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Monogram A-6E TRAM 1/48


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Hello and thanks for the comments. Kike, sorry about the delay in answering your questions regarding the seats. At this point my plan is still to continue modifying the True Details seats as shown in a previous post a long time ago. In my opinion, the nicest seats are from Aires, however they are too wide to fit in the Blackbox cockpit tub. Also, the one thing I do dislike from the Aires seats is that the backrest/seat cushions for both seats are molded identically and hence not a realistic representation of the real thing.

 

Anyway, time for a tiny update. Found a little bit of time for modeling this past week and finished detailing the speed brakes. I'm also including a pic of the kit scoop for the aft fuselage for comparison to the one I made. This is only to illustrate how grossly oversized it is. I have to admit that the scoop is one of only a few things Monogram got terribly wrong with this kit. For being an old kit, the raised surface detail is excellent as well as the overall shape....just wished it had recessed panel lines and the fit was better in certain areas.

 

DSCN8787_zpse47v5gix.jpg

This is the piece of photoetch (from the Eduard Kinetic A-6 kit) that I sourced the speed brake washers from. My other option was to hand make the washers out of styrene but at this point of the build I don't have the patience to hand make 34 of these bad boys as that would have required either a template or jig to be made to achieve consistent results. The photoetch washers also have the circular fastener pattern which would have been hard to reproduce on styrene as I do not have a tool for that.  The easier way to go about it was to to take each photoetch speed brake and sand it down from the back side until all the material was almost worn away. As the washers are represented as raised detail, once the substrate material is worn away all that is left after sanding is the remaining flash around each washer which is easily trimmed away.

 DSCN8769_zpssvvihkzu.jpg

DSCN8791_zpskf0rfhmc.jpg

DSCN8789_zps06b3ewdy.jpg

 

That's it for now.....Elmo

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  • 5 months later...

Crobinsonh and crackerjazz,

 

A few weeks ago I came across the 3rd party hosting topic and soon realized how heavily it impacted our build threads. I checked my WIP build and as expected, all the pics were gone. I wasn't really bothered by it all that much because I have all the pics saved and of course, I have the actual model. However, I do feel bummed for the modelers that used the pics for their own personal reasons. Maybe with some luck, we'll get all of our pics back. In the mean time, if there are pics any of you recall that you'd like to see again, send me a private message and I'll do my best to figure out which pic it was and I'll send it to you.

 

-Elmo

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Yeah this is sad news for sure. I was following this thread with great interest since it was in my scale and I also love the Intruder. I had this thread on my list to save which you can do in Firefox. As you may know it saves the thread and all the pictures to your hard drive.

 

Hey Elmo I believe your photos are still on your Photobucket account so you would only have to post the link and allow us access to save them? We still have your words from this thread so it would just be the pics to go with it. Just a thought?

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As a thought, start a new account with another hosting company like Flickr or what have you and just start from the last pictures you posted.

 

Yes, it's a shame about the loss of images but as has been mentioned - your photos should still be there on PhotoPhucket - you just need to hyperlink the album which you could also add to the first post of the thread for any future readers. No need to talk about this like the thread is dead or anything as such.

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Thanks to all that have left replies and for expressing interest in this build.

 

Kike, there has been a little progress but not much worth making an update for at this time. I finished the mechanism behind each seat that is associated with their adjustment and had been trying to figure out the ejection seat dilemma. By dilemma I mean I probably have every known set of aftermarket seats for the A-6, and even for the F-14, as they are similar and none of the decent ones fit in the Blackbox pit without major modifications. The only seats that do fit are from the Blackbox and Verlinden sets; neither of which are preferable in my opinion. That said, I put the seats aside for now so I could concentrate on other aspects of the build.....mainly scribing of the fuselage.

 

Fighting Eighty-Four, I really appreciate your feedback; if this is the greatest WIP you have seen then that means a lot to me as there are many great ones out there that I feel do a much better job at providing guidance than mine.

 

As far as new updates is concerned, I will most likely be using whatever hosting site is the easiest to use.....including Flickr or any other.

