First off, as you can see, there's a few additions to the final product in the form of the two ordnance figures that were requested from the client. I picked a couple of figures from the Hasegawa figures set to throw in there to give them the look of just hanging out on the flight deck, killing time. They fit well with the overall project, especially considering the firepower strapped underneath the wings.
For the most part, this kit was fun. For the most part...
Everyone has a different opinion on what makes a build a "good build". While very few of them flow without any problems at all, some are nightmares from the second you remove the lid from the box. However, the vast majority of them are somewhere in between.
This being my first attempt at an A-6, I had some reservations going into it. I personally find myself intimidated any time I attempt a new subject for the first time. Until you get a really good outcome for a particular plane, it's hard to gauge your confidence, even if you know what you're general strengths and weaknesses are. Despite all of that, the first one is always the toughest.
To make matters worse, it's an older platform that has long since been retired by the Navy. This hampers progress further because it's not something you commonly see flying around, or on display at an airshow. Museums are nice places to go for general references, but they're typically restored, and painted to match a brand new factory built aircraft, and let's face it....that's boring. While this matter in general can be a pain, what adds to the frustration is the fact that a lot of the pictures freely available in online sources are....well, to put it nicely...dated. Here in a high tech era of digital cameras on everything we own, it's easy to forget that it wasn't always that way. A lot of the reference pictures that you try to dig up for older planes aren't of the greatest quality. This adds a bit to the frustration when you're trying to virtually dissect the anatomy of a paint job in order to replicate it in scale.
Fortunately, I was able to grab a few decent pictures that gave me an overall idea for what I was wanting to go with. More on that in a bit.
From the start, I was interested to see how this plane would pan out. Starting with the cockpit, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well the detail was straight from the box. Building the side by side cockpit was something new, as I'm usually accustomed to the fore and aft style cockpits of most traditional aircraft. While it was a new concept as far as design, it wasn't anything that required a reinvention of the modeling wheel on this end. The detail came out really nice, and I was impressed with how well everything went together, especially in light of the fact that there were several pieces that essentially puzzled off of one another in order to sync up and make a good fit. I always fear this concept, because you're essentially got one chance to get it right. The up front control panel had to fit in an exact location to the glare shield which had to fit in an exact location to the tub, which had to fit in an exact location to the turtle deck, at just the right angle. If any of these are off, it simply doesn't work, which is why I'm not a fan of that type of design. I like a little more forgiveness in building. Sadly, that's not always the case. In the end, it worked out well, and the entire cockpit fit nicely into the fuselage halves. There was no need for any open avionics bays or an exposed radome, so I was quick to go ahead and seal all of that up. Little did I know what the radar package had in store for me in the coming steps.
The nose was awkward in the sense that it was two pieces that had to come together to form the actual nose itself. No big deal, as the pieces fit together in a near perfect match. What I could not understand is how it was that the two pieces that fit so perfectly to form the nose itself now were grossly undersized when matched up to the front of the radar package.
Seriously.... It was horrible.
What came next was some extensive use of super glue, and a lot of sanding (see grinding) to essentially blend a very awkward step, and eventually fill everything back into place. If I'm being honest, after looking at the final product now, I'm really surprised that it made it that far. I truly had one of those "hopeless moments" when I came to that nose section. As of now, it's very hard to tell at all that there was an issue at all, less an awkward install of the windscreen, and some modification to the refueling probe. After talking to a few other folks, it would seem that this was nothing that was any fault of my own, as it appears to be an issue that plagues this kit, as well as it's big brother in the Trumpeter series. While I expect issues in virtually every build along the way, I'm much more accepting of having to fix my own mistakes as oppose to fixing blatant errors on the manufacturers end, especially with the price tags that come on kits these days. However, in the end, good prevailed, and we had a good starting point.
The fuselage halves went together smooth, and I used very little putty to fill in the resulting seam that ran down the spine. The top side blended in very smooth, and there's zero evidence of any seam whatsoever. The bottom reveals a small spot near the tail, simply because I wasn't willing to sacrifice some of the important raised detail for the sake of a flawless seam that's hardly going to be witnessed. The intakes were a bit awkward with the install, as they fit well, but were a bit baffling on how to get them line up just right, and also to avoid a lot of additional sanding that would obliterate even more surface detail near the gear. In the end, some liquid putty, and a few spots of liquid sprue brought on decent results.
To my surprise, the wings offered little or no problems at all. They fit together almost flawlessly, which is not common in my experience with two part wing sets that can fold, but there was basically a plug and play feel to getting those to go on. The tail has a swinging rudder, which is a nice touch, and it too played nicely during install.
