A3D-1Q Notes

The A3D-1Q was the conversion of five very early A3D-1 Skywarrior bombers for the electronic intelligence gathering mission. For more on the A3D-1Q, see http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-curious-case-of-a3d-1q-crew-size.html.

This two-view drawing is based on close analysis of A3D-1Q pictures.

 The flat spot on the bottom right side of the fuselage just aft of the radome was the location of a retractable taxi light that was subsequently located on the inside of the nose landing gear door.

If you look closely just above the hinge of the bomb bay door, you'll see a fairing that was present on on the first 12 production A3Ds:

This fairing covered the location of the catapult hooks on those Skywarriors. Instead of being located in front of the bomb bay as they were subsequently, they were located beside it about halfway back. They can barely be seen, along with the bottom edge of the fairing, in this picture by Fotios Rouch of the EA-3A at Pima: http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/a-3/pages/frouch_ea-3a_07.shtml

Another feature of the first production A3D-1s was a set of steps providing access to the top of the fuselage from the forward end of the left main-landing-gear wheel well as shown here on the mockup.

 For pictures of the landing light and these steps, see Bill Spidle's pictures of the last EA-3A here: http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/bill_spidle4/yea-3a_130361/

The light color in the following picture is fluorescent red.

 I don't know what the cockpit looks like for sure.  My best guess is that the right front-seat instrument panel goes directly across the cockpit like a continuation of the pilot's instrument panel. In other words, like the Trumpeter kit's. This is an illustration of the A3D-2Q right front seat panel that does that - note that it has a radar scope, which I'm sure was required at the right front seat.

In addition, there were probably one or two panel faces of frequency detection/evaluation equipment.

Eliminating the ASB-1 system with its periscope allowed the right front seat to be moved forward. The fourth seat was reportedly added on the right side of the cockpit, located as far aft as it could go and facing forward. In any event, the aft third of the canopy appears to be opaque so what's there is not going to be very visible.

This is a pretty simple conversion from the Trumpeter A3D kit. There are small errors that you might want to fix like the entry door and main wheel hubs that are for the Versions with the cabin in the fuselage and some miscellaneous vents. Also see http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2013/05/trumpeter-148-a3d-2-skywarrior.html