Pappy Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 (edited) G'day people, I was originally intending on building a Grumman Tracker but as I already have one of those underway, I have chosen to build this instead, Confession time, I had already started this kit before I realised that there was a Grumman GB organised, however I believe that I satisfy the <25% completed criteria as I have mainly been preparing the fuselage for the addition of resin and PE details, I have not decided on a scheme yet, or even a timeframe as the platform has undergone significant upgrades throughout its career. The Kinetic kit provides several options but OOB the instrument panel is for an ICAP III/Block 89, if I you want to do an early scheme and/or backdate to EXCAP/ICAP I or Block 82 you will need to do some research to determine which details to omit or add. The instructions do provide some help but I do not trust them to get it right. I believe that the Italeri kit is basically the same plastic re-boxed but I would be interested to hear if there are anydifferences Anyhoo, roll on the start of the build! cheers, Pappy Edited October 24, 2018 by Pappy 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 Great minds think alike Pappy, looking forward to seeing you beat this kit into shape. As for the Italeri's kit, it is the same Kinetic plastic, I am sure Italeri did not do anything to the moulds or add any extras. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 15 hours ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said: Great minds think alike Pappy, looking forward to seeing you beat this kit into shape. As for the Italeri's kit, it is the same Kinetic plastic, I am sure Italeri did not do anything to the moulds or add any extras. Me too! I have always liked the prowler over the A-6, the proprtions just seem better plus there is all that cockpitty goodness to paint up. Thanks for the info ref the Italeri plastic, I suspected it was only decals. Does the Italeri boxing also include the tow tractor as well? A mate of mine has two Kinetic boxings of the EA-6B but neither includes the tractor but mine does. I am pretty sure the tractor sprues are the same sprues found in the Skunkworks deck tractor kit. cheers, Pappy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEMPESTMK5 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Good Morning Pappy Welcome to this Gb and of course your satisfying the under 25% criteria .. Enjoy your build Cheers Patrice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 20, 2018 Author Share Posted October 20, 2018 (edited) On 10/17/2018 at 5:49 PM, TEMPESTMK5 said: Good Morning Pappy Welcome to this Gb and of course your satisfying the under 25% criteria .. Enjoy your build Cheers Patrice Merci Beaucoup Patrice, G'day people, Well the start date has now arrived so I can 'officially' begin! As already explained I did not realise there was a Grumman GB so I had already made a start on this kit. The work completed so far was to add the intermediate cockpit bulkhead to the bathtub assembly and prepare the fuselage halves for some resin avionics bay detail sets. The cockpit PE set arrived yesterday so I have finally had a chance to start adding the PE parts to the tub, The PE destructions would have you sand off all the raised instrument details in preparation of the pre-painted PE. I have a few issues with this; Firstly, the kit panels are actually pretty nicely rendered. Secondly, as supplied in the kit, the panels represent a Block 89/ ICAP III bird. The visible difference is that the AH and HSI on the pilot's "T" cluster are replaced by digital instruments which Kinetic have represented. The PE set is designed for Kinetic kit but represents these two instruments as the older analogue type instruments, which is fine if you plan on backdating your EA-6B - but am not. Finally, and I have said this many times, the pre-painted PE looks flat and lifeless plus the grey is just the wrong colour. Most modern US military jets cockpits are painted Dark Gull Gray (DGG-FS36231), there are exceptions (such as the F-16) but DGG is the typical colour. The PE set is a very light grey, closer to Light Ghost Gray (LGG-FS-36375) with a slight bluish tint. If you add the pre-painted PE as is there will be a stark contrast which is just not natural and painting the cockpit LGG does not really appeal. I decided that I will retain most of the instrument main instrument panel detail and just use the lower shielded displays on the lower aft cockpit panel, so these areas were carefully scraped away in preparation, I needed to use some filler on the Nav's radar hood part due to a sink mark. There is quite a lot of flash and sink marks all over the kit parts actually. The fuselage main gear wells have also received some PE love, cheers, Pappy Edited October 24, 2018 by Pappy 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 21, 2018 Author Share Posted October 21, 2018 (edited) G'day people, Well, I spent today painting up the resin wheel bay sets, Firstly, the nose gear bay Then the main gear well inserts, I am also in two minds about using the kit cockpit, so I have bought a resin cockpit as well. I