PeterB Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 (edited) 12 hours ago, Wings unlevel said: The modeller’s version of the one tha got away! I’d love a Fujimi KA-6D, if ever I could find one! The story of my life, and I guess a few others of us as well. I would go into my LMS, see a new kit and think "can I really afford that today", decide that I would leave it a week, and guess what - sold out when I went back! The gray/white scheme looks good when finished but it is a bit tedious to paint. Getting there slowly - the white is just about done but the grey is primer at the moment. As I seem to have got the ballast right I have glued on the nose. Some of the parts currently in white primer will be repainted in "cream" aka Radome Tan. Whilst waiting for paint to dry, a bit more background. I don't know about you but my knowledge of ECM was a bit weak and mostly restricted to the British efforts during WWII both on the ground and in the air with units such as 100 Group, but researching this model has filled in a few of the gaps, so here is a brief and simplified summary. Before interfering with your enemies radio and radar you need to know what they actually have so you have to undertake surveillance. The info can come from captured equipment, spies, and so on but it often involves somebody flying a plane equipped with a range of sensors as close as possible, and sometimes even over enemy territory but as the model is of a countermeasures plane I will say no more about that. During WWII the Brits used a range of devices the best known of which is Window, and that still is in use in an improved form called chaff. Besides Window there were things code named Mandrel, Piperack, Airborne Cigar, Carpet, Jostle, Airborne Grocer and others, their main function being to jam both air and ground based hostile radar and interfere with ground to air communication. One thing no longer used AFAIK was a German speaking operator either in the air or on the ground who tuned in to the frequency of the German fighter controllers and issued fake orders. Later the Germans began to transmit music so that for example a waltz might mean that a certain city was the target, and again the Brits interfered by transmitting their own music from more powerful land based transmitters of the BBC. After the war ECM seems to fall into 3 categories – wholesale broadcasting of a powerful signal which will mess up the enemy radar so that your plane and its accompanying strike package becomes difficult to see. Interfering with communications between the ground and hostile planes. And in the simplest form, trying to confuse incoming radar guided missiles – what is sometimes called “track breakers”. So what did the Prowler carry to do this? The main “offensive” equipment on all versions was the AN/ALQ 99 pod, of which it could carry up to 5. This was of modular construction and each one had 2 jammer packs which could be swapped about to meet the perceived threat. There was also a control unit, a transmitting antenna in a radome, a cooling system and in the nose a wind turbine operated electrical generator to power everything. In the earliest version they weighed around 950lb each and this rose with progressive modifications to around 1050lb. The first version was able to jam 4 frequency bands – Band 1, Band 2, Band 4 and Band 7. The system needed receivers to tell the operators what and when to jam so, as mentioned earlier the Band 1 and 2 ones were on the sides of the vertical fin and the others in the “football” fairing on top. This was the type fitted to the “Standard” version of the Prowler and was fairly limited and needed a fair bit of manual control. More next time. Pete Edited February 17, 2023 by PeterB 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 A bit more progress - the "proper" Light Gull Gray is now on. The front canopy is not fixed yet but I put it in place so I could glue the two halves together - for some reason all of Hasegawa's A-6 kits have it split down the middle which is far from ideal but at least there is a frame line to hide it - perhaps due to moulding problems back in the day but Fujimi seem to have managed to mould it in one piece on theirs. Some touching up to do as my masking suffered a few small "bleeds". Speaking of masking, it is not my favourite subject at the moment - I am having to use 20 small pieces of tape for each of the ruddy jamming pods, which leads me nicely on to the second part of my lecture! The AN/ALQ 99A covered Bands 1/2 ,4, 5/6, 7, and 8/9 with the extra receivers also being in the football and was used on the EXCAP and some Standard versions and the 99B and 99C just had some minor changes to improve reliability and handling. The 99D for the ICAP-1 introduced digital technology and computer control to improve ease of handling, performance and reliability. All 5 of these pods looked the same externally. The 99E was fitted only to the EF-111A and was more automated so that a crew of just a pilot and one operator could handle it. The next USN version was the 99F which was radically different in ways I won't bore you with, but suffice it