Moving forward to flaps and slats, the original plan was to have them "extended". Being that I'm not an Intruder guy, I opted for the initial "lowered" position as requested by the customer. He wanted speed brakes closed, trailing edges down, and leading edges retracted. After realizing that "flaps down" in the kit meant 40 degrees, he elected to just go ahead and have them pulled to the up position, which is still a lowered position. Despite the changes, they still played nicely and didn't offer any trouble.
Having everything in place, I was ready to shoot paint. This was the part that I was looking forward to the least. The couple of pictures I found had some good examples of how the inruder weathered, and where the most common areas were for corrosion prevention and touch up. I looked through the pictures I had, and decided to move forward. After adding the standard Light and Dark ghost gray's, and walkways, I kicked off the weathering process. I noted that the A-6 seemed to darken more other Navy birds in the gray colors, and wanted to emulate that more than I had before to give it the honest look. I layered a bunch of darkened grays on top of lighter grays, added corrosion touch up spots, and layered some more. As always, it's a fine balance between not enough, and too much. I wanted the tonal variations to be the big stand out factor on this project. As you can tell, there's not really a beefy cross section of the fuselage itself, so I didn't have a wide canvas to work with as I typically would in working with an F-14/18, so I wanted to make good use of the small area that I did have to work with. All in all, I think it came out well, and I'm happy with the results.
A quick clear coat, and I was set for decals. I was elated that the squadron requested from the customer came as stock decals. That always makes like a little bit easier. However, Hobby Boss isn't my friend when it comes to their decals. Not so much the quality, as they actually are very nice to work with, and take very well to setting solutions. But they have a reputation of outright botching very common and easy markings by not taking enough time to do the very basic research. For example, there were also markings for VA-37. For the ship designator decal, it reads USS ohn F. Kennedy. No, do not try to adjust your screen....they left out the J in John. Why? I have no idea.
Being that VA-42 was the fleet replacement training (better known as the RAG) squadron, there weren't a whole lot of decals to work with. The ones that were available went on well, and laid down very nicely.
Finish line in site, I had to stare down the weapons, wheels, and gear. My least favorite items to work with in any project. This was to be my first attempt at rigging up a couple of MER's (multiple ejector racks) onto a project. My concern with this approach was how well they would hold up. A couple of years ago, I learned quickly that the two main items that are most susceptible to damage during shipping is gear and weapons (probably why I hate them) and I was having a lot of issues in the early stages with both of these offenders. I eventually coined a solution for the weapons, which involved drilling and "pinning" them with safety wire so that they would essentially plug into the pylons. The down side to this is that you often don't get sway braces on your pylons, but I'd much rather have a product that will stand the test of time (and shipping) than a couple of tiny pieces that simulate an ejector foot anyday. I figured I'd give it an honest go, and try to mount the bombs directly to the MERs using good old fashioned technique. I was quickly disheartened as they looked off. Crooked isn't really the word, because they were definitely "straight", but they didn't seem to have that sense of symmetry, and it was enough to keep me irritated. I figured in a couple of days, maybe they'd make more sense. I wouldn't have to wait long.
During a quick test fit of the tanks and MER's, I noticed what I thought was a problem with the leading edge, I quickly grabbed the plane to address the issue, forgetting that there was nothing holding any of the stores in place. By the time I realized it, the first MER was hitting the floor, shearing off five of the six rounds attached to it. Thank god the fuze's didn't have enough time to fully arm.
At this rate, I realized that I had made a mistake by trusting my intuition initially that everything would "be okay". If it feels like it makes more sense, or will be easier....have no doubt, it will come back to bite you. This notion appeals especially to model builders globally. I eventually decided to just go ahead, and drill through the sway pads attached to the bombs, grind down the contact points, and drill into the MER as well. About a 35 minute detour to get it back in place, but I instantly noticed that the alignment was MUCH better, and in the end, I kind of regretted not just doing that from the get go. Seeing as to how one was looking so good, I went ahead and decided to pull everything off the other MER and pin those as well. I felt much more confident about the stability of it all after getting it put together.
