I beg a little forgiveness; I need to tell this tale to explain how in the world this build got out of control.
It all began innocently enough when a good friend (Let's call him TM, not to be confused with PIF my Project Instigator Friend :winkgrin: ), mentioned that he had in his closet, a kit of an aircraft he had worked on when he started his service with the Navy Reserves. He had heard from a mutual friend (here enters my infamous Project Instigator Friend) that I occasionally build models for friends. Could I build a model of one of the EA-6As that he worked on while serving with VAQ-209? Since I was looking for something a bit less challenging than the recently completed CASA movie star series, I agreed. As I already had a kit of an A-6E in my stash, I would even waive my usual fee of supplying me with a second kit for my collection. Two models to build, no problem.
A couple weeks later we were out for dinner with our wives, and the conversation turned naturally enough to airplanes. Here is where things began to go awry. TM thanked me for agreeing to build the EA-6A but wished that there was a kit of the aircraft he worked on for the majority of his career, the EA-6B Prowler. I told him that such a kit did exist, but was relatively expensive.
Never underestimate the connection between a maintainer and HIS aircraft! Soon the call came, 'I found two of those Kinetic Prowlers, if I get them both, will you build one for me? Oh sure, I'll probably never buy one of those for myself, it's a deal and thank you! So now I have 4 models to build of very similar types, should be fairly easy.
VAQ-209 Star Warriors is based at Andrews Air Force Base just outside Washington DC, not far from where TM and I work. He thought that with both of us working for the FAA and he being a former Star Warrior we should be able to arrange a visit to obtain reference pictures. Would I be interested? Uhhh yeah, I might at that! :mental:
The Squadron showed us the utmost hospitality, the maintainers positioning scaffolding, one of the aircrew spending most of the morning with us, and the CO himself acting as our escort for a time! Perhaps the fact that we are both former air traffic controllers and worked the squadron in and out of ADW for many years helped. Skipper and I spent some time talking airplanes; turns out the Prowlers are due to be replaced soon by EA-18Gs. My comment that the departure of the big Grumman was notable in light of the type's long service history was the turning point between reason and this project.
That's when Skipper appealed to the historian in me, would I be willing to be part of preserving the Star Warriors legacy by building a display for the Squadron? TM (who I think was trying to take over the role of Project Instigator :poke: ) offered to supply the kits, and wouldn't it be great if we could find some EA-18G kits, and if I was going to build one for the squadron, we could all have one. So this makes how many? How hard can it be? But how could I turn that down!
The final line up, as seen below is:
Three EA-6A (Revell), Four EA-6B (two Kinetic, two Italeri), Three EA-18A (Italeri), One A-6E (Revell). Note: two of the -6As have been combined in one box, two EA-18s yet to arrive.
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Some aftermarket to spruce up some of the weak points.
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Let's get started! A motor tool and files were used to open up the engine bay cooling intakes on the Revell EA-6As .
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EA-6A and 6B cockpits parts prepared for assembly.
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k550/modelpicposter/Intruders%20Prowlers%20and%20Growlers/DSC00582.jpg
Wish me luck, this project is gonna be a challenge!
Eric aka The Yankymodeler
Part 2
Some of the Intruders and Prowlers will be displayed with FOD covers in place, and some not. Widely noted is that the kit supplied intakes are too shallow, and a number of aftermarket replacements are available. We were unable to get enough of the OOP Seamless S****r,s so we ordered sets by AMS and SBMR from the normal model supply houses. Preparing the Intruders and Prowlers that will not have FOD covers, I came upon the first issue. On inspection there seemed to be some discrepancy as to size of the fans. A quick check of references showed the diameter of a J52 engine as used in the Intruders and Prowlers should have a diameter of 38 inches. Seamless S*****s scaled out pretty close, but the other fans and ducts are a bit undersized as seen below. The intake portion of the AMS and SBMR, to me look very good needing only the small flat step to be added to fit the Prowlers.
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Closely inspecting the Seamless S*****s I thought I noticed a difference in height between the left and right intakes. Getting out the calipers (I'm not normally a retentive rivet counter but asymmetry drives me nuts!) I found indeed a difference in exterior and interior measurements. The difference doesn't seem like much but is apparent when seen in position on the model. The fan faces and deeper parts of the intakes are very close if not identical to each other.
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The question now is what to do, I have one set of fans and ducts of the proper diameter, and 4 sets of good intakes. I have some ideas, I'm going to try out a prototype this week. I'll get a report out as soon as I see how well it works
Some work on the cockpit bulkheads to allow a rod be used for the canopy opening ram.
