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1/48 scale A-6E Intruder


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Looks great Joel! Love your threads.

Do you have a Black Widow build thread? I searched, but can't find it.

As your brother would say..."Keep'em coming!"

Shaka HI

The P-61-A-5 was presented on ARC just in the Critique forum with build pictures. Go figure. Looking back I posted the build this way because there was no actual build thread, but I had taken pictures throughout the build process. Here's the link to it:

P-61-A-5 Critique Thread

Joel

Edited by Joel_W
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Great stuff Joel! I'm still getting the attic work done, so I'm still a couple of weeks away from the workbench.

John,

Thanks for stopping by. Glad you like my efforts to date.

Well, at least in a few weeks you'll be at your new bench with all the latest comforts. Betcha you can't wait to start working on a kit after all this time.

Joel

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Simply amazing work Joel....the Intruder community will be dancing in da streets with this build. I can't help but see Mothra when I look at an Intruder head on.....OK A-6 lovers don't send a slammer up my six...it's meant affectionately...afterall didn't Mothra take down the world's biggest, baddest lizard namely one bad arse named Godzilla :) .

Edited by #1 Greywolf
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Simply amazing work Joel....the Intruder community will be dancing in da streets with this build. I can't help but see Mothra when I look at an Intruder head on.....OK A-6 lovers don't send a slammer up my six...it's meant affectionately...afterall didn't Mothra take down the world's biggest, baddest lizard namely one bad arse named Godzilla smile.gif .

Greywolf,

Thank you so much for you most positive post. Love the Mothra analogy. Well done my friend.

Joel

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Time for another update,

I've been working on the front and main landing gear sub assemblies. Hobby Boss correctly decided that the finished model with the needed weight would be to heavy for just solid plastic struts, so they made them with a white metal core, then a plastic 2 piece claim shell, and a lot of detail parts. I added some additional details including hydraulic lines and brake lines. Here's the front strut assembly prior to painting:

A-6E09_15_14_139.jpg

A-6E09_15_14_140.jpg

I wanted to all the various lines on the front landing gear to have a constant curvature to them, so I opted to use stretched sprue rather then copper wire. I think that the effect was worth the effort.

A-6E09_22_14_146.jpg

A-6E09_22_14_145.jpg

Next up was painting all four tires. I primed them with Tamiya Gray Lacquer Primer, then a coat of Tamiya flat white. After that I used Tamiya tape to create masks for the wheels so that I could air brush the tires using Tamiya Nato Black.

A-6E09_18_14_142.jpg

Cont. in the next post.

Joel

Edited by Joel_W
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Cont. Update post.

For the main landing gear, the brake lines were made from thin copper wire as they take a rather complex path up and or through the strut assembly.

A-6E09_22_14_147.jpg

A-6E09_22_14_148.jpg

A-6E09_22_14_149_1.jpg

I weathered the landing gear with a simple wash of Model Master International Black diluted with Odorless MIneral Spirits. Still have one main gear assembly to finish, and then it's time to see if the A-6E will stand on it's gear. Lets hope that it does, as I added a lot of weight to the nose.

Joel

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Very nice work on the LG, once the Iron Works, get a good thing they latch on to it with an iron grip, by that I mean how much was the F-14's LG changed from that of the Intruder's.

Clif,

Thanks so much for your positive feedback. More then likely the F-14s landing gear bore a very similar structure the A-6's. Most likely designed by the same team at Grumman's.

Joel

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Very nice work on the struts! Those cables really lift the gears biggrin.gif

Ever worked with lead wire? They can really give that gravity feel to cables.

cheers biggrin.gif

Aigore,

Thanks for your feedback. All I've ever worked with is stretched sprue and copper winding wire. When I looked for lead wire all I found was flat wire which I didn't want.

Joel

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Aigore,

Thanks for your feedback. All I've ever worked with is stretched sprue and copper winding wire. When I looked for lead wire all I found was flat wire which I didn't want.

Joel

Try a sports fishing shop ... fly fishers use lead wire in fly binding among other things.

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Try a sports fishing shop ... fly fishers use lead wire in fly binding among other things.

Aigore,

Will do. And I'm a freshwater fisherman (ok, use to be), but I never fly fished. Will see what I can come up with.

Joel

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Great work Joel. I'm getting the shakes from model withdrawal...

John,

Thanks for stopping by and having a look.

I know all to well about model withdrawal. Must be some tinkering you can do till you get your workbench back into operation. How about a little basic building at the kitchen table? Things like that?

Joel

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Aigore,

Thanks for your feedback. All I've ever worked with is stretched sprue and copper winding wire. When I looked for lead wire all I found was flat wire which I didn't want.

Joel

Joel,

Go to UMM. They have all sorts of widths at the link below:

UMM USA

BTW, Great Modeling! That Intruder is really looking the part.

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Joel,

Go to UMM. They have all sorts of widths at the link below:

UMM USA

BTW, Great Modeling! That Intruder is really looking the part.

Chuck,

Thanks so much for stopping by, and liking what you see. My work in no where in the same class as yours, but it's the best I can do.

I've been to the UMM site and the lead wire listed is flat wire. Is flat wire what you would use?

Joel

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Chuck,

Thanks so much for stopping by, and liking what you see. My work in no where in the same class as yours, but it's the best I can do.

I've been to the UMM site and the lead wire listed is flat wire. Is flat wire what you would use?

Joel

Scroll down on the link above. The flat wire is at the top and the round wire is at the bottom of the page. I have all the sizes and it works great.

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Thought I would do a quick update on my A-6E build, as work continues at my usual snails pace.

The basic weathering is now complete with a overall acrylic dark gray sludge wash, followed by using enamels to apply a finer, more controlled wash on the flaps, and slats to simulate the force of the air flow over and under the wings.

After the washes had dried, I glued on the Flaps, Slats, and Flaperons to finally get an overall visual view of what the Intruder will look like.

Next up was to attach the landing gear. The moment of truth had finally arrived. A: Did I add enough weight so that it sat on its gear, & B: Was the front gear really straight, so that both tires were flat to the ground. Well, it appears that I succeeded on both counts this time.

I really struggled with all the gear doors, as CA glue just doesn't stick very well to paint or sealers. For my next build I'm going to make my own mounting pins from stainless steel wire, then glue in place with CA glue. None of the hydraulic pistons have been installed as yet.

A-6E09_28_14_150.jpg

A-6E09_28_14_151.jpg

A-6E09_28_14_152_1.jpg

A-6E09_28_14_156.jpg

A-6E09_28_14_155.jpg

A-6E09_28_14_153.jpg

I've also been working on the 5 stations and their respective out loads. I know that the main loads out for the A-6's were usually dumb bombs, but I just wanted to do something a little different for a change, and go all high tech. So here's a picture of the loads I'm planning on using.

A-6E09_28_14_157.jpg

The loads out are:

Stations 1 & 5: AGM-84s

Stations 2 & 4: GBU-8s

Station 3: Centerline gas tank.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my work.

Joel

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looking great Joel!! I am a big fan of the "drill and pin" for strength, especially as I am still at a phase in my life where I move around, so I have to decide if I want fiddly bits removable, or strong as I can make them.

Its so colorful! w00t.gif

Taiidan Tomcat,

Thanks so much for your most positive comments. While I don't move around at all. Those fiddly parts still have a tendency to just fall off the heck of it. Most annoying to say the least. I've been thinking about this for some time, and now I'm going to start to incorporate it into my builds. But at the rate I build, don't look for it happening in the near future.

Joel

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