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EA-6B Prowler


desmojen

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Here's one from me, I picked this kit up for £4 at Telford last year. The box is a little worse for wear, but inside everything was sealed and as new.

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I don't know what it is about this kit, or this aircraft, but since I've had the kit it's been wanting me to build it. Today I finally gave in and thought I'd throw my hat into this GB with it while I'm at it :)

I am doing it OOB, no frills at all, just for fun.

First job then was to put the cockpit together and paint it. This did not take long because there isn't much to it. At all. So I decided to glue the fuselage together before I packed up for the evening. The two fuselage halves fitted almost perfectly on test fitting, until I introduced the underneath part that is. Once that was glued in it introduced a warp which made getting the halves together a merry little dance. I had to glue it bit by bit from tail to nose in the end, and have ended up with a reasonable seam throughout, with a couple of gnarly bits underneath.

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Notice the Old Skool instructions with useful photos and important messages at the side, like - "Never fail to put decals" You have been warned! :lol:

Unlike Dswoofie and his fantasy Sukhoi diagrams, the seats in my jet are an exact representation of the drawing :winkgrin:

Jen.

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Nice one Jen, gotta love the Intruder/Prowler family :thumbsup:

In fact, this may well tempt me into having a bash at my Fujimi EA-6A during this GB :hmmm:

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Nice choice of kit Jen, just one word of caution with regard to the canopy sections. The actual aircraft does not have it's front windscreen tinted at all. Might be worth push-moulding a new clear one, (yep you can do it, your models are excellent). The larger sections are heavily tinted (with gold I believe?) in order to protect the crew from EW emissions etc.

Edited by Glenn
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Thanks everyone! It does look quite a nice kit, and so far it is proving to be reasonable. I believe this is the same kit that Hasegawa now charge nearly £20 for, I wouldn't be over impressed with it at that price!

As for the windows being tinted, thanks for the heads up Glenn, but as I said in the first post, this is a no frills quick and easy build for me so I am happy to overlook inaccuracies and omissions :)

Ok, I eventually ironed out all of the fuselage seams, and then I fitted the exhausts and intakes - which gave me some more ironing to do :rolleyes: I've used superglue as filler throughout, so it is a bit hard to see exactly where it is in photos, but there is a fair bit on there. I used some to build up the decking behind the rear canopy as that was a different shape to the canopy itself, and one of the intakes in particular is pretty well loaded.

Before I fitted the radome I added a car wheel weight inside the front of the fuselage to counter any tail sitting tendencies the model may have had and then sanded that in as well. Eventually, I got everything smooth and rescribed and tonight I was finally able to fit the wings with a clear conscience :D

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The top surface of the wing joint is easily as perfect as the fuselage fit wasn't......

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But you pay for that with a pretty sporty gap underneath. It is the same both sides and will require further ironing, which I will commence after the wings have had time to fully set.

By the way, does anyone have any nice decals for a hi-vis scheme that I could buy or swap for? I'm not over keen on either of the options in the kit and I can't seem to find much online? :shrug:

Jen.

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Looking good Jen. I do have old matchbox decals but you dont want them! Anyhow aren't the ones in the box high vis, or are you looking for even more hi-vis?

Edited by Deon
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Looking good so far Jen :thumbsup2: I built one in 2007, and it turned out ok, and I like the A6 family so I cant wait to see this finished :yahoo:

Bex

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After a somewhat unexpected and protracted fight with various seams I am finally nearing a point where I can apply some primer and start the fun bit - painting :D

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I have finished all the seams at last, and all have had a coat of Tamiya liquid filler with a further rub down. Tonight I put on the large vents behind the wing, having first drilled them out to enhance their appearance. I also fitted the main canopies and the refuelling probe.

The canopies are not too bad, but a slight bit of filling and sanding needs doing on them once the Alligator glue is dry to bring them up to the standard of the rest of it.

Jen.

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Thats a nice looking model Jen, I don't believe I have ever come across the Hasegawa kit, but definitely built the matchbox one as a kid- In those days my models were ranked in order of the number of crew members- so with four seats the prowler was well up the order! groovy gold tinted transparencies as well.

Are you going to have to scratch the turbine blades on the Jamming pods?

Looking good,

Troffa

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Jen, have yoou managed to find any decals yet? I might have a left over set from mine in "Bexys Big Blue Box of Bits"

Bex

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I do have some decals thanks Bex, RichE sent me some :)

Latest shot for you,

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I wrestled the canopies mostly into submission, they aren't perfect but they will have to do, as fairly major work would be needed to get them any better :(

As you can see they are masked and I have painted an interior colour onto the whole area. I am now pretty much ready for a coat of paint :)

Jen.

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Well it certainly looks Prowler shaped to me Jen and those canopies seem to fit fine. Is it just my eyes or could you do with a light touch of filler on the top inner join of the intake to the fuselage there before spraying?

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Looking good Jen, I've got an old Hasegawa 1/72 Lockheed Viking in my stash with the same sort of instructions. Hoping to get round to it before the GB finishes.

What markings are you going for?

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