FineScale Modeler – September 2019

http://www.FineScale.com 29

stairs with a Prismacolor silver pencil, 17.
Other photos showed a small vent pipe just
behind the boarding stairs, so I used a slice
of plastic tubing to replicate the pipe.
A small red light on the antiglare panel
was used to illuminate the refueling probe
during night operations. I sliced a short
length of .035-inch styrene rod, tapered the
end, and added a drop of Kristal Klear for
the lens. That was followed by a touch-up
with silver and a drop of Tamiya clear red
on the lens.
I had reached a point where no addi-
tional work was needed on the airframe so
it was time to add the final parts, 18.

Final push
The kit canopy and windshield were used as
masters, and new ones were vacuum-
formed from K&S .015-inch clear sheet
styrene (Part 1304). I masked and sprayed
the frames using Floquil engine black.
Having earlier refined the wing fold fin-
gers, they slid into place easily. I used
Gator’s Grip white glue to position the
folded-wing support struts and Tenax 7R
liquid cement to secure the wings in their
folded position.
The Gator’s Grip glue allowed time to
position the support struts correctly, or so I
thought. After the wings and support struts

were glued in place, and dry, I realized I

should have shortened the rods as the

wings should have been closer together

when folded. I trusted the kit parts to be

correct and was fooled, hence the wing

positions, 19.

Live and learn, I guess.

I did see photos of the wings folded as I

have them, but without stowage support

struts in place so they’re “kind of ” correct.

Italeri provided a deck inside the canopy

and I was able to glue it to the vacuum-

formed copy. Unfortunately, when glued in

place in the open position, the canopy hid

some detail on the turtle decking behind

the seats. The yellow wire stands out and is

just visible.

With the Shrike missiles glued to the

outer wing pylons, and two scratchbuilt

rearview mirrors glued under the canopy

framing, the model was all but complete. I

had notched the wingtips earlier to accept a

couple of coats of Micro Kristal Klear,

which built up the navigation lights. A coat

of Tamiya clear red and green, followed by

a coat of Tamiya acrylic clear provided a

glass lens appearance.

The finished model accurately portrays

the brutish look of the electronic warfare

aircraft that was a mainstay of the U.S.

Navy and Marine Corps air wings during

its time on active duty. By adding so much

ordnance this may seem a complex build.

However, minus the ill-fitting folded wing

support struts, everything went together

well.

This is a busy model, but reflects the

period’s engineering design for its role as an

ECM aircraft along with all the external

stores that it could carry. The aircraft was

created to do a specific job and it per-

formed well.

The EA-6A is both ugly and beautiful.

But stealthy, it was not! FSM

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The Intruder’s body is now mostly finished and

ready for finishing touches — oh, and wings.

Here is another view of the shroud and the

ejection seats. Floquil caboose red paint makes

the boarding stairs stand out on this busy

model.

Fine solder and three small sections of styrene
strips were used to improve the instrument
panel shroud.

Getting the folded wings to set in the proper,
or nearly so, position is a bit of a trick. Learn
from my mistake.

Ultimately the model went together well, but the Intruder was a busy build, especially after

adding all the ordnance.