prepped the resin tub by sanding off the pour stub. I used a mini-belt sander. This was done outside with a vacuum cleaner attached and wearing a dust mask as the process produced HEAPS off resin dust. I sanded until the tub floor was very thin It is easy to get carried away! whoops! I applied basic paint to both tubs and then added the pre-painted etch to the kit tub, Notice the colour difference between the tub and the pre-painted etch - yecch! The grey area was touched in with a brush using the correct tub colour The resin tub, I am not convinced by the pre-painted PE. It looks very flat and lifeless, not much better than a decal really. I think it would work in 1/72 but not 1/48. All the switches and knobs are too bright and the whole effect is a little too garish IMHO. Whilst there is no contest as far as the detail level is concerned, the resin tub is far and away better detailed, the kit tub has a one major advantage, it fits straight out of the box! The resin tub is advertised as intended for the Kinetic/Italeri kit but notice the rear bulkhead shape differences between the two tubs (kit tub on right) I suspect that this tub was originally designed to fit the Revell/Monogram kit and it will be a bit of a battle to get it to sit in the Kinetic kit correctly cheers, Pappy Edited October 21, 2018 by Pappy 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amblypygid Posted October 21, 2018 Share Posted October 21, 2018 Marvellous detailing, Pappy, those bays look terrific. I'm with you on the etch, it looks good at first but leaves me with a faint feeling of being not quite right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Threadbear Posted October 21, 2018 Share Posted October 21, 2018 Fantastic work on the wheel wells. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 21, 2018 Author Share Posted October 21, 2018 12 minutes ago, amblypygid said: Marvellous detailing, Pappy, those bays look terrific. I'm with you on the etch, it looks good at first but leaves me with a faint feeling of being not quite right. G'day Chris, thanks very much. I know that pre-painted PE has its fans (it must or it would not sell) but I am not convinced. I love using PE and think that for some applications it is absolutely the right choice but I am leaning towards the resin tub even if it will mean extra work to get it to fit. 12 minutes ago, Threadbear said: Fantastic work on the wheel wells. G'day Grahame, this stuff was a joy to paint, the details are crisp and make me look good! My trial fit shows that it was actually designed to fit the kit and very little modification of the kit is is required. cheers, Pappy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 22, 2018 Author Share Posted October 22, 2018 (edited) More cockpit capers G'day people, Work continues on the cockpits. The kit instrument panels are pretty nice for OOB. I shaved off the lower display screens on the AFT I.P as I will use the PE bits here, as well as some details on the main I.P. They don't look too bad installed (dry fitted here) either, However they cannot compete with the resin cockpit set for fine details, The front I.P is waiting for some PE overlays to be added Meanwhile a test fit of the main gear well inserts did not reveal any surprises cheers, Pappy Edited October 22, 2018 by Pappy 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 That is a lot of work in such a short time. I do like the wheel bay inserts especially. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 22, 2018 Author Share Posted October 22, 2018 G'day Jabba, One advantage of shiftwork is that I can get a fair bit done during the day. I find that I am more disciplined when on night shift because I have a finite amount of time before I need to start wok so I tend to set myself daily goals, e.g. paint a cockpit tub for exmple. The cockpits got blasted with grey (acrylic) cut with lacquer thinners so they are dry in about 20mins (not cured though) so time saved. Main colours are then blocked in using acrylics which dry very quickly = time saved, and then a pin wash is applied. Since the wash is applied sparingly, there is almost no clean-up = time saved. I use oils for washing so there are no compatibility issues as the two media will not react. The acrylics dry semi-gloss, so no need to clear coat = time saved yet again, so after a wash is applied, a quick drybrush and then I start to pick out smaller details. If you are a skilled painter, you do not need to do many touch-up or re-work so things can mve quickly. Some modellers dread doing cockpits but it is really may fave part and a natural focal point for an aircft model, so time spent here is always worthwhile. It is really only when you need to scratchbuild or sort out problematic areas that I enter a zone that I cannot easily estimate a time for. Seam filling is a chore however. I quite like the wheel bays and they dress up what is anotherwise blank canvas, well worth the asking price and basically a drop fit. The nose gear bay will require some minor surgery to incorporate the resin replacement but it shouldbe easily achievaable in one 'session' cheers, Pappy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 