A-6E Intruder VMA(AW)-332

[EX_Birdgunner]

Started this today. I will be building it as the last Intruder flown by the Marines which was with VMA(AW)-332. I got the A-6E along with three A-6As from the buy and sell forum. While the A-6E did not come with any bombs, the -As had enough extra to outfit the -E with a full loadout.

The cockpit leaves much to be desired so I had the idea to spice it up with some seats from the spares box that I had left from a 1/72 Hase F-14A Tomcat. Since the kit parts were molded with the cockpit tub I cut them off and used plastic card to cover the empty spaces.

The cockpit dry fitted into the fuselage. I think it looks OK!

Happy Modeling!

Denis

Edited October 4, 2012 by EX_Birdgunner

[EX_Birdgunner]

Forgot to add a pic of the decals. They were a prize from the Ghost Town GB.

Cheers,

Denis

[bdt13]

Denis-

If you're not glued together yet, you may want to re-do the seat placement in the cockpit. The B/N sat noticeably lower than the pilot.

[EX_Birdgunner]

Denis-

If you're not glued together yet, you may want to re-do the seat placement in the cockpit. The B/N sat noticeably lower than the pilot.

Nope not glued together yet. Thanks for the info, I didn't notice this in my refs. How much lower exactly?

Denis

Edit: Hmmmm, I am not 100% convinced about the placement of the B/N seat. I just looked through the Squadron Walk Around book and there is a shot of the cockpit looking to the rear and the seats look to be the same height to me. Since this is a practice build to try new things before I do the other three A-6s in the stash I will leave the seats as they are and continue.

Edited August 18, 2012 by EX_Birdgunner

[bdt13]

Re-checked Detail & Scale Vol. 24 A-6 Intruder. Pix on pages 36-37 clearly show the B/N seat as a bit lower and significantly farther back in the cockpit. The distance back appears to be approximately equal to the length of the thigh support cushion extension that goes around the stick. Looking at the 1/72 Fujimi kit in my stash, it does not capture the stagger in the horizontal plane, but the B/N cockpit floor is about 1.5 mm lower (this still may not be enough for realism, but more research is needed). Looks like I'll have some modification to do for my A-6 build to get this right.

Hope this helps you out, on this build or a future one.

[tempestwulf]

Hey, I got that decal set too. Keep up the good work

[Devilleader501]

Here is a couple of shots from a 1/48 Revell A-6E but it gives you an idea of how much lower and farther back the B/N sits from the pilot. Ir you need anyother questions answered just PM me hope this helps. JOSH

Edited August 21, 2012 by Devilleader501

[EX_Birdgunner]

Thanks for the comments guys, and thanks for the pics Josh. Really helped.

With work and family keeping my busy I have been plugging away whenever I can find an hour or two to spare. Here is a quick update. I have most of the major parts together. Putty and sanding session done. I have the bang seats painted up and cockpit installed. I ran into a small issue here where I initially reversed the placement of the pilot and B/N seats. Josh's pics helped me see my error and I quickly fixed it. Just have to wait for the glue to dry before I glue on the canopy and start painting.

Anyway, on to the pics...

Seats:

My Goof:

My Fix:

Full view of current state with canopy dry fitted:

I'll be going away for the long weekend so I hope to get the canopy glued down and start painting when I get back.

Thanks for looking,

Denis