to say it had a much faster and more powerful computer system, was even more automated and generally better. The pod shape changed slightly as did the receiver antennae and it was fitted to the ICAP-2 versions only. Not only did the pods weigh around 1000lb each, they would have generated a fair bit of drag in their own right, and according to one of my books, when the wind turbine prop was operating that also caused enough “parasitic drag” to knock about 1% off the planes range for each pod, which I guess is partly why they very rarely fitted pods to all 5 stations. Well, that's the basic painting done so now on to the fiddly detailing - I may be a while though some will have to be left until I find out how the decals work as the ICAP-I version has a few differences in paint scheme. Pete 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby No Mac Posted February 17, 2023 Share Posted February 17, 2023 Coming on nicely. Always preferred the USN workhorses like the A6 family and A7 Corsair over the glamour jets. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted February 19, 2023 Author Share Posted February 19, 2023 Getting there steadily - most of the detail painting is done but plenty of touching up to do yet. The canopies are not too bad after all but will need a little work to blend them in better. I did try my spare Matchbox Prowler windscreen but although close it was not quite the right size so I ended up with the kit tinted one. Ok, so having dealt with the "offensive" side of the ECM equipment we now come to the "defensive" as it were. I have already mentioned the AN/ALQ-93 VHF comms jammer and its associated blade aerial under the nose. This also had limited capability against some of the early SAM systems, was liquid cooled and had an airscoop on the Port side of the rear fuselage. It was fitted to machines in the range 158029 to 162230 and was removed following an instruction issued in January 1985. The Standard and EXCAP versions also had the AN/ALQ-100 " multiple band track-breaker deceptive ECM system" . the outward evidence of which was aerials sticking out of the front of the two outboard wing pylons., and this was a track breaker for use against S and C band radars as used on the SA-2 missile system, Nato codename Fan Song. This was replaced on the ICAP-1 version with the later AN/ALQ 126 system which covers E to J Bands, and is characterised by a modified “saw tooth” aerial at the bottom of the refuelling probe and a small “beer can” receiver at the rear of the “football;” on the tail. In this early boxing Hasegawa provide outer pylons with the aerial and forgot to mention the need to cut them off if building an ICAP-1 version, though I gather they included an extra pair of pylons without the aerial in later boxings. They also correctly include an optional “saw tooth” refuelling probe and a “beer can”. Modified versions of the AN/ALQ 126 system were also used on ICAP-2 planes. Above are the 2 versions of the refuelling probe. The Prowler carried much more equipment but I have bored you enough😄 Pete 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cklasse Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 Rare bird. I had a hard time looking for a Hasegawa 1/72 Prowler, so I gave up. Instead, I upsized to the next available one in the market and bought a Kinetic 1/48 Dark Warrior Prowler. Your A-6 Intruder looks good too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOD Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 This is looking great. I like gull grey. It has an understated elegance about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arfa1983 Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 This looks awesome. So much so that I've decided I need a Prowler in my life. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cklasse Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 (edited) 7 hours ago, arfa1983 said: This looks awesome. So much so that I've decided I need a Prowler in my life. It is useless to resist…….come to the dark side. Edited February 21, 2023 by Cklasse 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted February 21, 2023 Author Share Posted February 21, 2023 (edited) 13 hours ago, Cklasse said: It is useless to resist…….come to the dark side. That is an interesting variation on the paint/markings scheme - any idea what sort of date it is meant to be? I see it has the "radiation" symbol on the nose that Chris @helios16v mentioned earlier! I have tidied up the canopies, finished most of the touching up, added the wheels and arrestor hook, glossed it and made a start on the decs. They are old and brittle in spite of a coat of varnish on them, and I had one or two problems but they have gone on better than I expected so I have "crossed the Rubicon" as it were, and it will be an ICAP-1 version. The airscoop behind the wing is the same colour as the rest of the plane - honest! I think it looks darker because of the lighting and shadow. Whilst waiting for them to dry I painted the front nosewheel door - needed my magnifying headset! Looks better from a distance - Macro can be a bit cruel.