A great demonstration of modeling skills O. Starting to look like an Intruder for sure. Ya I’m not a fan of montex masks. Fit has been okay for me but adhesion has been an issue. Windscreen mask lifted on the La-11 I did resulting in a bit of bleed. I’m a stickler for clean canopies so I was a bit miffed. I’ll avoid in the future unless they’re the only option.
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Whoops - wrong thread if you read it 
Hey gang, thanks for the pats on the back. I’m glad you’re liking what you’re seeing. John, I’m sure if I checked the forums as often as “I should,” I would’ve seen your post. I missed it. Besides their fit, I’ve also had problems with adhesion. I’ve had a couple lift in the corners and over curves. Like I said, I think I’m done with 'em.
Anyway, for the rest of ya, I have a couple of small updates to share. First, the -A is decaled.
I went back and forth between kits and subassemblies while the decals settled and dried. On the Revell Intruder, I was able to get the noisemakers done.
The MERs and Rockeyes are from the kit. The TERS, rocket pods, and Mk. 82s are from Hasegawa. The Hase Mk. 82s were modified with the daisy cutter fuses.
And I started on painting the -E.
The camo is being sprayed freehand with AK Real Colors through a Badger Sotar 0.2. The two darker colors are straight from the bottle. The lighter color is a custom mix suggested by the decal’s instructions. As you can see, still a bit to go, but I’m getting there.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at. Thanks for stopping by. Of course, comments, questions, and criticisms are always welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out. I always appreciate your feedback!
Happy glue sniffin’,
-O
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Your freehand camo is outstanding. I found it really time consuming doing that because I had a lot of redos. Yours us super clean.
Nice work so far O, the camo looks really good. Always thought the “lizard” scheme looked cool on that jet. Nice job on the ordnance as well. If I may, you might want to go back and paint the silver tips of the MK-20’s red. Those are Revell’s poor representation of covers for the spinner on the front of the bombs.
Steve
[quote=“oortiz10, post:23, topic:377490”]
The camo is being sprayed freehand with AK Real Colors through a Badger Sotar 0.2. The two darker colors are straight from the bottle. The lighter color is a custom mix suggested by the decal’s instructions. As you can see, still a bit to go, but I’m getting there.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at. Thanks for stopping by. Of course, comments, questions, and criticisms are always welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out. I always appreciate your feedback!
Happy glue sniffin’,
-O
[/quote]Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang… 
Brent (aka @handiabled ) and I were just talking about this one over at the “other site” and were just blown away by the freehand hard-line camo you pulled off on this thing with the airbrush you mentioned. Just drop-dead gorgeous camo work going on Omar. 
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Hey gang, first of all, thanks for all the pats on the back. I’m glad you’re enjoying my progress. I appreciate the compliments and the feedback. Stay tuned for more progress on the green HB -E. Secondly, I want to thank Steve for the input on the Rockeye’s spinners. I know they’re supposed to be covers, but I decided to leave them silver. I left them that way because I thought they looked more like “fuses” than covers. Still, thanks for the suggestion. Lastly, while progress on the HB boxing continues, the Revell offering is done!
This is my Revell -E “backdated” to a USMC -A in Vietnam. It’s mostly OOB with a few minor modifications. In the cockpit, I used twisted black and yellow sewing thread to replace broken and missing ejection seat handles. I left off the TRAM radome under the nose and a few miscellaneous aerials and scoops. The ECM masts on the pylons were cut from the HB pylons and added to Revell’s plastic. The TERs, Snakeyes, and rocket pods are all from Hasegawa’s weapons sets. The Snakeyes were modified with the daisy cutter fuses. The markings are from Impact Decals and reacted beautifully to Microl Sol and Set. It’s painted with AK Real Colors. I didn’t do much weathering because the period photos I found showed the airframes in fairly clean condition. So, onto the photos!
Thanks for following my progress and for stopping by. Of course, comments, questions, and criticisms are always welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out. I always appreciate your feedback!
Now…back to the HB -E!
Cheers,
-O
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Looks wonderful, love the high vis paint and the Marines livery. I was at the Seattle museum of flight today and was just looking at the real version of that aircraft. You did a great job representing the A-6.
She came out looking good. Looking forward to seeing the HobbyBoss A-6E too.
Steve
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That’s a sharp looking A-6! I really like your subtle weathering. Ejection seats turned out great. Looking forward to the next one.
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Hey gang, I was able to make some progress on my -E, but it was a matter of one step forward, one step back. I’ll explain…
I decided to get the decals laid down. All eight of them. I was excited to see how they looked against the camo. The problem was, once they were on, I noticed the colors didn’t match. I used Fightertown’s color callout, but it seems their printed shades didn’t match the FS colors.
