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EA-6B
Prowler, Hasegawa 1/72 with Eduard 72151 EA-6B Prowler Detail Set and some extra
detailing.
Intro
The
EA-6B is the “electronic” variant of the A-6 Intruder. It has an enlarged
airframe for the larger crew (4 instead of 2) and is easy to recognize with the
big bulge on the fin and the typical pods it usual carries. In the past the
tasks changed more and more from the jamming to the shooter role and never
before in their long duty life the Prowlers of the USN and USMC where as busy as
today, especially in the Europe theatre over former Yugoslavia.
The
kit
It
is the standard Hasegawa kit of the Prowler, known for years and in many
different colour schemes. This one is a low-vis-scheme for an aircraft of
VAQ-136 from USS Independence. The Hasegawa-kit of the Prowler is not bad, with
one exception: the cockpit. It is very basic with a lot of details missing or
wrong and this is what the Eduard-detail-set is for. It helps to build a really
nice cockpit with new instrument panels, window frames, seat details and so on.
And it includes the parts to open the electronic/oxygen bay in the forward right
fuselage.
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The
Building
Building
the kit starts with the cockpit area, and this was the part with the most work,
of course. I used the Eduard parts and Plastic sheet, plastic rod in different
sizes and wire to build a correct cockpit. I used photos for this, they are
absolutely necessary for such a project, but it is no problem to find good
material about the Prowler.
All
in all it was a complete new build up of the cockpit section, using the kits
part only as a frame for the rest, but I think, it was worth the work.
To
bring some life into the model, I added a flight helmet and some flight gear,
laying on the pilots seat or on the windshield frame and a “map” behind the
windshield.
The
rest of the kit was no problem, with this particular aircraft it was necessary
to remove the bulge under the rear fuselage and close the hole, but the rest is
nearly out of the box, only some detailing of the landing gear and things like
that. I closed the jet intakes, for example, because I was building a parked
aircraft, using metal foil for this.
Painting
and Decaling
I
used Gunze colours and my airbrush and oil paints for the “dirt”, because I
was building a “used” aircraft. The decals are the kit decals and everything
was fixed with a last layer of Gunze clear. And as a last not I placed several
“Remove-Before-Flight” flags.
Conclusion
The
Hasegawa kit allows you to build a nice Prowler – except you want to look into
the cockpit area. And the Prowler has really huge windows… but with some extra
work on this you can build a really nice Prowler. And with the Eduard set you
have the most things you need and for more detailing everybody can decide, how
much he wants. All in all it was fun to build it, but don’t you think this
everytime, if you like the end results…?
Thomas
Any
comments – just email me Thomas
Neuss
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