Sheer reliability and massive ordnance capacity kept the piston-powered Skyraiders flying well into the jet-power era. The massive bomb load these planes carried allowed them to deliver millions of pounds of ordnance against ground targets in Korea and Vietnam. AD-5s were Skyraiders built with a tandem seating arrangement to facilitate pilot/co-pilot communication. After decades in action, the Skyraider was retired from American service in 1972.
- Skill Level 2
- Scale: 1/48
- Length: 9-3/4″
- Height: 4″
- Wingspan: 12-1/2″
- Parts: 130
- MSRP: $34.99 USD
- This kit features three seated pilot figures, folding wings with separate flaps, and landing gear you can model retracted or extended.
As you can see on the pictures below, the recently released Revell Skyrider AD-5 (A-1E) is comprised of 4 styrene light gray sprues, 1 clear and a huge decals sheet with markings for the following:
- AD-5, VMA 332 ”Polkadots”, MCAS Cherry Point North Carolina, 1953.
- AD-5 (A-1E) 4407th Combat Crew Training Squadron, USAF, Hurlburt Field, Florida.
- AD-5, VMA 133, Alameda, CA, 1950.
The molding is very clean and free on mold lines, cleaner than I expected to be honest. It has a mix of receded with hair thin raised panel lines and cockpit details depicted mostly via decals. I see plenty of room for scratch building and improvement in the cockpit area.
The instructions are quite easy to follow with small panels showing instructions (where required) should you choose to build version AD-5 or AD-5 (A-1E).
In case you were wondering, weren’t sure or simply didn’t know, this is the old Matchbox SPAD Â kit under Revell’s label.
The wings have the same plastic folding mechanism as Revell’s F-4U Corsair leaving a huge void if you want to assemble this kit wings folded. The good thing is that anyone with an X Acto knife and a small piece of stock styrene can scratch build here. Exactly what I’m planning to do and I’m not a prominent scratch builder myself.
I also have this kit and was planning a build of one of the Hurlbert Field 4407th CCTS aircraft, s.n. 132653. Photos and other research information indicate the tail number code for the 4407th was “AD”, not “AH” as indicated in the kit’s instructions and on the decal sheet. I’ve also found this to be the case in Caracal decals for the A-1E. Has anyone else discovered this? Are there decal sheets available to make the corrections?
Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention. We sure did miss this one. I’m not going to say that there are no correct decals addressing this but at least not that I know off. If you find it further in your research, please do let us know.
I have located a decal set to use for the corrected letters: Techmod Decals #48820A, an alphabet set for USAF white lettering 3″-24″.
Thanks so much for the update John. If is not much to ask, could you add a link to the seller? This would help other builders. Thanks in advance my friend.