A4D-1 is penciled-in... ...and happily the new nose profile will allow the battery box design to go in pretty much as-is... It makes it, just!

Titebond II Gone Bad, and its Partners in Aeromodelling Crime: I'm trying SUPER-PHATIC for the first time, on the advice of friends. I hear nothing but GOOD things about the stuff. For USA modelers: http://www.horizonhobby.com/super-phatic%21-dlmad21 I bought these four from Horizon Hobby and service was VERY fast from Illinois to here in Boston. They get special air treatment, these Mass Build participants...

And yes, that cat up there is inside his exact-scale mockup of a 1/15th scale C-17 transport's cargo bay. Some crazed gent in the PSSA UK has one underway, and my cat has been enlisted as a stress-tester.

Humiliatingly, it's been literally YEARS since I've had a workshop up and running, and so this project is a major reentry for me. My first real task has been to reestablish a workspace. Neglect is COSTLY! This has been a REAL battle, but I am now seeing light at the end of the tunnel... My building board is a flat, heavy piece of 3/4" hardwood with a pin-friendly flip-side of Masonite sheet attached to the board with Gorilla Glue. Reference lines are helpful for me as I'm a nut about geometry and so forth. I'm building from Traplet's laser-cut kit and it incorporates the minor fine-tuning bits discussed thus far on the Mass Build thread. Helpful --and totally unlike my natural "chaos unravelling" project mismanagement style -- the cool list of other needed stock items! And here's a good bit of my10+ year old stash of medium soft through medium-hard balsa, spruce, and ply. I'm dumb and unwise, but over the intervening years I actually WAS wise enuff to keep this stash well-ensconced under the bed and away from high heat, cold, humidity extremes. And lastly here's Clancy The Douglas Tech Rep --- with The Supreme Allied Commander (a drunk feral frog) listing at times overhead with a watchful, wandering eye or two...

Posted by Andy Meade on 04/03/2016 12:24:43: ...Will you / can you share a PDF of the changes once complete, so that others could follow? Andy:  YES -- I will do! Edited By John_Rood on 16/03/2016 16:50:16

"Call-sign Charlie, Lady, git outa the way! You're blocking our view of Jester's Top Gun Tinker Toy!"     Edited By John_Rood on 03/03/2016 20:51:07

Yeah, Phil! Really I am torn between that bird and that foxy astrophysicist CHARLIE's imaginary Aggressor A-4E out on the flightline at NAS Miramar. My first thought is to keep it simple and follow the build plan for an A-4E or A-4F; I absolutely LOVE the Aggressor colour schemes, and their overall clean lines. But as a youngster in the 1960s I grew up seeing sometimes the bright red & white colors on jets out in the Mojave and Inyokern deserts --- and nowadays at age 61 (almost) I can DEFINITELY benefit from a bright dayglo scheme. Here is that same particular aircraft (Bu.139934) with a different unit a bit later, circa 1961-63... some hi-viz panels are there, but they are hard to see clearly in the photo: And below now again is my first attempt at an A4D / A-4A nose profile fitted to your 1/12th scale design. Mainly it is just shorter, a higher C/L, and the air intake is unswept and a tad further aft. Everything else looks roughly the same, and the A4D-1 had no refueling probe. As always, my main focus is to get the pilot relief tube operating properly. Last but most importantly, if all goes to plan, the Mark I Eyeball and the K.I.S.S. principle will be in heavy rotation throughout this little project.

Oh yes, oh YES!!!

Bottom line from skimming his info is that the Skyhawk commonly went with Douglas-designed 150, 300, and 400 gallon tanks, plus a whole other rig for the tanker variants.

Andy, click on the link I posted to Tommy's page on external tanks -- and scroll all the way to the bottom... he's got some stuff there plus a link to another of his wonderfully OCD blog pages devoted exclusively to that topic!

And, for the proper GUZZLERS amongst us... **LINK**       Edited By John_Rood on 24/02/2016 16:53:28

At a glance, the major 1960's era variants and NAVAIR designation changes: A4D-1 = A-4A A4D-2 = A-4B A4D-2N = A-4C A4D-5 = A-4E (and the A-4F profile is very near identical to the A-4E) All the above via Tommy Thomason's aforementioned blog: **LINK** Edited By John_Rood on 24/02/2016 16:34:19

These differences you may see above: shorter nose, with a higher centerline. engine air intake begins further aft, and its mouth runs perpendicular to the fuselage reference line. The variance you see in canopy height and the fuselage floor/wing root area is probably just due to the difference in source drawings and the imprecision inherent in enlarging sketches with my home office printer/copier machine. I penciled-in a series of reference lines in an effort to reconcile the enlargement with the model plan, but with inexact results as you see.

A first draft at the early Douglas A4D (-1 and -2) fuselage profile: Enlarging Mr. Tommy Thomasen's published sketches and seeing how they scale up alongside our 2016 Mass-Build 1/12th scale model plan of the Douglas A-4E/F. Just using my copier at home, manually enlarging, and drawing some reference lines; it ain't exact -- but it's a start, and I'm just praying this ain't the Scale Masters World Championships of PSS Perfection! .

Great, too, that comments from participants re: any issues with plans and wood get implemented quickly. What I received today reflects all that imput. Very cool!

Skyhawk True Believers, I am well and truly happy to report that, um... today the PSSA UK A-4 Skyhawk Mass Build officially made its presence felt out here in the Colonies!   A ring on my doorbell, and the postman had THIS for me! Kudos to Phil Cooke and Matt Jones, and thanks be to Traplet for some truly fast service. It's a beautiful design and a beautifully-rendered box of balsa -- and a very pretty canopy! Cheers to you all, good luck on your builds. John in Boston, Massachusetts, USA! Edited By John_Rood on 20/02/2016 21:38:55

NOT SPECIFICALLY RECOMMENDED DURING THIS MASS BUILD: Without permission, a 21 year old enlisted kid "borrows" a USMC Scooter for a joy hop! http://forums.jetcareers.com/threads/the-little-known-saga-of-usmc-lcpl-and-record-holding-glider-pilot-howard-foote.210371/ This really happened!!! MCAS El Toro, Southern California.   Edited By John_Rood on 19/02/2016 21:42:15

A better fuselage planform analysis than I posted here last night; this is from TAILHOOK TOPICS, a very detail-focused blog by a very reputable source, Mr. Tommy H. Thomasen. Thomason's most recent book: http://www.amazon.com/Scooter-Douglas-4-Skyhawk-Story/dp/0859791602 A quick link to perhaps all of his blog posts thus far re: the A-4 Skyhawk family: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2013/03/a4d-4-skyhawk-collector.html

And here, as demonstrated in this circa 1984 photo, is how, if we fast-forward to September 2016, mass-build PSS models of A-4F Skyhawks will do it on small, constricted slopes.

I'm sorry I can't recall where I found the above drawing, nor vouch for its accuracy, nor give author credit, but it does give some idea of the general config changes. Edited By John_Rood on 16/02/2016 20:49:15