A-6E tram intruder, 1/48, desert storm

[PlaStix]

Very impressive work on the landing gear Glynn and I too will be interested to see how the paintwork turns out over that pre-shading. And I agree - the sample test area on the underside of the rear section does bode well! 

Kind regards,

Stix

[Hewy]

2 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Excellent work Glynn, the undercarriage looks fantastic, just the right amount of wear.

I'm interested to see how the pre-shading works out, you should get an interesting variation.

I've never used Mig paints so I'm also interested to see hoe they work out, did you get them from Clifton Curios?

Thanks Craig, I picked the paints up from Telford, although Mike does have these in stock

 

2 hours ago, gingerbob said:

I kinda like it the way it is!  Not accurate, admittedly, but nifty mottled camo look.

Thanks Bob I happen to like the undersides like that too.. 

Seeing as I've been off work today and I lost the plot after cutting half a dozen snakeyes off the casting blocks I couldn't resist having a paint, not entirely happy with the mig paints, but they come close, they cover really nicely, but as for getting that translucent quality, nothing in my opinion beats Mr hobby/tamiya, and lacquer thinners, I'll definitely be using them again though, as you can see I lost a lot of the preshading on the top, (no great loss) the undersides fared a little better after some fettling, a learning curve I suppose, is it me or does it look a little light, the photos for once are a fair rendition of the tone of the paints, it'll darken up with a sludgy wash I expect, ah well back to separating bombs from casting blocks

 

 

 

[Hewy]

2 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Very impressive work on the landing gear Glynn and I too will be interested to see how the paintwork turns out over that pre-shading. And I agree - the sample test area on the underside of the rear section does bode well! 

Kind regards,

Stix

Cheers stix, I reckon it's a learning curve getting used to different paints, I don't think it's turned out too bad,  had a few splatters, going to let it dry before I sort those though 

[modelling minion]

I think the paint looks good Glynn, there is definitely tonal variation.

[dnl42]

17 hours ago, Hewy said:

...

Pe added, and I've made the LG  and doors suitably dirty

 

...

That is excellent work!

Edited December 4, 2018 by dnl42

[stevej60]

Great work here Glynn that U/C look's superb.

[Hewy]

 Whats seems to be turning into a  bit of  daily intruder, 

A combination of salt and  maskol, still quite a bit to do, got to mask and paint the darker grey anti slip on the spine, salt the sides and tail, and then the undersides, wings will be raised, this was done to try and get some balance, 

Glynn 

 

 

 

[Jabba]

The effect that you have achieved is stunning. Nice work on the U/C as well.

[Hockeyboy76]

@Hewy, that’s some great paint work there good buddy. I’d be very happy with that. Looks like I’m going to have to learn how to airbrush. 

[Hewy]

Cheers h, most kind pal, to be honest it's me that needs to learn how| to brushpaint

[Hewy]

A Vf 55  aircraft still will its Libya kill markings, but Not the actual aircraft I'm building,   but an idea of the weathering I'm trying for

 

 

I've painted the  walkways on the wings and spine,  and  this is as far as I'm taking the salt weathering, glossed it with future and given it a little wash, no photos off the underside yet as I only want to turn it up when I'm ready to assemble the uc, doors and ordnance, the paint is very delicate

Being the first time I've used these mig  paints I'm unaware of the limitations, and I've gone through to the plastic  in a couple of places when rubbing off the wash, I'm sure I can rescue it, and a wing fence has pinged off, 

Here you can see that after the clay based wash, even though I'd futured it how it had darkened up the paint a shade,so I've given the top side of the main body a very thin and light coat of dark ghost grey to bring it back a little I'm yet to do the outer wing sections

 

Underside of the wings, with these being raised this side need to be light ghost after the clay wash, so I'll need to give these a light going  over too

Looking forward to getting some decals on this but I've a small matter of 16 snakeyes and 4  resin mers to assemble, paint, decal, and weather first🙄

 

Cheers

[helios16v]

Lovely.

[PlaStix]

Very impressive looking Glynn! 

Kind regards ,

Stix 

[modelling minion]

That looks superb Glynn, I really like the walkways, very effective indeed.

[Hewy]

On 10/12/2018 at 21:22, helios16v said:

Lovely.

Chris, much appreciated 

1 hour ago, PlaStix said:

Very impressive looking Glynn! 

Kind regards ,

Stix 

Stix far too kind, as always

1 hour ago, modelling minion said:

That looks superb Glynn, I really like the walkways, very effective indeed.

