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KA-6 Intruder (Italeri 1/72)


Fox_Two

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6 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Looking superb. Can I ask what primer you used there? It looks really good.

 

Terry

Yes! What good is a WIP if I don't mention what I'm using??

 

Primer was done with badger stynylrez. Highly recommend it.

 

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While I still have some cleanup to do I want to briefly discuss my painting strategy for this kit.

 

First, I've decided to go with VA-176 - Thunderbolts. I like the contrast with the black fuel tanks and the overall scheme. It's not a real A-6 without that big 'ol tan radome.

 

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Tidbit - this is a navy aircraft while the box art shows this as a Marines variant. Not the first error/goof on this kit! Some sprue numbers are wrong in the instructions too.

 

Anyway, I'm going to be following a modified process I adapted from user Andy Moore. It's a three layer blend. Which builds up the color from dark to light. I tested this on a bandai snowspeeder I did and loved how it turned out. 

 

(1) First layer will be primer. In this case black. When I said modified it's technically a three layer blend but also black basing.

 

(2) The next layer will be a medium or neutral gray for the bottom (which will end in white) and a darker aggressor or gunship gray for the top.

 

This will be mottled on randomly as per standard black basing. This will be complete coverage including panel lines.

 

(3) Final color which will be MMP White for the bottom and MMP 36622 Camo Gray for the top. This will also be mottled on. This time avoiding panel lines. 

 

(4) A final mist coat of thinned paint from above to blend it all in.

 

If the snowspeeder was any indicator this should turn out really well and give it a nice worn random appearance. 

 

The contrast between layers should look good too. You want an even step between them. If you pick a color too dark for the second layer it will blend in with the primer too much. Too light and it overpowers the final coat. Same goes if it's too close to the base color, you won't notice it. So you want to pick something along the same gradient.

 

I've also mottled some random browns and greens to added weather variation in the past on select panels. However I've felt it gets blended in too easily. Better off saving that energy for post paint weathering.

 

I will however you with the idea of lightening the final base coat color with white and overspray a few panels to give more variation. But we will see how it turns out overall first. 

Edited by Fox_Two
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So I've settled on a pallet for now. Same MMP base colors but the mid tone will be Vallejo German grey.

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It's nice because it has a little bit of green and a little bit of brown tint to it while still being a grey/neutral color.

 

I'm going to use it as the mid tone for the whole plane since it will show a nice even wear and tear from a heavily used navy aircraft.

 

Of course, I'm going to test it on a mule just to make sure it gives the result I want and doesn't look ridiculous.

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So here's my test mule. It doesn't look like there's much to gain from the intermediate layer so I'm going to skip it and just mottled directly on the black. MMP paints are fairly translucent so they should build up nicely.

 

White is always terrible to get good color modulation. It either turns out muffled or gray if you don't build it up and too bright and bland if built up too much. With a black base if you miss any spots or don't cover enough of an area you get shadow like black patches.

 

The camo gray will turn out nicely. I think for the white I might just go over the panel lines lightly with a dark gray heavily thinned to get some modulation. Weather will take care of the rest.

 

 Black base plus intermediate layer added:

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Base colors added and blended:

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So she's all taped up and ready for final base coat. I already painted the underside white and the flight controls.

 

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...And the base coat applied.

 

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Now, here is a happy little accident. But first, let me preface this by saying that when you spray two camo colors ALWAYS be sure to overspray the first color way more than you think. This way, when you go to mask off the first color you don't get what I got here:

 

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Funny thing is, I kind of like it. I don't think it's historically accurate but it's kind of a cool effect. It just so happens the other side has exactly the same effect with the exact same demarcation size. So that helps my decision in keeping it. So, should I decide to keep it I just need to do a few white touch ups (as you can see in the photo), paint the nose "radome tan", and then paint a few red areas on the wings and access stairs. After that we're off to the gloss coat!

Edited by Fox_Two
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Minor details have been painted and it's ready for a gloss coat. Dealing will begin shortly after that.

 

Not too many blemishes and the red painted in nicely after extensive masking. Red is one of those colors you don't want to mess with. You need to mask like it's going to be sprayed with a rattle can from a foot away. Even the slightest overspray will be an eyesore and even harder to get out.

 

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Topside decals are on. Italeri decals are really great. They're thin, slide off the backing within seconds, and snuggle down nicely. I'm not sure but I though I read somewhere that their decals are unmarked cartograf.

 

Only issue I found so far is that the colors are off. The anti skid is a blueish color, as seen the photos below, but should be more of a black/gray. It'll be fine though once we weather it 

 

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Close up show how nice they snuggle down. Hardly any raised edges since they're so thin.

