wardog

Looking really nice, Steve. Once u drop a wash and a flat coat it's gonna look amazing.

Rich, very inspirational work you're doing here. Tedious and time consuming, yes, absolutely, but the rewards are so worth it! Can't wait to see more of this magic, especially since it's in 48th scale, and if I remember correctly your preference is 32nd. -Elmo

Sup, Steve, yes, the windscreen should look familiar, it's the one you gifted me, thanks again. To your point, I too am not impressed with the AM masks; of all the sets I bought for the Monogram A-6, none fit perfectly. I had to cut them in various places to try and match the mask angles to those on the windscreen. I even bought masks for the Hobbyboss and Kinetic A-6's hoping they'd somehow fit better......not! Needless to say, results weren't horrible but not great either. However, I should be able to fix most of the issues I'm having with the windscreen. I do however have two main concerns.

Thadeus, kike and utley, thanks for the comments. The pic I included was simply to show that there's been progress made, especially since the decals are finally applied. However, and as mentioned before, I did experience some quality issues which will take some time to address. I will be posting a lot more pics once I get the time to fix those issues........hopefully in the next couple of weeks. One of the most concerning areas is the windscreen. The masks I used did not yield the best results so that alone will take some time to fix. Additionally, while I was refining the paint edges, a piece

Hello, Mike, I believe I used Tamiya XF-72 for the cushion/padding. If I remember correctly, I mixed a little white and maybe some green to XF-72 for tonal variation amongst the individual seats. After, I applied a brown wash into the recesses followed by dry-brushing the edges with a lightened mix of XF-72. The belts are in fact gray; again, I varied the tone a bit so that both seats did not look exactly alike. I think I used MRP Dark Ghost Gray for one seat and MRP Light Ghost Gray for the other. Seat belt tonal variation on real jets is all over the place so you almost can't go wrong w

RichB63, A-10 Loader, BuNo02100, Youngtiger1, utley, habu2 and cruiz, thank you all for your comments, and suggestions. When I started this build long ago, my vision was to take it to the next level by taking advantage of all you can do to an A-6. However, I think I was mostly thinking about it from a "detail" perspective and totally forgot that my modeling skills are severely lacking in certain areas. That said, this build served as a test-mule for many techniques that were new to me, such as: Blackbasing, scribing, weathering and a few others. This led to many mistakes along the

Time for a tiny update. Been chopping away at this beast, and as expected, it continues to fight me all the way. Finally got paint and decals applied and she's looking pretty good except for a bunch of issues I have to address. Some of the issues are due to my inexperience but others are simply part of modelling and not much you can do about it but learn from them. I've mentioned a few times in this WIP that painting/weathering are my two most unrefined modeling talents......this A-6 certainly exposed all of those weaknesses. However, I've learned a lot along the way and that's really all that

As impressive as it gets!

Checking in for the first time; moving along nicely and all the aftermarket upgrades should make for a superb outcome. -Elmo

A warning to all modelers, and especially F-4 Phans, stay tuned to this build as Rich's techniques and craftmanship are on another level. I've been following Rich on other modeling sites and often blown away at his creativeness and "out of the box" thinking. Rich will surely amaze you as he progresses with this build!

Hello, RichB63, excellent choice for your next build. Perhaps the Tamiya F-4B is not the best kit to convert to a "C" model but you certainly have all the skills necessary to make the modifications. What you've done so far is nothing short of perfection; I can't wait to see how this build progresses. -Elmo

Wow, is all I can say! I hadn't checked on this build in a while and am pleasantly surprised with everything you've done. Last I checked I believe you were just beginning to work on the wings. For a second, I considered suggesting that you make sure you wanted to go down the path of ripping the wings apart as the Monogram A-6 kit can literally turn into a bucket of worms if you're not careful and could potentially end up on your shelf of doom. However, looks like you're doing just fine. What you've done so far kind of makes me wish I would have went with extended wings on my build;

Coming along nicely. A word of caution as you progress. The windscreen does not have the best fit; however, with some filling and blending where it joins the fuselage, you can get decent results. Also, watch out for that big refueling probe sticking out, it's just waiting to get broken off by an errant swipe of the hand. I'm using a resin probe and decided to split it where the base and upper section meet, and only glued the base to the fuselage so I can blend it in. I'll attach the upper probe section to its base at the end of the build.

crackerjazz, as mentioned before, great job you're doing here. This kit has many shortcomings, as we all know; however, considering its age, it builds up into a very nice representation of an Intruder. Best of all, it actually looks like an Intruder when finished. Back in the day, Monogram was known for producing very nice models; they'd get the shape correct most of the time and I always considered them to be a notch above Revell kits. As a young kid, I remember sitting in my Junior High classrooms, lost in my own little world as I carefully reviewed the colorful pamphlets that came with thei

crackerjazz, your build is coming along great! Now that you've spent considerable time scribing, it isn't as bad as one would think. Still a daunting task, but at least you're now able to approach it with a lot more confidence and skill. And I know what you mean about drilling those big mounting tubes into an otherwise fine model, never a good feeling. Although not the same, I struggled a lot with the fact that applying the non-skid to the tops of the wings and spine will cover a lot of the scribing work I've done in that area, especially along the forward, wing root sections. All