😄 Now I need to get some more decs on and finish off the tanks and pods in the correct paint scheme. It will be an aircraft operated by VAQ-134 "Garudas" (to quote Wiki' In Hinduism, Garuda is a divine eagle-like sun bird and the king of birds'), which unit was originally formed on EKA-3B in June 1969, transitioning to EA-6B in 1972 as the third USN Squadron to operate that plane. In September 1977 it had returned from a 8 month deployment aboard USS Enterprise to replace its EXCAP Prowlers with ICAP-1 models and then between April and October 1978 it was onboard Enterprise again in the West Pacific and that will be the period I am modelling. Presumably due to their designation "VAQ", I gather that the crews of Electronic Warfare planes were known to the rest of the Carrier Air Group/Wing by the now politically incorrect name of "Queers". Pete Edited February 21, 2023 by PeterB 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helios16v Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 On 2/16/2023 at 4:05 PM, Wings unlevel said: The modeller’s version of the one tha got away! I’d love a Fujimi KA-6D, if ever I could find one! Yeah, they don't come up very often. I pounced on one a few years back that popped up on the bay for reasonable price. The decals were trash hence the reduced price. I've got a set of VA-95 decs for it anyways. Got lucky with that one. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted February 21, 2023 Author Share Posted February 21, 2023 (edited) Right, that's all the "unit specific" markings on except for the Enterprise decs which I will be replacing with a DIY ones due to the problem I mentioned earlier. I will also be replacing the national markings as they are out of register, the red bar not being centred correctly. I will use some from a sheet of Xtradecals which covers the blue and white stars from 1942 onwards, having separate red bars. This saves having 2 sheets, one for WWII and one for Post-War but aligning the bars can be a pain, particularly on the smaller ones. Not sure why they chose to let you save money - perhaps they too were concerned about the decs being out of register having seen their sheet with RAF C1 roundels! Having decided to build the ICAP-I version I will have to modify the wing paint scheme slightly - according to the instructions what I have so far is correct for the earlier Standard/EXCAP version but this one has the white control surface extended further forwards which will be fun - I am glad I am not going to build any more grey/white USN planes in the foreseeable future. This particular aircraft, Bureau Number 158030, Grumman in-house number P7 was actually the second Prowler built from scratch, 5 of the previous 6 being converted A-6A. It was in a batch of 12 "Block 30" machines and was accepted by the Navy in February 1971. Converted to ICAP-1, if Hasegawa are correct it served with VAQ-134 in at least 1978 and may have been converted to ICAP-II but I have found out little more about it other than that it was seen serving with the Marines of VMAQ-4 in 1995 and was put into storage at AMARC in October 2009 - it may still be there as there is no mention of it being scrapped in my source material, but I guess the chances are it no longer exits. Time for some masking! Pete Edited February 21, 2023 by PeterB 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 4 hours ago, helios16v said: Got lucky with that one. The thrill of the hunt! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted February 22, 2023 Author Share Posted February 22, 2023 (edited) Bit of tidying up to do as usual but I have changed the wing colour scheme to one for the VAQ-134 ICAP version. I have also finished painting the tanks and pods - as you can see the "low band" one nearest the camera is fatter, has longer cooling radiators/heat exchangers and has a different rear end. Incidentally I repainted the wing walkways in dark gull grey to match the ones on the tail surfaces and the little steps I added on the intakes. This particular unit painted the split wingtip speed brakes aka "boards" black it seems. As I may have mentioned earlier the original early A-6A Intruders were built with perforated fuselage brakes but as they proved problematic they were deactivated and replaced with ones on the wingtips. From then on all production A-6 variants had the new version except for the EA-6A where changes to the wing to add an extra outboard pylon meant that they reverted to fuselage ones. I have removed the pole type antennae for the AN/ALQ-100 on the outboard pylons as suggested by D&S but have just noticed that there is a large fairing at the top on the outboard sides which I guess might have been something to do with that equipment. Logically that should perhaps also be removed but D&S do not mention it in their review and photos of ICAP-I and -II planes seem to show it still there so I have left it alone. So, a little more painting and then back to the decs. Pete Edited February 22, 2023 by PeterB 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arfa1983 Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 