1/48 Hobby Boss A-6E Intruder

[JimD]

Looks good. It's always nice to get the crappy parts handled and out of the way. Looks like it should be smooth sailing to the paint booth.

[doogsatx/]

As nice as kit as the Hobby Boss is in most respects, the nose is an absolute failure of engineering. It's supposed to use the radar bulkhead to position itself, but that bulkhead has to be cut away so as not to interfere with the IP hood, and doesn't fit very well anyway. I've ended up ditching it and have instead glued some stout plastic strips protruding from the fuselage to act as guides for the nose.

I've also had to shim the nose to get a proper fit against the fuselage.

ANNOYING.



I also spent some time yesterday evening doing pour stub removal on so many weapons. The 12 Snakeyes and (probably) 2 of the HARMs will be destined for the Intruder.

[wbill76]

That's disappointing on the nose fit I'm sure Doogs. Sometimes you just have to wonder at the design decisions on certain areas that should be fairly straightforward (and important!) on a kit like this.

[JimD]

Unfortunate but at least it's workable. I wonder if this is a trait shared with the big brother. Hope not.

[John Everett]

It is funny sometimes how an otherwise excellent kit will just have a bad part here and there. Looks like you've done a good salvage on fitment.

[doogsatx/]

Jun 4, 2015 16:49:46 GMT -5 JimD said:

Unfortunate but at least it's workable. I wonder if this is a trait shared with the big brother. Hope not.

It's not. It's like something was overlooked when they shrunk down to 1/48, so everything from the windscreen forward is off by just a hair, and it all compounds...

[sturmbird]

nice work on the dump truck! I can well remember the first ones I ever saw as we walked past them in Chu Lai. Probably A6a's. They were big (as in really big!). Those planes operated north of the 17th Parallel daily, and do zero strikes south. Must have been built like a tank, as I've seen some pretty big holes in them.
gary

[doogsatx/]

Welp, the nose is on. Ridiculous the amount of work it took to make this happen (and that I have yet to do in cleanup).



Basically...

- Ditch the forward bulkhead part entirely
- Shim and sand mating edge with styrene strip
- Weld thicker styrene strip in fuselage jutting out to force alignment with nose.
- MEK, touch-n-flow, lots of swearing, need for three hands.



Even thenm, the starboard side is a bit of a mess. I'm going to do what I can to clean up the step, but may end up having to rely largely on the demark between gray nose and desert camo fuselage to mask things.

[doogsatx/]

Man it's been too long since an update. After getting the windscreen and nose together, I guess I needed to not fuss with it for a while.

Last night I did some fuselage cleanup (going sanding the spine seam = I'm going to have to get out the rivet wheel...sigh) and attached the wings and tailfeathers.





And a glimpse in the storage drawer...

[wing_nut]

All of a sudden I feel the need to see "Flight of the Intruder"... again!

[DeafStuG]

Looks good.

[doogsatx/]

Engines!

Had to get these sorted before things got too far along. Happy news is that the exhaust ends can be yanked and inserted at will, so I'll be able to pull them to ease the masking chores when the time comes.

Also think my mix of Alclad Steel and Pale Burnt Metal ended up too much toward PBM. Intruder exhausts are darker. Easy repaint!

[Bat242]

She's looking good there. I will have to grab one of those kits, I'm puttering around with the Revell kit which is lacking in a lot of areas such has the flaps/slats/wing speed brake being fixed in the up position. To me the Intruders always looked wicked when on final approach and whose engines howling. Send shivers up one's back.

[wbill76]

Always nice when you can pull stuff in/out vs. having to go through half a roll of masking tape every time you have to work in a certain area.

[DeafStuG]

Looks good.

[doogsatx/]

Work and family have done a number on my bench time over the last few weeks, and the awesome some spider infestations mean that when I do get bench time, half of it is spent swearing at the way the stupid things manage to get into everything.

But...I have managed to make some limping progress on the A-6.

First up...I made a decision to use the Aerobonus MERs. They're a bit too "sharp" up front, but the detail overall is just exquisite. They're the ones in the middle here - the Hobby Boss kit MER is up top, and the new Eduard MER is at the bottom. All I can guess is that the Eduard is meant to be an early MER, because it's detail is a bit off.



With that decided, I got the MERs and AGM-88 launch rails prepped to mount to the A-6 pylons (drilling into the pylon for the MER, and into the launcher for the AGM-88). The AGM-88 was interesting. I glued in the sway braces, drilled holes in the launchers, and the pressure fit was so tight that when I went to remove them, they pulled out the braces. Which actually works well - because the braces are a tight fit, too.





I also found another shot of 503 from a different angle...this one's going to be a lot of fun to weather!

[JimD]

Slowly inching along. I know that all too well right now too.

Those MERs are all over the place in detail. I'd almost be tempted to use the Aerobonus naked. They look really good.

[wbill76]

It's always interesting to see so much variation in something that 'should' be a standard (and relatively easy) item to recreate in scale. Makes you scratch your head at times...especially when they get it mostly right but can't get it to that 100% level for whatever reason. Still, can't argue with the crisp detail on those Aerobonus items. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the desert scheme when you get to it.

I can fully sympathize with your spider problem...we've been battling a moth/caterpillar infestation in our garage where we keep the food for our African Grey parrot. The moths in question are these little brown/tan suckers that seem to reproduce exponentially worse than rabbits and they found pure heaven in the dark and relatively cool environment of our storage area. The caterpillars love the seeds and peanuts that we had been storing in plastic bins and they managed to get inside ALL of the bins to where there were literally hundreds of them eating their way through the grand buffet . Everywhere the caterpillars go they leave these 'safety line' threads and then of course also spin little cocoons for themselves when they get old enough to transform...creating a huge massive mess in the bins in the process. Forced us to get airtight containers and throw out a lot of food for the bird since the caterpillars have the nasty habit of excreting their waste as they go...and that's potentially toxic for the bird. But at least my workbench is a long way away from the garage, so I don't have to worry about them taking up residence in the builds like your spiders!

[venom1]

Coming along well mate! I picked up this kit in Melbourne back in June and grabbed the Fightertown decals with the green camo bird while I was at it. Will definitely be coming back to this thread when build time comes, you have done a great job in showing us the shortfalls of this kit. I thank you, good sir!

Cheers,

Sam

[Rick]

Looking good Doogs. The pits when you have to work so hard to get parts to fit right. Really like the aftermarket externals you're adding. Those will really dress it up.

Rick

[Rick]

Doogs, bit the big one and ordered same kit off squadrons last sale catalog. Will be my first jet in several decades. Gotta love an intruder

[JimD]

Oct 14, 2015 15:35:33 GMT -5 Rick said:

Doogs, bit the big one and ordered same kit off squadrons last sale catalog. Will be my first jet in several decades. Gotta love an intruder

Yes, you do. I sure hope you gives us a WIP soon.

[Bat242]

Having seen your pics of the Hobby Boss Intruder, I went ahead and got her last month. And Squadron emailed me today with one of their October sales and I just ordered the 1/32 Trumpeter A-6E for $97.01 I just could not pass up on that deal. It was less than what I paid for the A-6A when Squadron had a sale on her.

[Deleted]

Have a friend, who flew the A-6 back in the day, and was checking out your build. Did you finish it and if so, a link to the pix please.