Tidy👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 Some truly excellent work here Pappy. The resin and extra work you have done on the cockpit parts and wheel wells is superb and the detail painting is some of the best I've seen. This all bodes very well for an excellent model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 24, 2018 Author Share Posted October 24, 2018 (edited) On 10/23/2018 at 2:17 AM, Hewy said: Tidy👍 On 10/23/2018 at 2:43 AM, modelling minion said: Some truly excellent work here Pappy. The resin and extra work you have done on the cockpit parts and wheel wells is superb and the detail painting is some of the best I've seen. This all bodes very well for an excellent model. Thanks fellas. The painting is made a lot easier when the details are so crisp. G'day people, Today I have assembled the nose gear well. Last look before it is closed up Next up, the kit part was prepared to accept the resin assembly. This was a straightforward process of cutting off the extant nose gear well part that was molded integrally to the lower fuselage insert, I think I spent about 1 minute on the prep! The completed nose gear well unit was now simply slid into place with no other preparation required Result! I wanted to add a little bracing to ensure the assembly did not come adrift during handling so scrap pieces of sprue and resin off-cut were added In the meantime I have been busy gluing and and cleaning up the things under wings This is the load configuration I am leaning towards, although that could change ....... cheers, Pappy Edited April 7, 2019 by Pappy 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 24, 2018 Author Share Posted October 24, 2018 (edited) G'day people, I have assembled the engine exhausts. This is the kit part with what looks like a a PE flow straightener on top These are attached to the end of the "S" shaped exhaust outlets. These are split horizontally and a seam needs to be eliminated however given their short length it was a relatively easy task to complete. The exhaust turbines are just visible through the openings but being dark not that easy to see. The exhaust assemblies are designed to be attached to fuselage via two locating pegs. They fit well but when the wing sections were dry fitted, I found that there was a noticeable gap between the end of the exhaust section and the part exhaust outlet portion of the wing. I decided that a better solution was to attach the exhaust assemblies directly to each wing section. To do this, the two locating pegs on each exhaust assembly were removed to allow the exhaust sections to slip into the fuselage. cheers, Pappy Edited October 24, 2018 by Pappy 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 26, 2018 Author Share Posted October 26, 2018 (edited) G'day people, This little guy was included in the kit so I have had a little fun assembling and painting it up, I thought it looked cool. And a little bit dirty, cheers, Pappy Edited October 26, 2018 by Pappy 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Cracking job on the little tractor, your making great progress love that busy front wheel well, nice addition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 26, 2018 Author Share Posted October 26, 2018 (edited) 30 minutes ago, Hewy said: Cracking job on the little tractor, your making great progress love that busy front wheel well, nice addition G'day Hewy, Thanks very much, I had a ball painting it. The resin wheel bay inserts are a breeze to incorporate being almost a drop fit once the casting plugs are removed, they should also fit an A-6 (Kinetic) kit, although it should fit any of the A-6/EA-6B in theory. I think the resin cockpit tub may fight me though and I have discovered an errors in the resin tub's assembly instructions cheers, Pappy Edited October 26, 2018 by Pappy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 I hope you manage get the resin tub in, be a shame for it to have to miss out, I've got a kinetic under fuselage electronics bay pe set that I'm going to try and fit to my hobbyboss intruder, that should be a little easier(he said hopfully ) than your cockpit conundrum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebra Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 This is looking great Pappy. I'm amazed at how much you've got done so quickly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 27, 2018 Author Share Posted October 27, 2018 (edited) 19 hours ago, Hewy said: I hope you manage get the resin tub in, be a shame for it to have to miss out, I've got a kinetic under fuselage electronics bay pe set that I'm going to try and fit to my hobbyboss intruder, that should be a little easier(he said hopfully ) than your cockpit conundrum G'day Hewy, Me too! I have not really had a serious attempt at fitting he resin tub yet. Thankfully the kit tub is wider so it should be easier to add material than remove it (he says fingers crossed after painting the tub!), but I think the bigger headache will be integrating the resin avionics bays beneath the cockpit. I have made a few quick measurements to guide me in how much material needs to to removed from the bottom off the