Thanks very much Craig, can't find much reference for tram a6's with walkways other than on  the sheet that came with my decals, they were darker  there on  the wings, and the one on the spine looked like it had been over sprayed a lttle , maybe  someone who worked on the a6 late can confirm this, (hopefully) or  maybe not

 

 

Thanks for looking and commenting though guys, 

Glynn 

Edited December 12, 2018 by Hewy

[helios16v]

13 minutes ago, Hewy said:

Thanks very much Craig, can't find much reference for tram a6's with walkways other than on  the sheet that came with my decals, they were darker  there on  the wings, and the one on the spine looked like it had been over sprayed a lttle , maybe  someone who worked on the a6 late can confirm this, (hopefully) or  maybe not

 

Remind me again later...I'll take a look through some of my old pics.  My '95 WestPac was the final deployment for our sister squadron VA-95, operating the composite wing A-6E TRAM.  Most of my pics on on slides, so I'll have to scan them onto the PC at home if there is anything of use.

They would have used the same walkway materials we used on our aircraft.  While the walkway material was darker, it wasn't massively so.

 

Our bird on the '95 deployment (the photo was taken by me from Vultures Row).

WP95 VAQ135 Raven 620 by helios16v, on Flickr

Edited December 12, 2018 by helios16v

[Hewy]

24 minutes ago, helios16v said:

Remind me again later...I'll take a look through some of my old pics.  My '95 WestPac was the final deployment for our sister squadron VA-95, operating the composite wing A-6E TRAM.  Most of my pics on on slides, so I'll have to scan them onto the PC at home if there is anything of use.

They would have used the same walkway materials we used on our aircraft.  While the walkway material was darker, it wasn't massively so.

 

Our bird on the '95 deployment (the photo was taken by me from Vultures Row).

WP95 VAQ135 Raven 620 by helios16v, on Flickr

 

That's very kind of you Chris thanks for any help you can give , I'll be decaling at the weekend, hopefully, 

I'll look at it with fresh eyes, when I get a chance to, 

I was of the mind that the walkways would have been black,or at least a dark grey, and then painted to various degrees with over spray, or left dark, 

 But thanks for replying , and that is a wonderfully weatherd prowler you've posted, nice one, I can see the spine walkway is a shade over dark ghost, maybe I'll give mine a very light blow over on the spine to blend it in a bit, or remask! 

Glynn 

[helios16v]

18 hours ago, Hewy said:

 

I was of the mind that the walkways would have been black,or at least a dark grey, and then painted to various degrees with over spray, or left dark, 

 

The darker walkway application was likely more prominent on his-vis (think Vietnam era) birds.  During the TPS years everything was various shades of grey.  Sometimes with the weathering, some aircraft actually got difficult to read some of the markings...which is why the Modex numbers on the nose are hi-contrast.  In '95 once we got to the Gulf, even our CAG bird had all the colors replaced w/ shades of grey.

[Hewy]

1 hour ago, helios16v said:

The darker walkway application was likely more prominent on his-vis (think Vietnam era) birds.  During the TPS years everything was various shades of grey.  Sometimes with the weathering, some aircraft actually got difficult to read some of the markings...which is why the Modex numbers on the nose are hi-contrast.  In '95 once we got to the Gulf, even our CAG bird had all the colors replaced w/ shades of grey.

Great first hand  info Chris, much appreciated 👍

Would you have used light ghost on the upper surfaces for touch ups in small patches and Vice- versa at any time? Or would it have been strictly  dgg upper and lgg lower.? 

[helios16v]

7 minutes ago, Hewy said:

Great first hand  info Chris, much appreciated 👍

Would you have used light ghost on the upper surfaces for touch ups in small patches and Vice- versa at any time? Or would it have been strictly  dgg upper and lgg lower.? 

Only if we ran into a paint supply issue on the boat, which we did, but it was a rarity.

[Hewy]

45 minutes ago, helios16v said:

Only if we ran into a paint supply issue on the boat, which we did, but it was a rarity.

That is interesting Chris, maybe it could explain some of the very light patches that look like new paint  on the odd intruder, but too light to be dark ghost, even taking into account light issues, thank you for a hasty response

[helios16v]

Hey @Hewy, I went ahead and just scanned all my VA-95 pics from the 1995 deployment.  It gave me an excuse to get them all digitized...though they haven't been cleaned up at all...so some of the pics have some crud on them.  😅

 

Here is the link to my Flickr album where I've uploaded them for you.  Cheers mate!  https://www.flickr.com/photos/47553093@N02/albums/72157703161768851

[Hewy]

Just had a quick look through Chris, what a fantastic set of pictures thank you very much for showing, must have been a great period of your life 

Glynn 

[Hewy]

8 hours ago, helios16v said:

 

Here is the link to my Flickr album where I've uploaded them for you.  Cheers mate

Just noticed that the green lizards intruders had the composite wing convertion, I understand no marine intruders had composite wings, only  late navy units, I know the one I'm modeling is not  composite, top pictures

Glynn 

[helios16v]

A large percentage of the Intruders were retro-fitted w/ the composite wing during depot upgrades.  Most of what I'm seeing is by the time they decided to pull the plug on the Intruder, 85% of the fleet aircraft had been upgraded.  VA-95 was also one of the last couple squadrons to retire the bird in '95.