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The Plane
So much has been said many times
about this plane, so I can't really add anything, but the plane I have built
was prior to DESERT STORM, infact in the operation called DESERT SHIELD.
THE MODEL
I used the Italeri A6E, being a
person who likes his aircraft well armed and dirty I had a idea of what I
wanted, but first of all was to build the kit!
The fit was generally good, only
filler being needed in small amounts on the top of the fuselage and around
exhaust.
The wing fold option is straight
out of the box, its a fair attempt but could be made that bit better with
plasti-card added, I haven't but may in the future.
Using several books for
reference, including the D&S book, I found a few things that needed
changing or improving.
1) the TRAM version of the A6
has the large tear drop light removed from the landing undercarriage nose
door, its moved elsewhere, but I couldn't find a good photo, so not added it
yet, again I will do it when I can confirm the exact position.
2) the air intake on the top of
the fuselage needs drilling out, its easy to do and improves the look.
The only thing I was not happy
with was the fit of the canopy windscreen, well on my model anyway, one side
seems to fit better than the other, something to check in advance and not
once painted and ready for action!
I used some of the Eduard Zoom
set, a stripped down etch set, so only cost me £2 but well worth it!
I scraped off the Raised detail
on the instruments, which was pretty good, but note its the same kit part in
the KA 6D Tanker version, the bombardier side is obviously left blank.
I added the etch dials, the HUD
box and glass, also included, I didn't use the etch seat belts as I used
some after market seats, I am sure there from Airwaves in the UK, again
improve the look.
I had to cut down the drivers
control stick, to scale it was about 6 foot high! but a quick snip does the
trick. There is some etch for behind the seats, but I left it off, I am only
just getting used to using etch, so I didn't feel confident using all the
set.
I used lead fishing weights to
stop it from being a tail sitter.
Once the kit was together I
primed it using HANFORD'S Grey primer, available here in the UK, this
allowed me to see where on the model still needed work.
PAINTING.
Not owning a airbrush, or having
access to one, I decided for the overall grey to use.....HANFORD'S PRIMER!!!
I was happy with the finish, and
after going through maybe 50 photos of the real thing, a dirty plane doesn't
seem to show the change of greys used, and of course this helped me quite a
bit.
After a couple of coats, I used
HUMBROL Gloss out of the can, but the aircraft I was building had a black
tail, again not owning a airbrush meant I had to overcome this, I used a can
of car paint, bought from an all for a £1 discount store, it goes on
thicker than the HANFORD'S can, alarmingly so at first, but once dried it
looks good and shows the detail, again this was glossed over with the
HUMBROL can.
DECALS
Some time earlier I had bought a
Super Scale decal sheet, 72-620 Desert Shield Black-Tail CAGs of
CVW-14.
I would think this decal sheet
is quite old, and when I applied the multi coloured bar and tail decals,
they seemed not to fit, I had to overlap them slightly as can be seen, maybe
they were made for the older Hasegawa A6?
The quality of the decals was
good, I used Micro Set and Micro Sol, not a problem at all, the finish means
they actually look painted on, no silvering at all.
The DANGER JET INTAKE decals are not included, so I took these from the kit
decal sheet, again went on great.
Also included on the S.S sheet
is a EA6B, F14 and F18 decal option.
When all the decals had been
left to dry, I glossed it again, then when that was dry I went on to the
weathering!
WEATHERING
This was the part I was looking
forward too, I used HUMBROL 33, Matt Black, this isn't the best paint to use
usually, but I thought I would give it a try, the engraved detail on the kit
is excellent, I ran the thinned black in the panel lines, and used a way of
putting on weathering I came across, I put on the black, then use another
dry brush to soak up the thinners and some of the black, trial and error was
part of the course, but I added much dirtier detail where it showed on
actual photos, where dirty hands and feet would have been for a start.
Once I was happy with everything
I then used HUMBROL matt to get the finish I wanted.
WEAPONS
The kit includes Rockeye cluster
bombs, a HARM or 2, but as I mentioned earlier I like to hang what I can
(actually carried) from the pylons, OK they wouldn't all be carried at the
same time, but what the hell! This makes the A6E look like its ready
for action, and it was a damn fine aircraft able to carry a large range of
weapons.
I used the kits Rockeyes, but
gave up on the HARMs, the noise is too round and it lacks detail, I used one
from the Hasegawa weapons set, its a big improvement over the kit missile.
I used a LGB I think also from
the Hasegawa weapons set, as well as the MK82 Slicks, and I just added RBF
tags for a prior to mission look.
I used a rail from
somewhere (actually it had sat on my desk for months) to mount the HARM
as my reference shows, so the missile is not mounted directly to the pylon.
CONCLUSION
What can I say.....damn happy
with the model I have, enjoyed it all the way, I find I get enjoyment from
needing to use filler, well a little anyway, and the kits that just seem to
snap together seem to be too easy for me.
I would recommend this kit to
anyone, I love it, have several more ready on the shelf, and having just
picked up the ancient Hasegawa A6 kit, its easy to see how much kits have
improved, all I can say is go out and buy one!!
NOTE.
REVELL has recently released
this kit, albeit with different decals, but for nearly twice the amount!
This happens a lot in the UK for some reason.
This is the first time I have
ever shown a model, I never thought I was good enough, but hopefully its the
first of many!!!(actually I have a black tailed Prowler on the go!)
Jules
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