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Monogram A-6E TRAM 1/48


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48 minutes ago, RedCrown said:

Incredible work! How do you get your rescribing to look so precise, consistent and neat? It looks like a new tool Tamiya or GWH kit’s panel lines!

Hello RedCrown, thanks for looking and the feedback. There's quite a few steps involved in getting results that look decent and of course, some very useful tools. I typically start by using a pencil with a sharpened tip and Post it Notes to draw out where I want the panel lines. This step is key because it helps ensure when putting down the Dymo Tape that you stay true to the lines you drew. Once the tape is secure, I use a very small diameter sewing needle chucked in a pin vise and go over each line multiple times. It's also important to try and use consistent pressure from start to finish so the lines come out devoid of sections that are too deep or shallow. I then use 3200 or so sandpaper to clean the ridge along the line that develops when scribing followed by running the scriber along the lines as many times as I need to to achieve the desired result. That's basically it! It's a very simple process but It's very time consuming to achieve the results you see in the pics. The other recommendation is simply to practice. It takes a little while to get the hang of it but you'll get it. I also now have at least three different needle diameters I use to achieve the look I'm after. For 48th scale, I use the smaller of my needles for the majority of lines to maintain scale appearance. One other thing to keep in mind is to use a needle that is large enough, but not too large,  to allow for subsequent layers of paint, clear coats and washes to flow into the lines you scribe. If you have any other questions feel free to let me know.

 

 

Cheers

-Elmo

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1 hour ago, wardog said:

Hello RedCrown, thanks for looking and the feedback. There's quite a few steps involved in getting results that look decent and of course, some very useful tools. I typically start by using a pencil with a sharpened tip and Post it Notes to draw out where I want the panel lines. This step is key because it helps ensure when putting down the Dymo Tape that you stay true to the lines you drew. Once the tape is secure, I use a very small diameter sewing needle chucked in a pin vise and go over each line multiple times. It's also important to try and use consistent pressure from start to finish so the lines come out devoid of sections that are too deep or shallow. I then use 3200 or so sandpaper to clean the ridge along the line that develops when scribing followed by running the scriber along the lines as many times as I need to to achieve the desired result. That's basically it! It's a very simple process but It's very time consuming to achieve the results you see in the pics. The other recommendation is simply to practice. It takes a little while to get the hang of it but you'll get it. I also now have at least three different needle diameters I use to achieve the look I'm after. For 48th scale, I use the smaller of my needles for the majority of lines to maintain scale appearance. One other thing to keep in mind is to use a needle that is large enough, but not too large,  to allow for subsequent layers of paint, clear coats and washes to flow into the lines you scribe. If you have any other questions feel free to let me know.

 

 

Cheers

-Elmo

Thanks a lot for the response. I will keep trying with your method.

 

Cheers,

Rick 

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  • 3 weeks later...

As always, thanks for all of your comments. I found some modeling time recently so I've been focusing on the speed brake hinges which aside from the wingfold area, are the last details necessary to complete the outboard wing sections. I must say that I wasn't prepared mentally for how much work was involved, nor the amount of time required to finish them. Unfortunately, I couldn't really skimp on any of the detail, especially the wing bottoms, as with the wings folded they are one of the most prominent visual elements of this build.

 

Initially, I was not going to re-do the speed brake hinges because of the extra work required to an already exhausting build. However, considering how much work I've put in to this build and how generic the speed brake hinges are (pic below), I decided it would be a huge injustice to leave them as-is. At this point, all of the lower wing hinges are complete; the upper wing hinges are a bit more complicated but not too bad. The new hinges are a good improvement over the kit ones but are not perfect. The real hinges taper from top to bottom and along their length which is something I do not have the patience to try and represent. However, each real hinge is made up of a fwd/aft section and joined together with a bolt/nut which I did capture. For the nuts and bolts I used a combination of photo-etch nuts and solid shank hex head fasteners as shown in the pics below.

 

The kit hinges. As you can see, pretty anemic.

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The new hinges. Better but far from perfect. You can see the hex head bolt on the inboard side of the outboard hinge in the two pics directly below. As stated earlier, no taper on the hinges because unless I used tooling, I wouldn't be able to achieve decent results by hand.

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Here is my arsenal of nuts and the bolts I used. The bolts are 0.7mm in size. The bolts come in a variety of types and sizes from 0.7 - 5.0mm.

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That's it for now. Thanks for looking.

