Saturday, November 10, 2012

Airfix 1/72 A4D Outline

The following, including the illustration, has been revised since first posted. Also, for a more complete discussion, see http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2012/11/airfix-172-a4d-2-overall-size-and-shape.html

I've been a bit suspicious of the accuracy of the Airfix A4D nose shape since I first saw pictures of it. On ARC there has recently been discussion about the scale, with speculation that the Airfix kit is undersized. So I compared the kit fuselage to the best Douglas drawings that I have. Based on this evaluation, it  looks like the overall size is okay, but the rudder extends downward a bit too far, the horizontal stabilizer is mounted a smidgen low, and the nose is in fact notably off.

 Of those, only the nose profile looks worth fixing to me by giving the lower side a little more upsweep. Canting the whole nose upward would be even better.

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