Flight of the Intruder

[tc2324]

I`ve always had a soft spot for the A-6 Intruder after reading Stephen Coonts excellent book and I`ll even admit to preferring the film adaptation of it over Top Gun in many ways. (More action, less beach volley ball....)

A couple of years back I built my first A-6 kit and in typical tc fashion, I didn`t exactly build it as god intended......,

 

 

 

So it will come as no surprise that for my next in-flight diorama, I have chosen an A-6 scheme what`s a little bit different from the norm.

 

 

The description that comes with this picture is as follows, `A-6A 149948 VA-85 in SEA, July 1965`. Now I have no way of confirming if this info is correct, but the scheme absolutely looks amazing and has a very distinctive `what if` feel to it. I`ve seen the A-6`s of VA-65 with their test camo of green upper surfaces and white underneath`s but have never heard or seen this type of camo with the blue undersides. (I`m sure someone here will fill me in with the relevant info).

So with my interest firmly raised to the bar, it`s time to start work on building my version in 1/48. The A-6 in the picture if probably very much an A-6A so I`ll adjust the build accordingly.

I`ll be using the Revell `E` kit and by all accounts there should not be many external changes. 

 

 

 

 

In fact the only messy bit will be when I will have to cut the doors so that they are in the closed position.

 

 

 

 

 

More soon I hope.

[rob Lyttle]

Nice plane. Nice picture too.

Good project!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Oooh same model in the stash. Going to use that for the Grumman Grp. Build. Taking notes and sitting in the gallery 

Edited October 13, 2017 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[Paramedic]

Agreed, the movie was better in my opinion as well.

 

Lovely plane and you found a very interesting camo! Will be nice to follow.

[depressed lemur]

Earlier this year I visited the Intrepid aircraft carrier in New York. The A6 exhibit had a photo of the same scheme which I recall looking interesting at the time. You could try contacting them too see if they have any more information on it.

[tc2324]

As always, thanks for the comments chaps. I have been working on this build but not got round to an update.

 

However saying that, as is always the way with this rare schemes, I recently came across another photo of the subject matter. It is actually the same photo but that`s where the problem lies......,

 

 

 

 

So compare this to the previous photo and then tell me which is the correct exposure and shade of grey/blue?

 

I think there`s only one way to find out...........................,

 

 

 

 

[rob Lyttle]

Tricky, isn't it?

I have no knowledge of the planes themselves, but the first image looks truer to me.

The second version looks "enhanced" or Photoshoped to my eye .

Any other images of this scheme?

 

Another way of looking at it is, how do I want my plane to look when I'm finished?

I know this idea can cause great upset with the Historical Accuracy Brigade, but ultimately this is your little sculpture, and you need to like the end product of your endeavours!

Dyou think I'll be struck off for floating that piece of Heresy??

[David H]

Hi TC,

 

if i was in your position i'd do a couple of things:

 

1) Check and see if there's an A-6 Intruder interest group on Facebook; i think you will be able to access more colour photos that way. Heck, you might even reach a pilot or two who flew the planes in combat.

 

2) I'd reach out to Tommy Thommason, who probably knows at least a little about the time period that the tests were conducted and he might have seen official Navy Documentation on the matter.

 

3) Finally, I'm willing to bet that Detail & Scale has documented the scheme in one of their "Colours and Markings" titles, and they may have even updated the book to e-book format.

 

In the absence of positive guidance, those would be my next steps.

 

-d-

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Im going to go out on the proverbial limb here and say this. Since it was a test scheme to see effectiveness over jungle terrain ? It might very well be a one off color with no true reference ? It could’ve been someone saying “yeah thats close enough to sky blue ... use it ?”

[depressed lemur]

A bit of digging found this website with an image of a Japanese book referencing FS35466 as the blue colour. Don't know where this came from but could be an answer.

 

http://picssr.com/photos/45586426@N06/favorites?nsid=45586426@N06

 

[Killingholme]

Might be harder to work out than you think. From the Osprey A-6 Intruder Units of the Vietnam War.

