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Monogram A-6E TRAM 1/48


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Awesome build!!!!

John

P.S. What material (diameter?) did you use to make those twisted cables?

John,

I can't remember off the top of my head but it's 38 gauge wire.........I think it's in the neighborhood of 5 or 6 thou. but I'm not sure. For 48th scale it's still too thick to represent wires in a harness but it's the smallest I found. Even then, I couldn't imagine working with a smaller diameter wire as 38 gauge is flimsy enough and very difficult to work with.

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I am simply in awe. Great details and very thorough documentation. I was trying to see how you do your chipping on the tub floor and pipes. Can you explain your steps? Is the paint order silver, chromate, gray and then scratching with a tool or something? Or do you use the hairspray technique? Any insights into what kind of paints work best in the various layers, and whether the drying time is important? It looks fabulous. I would like to try it in my next build.

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Thanks guys, certainly appreciate the comments. Nice to hear from you as well Cliff and as a side note, I frequently look back at your excellent A-6 build for inspiration.

Janissary,

The chipped/faded paint effect was achieved by following the painting process you described. For the aluminum color I use whatever color from Alclad I feel is appropriate and I happen to have. This was the followed by a coat of Testors Zinc Chromate, the mustard yellow color in the small old school bottle and finally the tub topcoat color. I now prefer to use Neutral Gray for the top coat color instead of the recommended Dark Gull Gray as it's a little lighter which I feel is good for the smaller 48th scale cockpits. I then simply sand the surface with 3200 grit cloth-backed sandpaper from Polysand...(www.kdproducts.com) until the underlying colors show through.....pretty simple. As I've stated before, painting and weathering are not my strong points so most of these techniques are rather new to me. I usually prefer to maintain that newly painted and pristine look which we all know is unrealistic but I hate dirtying up the clean paint. Ultimately the dirty and weathered look provides much more character to a subject.

The chipping effects on the tubes was done by first sanding the styrene rod to achieve a really smooth surface using the sandpaper mentioned earlier. I then paint the tubes Alclad polished aluminum and once dry, I wet the surface with water follow by sprinkling a few salt crystals. Finally, paint the tubes with the top coat and remove salt crystals once paint is dry.

Good luck

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  • 2 months later...

That time once again. Cockpit is coming along slowly as time seems to be hard to find for this never ending project. This update concentrates on the upper section of the center vertical switch panel on the aft side of the tub, the avionics box to the right of the bombardiers ejection seat and the remaining plumbing associated with what I believe is cabin A/C and other pneumatic functions.

This is the sequencing valve for the ejection seats,or at least I think that is what the valve is supposed to do.

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A few pics showing the valve and some other components.

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Some other parts for the valve assembly.

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Here is the avionics box. This was really a pain to make as I decided to insert plastic rod for each individual button. The buttons are made from .010 styrene rod are too big for my taste but .010 plastic rod was the smallest I could find. They are too big for the scale of the box but I wasn't about to stretch styrene rod to about .004 which seemed about right for 40+ holes. The buttons are also supposed to be black but I decided to leave them white so they stand out against the black box.

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Are you kidding me ??!! Everyday I am more and more amazed at the talent of the people on these forums. There are no words to describe your level of craftsmanship and/or attention to detail. I have this very same kit started and I think that I do some nice cockpit work ..... excuse me while I go kill myself.

Steve

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I have tried to detail areas such as the wheel wells and TBH I suck, but wow, this is just phenomenal. I wished that I didnt have to wait so long to see it finished! Cant wait for your next update!

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Here are the rest of the pics I was too tired to post last night. There are a few things that didn't come out exactly like I wanted for lack of looking at my reference material but re-making them is simply too time consuming.

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Wow Elmo, great work, you are THE master :worship:/> I respect your ability to take all of those precise measurements on the piping and tubing runs.... Not easy to do when we are talking about hundredths/thousandths of an inch! I must ask how you make the bends with styrene rod? I tried it once under boiling water, but it would not soften up enough to make the bend... Once again, amazing attention to detail and your scratch work is second to none :thumbsup:/>

/Jesse

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A few more pics showing more of an overall view. Still have a long way to go but I am getting closer to the finish line. At this point I still have to finish the instrument panel and shroud and the ejection seat adjustment mechanism that is located behind and above the ejection seats. I'll probably save that for later as I still have to decide which brand seats I'm using as the adjustment mechanism attaches to the back of the seats and all the seats I have are slightly different. Also, the mechanism parts are attached to the cockpit in an area that will require sanding/blending once I glue the tub to the fuselage sides and having those things in the way just isn't a good idea.

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This is again wonderful work!

The duct looks awesome!!!!

Alex, good to hear from you. Thanks for the props.............those tubes were a pain to make even though they seem simple.

Edited by wardog
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Are you kidding me ??!! Everyday I am more and more amazed at the talent of the people on these forums. There are no words to describe your level of craftsmanship and/or attention to detail. I have this very same kit started and I think that I do some nice cockpit work ..... excuse me while I go kill myself.

Steve

Thanks Steve...........your comments are very appreciated.

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