 

For access to previous pics, I wouldn't mind sharing the Photobucket link; however, I'm not sure how to add controls so that pictures aren't removed, added or any other unwanted activity is done to my account by other users. I started that account for the A-6 WIP and only keep build-related pics on it. That said, if I could make it to where people can go in and just look, I'd have no problem sharing the link.

 

-Elmo

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6 hours ago, wardog said:

Thanks to all that have left replies and for expressing interest in this build.

 

Kike, there has been a little progress but not much worth making an update for at this time. I finished the mechanism behind each seat that is associated with their adjustment and had been trying to figure out the ejection seat dilemma. By dilemma I mean I probably have every known set of aftermarket seats for the A-6, and even for the F-14, as they are similar and none of the decent ones fit in the Blackbox pit without major modifications. The only seats that do fit are from the Blackbox and Verlinden sets; neither of which are preferable in my opinion. That said, I put the seats aside for now so I could concentrate on other aspects of the build.....mainly scribing of the fuselage.

 

Fighting Eighty-Four, I really appreciate your feedback; if this is the greatest WIP you have seen then that means a lot to me as there are many great ones out there that I feel do a much better job at providing guidance than mine.

 

As far as new updates is concerned, I will most likely be using whatever hosting site is the easiest to use.....including Flickr or any other.

 

For access to previous pics, I wouldn't mind sharing the Photobucket link; however, I'm not sure how to add controls so that pictures aren't removed, added or any other unwanted activity is done to my account by other users. I started that account for the A-6 WIP and only keep build-related pics on it. That said, if I could make it to where people can go in and just look, I'd have no problem sharing the link.

 

-Elmo

 

Wardog...go into photobucket and load all the Intruder pics into one folder, then mark it "private" and put a PW on it. Give the PW to people you trust. BTW...the pics in PB are not gone and only you can delöete them...or PB! Noone else will be able to manipulate them. I use PB as well and my 3rd party hosting still works since I have had a cheap "pro account" that is save until the next payment turn. I am currently exploring other options...that do not have to be free but have to be reasonable. 400$/year for sure is far from reasonable.

 

cheers

Uwe

 

PS: I second what others have already said...best WIP threat and also best 1/48 model build period! Thanks a lot for that...a great inspiration...and also a bit of frustration for "for ever apprentices" like me ;-)

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I can only echo what the others have stated Wardog as this WiP inspired and terrified me at the same time.  Terrified may not be 100% correct, but it was damn near paralyzing as I was reluctant to work on my A-6A knowing that it would never even come close to what you had accomplished.  But anytime I needed a boost, I would click on the bookmark and scroll through a few pages and wonder when the next installment would be posted.

 

BW  

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I was wondering how this build was going.

 

Bloody photobucket killed the best build thread I've ever seen. I was using it as inspiration for my Katanganese Fouga Magister build (and falling well short of Wardogs effort, but still kicking it up a notch on my usual).

 

My build pics on here also suffered the Photobucket torpedoing, but I'll try to get the motivation to just attach some as small images using the ARC mechanism.

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Thanks again guys for all the great comments. I'm currently working to filter out any stray pics in the PB album that are not A-6 related and will either add the link to the WIP thread or provide it to people who have a genuine interest in the build. Thanks again for looking.

 

Elmo

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22 hours ago, wardog said:

Thanks again guys for all the great comments. I'm currently working to filter out any stray pics in the PB album that are not A-6 related and will either add the link to the WIP thread or provide it to people who have a genuine interest in the build. Thanks again for looking.

 

Elmo

 

A link to your PB album? That would be nice. But your fan base here was secretly wishing for more -- something grander, as befits your work.

 

Me? I'm holding out for the book. You know, one of those oversized coffee table tomes featuring glossy color photographs. A simple title, something like Elmo's Intruder, would do. And, of course, we'd all pay extra for an autographed copy.

 

Think about it, will ya?

 

Rich

Edited by RichB63
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  • 1 month later...

Time for a small update. Been re-scribing the bottom/aft section and adding some bits and pieces. The scribing is a real pain and not something I really enjoy. Today is my second attempt at loading a pic since the PB debacle. Not sure if it will show up after I hit the submit reply button but I suppose I'll find out soon. The pic shows a template I made and glued down temporarily to scribe the L/S engine access panel lines. If the pic load is successful I will post more pics soon.

