Michael - I hope you will not mind some additional discussion about the identity of the VNAF A-1E you photographed. Let me know if you prefer no further discussion on that topic and I will say no more and will just enjoy your excellent build.
Mike - I agree that the yellow graphic below the cockpit would help, if we can find another image that identifies the aircraft. I have had no luck so far.
I would never say "never," but the serial number you identify seems unlikely. So far as I know, all the VNAF Skyraiders were ex-U.S. Navy birds with six-digit serials beginning "13" (1 for Fiscal Year 1951). The tail or fuselage numbers usually (but not always) dropped the "1" and were five-digit numbers beginning in "3."
US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos--Third Series (130265 to 135773)
The black and yellow checkered fuselage stripe positively identifies the aircraft as of the 23rd Tactical Wing, which normally operated out of Binh Hoa. I have a personal interest since the 23rd TW supported the ARVN battalion to which I was assigned as an advisor in 1966-67. We loved those airplanes!
The tail code appears to be kWe (certainly kW; the third letter is fuzzy to my eye).
The initial letter "k" indicates that this was an aircraft of the 518th Fighter Squadron.
If the code actually is kWe, then this is an aircraft that the artist Co Vu painted. If his painting is accurate, the serial was 132629 and the tail number was 32629. However, Co Vu's painting does not show the yellow marking below the cockpit.
A lot of "ifs," as is often the case in trying to track down specific aircraft.
Unfortunately, Joe Baugher does not document 132629, but he says that A-1Es 132628 and 132629 were "to South Vietnam AF."
The source of the image below is Co Vu's website:
VNAF: 2012
My other sources for this screed (in addition to Co Vu's and Joe Baugher's web sites) are:
Byron E Hukee,
USAF and VNAF A-1 Skyraider Units of the Vietnam War, Osprey Combat Aircraft 97, Oxford: Osprey Publications, 2013.
Jim Mesko,
VNAF: South Vietnamese Air Force 1945-1975, Carrolton, TX: Squadron Signal, 1987.
VNAF Skyraiders:
VNAF Skyraiders
Don