Just another EA-6B Prowler

[Ivan T.]

[Devilleader501]

Well after a move into a new house and a botched first attempt at the darker brown color I had to repaint the entire Prowler. Sorry its been so long guys but I have been very busy. I also just got a promotion in January and work has kept me balls to the walls. Anyway a bit of progress I had to repaint because my airbrush was acting up from a broken tip and I just decided to paint straight from the rattle can.

Wrong answer. I should have waited till I could replace the tip. It ruined the entire paint job and I had to start over. I did learn a couple of new techniques though. This time I am masking with liquid Latex which is absolutely some of the easiest masking I have ever done. And two I am starting to free hand draw my camo mask instead of print, cut out, place mask on model then shoot with paint. We will see how this goes.

The paint should be dark enough to cover with paint though. I also found out why I have been having so many problems with the way my airbrush sprays too. Looks like this Iwata Revolution needs to be replaced. Anyway if you are all still interested here are a couple of progress shots. I have just actually pulled this thing back out about 3 days ago. I am very hopeful that this thing will be done here in the near future.

Edited June 13, 2013 by Devilleader501

[VA-115EFR]

'Bout time you get back at it!!! :P Glad to see your build back on the board!

[Brian P: Fightertown Decals]

Here's a little more help. There were a few 'off' and missing things on the Afterburner profile if you want to get the paint more accurate. Also looks like their underside left and right wings were reversed.

brian

[Devilleader501]

Thanks Brian. I actually noticed the wings looked backwards as well. It is something I will have to correct before I get too far. I appreciate the pictures. Glad to be back on board with this this. I have been working on it for almost a year now. Its time to get it finished.

[Devilleader501]

OK well today I spent some time buying a new Airbrush. Needless to say in my small home town there is Only 2 places that sell airbrushes locally. One of them being Harbor Freight and I was not about to buy one of those pieces of crap again.

So In my ventures today I picked up a Paasche Talon. Never used this brand but the guy selling it to me seemed pretty rock solid over them being he uses them over the Iwata HP. And he owns an automotive paint shop so he should know right. I hope.

Anyway. I was looking at the Pics Brian P sent me and noticed quite a bit of variation from his pictures compared to the ones I have from Afterburner. Shapes, lengths, widths, and even height seem to be off on more than one of the 10 or so Camo patterns on this aircraft. I have even confirmed it with pics of the actual aircraft that I have.

Needless to say all of the penciling I did was another botched attempt. I want this thing to be right so I am going to stop at nothing to make it accurate. I have too much money and time in the resin to make this just some lame attempt at making it look almost correct.

Until I figure out what is making this such a pain in the *** to get right with paint I am going to start working on the ECM pods drop tanks and ORD, that will be going on this thing. I still have a few antennae that need to go on too. Im kinda mad at the moment with the problems that I have caused on this build because of my impatience but I will overcome. Hope you all stay tuned. This should start to get good eventually.

Oh heres a pic of the airbrush I just bought.

[Brian P: Fightertown Decals]

Shoot me an email with your address. Got something to mail you that will help out...

-brian

fightertowndecals@yahoo.com

[Devilleader501]

Thank you Brian for any and all help you can give me.

[Devilleader501]

Ok Finally resprayed the first coat of camo back on this thing. It's not perfect but I am happy. The color is just a tint darker than it was before because I thought it was too pink. To me now it looks perfect. A couple of touch ups and its time for the third color.

This has definitely been the hardest paint job for me yet but I am managing. No matter how I mask something goes wrong. I still have the flaps, slats, and flaperons to paint this color. Hopefully they will be done tomorrow. After that it will dry for a few days then on to the third color. After the third color I will start painting all of the gear wells again, and all of the under sides of the flaps, flaperons, and start getting the jamming pods and missiles ready.

I still have a bunch of stuff to scratch but I am looking forward to this one being done in a month or so. Heres some pics of what I have now.

As always any and all opinions are welcome. Please share with me what needs work in order for me to get better at building my models. Thanks everyone.

[Aggressor01]

OK well today I spent some time buying a new Airbrush. Needless to say in my small home town there is Only 2 places that sell airbrushes locally. One of them being Harbor Freight and I was not about to buy one of those pieces of crap again.

So In my ventures today I picked up a Paasche Talon. Never used this brand but the guy selling it to me seemed pretty rock solid over them being he uses them over the Iwata HP. And he owns an automotive paint shop so he should know right. I hope.

Anyway. I was looking at the Pics Brian P sent me and noticed quite a bit of variation from his pictures compared to the ones I have from Afterburner. Shapes, lengths, widths, and even height seem to be off on more than one of the 10 or so Camo patterns on this aircraft. I have even confirmed it with pics of the actual aircraft that I have.

Needless to say all of the penciling I did was another botched attempt. I want this thing to be right so I am going to stop at nothing to make it accurate. I have too much money and time in the resin to make this just some lame attempt at making it look almost correct.

Until I figure out what is making this such a pain in the *** to get right with paint I am going to start working on the ECM pods drop tanks and ORD, that will be going on this thing. I still have a few antennae that need to go on too. Im kinda mad at the moment with the problems that I have caused on this build because of my impatience but I will overcome. Hope you all stay tuned. This should start to get good eventually.

Oh heres a pic of the airbrush I just bought.

[Aggressor01]

Josh!! I thought you might have been dead or something. I haven't heard from you in a while. Paasche Talon huh? That's what I've got, I couldn't be happier with it. You'll like the functionality, adjusting the flow on the fly. The EA-6B is looking great. I'd like to see that thing up close when you got her finished.

[Devilleader501]

Got the first coat of paint fixed. Its time to kick things into high gear. Here is some progress pics to let you get an idea of what I did to fix the problem.

To start the latex mask was pulled off too early and caused uneven demarcation lines. This is where I thought I was ruined, But I returned to a solution that worked great for me on my first Prowler. It's fine sand paper and a #2 pencil eraser. The results are mind blowing. I don't know how it works but it does.

I started by lightly sanding the areas of interest with 320 grit sand paper. The pieces of sandpaper were rubbed together to make them a finer grit. I then folded one piece in half and used the corner to sand down the offending edges.

After I was happy with that, I lightly sanded the whole area of the camo and surrounding areas to remove any offending raises in the paint. When I was done with the sanding I took to a #2 pencil and used the eraser to use ab a buffing tool to eliminate all of the pencil marks and to blend all of the sanding marks together. The pencil eraser works wonders on areas that have over spray on them.

I am happy with the results so far and will continue on to the next color and hope to god I get it right this time. Here are some progress shots of what I was talking about.