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Kinetic 1/48 EA-6B: A lesson in test fitting and learning to rescribe


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This is an OOB build trying to be built into a ICAP II aircraft based out of Patuxent River in the 1990's. 

First, this kit is a lesson on learning to test fit, and a great subject to learn to use super glue and better your scribing skills.  Trust me....if you build this kit, you will get practice at both.

 

Used Miliput to create some seatbelts on the other-wise bland seats.  Cockpit painted up and installed.

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Overall this is the state she is in now.

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This kit has fit issues.  The wings went on pretty well after searching the net and getting the "gouge" on how to grind down areas to get a better fit. The rest of the kit fits OK, but I pulled out the super glue and scribing tools and went to work.  Upper surface wasn't that bad.  The belly was a pain.  Lots of glue/sand/glue....then rescribe.

 

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The intakes are a pain, so this is how they ended up:

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Built the canopy up (I plan on building it closed).  Added a small strip of plastic strip to the underside to provide some rigid structure...it's very frail without it:

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Also trying my hand at darkening up the canopies.  Prowlers have to hard to recreate tint, but I am trying to some brown Future wash (just experimenting at this time):

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And finally tried my hand at creating wingtip lights (and rescribing the lost details):

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Cheers

Collin

 

 

 

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41 minutes ago, jelliott523 said:

For tinting canopies, I typically use Tamiya Smoke and Tamiya clear yellow thinned with X-20A. Multiple very thin coats.

I’ll take a look at that. I’m using food coloring in Future, blends better together I have found verses Tamiya. 

 

Cheers

Collin

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Beautiful cockpit; the Griswolds will be very comfortable.

Do you remember where you found the advice on what to chop/grind to make the wings fit?

ALF

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, Brian P: Fightertown Decals said:

Btw - the belly fits perfect if you remove most of the locating tabs 😬. A little late now, but for the next one. 👍🏻 

I can’t remember exactly if I removed them or not. The belly fit wasn’t Matchbox 1-32 Spit Mk 22 bad. Fit was decent but  still left a seam that needed cleaning up.  That’s not to say this is a Tamiya Tomcat where seams just seem to melt away, or are engineered as panel lines to begin with. 

 

What decals are are you going to surprise us with next Brian?

 

Cheers

Collin

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally got some MOJO and hit the model room recently.

 

Trial and error getting the canopy tinted and the rest of the bird ready for paint.  What I have found out is there are about a thousand way to do TPS paint schemes....I aimed for center mass and hoped for the best.  I'm doing a heavily weathered/faded aircraft from ~1991 onboard NAS Patuxent River....so lets get on with it.

 

First...major pre-shade in the areas that are heavily weathered.  My observation is any black base is going to make any TPS grey you put on take on a darker tone (so beware)

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Next comes a series of lighter grey pre-shading and basing...along with some brown.  We have seen this type of modulation over the past few years....seemed a decent way to go:

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Now comes very very highly thinned TPS grey's.  Using Mr. Levelling Thinner....I just sprayed on thin coast to start to cover the base work

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Now with the base TPS down....it's time to start beating her up.  You can see some references in the background, that's my target.  Used a lighter color of camo grey for the touch ups. 

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Finally, with the painting down for now....time for the non-skid.  Simple Mr. Surfacer dabbed on and stippled.  Darkened it up based on some reference photos:

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Next is back to planning my attack....mask the areas where traditional grey warning and caution markings go then shoot the Orange.  Of note....other ref pics I have shows this aircraft still had white lower wings (just the section outboard the wing fold) with orange markings (except the speed break...which was white). 

 

Cheers

Collin

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Masking....and masking....and masking.....painting....and more masking, and masking...and painting.

 

That's been my build for the last few weeks when I find time to hit the man-cave.  Able to mask and paint the leading edge yellow/tan high speed LE tape, then spent a few days masking for the orange/red high-vis markings.  Came out OK.  Now it's time for a beer break as I decide how to spray the tail ECM receivers and to the modex/SD markings.  The last photos gives you an idea what she will look like at the end (hopefully). 

 

Cheers

Collin

 

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I'm crying "UNCLE" for today....time for a beer.

 

Masked off and painted the grey receivers on both sides of the tail.  That pulled off some of the high vis red...so more masking to retouch those areas.

 

Then I was planning on using Steel Beach masks to paint the grey numbers, well that reverse masking would have driven me nuts (remember the high vis red underneath is going to pull up).  So I decided to spray paint and lay down the numbers and "SD".  I think it looks pretty darn good for a model that is going to sit in a display case in Pax River and not win on a contest table. 

 

Time for a Dunkel.

 

Cheers

Collin

 

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A huge shout out to David W. Aungst,  who I happened to see creating F-14 tail decals for a project of his. One of his F-14's carried the earlier Strike Test airplane-swoosh marking.  I asked for a few and he printed them up since this Prowler carried the same marking around the same timeframe. 

We have been exchanging emails on how best to put them down since they are delicate and printed on white backing.  Following his directions they went down tonight with little fuss.  A light brushed on coat of Future and they look terrific.  One curled up a little bit (I was warned), one of the hotter decal setting solutions melted the port marking a tad, but not enough for me to cry about.

 

The results below....Thanks again David!!

 

Cheers

Collin

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Anyone else's work area look like a construction site?

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Tried my hand at some filters (really not good at that), and some oil weathering today (and finally flat coated).  Test birds at Pax are kept clean (even if the paint is touched up)...so it's not as dirty as a carrier based aircraft would be after a 6-month cruise.  I will have to save that for another build. 

 

Off to run around with the Navy for the next few weeks, so this build will have to wait for …...antennas to be done, landing gear, cockpit clean up, HARM's/drop tanks on the wings....and finally adding the folding wings.  Those things will probably take me another 6 months at this rate. 

 

Cheers All....Collin

 

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Anyone else's work area look like a construction site?

DSCN8599.jpg

 

Tried my hand at some filters (really not good at that), and some oil weathering today (and finally flat coated).  Test birds at Pax are kept clean (even if the paint is touched up)...so it's not as dirty as a carrier based aircraft would be after a 6-month cruise.  I will have to save that for another build. 

 

Off to run around with the Navy for the next few weeks, so this build will have to wait for …...antennas to be done, landing gear, cockpit clean up, HARM's/drop tanks on the wings....and finally adding the folding wings.  Those things will probably take me another 6 months at this rate. 

 

Cheers All....Collin

 

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That's some real nice paint work and weathering. As far as work areas, yours looks positively well organized compared to mine. Mine looks like a hurricane came through. :dontknow:

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