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To accommodate the tapered interior and exterior of the patterns a two piece mold is needed. A few castings were pulled and at first glance didn't seem too bad with just a bit of cleanup needed.
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As I proceeded to check the fit I noted a few areas that could use some improvement. The castings were a little rougher than I expected and the fitting work ended up shortening the intakes enough to distort the profile. Choosing the best set of castings, I corrected the length by epoxying a styrene spacer to the back of the intakes which also helped create a truly flat surface.
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k550/modelpicposter/Intruders%20Prowlers%20and%20Growlers/DSC00650.jpg
The ducts interior were also refined and soon a improved set of patterns were complete. This weekend I hope to get a set of molds made up and start casting. If the castings turn out well I will use them on all the Intruders and Prowlers.
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The Intruder cockpits need quite a bit of work to bring them to an acceptable level of detail. The kit seats will be replaced by the beautiful Aries aftermarket sets, so the first order of business was to remove the molded-in seat bottoms from the cockpit tubs. This left a fairly good sized hole in the tub that was filled with styrene, the bulkhead had grossly over sized 'seat rails' molded in that were also rmoved. The equipment well in the shelf behind the cockpit is represented by unconvincing, shallow soft detail. I removed this and replaced the 'bottom' with sheet styrene.
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The Prowler cockpit tubes are pretty good starting points and after attaching the bulkheads, both sets of cockpits are ready to start receiving some additional styrene details
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Once past this stage I'm anticipating (and hoping ) the builds will become a bit more straight forward!
For those following this build, particularly the members of VAQ-209, my apologies for the delay in getting an update posted. As usual, I had a slight setback. A sufficient number of castings for the intakes, ducts and fans had been made and clean-up work began. Squadron green filler was applied to small imperfections just before stopping work for the night. The next day I continued with the intention of sanding smooth the filler only to discover to my discomfort the filler had remained soft after having almost 20 a full day to dry! I'll admit to some consternation and disappointment at this point! :badmood: What in the world caused this?!? Then it struck me, I had used the same resin for the Battle of Britain CASA 2.111 build that resulted in the saga of the plastic eating resin!
To make a long story somewhat shorter,by this time the molds were also showing signs of wearing out. A new set of molds were made up and casting began using a different resin. With the new resin, the castings look good and no issues have risen so far. :pray:
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When it came time to begin work on the cockpits, it became clear that the kit parts of the Prowlers and Intruders needed a lot of work to be acceptable for models that were going to represent the VAQ-209's history. The EA-18Gs were totally unacceptable. I am not one to turn immediately to aftermarket details but the amount of work it would take to improve multiple cockpits of each type would be prohibitive. Fortunately my project partner offered to supply sets of the the excellent Aries cockpits for the Prowlers and Growlers. Thank you TM! :angel: We have been unable to locate sets for the Intruders so some scratch building will be necessary, but the work load now is reasonable.
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In the meantime the fuselages, wings and tails were removed from the sprues. When I realized it took be over 30 minutes the scope of this project became apparent! :blink2: Here are the major components layed out, note that only the top surfaces of the wings are displayed!
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The intakes and ducts are next to be installed, and will be the subject of the next update
Long overdue for an update, I blame the delay entirely on AMS and a miscalculation on the part of the manufacturer of the custom built intake/duct sets.( whomever that might be :whistle: ). As installation began on the first Intruder, when the duct was matched to the intake I noticed the well for the boarding ladder appeared to be very shallow. Investigation revealed that I had not moved the interior of the duct far enough inboard to allow for the boarding ladder well. Drat! :badmood:
I needed open ladders (another long story with which I won't bore you) so with no other recourse I modified the masters, made new molds and recast the intakes. The increased depth of the outside wall can be seen here comparing a first and second casting.
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k550/modelpicposter/Intruders%20Prowlers%20and%20Growlers/DSC01136.jpg
The back of the well for the boarding ladder is also the outside of the duct. The duct casting's walls were too thick so a motor tool was used to thin the wall to a more appropriate thickness.
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Clean up and painting of the intake/duct/fan units then proceeded fairly quickly at that point and finally as seen here a sufficient number of sets are ready for installation!
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As I only discovered my error after the initial production run, I now a few extra intakes suitable for closed ladder display!
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Turning to the EA-18s, inspection of the kit parts quickly dashed any hopes that these supplied ducts and fan sections were acceptable. The ducts taper too fast leading to miniscule fans and are much too short. An online search for pictures also revealed the prominent vent seen on the outside of the intake did not have a gaping opening on the inside of the intake but appeared to terminate in a perforated strip on the inside wall. Some work was going to be required here. Now there's something different for one of my projects.