 

-Elmo

Edited by wardog
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Brilliant!

 

The scratch building effort really paid off in my opinion. Your hinges look much better - in keeping with the fidelity to detail of the overall project. 

 

Question: are the hinges cemented in place over the wing’s grey primer coat? Or do you first remove paint over the contact area?

 

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Hello Rich,

It's always nice to hear from The Master....and thank you again for all the positive feedback along the years.

 

If I were smart, I would have waited to complete the hinges and glued them in place over bare plastic using TETC. However, because I was impatient and wanted to see the results of all the wing work, I shot a coat of primer. I knew this would present a small problem later when gluing the hinges but nothing I wasn't prepared for. I will be using the glue shown below to glue the hinges over the primer. It's a SUPER strong white glue which I've had great results with in the strength department. Of course the bond will never be as strong as if I had used TETC. When locating the hinges, I'll apply pressure and remove any large glue blobs that squeeze out as they are practically impossible to remove once dry. After a day or so, I'll completely remove any remaining glue residue with slightly damp pointed swabs as any residue left behind will show through subsequent primer/paint coats. The clean up process also dissolves the glue just enough to act as a filler for any gaps present at the contact area. The hinges won't be exposed to any loads, other than an errant slip of my hand during handling so the white glue should suffice.

 

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Cheers

-Elmo

 

 

 

Edited by wardog
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  • 1 month later...

To continue with the latest theme of Intruder and Prowler WIP updates, here are a few pics of the work I recently completed on the outboard wing panels. The panels are now as complete as they are gonna be at this stage of the build and include the modified speed brake hinges and the ECM antennas. The speed brake hinges received a slight modification from the ones shown in my previous update. All eight hinges had their top sections tapered which at first I decided to forego for fear of screwing them up. Now that the O/B panels are done I can concentrate on the windscreen.

A couple of pictures of the top wing sections.

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And a few pics of the bottom.

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yAUDD8VWGFF_aib2geAaPfae-7-oUMSlJd7Wjj7v

8a9p2bW99JqMVf7wr3dRrJlm1YsDV8-GPL3DTj2w

 

Here is a closeup of a top/inbd hinge completed prior to paint.

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That's all for now.

 

Cheers

E

Edited by wardog
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Not sure why the pics aren't showing up when I initially load them here. Each new pic I take is saved in my Google Photos first and prior to sharing on ARC I always transfer them to the shared folder. Anyway, I created yet another new folder as that seemed to work the last time I had this issue. If they're not visible now, my apologies.......maybe I'll have to find a different service to share pics.

 

Cheers

Elmo

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Well, they are visible now Elmo. Wow, such a work of art !! Makes me want to fly mine right into the waste basket. Keep up the outstanding efforts. I was gonna ask how the forward windscreen worked out for you, guess we'll see in the near future.

 

Steve

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Amazing; awesome; sublime; superior; stupendous!

 

I’m running out of superlatives to describe your work, as I suspect others are too. Heck, I don’t even know what half those words mean! 🤨🙂

 

Super inspiring stuff Elmo...a real treat to behold.

 

Rich

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 8 months later...

After an 8 month hiatus, I've finally gotten back to working on my labor of love.....and as always, thanks to all that have kept interest in my build and have left comments along the way. As stated in my previous posts, it was time to move on to the part of the build I've been dreading the most; attachment of the windscreen. For Its age, Monogram got a lot of things right with the A-6; unfortunately, fit wasn't one of them. The windscreen, at least on my example, fit nothing short of horrible. I believe I exacerbated the condition with all the modifications I made in the cockpit area which consequently widened the fuselage a bit. I proved this as the windscreen fit much better on the spare fuselage sections I have in my stash.

 

To enlarge the windscreen at Its base, I installed a spreader bar made of styrene on the inside from end to end and dipped it water that was a few degrees shy of boiling. Repeated sessions of this technique seemed to work except for the expansion stress marks left behind on the windscreen's entire surface which resembled thin-line cracks. Intense sanding/polishing eventually removed the marks but at a cost. I tried preserving the raised frame section best I could but ultimately lost a bit of Its definition.