I considered leaving it, but I couldn’t. So, I removed the decals and made masks. I used my Silhouette cutter to make them. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the precision to cut the USN style 45 degree font. Still, I was happier that the colors matched. I can live with the imprecision of the numbers.
I know it’s not much, but I figured I’d show that I am moving forward with this one. As usual, comments, questions, and criticisms are always welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out. I always appreciate your feedback!
Regards,
-O
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The numbers look great. I agree with you that they needed to be redone. No one (but those of us here) are going to notice the less-than-precise font. I think you did a great job!
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I agree with @mrb865 – the repainted numbers look excellent. Good choice to re-do 'em.
Also, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a camo Intruder. I’m only familiar with the grey. Awesome set of builds here.
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Love the commitment O! Sure looks better - I would have been lazy and ran with the kit decals 
Hello there, ladies and germs. I’m (finally) back with some progress on my green A-6. Life’s gotten in the way lately, so I’m slow with the progress on this one. Still, I do have some work to share.
I was able to get the PE boarding ladders done. These were not easy to assemble. At least for me. I have limited experience with PE. Still, I got there.
I got them painted up and eventually installed. Even that was a challenge. The instructions were vague on where they should be installed. Also, they were no positive attachment points for them. I think they look the part.
When building up the wings and their folding mechanism, I noticed that the cover parts for the outer panels were broken on the sprue.
Luckily, with some careful assembly, you really don’t notice the breaks under the paint.
Another lucky break (pun intended) is that the breaks are on the outer wing sections. When they’re folded, any evidence of the break won’t be visible.
HB’s instructions don’t show the installation of the prominent red beacons on the Intruder’s nacelles. In fact, looking at the sprues, I didn’t even see anything that represented those parts. So, I did what I could to scratch some out of clear sprue. I painted them up with some clear red paint.
Not perfect but close. Representation, not replication.
I also scratched the refueling light on the nose from some clear sprue. HB has a part molded for it, but it’s in color and not clear.
I also got the landing gear and most of the doors built up and installed. She’s finally standing on her own three legs!
And that, boys and girls, is where I’m at with my Intruder. I should be able to get it wrapped up in the next week or so. I’m looking forward to getting it finished and onto the shelf.
As usual, comments, questions, and criticisms are welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out. There will be more to share soon. Stay tuned!
Cheers!
-O
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Great progress, she’s looking good.
Steve
OK gang, this is the last WIP post before the final reveal. I got the pylons and MERs built up and installed.
I also got the TRAM turret assembled and hung under the nose. I ran into a few small issues with this assembly. First, the main lens is attached to the sprue and removing it with keeping it circular was difficult. And by difficult, I mean impossible. At least for me. When I was close to getting it round and fitting, it pinged off and was lost to The Tile Creature, a close relative of The Carpet Monster. So, I had to make one out of thin acetate. Also, the smaller lenses didn’t fit flush to the turret. I had to carefully bore out the holes to get a good fit.
The good news is the turret is pointed backwards in my reference photo, so I can use that pose to hide the turret’s imperfections.
I also got the wings (temporarily) installed. They’re just dry-fitted for the sake of the photos. Their installation will be the final major assembly before I add the final fiddly-bits and call this one done. I hope to have it wrapped up by the end of the weekend.
As usual, comments, questions, and criticisms are welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out. Keep your eyes open for the final reveal!
Stay tuned!
-O
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After 11 months, my HobbyBoss Intruder is done!
This photo of a VA-165 Intruder was taken in 1990 while it wore a temporary camo scheme for Red Flag. It was the inspiration for this build. It’s the only picture I was able to find of this scheme. Lucky for me, Fightertown Decals put out a sheet with three of the temporary schemes on it, this green scheme being one of them.
The kit is entirely OOB. It was painted with AK Real Colors. The camo was sprayed freehand through my Sotar with a .2 needle. Although Fightertown put out a sheet with this airframe’s markings, the colors didn’t match with their suggested color callouts. So, I had to create masks and paint them on. Unfortunately, my Silhouette cutter doesn’t have the precision to cleanly cut the Navy’s 45-degree font, so my markings aren’t as crisp as I’d like. I was more concerned about the colors matching, so I can live with the imperfection in the font.
Anyway, here are the photos…
As usual, comments, questions, and criticisms are welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out. I’m happy this one and the Revell offering are done and on my shelf. I’m ready to move on to my next project(s). Thanks for sticking with me on these two. I hope you enjoyed the ride!
Happy modeling!
-O
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