FineScale Modeler – September 2019

26 FineScale Modeler September 2019

Make Italeri’s EA-6A into a folded-wing wonder

BY FRANK CUDEN

Intruder Alert

W

hen Italeri delivered a fine
1/72 scale EA-6A
(No. 051), the early two-
seat electronic warfare/elec-
tronic countermeasures version of the
Intruder, the kit stirred my interest.
Once I started the Electric Intruder, I
never looked back. Even in 1/72 scale it’s a
big model, so its separate folding wings
were a nice option that would allow me to
save space in my showcase. However, gluing
those folded wings in place would elevate
my stress level late in the build as I could
have used three hands!
Still, I wanted a folded-wings version,

and this would build into a sharp Intruder.

Here’s how it went.

Starting the build

I started by assembling the 4-part kit seats,

1 , then tried EA-6B seats from Aires (No.

7629), but they were too short, 2. Luckily, I

then found photo-etched (PE) pull rings in

an old Reheat set that I could substitute for

the overly thick kit parts. I also substituted

its PE seat belts and shoulder harnesses.

That finished, I realized this could easily

become a tail-sitter, so I super glued buck-

shot in the nose cone.

Next, I moved to the wings. The fold

detail is acceptable, although I had to widen

the “finger” slots a bit to ensure a good fit

when they intermeshed, 3. The kit wheels

had a couple of small “dings” in them after I

sanded off the center seam line, so I

reverted to pre-internet days of typewriters

and used Liquid Paper as a filler, 4. It works

well for minor depressions and sands out

easily, plus it’s a faster drying filler than

modeling putty.

After significant time spraying and

hand-painting detail, the cockpit was tak-

ing shape, 5. In the end, the kit seats, with

some PE detail added, really came to life.

Now it was time to button up the fuselage,

Frank Cuden used online photos and more

references to accurately detail a 1/72 scale

Italeri EA-6A Intruder.