 

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Sweet looking build, makes me wanna start my Italeri A-6E 👍

 

And I agree with Italeri decals (and marking options in general) - they seem to be really good. Apart from 1:32 Starfighter - had lot of problems making them stick nicely for some reason... 🤨

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  • 2 weeks later...

Decals are complete. Some minor placement issues but only the most hardcore rivet counters will notice. This occured due to panel detail in the instructions not matching the model. This made determining the placement locations for some decals difficult.

 

I'm going to slice along a few panels lines and reapply solvaset but other than that we're done with this step.

 

Next will be to gloss coat it again to seal the decals and move onto weathering.

 

Always be sure to wipe down the model with water and a lint free cloth/tissue. It will remove any leftover residue you might not be able to see from the decal solutions.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Black enamel wash has been applied. I like to go with Tamiya black panel liner. Some don't like it because it causes too much contrast on gray aircraft. I tend to agree but I like the contrast. Too much contrast though and it looks like a cell shaded render.

 

Here's a before and after. Bottom wing is no wash applied and the top had the wash (before cleaning it up). You can see it makes a big difference in bringing out the details.

 

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Here is the fuselage with the wash and cleaned up. Next up is oil weathering and will use some Tamiya weathering powders. We're almost home!

 

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So I started weathering the fuel tanks. This baby has 5. I decided to go heavy on them. Between carrier launches and heavy use in the air I would imagine they get quite grimey. 

 

For the black ones I used titanium white to simulate heavy fading. For they white tanks I used a mix of burnt sienna, white, and a gray mixture.

 

These are all oil paints. There is no method to the madness but I apply them with a mix of wet/dry sponges (some with or without thinner) and paper towel. My trick is to just keep dabbing and dabbing and dabbing the paint to simulate grainy look to fading. 

 

I might have overdone it but we will go with it.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you very much for this. I am looking at Italeri due to problems with SWORD Kits.   I see you had problems with the cockpit fit on the KA6....    With SWORD I started with The T2V-1 Seastar... Two cockpits on the T2V-1 and a piece which goes below the front cockpit and has on its underside the front undercarriage bay.  If all this doesn't line up the fuselage halves don't close together. Eventually I got the fuselage together then found the back seat was too far back and too high so the canopy wouldn't go over it. 

 

I am encourage by your article to go for the KA6D...... Thanks again.

 

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On 2/10/2020 at 7:43 AM, twinpin said:

Re - Contrast with Black panel wash .. suggest MM Burnt Umber

I agree. I think for darker camo schemes a black panel liner looks best. However for lighter gray ones, like this, I'm probably better off with a burnt umber.

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On 2/10/2020 at 3:43 PM, twinpin said:

How many coats of the Grey and White to cover the black primer, please?

With black basing there is no rule on how many coats. It's all about effect. You want that mottling to show through. Too little coats and it looks unfinished, too many and the effect is gone. I'd say it took about 3 light coats after the mottling step for both gray and white.

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  • 1 month later...

So a lot has been going on Since my last post almost 2 months ago! I never thought I would be close to finishing and would be stuck in weathering limbo.

 

First, because my second child is on the way soon, I got evicted from my office. So I had to spend some time setting up the garage into a man cave. It was finally complete a few days ago - thanks in part to all the quarantining due to the Coronavirus. Here's my workbench:

 

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Now onto the task at hand. The bird is fully weathered and is mostly assembled. (Not Pictured) Fuel tanks went on easily but the gear doors (Not Pictured) are another matter. There are absolutely no locator pins for it. The doors themselves have locator tabs but the fuselage does not. So it's one of those painstaking tasks to line the doors up with superglue and pray when you let go of the tweezers they end up in the right spot. Most kits good and bad are like this and it drives me insane. 

 

In the pictures you'll note some touch up and clean up needs to be done on the canopy. I always seem to rip away some frame paint when I remove the tape. Maybe I should slice the tape next time before trying to remove it. Altogether though it turned out well and the canopy glass remained clear and didn't fog.

 

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The overall weathering started off pretty modest, as it usually does, and devolved into a gritty, grimy, mess. Hopefully in a good way. I used a mix of oils and tamiya weathering powders. I used mostly lamp black and umber as well as titanium white mixed with lamp black to get a gray shade. The gray shade works out well and isn't as off putting or stark as using the lamp black alone or umber color. I just kinda went over the whole think with some dots of oil and then blended them in exclusively with a sponge. Kind of how you would if you were chipping. I highly recommend this method.

 

To add some more specific details I added an umber streak on the bottom and two streaks on the wings. I also lightly shaded the panel lines on the upper fuselage from the wing to where they meet the top of the fuselage.

 

Lastly, I just dusted some areas using the tamiya powders to add a little more variety.

 

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I should have this completed by the end of the week or even today. I just need to do a few touchups, add some more gear doors, and the tail hook.

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