Looking great Peter. Are you going to weather it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted February 22, 2023 Author Share Posted February 22, 2023 (edited) 3 hours ago, arfa1983 said: Looking great Peter. Are you going to weather it? Hi Arthur, Whilst I weathered quite a few of my steam locos, I don't usually go in for it much on planes - we will see. Given the timescales I mentioned it would probably have been only a few months since the ICAP-I conversion when I imagine it would have been repainted before being allocated to its first user, and as it was "peacetime" it probably would not have had that much flying time but then things do weather pretty quickly at sea.. I have not seen much weathering on this colour scheme in photos, unlike the "tactical" grey scheme. Pete Edited February 22, 2023 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted February 23, 2023 Author Share Posted February 23, 2023 Plodding along steadily. I mentioned that the kit stencil decs were a bit crude and so I was hoping to use the ones for the Microscale sheet I found in the box after I bought it second hand. Of course these are somewhat thinner than the kit ones and are now very fragile even after a couple of coats of varnish to strengthen them but fortunately there are 3 complete sets on the sheet. Even so I think some of the small No Step/Do Not Paint ones will be missed out. In the meantime I have managed to finish the AN/ALQ-100 pods. Should be finished by the end of the month. Pete 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted February 25, 2023 Author Share Posted February 25, 2023 (edited) Nearly there. I should probably have extended the black/white stripes to the top of the hook. The red bits just inboard of the speed brakes are the ends of the wing fuel dump pipes, there also being one under the tail. I have no idea what the red "boxes" on the inboard leading edges actually are but it seems that at least some planes had them. Bit of touching up to do then I will fit the outboard pylons and jammer pods, followed by the refuelling probe, small aerials/pitot heads on the nose and the "beer can" receiver on the tail and it will be done. Then I can make a start on my final entry. Pete Edited February 25, 2023 by PeterB 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted February 25, 2023 Author Share Posted February 25, 2023 Right, all the bits are on and painted so it just needs a finishing spay of varnish. I have painted in the black rectangles between the legs of the arrestor hook to represent the chaff/flare dispensers - in rear life they were a grid of "discharge tubes" but Hasegawa only provide "wells". The two pitot tubes are now on alongside the nose, together with the "saw toothed" refuelling probe and "beer can" at the rear of the "football". This was a receiver for the AN/ALQ-126 track breaker system, the transmitter being mounted in the fairing fixed to the bottom of the rudder. This system replaced the AN/ALQ 41 and AN/ALQ-100 transmitters on earlier models which were mounted in the same place and all three only covered the rear aspect of the plane to defend against incoming SAM's. The kit has gone together pretty well though it was a bit of a pain to paint! Pete 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 26, 2023 Share Posted February 26, 2023 Looks good Pete By "good" I of course mean that, like Arthur, I now want one as well 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted February 26, 2023 Author Share Posted February 26, 2023 7 hours ago, Col. said: Looks good Pete By "good" I of course mean that, like Arthur, I now want one as well Thanks Col, Quite a few about in 1/48 but quite rare in 1/72. Most are quite expensive, some ridiculously so but there is a cheap one on e-bay if you don't mind paying £25 for postage from Oz, though that may tempt one or two of out Antipodean modellers! Can't quite remember when I bought this but around 5 years ago, maybe a bit longer, and I doubt I paid more that £12 ex postage. Anyway, it is finished - The fit was a bit fiddly at times but I am pleased with the result. Pete 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin W Posted February 26, 2023 Share Posted February 26, 2023 Great final result Pete. I built this kit when I was a teenager back in the 80s and I remember being very impressed. After a diet of Airfix this was a great leap forward. Good to see it still stands proud today. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnl42 Posted February 26, 2023 Share Posted February 26, 2023 Oh nice! That's a fine Prowler! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 26, 2023 Share Posted February 26, 2023 Good work Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-muc Posted February 27, 2023 Share Posted February 27, 2023 Thanks for the inspiring build thread. So I will build my Prowler in the coming FAA group build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted February 27, 2023 Share Posted February 27, 2023 Very nice indeed . Well done Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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