resin tub . If I thin the roof of the avionics bay as well the forward section of the tub I may get there. The CW1 (forward cockpit R/H) floor may wind up being the roof of the R/H avionics bay but as this will be below the seat I think I could live with that. Using the resin tub may actually prove to be an advantage in this case because the Kinetic forward cockpit is much deeper at the front than the resin tub. Additionally, Kinetic also screwed up the pilot position as this should be slightly raised and slightly forward of CW1, instead it is level with CW1 and the aft cockpit. I believe that this is also the case with the A-6 family, the pilot sits higher (not sure about forward) than the nav, did HB get this correct? I think you are correct, you will have an easier time with the PE, hopefully you will post some pics up soon, cheers, Pappy 10 hours ago, zebra said: This is looking great Pappy. I'm amazed at how much you've got done so quickly! Painting a tub (well two actually) and some wheel wells does not seem like a lot of work but thanks. I use acrylics cut with lacquer thinners so the paints dry very quickly. I work of the detail painting while major sub-assemblies are drying, it is just more efficient for me that way. I also work on sub-assemblies rather than follow the instruction assembly sequence verbatim, these don't always seem logical anyway. I basically use the instructions to identify what parts go where but come up with my own assembly sequence. Having said that, most aeroplane kits follow a similar sequence, i.e. cockpit, fuselage, wings, general airframe assembly, canopy, undercarriage and ordnance. I tend to assemble in groups defined by colour, so all black parts, all white parts etc, to save on spray time. AGM-88 are included in the kit but the ones in my pics were previously painted and assembled as they were included in another Kinetic kit. I usually assemble and paint all the ordnance included in the kit as it means I have a ready inventory or stores ready when I build the next projo. Most people throw these out if not using them or put them in their spares bin, but I like painting and assembling ordnance, I don't see it as a chore. It is nice that manufacturers are starting to give more attention to stores and include decals for them. G'day people, More assembly work today, first up the wings, I swapped out the kit's wing fold mech for resin, fit was good. I thought I would have some issues getting all the hangy out bits to fit in a clean config but the fit was actually very good. There are more greeblies to add, but I will hold off until the painting is done and the wings are attached. The only nuisance area I have found here is that the speed brake actuator fairings have a gap at the back where they contact the speed brakes. There seems to be a step between the main wing and the closed speed brakes It is a little difficult to get a pic of, this is the best I could manage I was playing around with weathering methods so sprayed up some wheel doors to experiment with, happy with the results so far, The PE door up-lock hooks really look the part cheers, Pappy Edited October 27, 2018 by Pappy 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 Great work and attention to detail, the tow tractor really will add a lot to the overall display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham T Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 Rather unbelievable work there........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 28, 2018 Author Share Posted October 28, 2018 (edited) 16 hours ago, MarkSH said: Great work and attention to detail, the tow tractor really will add a lot to the overall display. Thanks very much Mark 16 hours ago, Graham T said: Rather unbelievable work there........ No quite believable really thanks Graham, G'day people, I have spent today prepping the resin seats. I wanted to make sure that they would fit as have been in the situation before when the aftermarket resin seats did not fit into the resin tub No problems there. I wanted each seat to have its seat belts in a different pose, as if the crew had just stepped out. I imagine the ground crews would dress the seat at some point but I think that looks a little boring. The kit seats are quite nice but there is simply no contest between them and the resin seats, To be fair, the kit seats do not have any harnesses provided and if you were to add some PE or even tape belts it would go a long way to improving them. Also, much of the seat detail on the seat sides will be hidden once installed into the tub. If you had this kit and were only going to buy one piece of aftermarket, it would suggest replacement resin seats as they will be highly visible and tyhe cockpit would be a natural focal point I have also assembled the intake parts, however before I started I separated the engine compressor face from the duct wall to make cleaning up the intake seam simpler Now that the duct was open at both ends, it was a much simpler task to eliminate the duct seam cheers, Pappy Edited October 28, 2018 by Pappy 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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