jward Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 I finished this model about three weeks ago. It's a custom build for a former pilot in VA-52 - who flew the A-6. Goal was to replicate his aircraft as best as possible. First off, this model is definitively not a shake and bake kit, nor is it for the faint of heart. I compare it to the Has. F-14A Tomcat in some ways: over engineered in places, poor fit in many places, and a somewhat difficult building sequence. All that being said, I'm simply glad to have a new tool 1/48 A-6E on the market. The cockpit is fairly nice OOB, but the build called for the aftermarket cockpit from Wolfpack Designs - which was fabulous to work with. Only difficulty was getting it to fit with the intakes installed. Nothing some shaving, carving, and sanding couldn't fix. Another difficult part is the wing-fold. Kinetic certainly intended for the wings to be folded on this model. The option to extend the wings is poorly referenced (if at all) and the fit is less than desirable. However, by far the most difficult part of the build (IMHO) was the windscreen and canopy. This has been documented elsewhere, but the two piece assembly of each is a real headache. Took several days of filling, sanding, polishing, priming - then repeat - to get the right look in the end. Overall, I'm very happy how this build turned out - especially the custom decals. First time I've created a set completely from scratch. A few add-ons for the build: 1. copper pipes for the exhaust tubes to replace the two piece plastic ones that come with the kit. 2. wires and other details for the wheel wells and landing gear. 3. nose weight - and a lot of it! 4. small steel rod inserted into landing gear legs, then inserted into the fuselage for stability. With the nose weight, AM cockpit, and weapons, this model is heavy. 5. custom decals printed on my laser printer and designed using inkscape - free vector design program for the Mac. If your not familiar - this program is simply awesome!! 6. trimmed down the vert. stabilizer inset lights (near the Knight's head). Not sure what you call that, but it was way too thick based on reference photos. 7. replaced vert. stab. probe supplied by the kit with a scratch-built metal one. 8. added pilots, seat belts, and detail to the interior dome of the canopy. 9. added steel rods (1/8 inch square) into each wing joint for added stability and proper alignment - definitely needed given the wing down configuration. Weathering was accomplished by using the following techniques: (a) pre-shading, ( oil wash, © post shading, (d) pastel dust brushed on in various spots. The model was sealed with a thin coat of future floor wax, and then I applied a thin final coat of Model Master semi-gloss. I hope you like. Comments, questions, and observations are certainly welcome. Jim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Av8fan Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Looks great! Any suggestions/WIP for the Canopy and wings down would be appreciated. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sledge Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Leave as is. Awsome job Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sharkey Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Awesome work, especially on the canopy. Wow, that's clear. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xavi84 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 This is an awesome Intruder. I also use Inkscape and I love it. You did a really great job with the decals. Did you also make the stars and bars? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jward Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 Thanks for the kind comments. Much appreciated. Av8fan: as for the wings, i spent probably 8 - 12 hours dry-fitting, installing the strengthening rods, adding thin layers of styrene, and trimming to get the joint looking good. And truth be told, I'm still not 100% satisfied with the end result. Here are some pics of the WIP on the wings. This is what you get out of the box. You can see the fit is very poor and the instructions (as I recall) offer no information on how to configure the wings in the "down" position. You simply have to trim the fold mechanism moldings to get a tight fit, then add back detail with plastic card and styrene. At least that's how I did it. Bottom side was not too troublesome, but the top side proved to be a challenge. The strengthening rods (shown below) proved to be a real help to ensure proper alignment and hold everything together while I worked on it. As for the canopy, I'm sure there is a better way to fill the seams, but this worked for me. I was certainly a little nervous as I've not worked with wide and deep seams in clear plastic before - and I didn't want to screw this up! So, I took small strips of the thinnest Tamiya tape I could find, cut them to length and fit them over the seams (after I'd glued them together). I then applied a small layer of CA glue over the tape seams / joints (particularly on the front windscreen). I then sanded until I was satisfied. Primed with gloss black and repeated the process until all evidence of a seam was gone. I then polished the parts with various grits of sand paper, then progressed to toothpaste, then finally polished it with my wife's silver polish. Masked the canopy and painted them - then they got multiple baths in Future. Hope that helps . . . Some of the interior detail. Front windscreen: certainly not perfect, but I had to call it "good enough" at some point. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jward Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 This is an awesome Intruder. I also use Inkscape and I love it. You did a really great job with the decals. Did you also make the stars and bars? Thanks for the kind words. I did make the national insignia on white decal paper - came out better than I expected. However, next time, I'll probably steal some from the stash of extra decals. Just wanted to see how difficult it would be using Inkscape. Jim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Niels Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Excellent! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Greg Long Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Spot on,very nice build Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HOLMES Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Jim, :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :yahoo: :clap2: All of the above and I think it is simply STUNNING,!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
alessio Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Very nice intruder! Great job Looking forward to see more pic about it Regards Alex Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fly-n-hi Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Nice! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
compressorman Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Good gravy that looks nice! I especially love the front office. Great work!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jimz66 Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 GREAT JOB Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rodney Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 That is awesome. Rodney Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BlackCat Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Nice work! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
marek_1101 Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Looks nice, I have on bench "TAXI" version EA-6B. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Diego Quijano Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Nice A-6 Jim. Superb job. Q Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jfmajor60 Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Very Nice :thumbsup: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.