Last stop, landing gear. The gear in this kit are actually metal. Well, sorta. They provide you with metal interior pegs that get shrouded with the struts themselves. This kind of engineering always has a potential to be a disaster if things don't fit well, so I had been dreading this step for a while as well. Fortunately, I was pleasantly proven wrong. They build up just as advertised, and minus needing some clamps to hold them together, I had no major issues. A quick clean up of the join seam, and we were off and running. The gear themselves are nearly identical to the gear used in the Tomcat (coincidence?), and those have proven themselves to be stubborn at times as well, so I was leary about the actual install itself. But once again, no issues. They went in, and aligned almost instantly with no required pushing or pulling at all to make sense. This was one thing that they got VERY right, and for that I was happy. Gear doors on the other hand were a bit more tricky. This required a lot of looking at references, despite having the instructions in front of me. After getting the general layout for what I was looking for, I was shocked to notice that I had a broken extend/retract arm that essentially helps to install the door on this kit, as well as help with alignment. It's a little piece, shaped like an L that otherwise wouldn't have even been missed had I decided to just throw the other one out. But I knew it was supposed to be there, and having integrity can sometimes come back to bite you. So, I reached for some safety wire, and after a little bit of innovative rework, I was able to essentially duplicate the part by mirroring the one good remaining arm. In the end, once it was painted, you'd be hard pressed to have someone notice that one was made from scratch. I smiled a little at this minor victory. All that was left at this point was the installation of fiddly parts such as antennas, pitot and AoA probes, etc. Some were photo etch, which I'll hate working with until the day that I either die or lose my hands to a vicious crocodile encounter. These went on well, and it was just the windscreen and canopy left to install. Seeing as how the canopy was pretty much straight lines all around, I just cut strips of tape and masked that in no time at all. The windscreen was a different story. The framing on the windscreen has angles and curves, so I used white masking tape, and a brand new blade to get that masked. Burnished nicely along the edges with a toothpick, the razor pretty much drove itself through the burnish lines, and the masks were next to flawless. Win. I sprayed the exteriors in Nato Black, and then came back over the two parts with light mist coats of DGG, leaving some of the black to still show through as indications of tonal variation, and it was a wrap.
It was at this point that I found myself baffled. Where was the canopy actuator? How was it supposed to raise? Then it dawned on me. I'd made it this far into this build without remembering that the A-6 canopy didn't raise, it slid forward and aft. In this moment, I was reminded at how many differences airplanes have about them, and as a modeler it humbled me for a second that I hadn't even stopped to let this register through the length of this entire build. There was no harm or foul by reaching this realization, but it was enlightening to realize that as much as we always try to get it right in model building, we'll never be able to be an expert on every single platform that exists. That being behind me, the canopy went on with very little problems. It was a bit of a tight fit, but a little bit of pressure to help the rails flex around the contact points seemed to do the trick. Moving onto the windscreen, I was again reminded of the awful encounter with the nose earlier on. Seems as though the reshaping of the nose threw off the alignment points for where the refueling probe and windscreen were to sit. I was officially out of steam at this point. I didn't want to see all this hard work go to waste in the last two pieces of the build. I eventually found a happy medium to where the windscreen would sit flush along the side edges, and have only a slight raise towards the contact points on the front. The refueling probe would also require some cutting and reshaping at the base in order to fit well in this new position. Once installed, they both look fine, and I'm happy to say that it was over.
I made it past my first Intruder.
As far as final thoughts, I don't have many. To me, I give a build an overall grade based on how I feel at the end of the project. There's some times where I'll finish a project, and have a general sense of decent accomplishment to what's in front of me. These are the projects where momentum was never stalled for too long at any one given point throughout the build. These are what I typically aim for, as I like to be able to say that I enjoy what I'm doing. There's other times where I'll have a general sense of disgust towards an entire project, one that fought me every inch of the way, but my joy will come out of the sense of accomplishment in defeating it. And sometimes, just to be able to see the fruits of the labor sitting before you makes it all worth it. I tell people often that one thing that commission building does for a modeler is makes them see things through. If I tell someone that I'll build them something, then I don't have the luxury to give up when it gets tough. I often wonder what my "shelf of doom" would look like if I had that option. But I don't, because I've given someone my word that I'd have it for them. This has been an amazing feature at times, because it truly tests your inner will to continue to push through the hard times, even when you want to send it flying through the window on it's one and only lonely flight to destruction. For that, I'm grateful.
All in all, if I got the call for another Intruder tomorrow, I can't honestly say that I'd reach for this kit again. Not because it's a bad kit per se, but because I've heard good things about other kits as well, and another good practice that I like to preach is to tell folks to try out more than one, and find out what works best for you. Especially if you can save some money by achieving the same results on the 20 dollar kit that you did on the 50 dollar kit.
Hope this summary sheds some light on some of the features that I liked and disliked about this project. I don't ever discourage anyone from trying something on their own, because what I dislike about a project may be nothing at all to someone else, so it's hard to dissuade someone from trying something simply because of your experiences with it.
Anyhow, that's all I got for now. Thanks!