 

"One of the more notable aspects of the deployments of both VA-85 and VA-65 involved the trials of camouflage paint on aircraft in both CVW-1 1 and CVW-15. Early in the war concerns had been raised that the US Navy's standard light gull grey and white paint scheme made aircraft highly visible in a tactical environment. After a flurry of paper on the subject and at least one test aircraft being painted by VA-42 in Oceana, AirPac authorised CVW-11 and CVW-15 to paint up to half of their aircraft in camouflage schemes using various shades of green, tan and blue. Paint application appears to have been done by the depot at North Island and by contractor NIPI in Japan, and covered all types in both wings. The results were truly unique as no two aircraft appear to have been identical. Indeed, detailed official documentation as to which aircraft received what specific pattern has yet to come to light."

[rob Lyttle]

So, what ever you do is bound to be right, or at least can't be shown to be wrong!

I'm seeing those rows of black dots on the sides, under "NAVY".

What's going on there?

Looking forward to seeing how you resolve this decor issue!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

@rob Lyttle that's the speed brake early models had a perforated door. Even very early “E” versions. Most were replaced with solid doors and eventually sealed shut if memory serves correct ?

[rob Lyttle]

I just been having a good read up on the A6, and came across the story of the event that's depicted in the diorama at the top of the thread.

Wow! I thought you might have been flexing your imagination a bit, to add some interest or "drama" to the scene.

I saw the photo of the deck landing that you've so intricately modelled.

Brilliant!

Afraid I found no information on the current paint puzzle, though.

[tc2324]

Some update shots taken late last night. Admittedly I haven`t taken that many as I`m sure many a Revell Intruder kit WIP can be found on the web.

 

So picture 1 shows the overall look of the A-6 while Pic 2 shows a practice spray I did using using Olive Drab and USN Intermediate Blue. Depending on which reference picture you look at will make up your mind if I` have got a close match.

 

Pics 3 and 4 show off the age of the kit and the problems you will face if you choose an in flight build. Apollo 13`s quote `fitting a round box in a square hole` comes to mind. Should be fun ......!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More soon.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Colors look pretty close 

[Romel]

nice

[tc2324]

Paint on, gloss next and think I have the colours reasonably correct?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rob Lyttle]

Looks good to me!

[neil5208]

So unusual to see an intruder in green, a brave choice to model

[depressed lemur]

Colour choice looks near spot on to the photo.  What I want to know is how many tubes of filler did you need for that undercarriage door

[tc2324]

Cheers guys. 

 

With regards to the u/c doors, using a scalpel, I carefully scored the indentation you see in the photo above and then bent the plastic into a curve shape. It still needed a trim and didn`t fit very well but it meant only small gaps needed to be filled rather that huge pot holes. I`ll post a photo of the underside in due course so you can see the finished work.

[tc2324]

A couple of photo`s of the nearly finished model. (I say nearly finished as I`m going to add my usual little twist in the tail but more on that later).

 

The first photo has been taken as best I can in the same pose as the reference photo with the second just showing a more top down view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now has anyone else noted a mistake in my build after comparing the reference picture and my version? If you said the tail pitot tube is missing in the photo then give yourself a large pat on the back. When looking at other A-6A Intruder photo`s they all seem to have the tube so over you you lot to tell me why this one hasn`t.

 

Now getting back to that `twist` I mentioned. 

 

Step forward bomb rack and Snakeye`s.........

 

 

 

 

 

More soon and thanks for looking.

[ziggyfoos]

On ‎11‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 7:32 AM, tc2324 said:

Now has anyone else noted a mistake in my build after comparing the reference picture and my version? If you said the tail pitot tube is missing in the photo then give yourself a large pat on the back. When looking at other A-6A Intruder photo`s they all seem to have the tube so over you you lot to tell me why this one hasn`t.

 

It has to be a very early when the tube was on the left wingtip (kinked, not straight)

[tc2324]

12 hours ago, ziggyfoos said:

 

It has to be a very early when the tube was on the left wingtip (kinked, not straight)

Thank you for the answer, I wasn`t aware the pitot had been placed in the wingtip on the A-6 in the early days.