 

Once polished and certain I was committed to using it, I began building up the structure on the windscreen's underside. This took a lot of work and of course, time. Complicating the build-up was the fact I using white glue to attach the styrene bits. Clean up of the excess glue was done with lightly moistened Q-Tips to not disturb the fragile glue. Bits & pieces added were a compass, grab handles, Archer Rivets and a few other items. Once complete, the windscreen was carefully glued in place with super glue and blended to the fuselage best I could. Although not perfect, I'm satisfied with the results. As my main concern was blending it to the fuselage, I decided to mask the canopy and only paint the section where it was blended and paint the rest of it when I paint the entire model in Its final color. There is still a bit of work to do in the area where the mask was lifted and where the macro camera shows a few issues that are imperceptible to my naked eye.

 

Enough talk.....time for pics. I'll start with one just to see if it loads as I always seem to have problems.

 

One last note, I want to give a special thanks to Steve (A-10 LOADER) who provided me the spare windscreen I needed to get to this point!

 

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Edited by wardog
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The rest of the pics now that I confirmed they're viewable.

 

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Here the windscreen is shown after blending and prior to Its first primer coat. I ultimately spent many more hours filling/sanding to get it to the point in the next few pics.

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All primered up. The refueling probe attaches in a way that Its aft section contacts the windscreen so it had to get blended in as well, along with the rain removal vent. I decided to split the probe where the upper, narrower section meets the base making it the perfect place to divide it. This was done to preclude inadvertently breaking it off and making a mess of that area.

 

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That's it for now. Minus a few touch-ups along the windscreen's base, this beast is ready for paint. The outer wing sections are done as well so the only other item I may build which should be painted at the same time to avoid paint mismatch later is the canopy.

 

Again, thanks for looking.

 

-Elmo

Edited by wardog
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Hello Larry,

It's been a while........hope all is well with you and yours. Yep, times are definitely crazy at the moment but I'm hoping we'll see some semblance of normalcy in the very near future. 

 

So I'm not sure why you can't see the pics. For some reason I always experience issues with the pics being viewable. I used my wife's cell phone instead of mine to confirm I could view the pics and I was. I'll try and T/S to see if I can figure out what the problem is.

 

Nice hearing from you....TC.

 

-Elmo

 

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Elmo,

 

It's great to see that progress on the Intruder has resumed!

 

But I too am having trouble viewing the images - only two pictures came up. I tried various browsers (IE, Chrome and Safari), but in every case, all but two photos came through.

 

Nevertheless, I'm thrilled to see some new content from you - the images I can view reveal that your recent work is is up to the incredibly high standards of workmanship that have characterized this build from the beginning.

 

Congratulations on conquering a difficult challenge - it must feel good to get that troublesome windscreen behind you. 

 

Stay safe and stay healthy,

 

Rich

 

 

Edited by RichB63
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7 hours ago, wardog said:

Hello Larry,

It's been a while........hope all is well with you and yours. Yep, times are definitely crazy at the moment but I'm hoping we'll see some semblance of normalcy in the very near future. 

 

So I'm not sure why you can't see the pics. For some reason I always experience issues with the pics being viewable. I used my wife's cell phone instead of mine to confirm I could view the pics and I was. I'll try and T/S to see if I can figure out what the problem is.

 

Nice hearing from you....TC.

 

-Elmo

 

All is well up here in the desert, and I can see the pictures now. That windscreen is BEAUTIFUL! Now the hard part eh, PAINT!

 

Cheers!

 

Larry

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Wardog,

I'm kinda late arriving to this party, but from what I've seen and the comments made by

others... you're doing one heck of a job with this project. The Grumman A-6 Intruder has

been an all-time favorite aircraft for me, and its been inspirational what you've done with

the model so far. They say, Patience is a virtue and you seem to have enough to stay the

course. The time consuming efforts and attention to details are insane, in a good way. I

would not want you to burn-out, because my desires are selfish in wanting to witness the

completion of this model. Looking forward to watching the process and progress made

by you, as much as others have from the beginning... "phabulous skills and modeling!"

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Thanks to all for the encouraging comments; you guys have been sticking with this build for a long time so your continued support is much appreciated.

 

The Underdog, thank you as well for looking and It's never too late to join the party. Seems like you're a new member so make sure you take a look at all the other great work being done by ARC members.

 

I'm not quite sure why some pics are viewable and some aren't. I just checked my phone and couldn't view most of them, even though I could see all of them last night and can see all but one on my laptop right now.

 

To make things easier, those interested can view the pics in link provided below. It has all the pics I posted last night and a bunch of others that are very similar to what I posted. I'm hoping the link will be more trouble free.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/oUnt78FfSfRJXLGE9

 

-Elmo

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