 

E.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/azfmwSQPQ3Mlq1xL2

Edited by wardog
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Try when you copy from Google Images, right click on the image and select View Image Info, then in the box where the various URL's are displayed select/click on the one labeled image.  It is usually the one that says https:\\ih3.googleusercontent.xxxxx . When you select it, it will show the image below.  Then right click on the URL and select copy. Go back to the forum and in the text box select paste.  The image should appear.  I tried it and it worked for me. Let me know if this helps.

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First off, big thanks to A-10 LOADER for providing me the tips on how to load pics from Google Photos into my WIP.

 

Like I mentioned previously, been working on the bottom/aft fuselage and here is the rest of the pics. It doesn't seem like much, however, finishing this section took a lot longer than I thought it would. By far, the toughest part was all the scribing and the dreaded fastener representation. I focused hard on trying to get the panel lines represented correctly, however, I chose to lay-out the fastener spacing free-hand using Dymo tape, to save some time. If you look close, the spacing leaves a bit to be desired but since the bottom won't be visible once the model is complete, I'm okay with it.

 

I actually had the section shown in the pic below scribed previously. It was one of the first areas I tried scribing for the first time on. As my scribing skills improved over the years, the original scribing was looking pretty horrendous. Each line was wide enough to be considered out of scale even for 32nd scale; not to mention a lot of them were crooked. That said, I filled in the lines and started over. I now use three different size needles for scribing, each one used where I feel would be appropriate for scale effect.

 

The pic below shows the new scribing and a few elements that are common in this area. The three protrusions represent what I believe are a series of drains. I used wire to represent and used Tamiya liquid cement to lock them in. Although the two materials are incompatible for using liquid cement, the idea here is the LC will melt the plastic around the wires and lock them in place. I opened up the slots for the Cage as it will be in the down position and the latches will need to be shown in the open position.

 

 

NOclJlLlx8WIoHjj9_9QyF4mdq3WlTanEKl1eQAr

 

One of the many ares that gave me fits. The yellow material in this pic is a resin plug I used to fix a screw-up. When I hogged out the backside of that area to accommodate the exhaust pipes, I obviously sanded too much material away and when I attempted to scribe the square panel, my needle broke through the plastic and left a big hole. After the repair was accomplished, I decided to locate the panel further aft to avoid scribing over the thin resin plug and risking the the same thing happening again.

 

The wave shaped panel line for engine access was very hard to do, primarily because my Dymo tape was not wide enough to capture the low/high end of the line. I resorted to making a template from .005 styrene, rolled it to match the shape of the outer mold line in that area and glued it down with white glue. That method worked great...on my second attempt. On my first, I failed to completely clean up the hardened glue squeeze-out at the edge of the template and my scribing needle jumped around all over the place leaving a less than desirable line.

 

QXCZyfCJ4DFB-ZRo73wcGsCG3zQLI5TmEwpyPrM6

 

Here is the area with a coat of primer. A few touch-ups are needed but nothing major.

0CmSWIaQESzkeYtUudLdckSrx6r8d3qPfSSqoHgL

 

And of course, the are that gave me problems. Not the best pic but you get the idea. I can see a small gap at the bottom where I used the resin plug.....and It's stayin.

 

kRzfznTDLAbg-YgRWaPrj0eeisyBduTjV6Fu1Mph

 

Thanks for looking!

 

E.

 

 

Edited by wardog
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Wardog,

I can only hope that this masterpiece will one day make it into some public venue because I would love to see it in person.  While I understand that the photography probably magnifies areas that our eyes would have a hard time picking up, each and every time you post I am blown away by the cleanliness of your work, your attention to detail and can only imagine what this jewel looks like in person when one could take in the entire airframe.  This is one of only three threads on the many modeling forums I visit that I am subscribed to and can hardly wait to log on after receiving notification of a new post.

 

Thanks for sharing your work with us, it is truly inspiring.

 

BW

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