How to address this new challenge? Unable to find aftermarket intake specific to the Italeri Super Hornet, I ordered 3 sets of Two Mikes intakes designed for the Hasegawa kit to use as a starting point. It was only after I submitted the order that I read the notice on the website (It was hidden in large,bold, red type at the top of the first page) that Two Mikes was going to be unable to fill orders until February. As the work on the intakes needed to be completed early in the construction sequence, I needed the parts asap! I placed a call to Mike and pleaded my case to the answering machine. 30 minutes later I received a text message from Mike! Explaining the build as being part of a presentation to VAQ-209 and I needed the intakes to continue with the build Mike graciously offered to ship my order by that Friday! A big Thank You to Two Mikes and a plug for excellent service!
:clap:
Beautifully cast, the intakes were designed for the Hasegawa kits and therefore needed to be converted for use in the Italeri. The inboard section of the kit duct was cut at the point that matched the dimensions of the Two Mikes part. Careful trimming and fitting yielded a fairly good fit the the forward portions of the kit intakes.
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Styrene sheet was used to form the inboard and outboard wall and shims.
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k550/modelpicposter/Intruders%20Prowlers%20and%20Growlers/DSC01097.jpg
The intakes were epoxied into place earlier today and are curing as I write.
The Italeri kits although capturing the shape and outline well, were based on the prototype EA-18G and have a number of features that differ from the production versions. First are a number and style of vents on the underside of the fuselage. These were filled and modified with styrene to better represent the later configuration.
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After
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Simple process, just repeat three times!
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Next will be the ECS vents and the rest of the changes to the later configuration.
A bit more progress to report as well as the discovery of yet more work to be done. The Revell EA-6A kit is based on the their A-6 molds, understandable as the EA-6A airframe is based on the Intruder. The Revell kit has included the external armor seen on the engine bays of the Intruders which in my research I noted are not always present on the EA-6A. The pictures I found of VAQ-209 aircraft did not appear to have the armor. Hoping to avoid additional work I called TM (whom you may recall was the instigator of this saga) who confirmed that he never saw the armor on the EA-6As.
My initial idea was to simply grind off the armor but found the wall was joggled behind the armor section, probably to avoid shrinkage issues. I then resorted to cutting the armor panel out, using a styrene sheet as a backer to stabilize the area and forming a filler panel from more styrene matching the thickness of the kit wall.
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This was repeated for the three EA-6As in the build.
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The raised panel lines were removed and appropriate panels scribed. A tape template was used as a guide for the access panels on the nose to help keep consistency.
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I find scribing to be somewhat time consuming but fortunately I have a pleasant place to work which allows me to be with the family.
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The Italieri EA-18s have not been ignored, a few pieces of styrene strip were used to better represent the unique intakes on the lower aft engine bays.
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k550/modelpicposter/Intruders%20Prowlers%20and%20Growlers/DSC01195.jpg
My modifications to fit the ducts into the Italieri kits needed a bit of filler and shaping to match the intakes. Although a bit tedious, the results are satisfactory. A few minor tweaks and they should be ready for final paint.
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k550/modelpicposter/Intruders%20Prowlers%20and%20Growlers/DSC01196.jpg
Just a quick update to reassure faithful followers that I haven't gone completely bonkers (yet ) and progress continues on the production line. Work has shifted to the Growlers as the production manager has, well burned out on the big Grummans :frantic:
As previously noted, the Italeri kits capture the shape of the EA-18G well but were based on the prototype EA-18G and have a number of details that differ from the production versions.
The ECS vents need to be change to the later types. Fortunately the later boxing includes a small sprue containing the later ECS vents and fairings. Unfortunately I had 2 of the earlier kits and 1 of the later, so a mold was made and copies cast.
The early vents were removed with a motor tool and file,s and a styrene plug shaped and glued into place.
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The late ECS vents are located forward of the early so the new location was opened up and a sheet of styrene attached to the inside to act a 'floor' to shim the replacement vents to match the surface of the fuselage
Here one of the kit and a casting ECS vent are test fitted to the new location
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The scribing for the engine access bays are not correct for the Growler so they were filled and rescribed. A template was used to help keep the scribing consistent on the three models.
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The intakes have been filled and are ready for paint, I hope to have that done by next update as well as the first installation of the intakes on the Intruders and Prowlers.
Eric aka The Yankymodeler
