1/48 Revell/Monogram A-6E Intruder

by Eduardo "Fulcrum" Cárdenas

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The A-6E Intruder always captured my attention since I was a beginner modeler, so I decided to choose this kit from my friend’s closet and build it for him, Verlinden’s Super Detail Set was provided and I took them home and researched about this bird on reference book and Internet: http://www1.vc-net.ne.jp/~nimitz/

I already knew the kit featured raised panel lines since I have acquired EA-6A Wild Weasel from same manufacturer, and then decided to remove and engrave them entirely. Yeah It’s a hard and time consuming work but the happiness comes when u appreciate the finished model. Process was entirely done before glue parts, except top side of fuselage area which was completed when two halves were joined to avoid non aligning effect.

I used some Designer metal rules; it includes various figures needed to perform some curved lines on kit’s surface. I recessed some matches using 0.4 mm. drill. A lot of patience was required to do it.

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Following instructions from a modeling page I repaired wingtip’s style to old style which did not include formation Light. So I re-escribed the new triangle position Light on every wingtip, I paint based with flat white from MM and added Tamiya clear colors to get a right impression (ARC tips are so useful…). Pitot tube at fin was replaced with No. 18 hypodermic needle with a sewing one inside. 

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The inside wing fences position is wrong, because it’s right for A-6A type and others and we need a right A-6E type…they had to be removed and re located 7mm. closer to the fuselage. I made them newly from plastic sheet shaped previous to the removing from the original kit. Kit’s AFT air inlet on top of rear fuselage doesn’t look good, then re profiled and drilled using pics of real thing as reference. Air exhaust on portside rear fuselage looks better adding plastic tube as a pipe inside an angled hole and after sanding at fuselage surface level.

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Chaff/Flare dispensers were removed with a very sharp knife and replaced with resin copies of parts from 1/48 Hasegawa’s F-14 Tomcat to get more realistic detail. Beacon Light and TACAN antenna were not applied to nose gear door, our type’s plane had them on bottom fuselage near the door, I noted the Intruder required some exhaust holes on the same area so I drilled using several diameter tools; I also added some wiring on landing gears according to some pics.

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Verlinden’s detail set fitting was a nightmare, it seems reduced caused by excessive resin contraction, Cockpit tube is narrower than the kit inside area and Ejection seats doesn’t fit on it. Some wiring and other details were added to the area behind the cockpit and painted according to pics; windshield was painted using Tamiya Clear Green mixed with Clear and a drop of Smoke.

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Lateral ladders required an additional effort, they promised a beautiful result, try to use pics as reference for correct opening angle, they were painted using MM Gloss Red and dry brushed with Chrome Silver.

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The kit’s exhaust nozzles are injected to fuselage fairings, when glued they look irregular, after removing I take a plastic retractable pen with similar diameter and cut two pieces and glued with Gel Cyano, the interior of the pen included detail similar to real exhaust dented profile surface. Intake fitting is not exact; assembly left a large gap, now ARC tips serves good again, applied a mix of liquid cement and MM Red Putty, let dry and take cotton swab wet in liquid cement to remove putty excess, let it dry again and applied a coat of paper glue mixed with water to the seamed with putty area to fill some little imperfections…airbrushed the entire intake with Gloss White and painted the fan silver with a fine brush.

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The kit looks better now, chose the two tones CAG scheme, used the kit’s high visibility decals, I had not legend “500NK” in decals to be applied on the starboard side wing, then I proceeded take the little “500” decal belonging below the windshield and “NK” from the fin squadron badge from kit’s sheet and resized with a photocopy machine, took it as reference and painted them after masking with 3M tape on starboard side wing, airbrushed with MM Flat Black. Uffff!!! What a hard work!!!. Entire antiglare panels on top and both sides of fuselage  were also masked and painted using MM Dark Gull Gray retouched with mixed white and base color to get a little thread effect, always using airbrush. Wings and Stabilators Leading Edge suffered the same process being painted in MM Radome Tan.

A deep weathering job was needed to represent a hard worked Intruder, using oils and pastels, it’s well explained in ARC tools & tips.

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Weapon ordnance included eight Rockeye (only eight to allow landing gear opening) cluster bombs and twelve Mk82 dumb bombs (kit includes Mk81 Snake eyes but I am not sure about real using of this bomb type, I prefer Mk82). The friend I built the kit for provided me Hasegawa’s Weapons Set; it looks more realistic and includes yellow lettering for Mk82 candies. Another the model base is not part of the project, only used to take the pics…well Intruder is done!!!!

Greetings from Peru

Eduardo

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Photos and text © by Francisco Echegaray & Eduardo Cárdenas