DaveJL

Thanks Alex. It's hard not to like an Intruder in any variant! Cheers Pete. Yes, there's plasticine in the nose, just didn't photograph it before closing up the fuselage.

Cheers mate. Fuselage isn't too bad at all, but will require some tidy up!

Cheers!

Fuselage closed up. Generally a good fit, other than around those intake areas. Heavy seam lines, which I think is typical of Hobbyboss to clean up and again, one of those things I always find about HB kits. 99% of parts align and fit perfectly, but there's always that one bit that doesn't. In this case it was the rear bulkhead of the front landing gear bay - it didn't close up to the fuselage halves, leaving a gap. I've had to insert a shim of styrene sheet to correct this. Anyway, it's starting to take that classic Intruder shape. I've test fitted the wings, engine covers and so on and the fit looks good. Some blending in work will me needed on my rough arrestor hook cover whenever I permanently attach it. More soon. Dave

Thanks mate. Attaching the nose halves will save you a lot of heartache when the fuselage is closed up.

Managed another hour at the bench tonight. Firstly, I fitted the cockpit tub to the fuselage. Once set, I added the tail hook housing. A dry fit of the fuselage showed a relatively decent fit, just bit of fettling needed around the nose area. I tested the nose as a whole and found that there were steps on both sides so, and I would recommend doing this if you're not showing the radar assembly, I added each half of the nose to the appropriate fuselage. Another dry fit shows it works much better - no step and just a slight seam line to fix up. I also built up the inner wing parts including the exhausts. All fits well here, despite being a complicated set up: Having worked my way to this stage, I realise how much Hobbyboss can frustrate me. Some great fitting parts, some great detail but then again some parts that don't seem to align and then there was the debacle with the bomb locating points. I don't think I've build a HB kit, with the exception of their Su-27, that hasn't had similar issues. Perhaps just me. Saying that, I'm enjoying this kit so far. More soon. Dave

Might be a good time for me to build a Harrier FRS.1!

Thanks mate. I've taken some tips from that website linked above and a fellow member who has kindly helped me out.

Managed an hour at the bench after work. Wanted to do a little more on the fuselage modifications. Firstly though, the intakes were added and these were a good fit. A small bit of clean up top and bottom is all that will be needed. I also popped on the boarding ladder doors, I'm keeping these closed as I think that looks better (and it's less work ) So port fuselage first: You can see here the god fit of the intake and boarding ladder. Onto the modifications then: Not too much hassle here. A few rivets have been lost with the sanding of the 'slime' strip but the NAVY decal will cover this for the most part anyway. Onto the starboard fuselage: That's pretty much the height of it for the modifications on the sides, the rest are underneath. Firstly, early A-6As had a cover over the triangular part of the arrestor hook (seen in this link - scroll to the second picture after the table). To replicate this, I firstly added some tape, like so: Then trimmed the edges and traced around the recessed parts with a pencil: I then removed the tape, stuck to a piece of styrene sheet and then cut it to a rough shape: The triangular part of the arrestor hook, part E1, was fitted then I popped on the cover. Not bad, just needs some blending in once it's inserted to the fuselage. More soon. Dave

Thanks Rich. Simple mods for the back dating really and yes, the air brakes were a bit tricky but a bit of time will sort them out!! Hopefully the bombs will look half decent

Thanks mate. The seats are very good indeed and are a great fit. Cheers! Yes the fuselage is the same so some work is needed. I've a few resources that I'm using for the modifications. There are some more vents to fill, a few bits to remove etc etc but shouldn't be too tricky. The most challenging looks like it will be the extension of the doppler fairing under the fuselage.

It's hard to beat. Over a good layer of primer and pre-shading etc I've found it to be almost faultless. So, managed a bit more progress over the last day and a bit. Cockpit was primed black and then sprayed Dark Gull Grey. Once dry, I was able to add the lovely Eduard etch. Some detailed painting and weathering also done. Test fit of Hypersonic's excelled GRU-5 seats: Cockpit ready to be installed: Some work on the fuselage halves next. Airbrakes were fitted in the closed position, which required a bit of sanding to get them right. Some Tamiya extra thin around the edges too. The airbrakes were bolted shut fairly early on in the A-6's life as, I'm led to believe, they disturbed the airflow around the horizontal stabiliser. The wing tip airbrakes were more common. Also to note, the HB fuselage is more akin to an A-6E so there are some areas that need work. Firstly, there's a small exhaust hole just aft of the airbrake. This needs filled and the outline of the 'slime strip' needs sanded off as these were not present on the A-6A: There's also the outline of a RAM air scoop on top of the fuselage half shown in the above picture. It needs removed also (not shown). Next, I worked on the wing pylons and MERs. The two lighter grey MERs are from a HB A-10 kit as the A-6 only has two in the box. I had to remove a few locating tabs on the braces for the correct bomb fitment. On that, I test fitted the bombs and found that the holes on the ordnance did not line up to the tabs on the MERs. So I had to test the bomb fit and then fill the unused holes (which was a royal pain in the backside!) Finally, I worked on the intakes and exhausts. Both have good depth which is nice but there was a tricky seam line to remove on the intake parts. I used some Mr Dissolved putty which worked well: A test of the intakes shows a surprisingly snug fit which is excellent! I'm working the next few days and meant (!!) to be travelling to Lincolnshire at the weekend for a few museum visits (BBMF and so on) so if that doesn't get binned it will be a week or so before I'm back at the bench. Stay safe. Dave

Thanks chaps!

Thanks mate!

Cheers!