Completed - Desert Storm Air to Air refuelling: KA-6D&A-7E

[misha71]

great job on trumpy's best model

[red Dog]

This summer was really too warm to work on plastic models

 

Now that Septembre came, I'm back to the Bench.

To get back up to speed I decided to work separately on the stores: 4 wing bags and the D-704 as backup reel system.

 

The instruder has all stores hanging from the pylons pointing down quite a bit. Trumpeter does not implement that and the attachment of the stores to the pylon is pretty standard with two sway braces, Nothing more

 

 

that's not going to cut it

i want the forward part of the wing tanks to point downward much more than that.

 

First I embedded the aft sway brace into the pylon.

Second i added extra thickness on the forward sway brace

I placed a plastic rod as the main fuel lines between the tank and its pylon.

I added a forward lug (from videoaviation resin bomb leftover) and a flat lug at the rear then i linked both with 2 plastic rods, one on each side

I glued some photoetch leftover for the gizmos under the aft of the pylon

and I used microtube to make 3 drains under the bottom of the tank

 

Here's the result:

 

I have no way to know if the downward tilt is too much but it looks good enough when looking at pictures of the real thing.
It's definitely something that needs to be addressed with this kit. I just need to ensure i tilt them all with the same angle.

 

Painting the wing tanks isn't finished. the salt technique still need to be toned down a bit (although it's less visible in real than on the picture)

The tanks are dark grey as they are painted TPS for the tram intruders in the squadron.

To be honest, the great thing about these navy paints is that you actually HAVE to screw up and paint again. The more paint touch up you have to do on your model - each time with another variation of your base colour - the closer your result will be to real corrosion control.

That's the reason I did all that detailling work after initial painting.

 

Engraving also need to be corrected. the wing tanks have the two oval doors on one side but the other side has no doors at all and i engraved the first one vertically (that's the kind of silly mistake you do after a too long hiatus - and why i prefer to work on small things were damage can be easily corrected)

The engraving lines aren't at the right location as per the tailhook drawings but i think i'll either live with that.or make them in relief as they should really be.

 

Pylons and tanks don't need to be glued, the plastic rod simulating the fuel line make a great job to secure them together.

Another feature missing are the holes in the aft section of the tank to fit the other fins. I debated milling or painting them but after all i'll try to use custom decals for that

 

i just need two vents added Under the rear of the pylon and a touch of paint to finish the first two tanks. then i have another pair to do ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[stusbke]

And he's back......... nice to have an update on this one...

 

Great job all round my friend

 

Cheers

Fred

[A-10LOADER]

Very nice job with all the corrections, looks much better now. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

Steve

[Finn]

Nice work as always however a slight correction, the fuel line is aft of the bomb rack inside the pylon:

 

 

the large black one in the pic above, with the air vent beside it along with electrical connections. The one you have is the ejector piston for the bomb rack, which normally is positioned against the store anyway so you are good to go, you may want to the add the extra plumbing if you so desire.

 

Jari

[alaninaustria]

Some really amazing and talented modeling going on here Dog!!

Cheers

Alan

[Eagle Driver]

9 hours ago, alaninaustria said:

Some really amazing and talented modeling going on here Dog!!

Cheers

Alan

 

The one and only Red Dog!

My favorite modeler in the world.

Thanx for sharing!

[red Dog]

Thank you guys

 

Jari, I mistakenly called it the fuel line, I'm happy it's there anyway, even if it's not a fuel line

I used this as references, posted by MyDesigna bit earlier in this topic

 

Glad I don't have to remove that center pin and I just have to add another one at the back of the pylon for the real fuel line

Thanks for the useful info Jari as always

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2018 by red Dog

[red Dog]

New technique tryout

 

I have been wondering how to replicate the typical weathering on the KA-6D

Like this

and this: (the white one  )

and this

 

More specifically the nose with the clearly visible effect of dirtying, cleaning, dirtying again...

 

Though the best way to try this would be to get the MIG scratching effect sprayed on the area, then tamiya smoke on it.

Once dry activating the Mig product with water then either brushing the area with a bery old short brush or even a sponge for more effect

First try on the stabs, where it's easily corrected in case of screw up:

 

 

 

Subtle or heavier, easy enough. I'm glad with that. Let's go on the nose area:

 

 

 

 

The contrast is emphasized int he picture, so the effect on the model is less visible (say more subtle  )

I'm happy with it, as always it will be toned down the coming corrosion control (fresh white in some area on top of that weathering) and with the gloss coat that's needed now before decalling

 

The underside and the reel have received the same treatment

 

That's my concept of a good Sunday at the bench

 

 

Edited September 9, 2018 by red Dog

[Yordy]

Wow, I really like the weathering.

[dodgem37]

This is all just amazing.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Eagle Driver]

Did I see a fingerprint on the radome's right side?

Edited September 10, 2018 by Eagle Driver

[red Dog]

haha

 

yes  

can't see it on the model, but i saw it on the picture and removed it since then. bit more of water, scrape a bit more, voilà

 

in the meantime

the decals are out of the printer

 

A quick and light coat of superclear from MRP and soon on the model ...

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

Excellent weathering! Very much to my taste of being subtle but very noticeable at the same time. Im beginning to love that MRP Superclear. 

[red Dog]

Decals are on ...

 

the AOA decals are not reacting much to Microsol, I had to switch to Daco strong solution which works better. Unfortunately one of the big star on the top wing reacted badly and gave a weird result. Not much of a big deal and probably my fault soaking that decal with daco product. All the rest went pretty well with excellent Quality decals

The homemade decals were coated with superclear from MRP and reacted fine to a slight coat of microsol (i didn't dare using stronger decal solution on these.)

 

 

that red homemade intake decal helped a great deal and i noticed AOA added that as well to the revision of the intruder stencil sheet, well done Ziggy. You might also consider maybe adding the fuel tank fin attachment holes in decals as illutsrated below in a next revision

 

the Navy decal was cut after being positioned, it's homemade decals and suffered a bit during the treatment, Nothing a touch of black paint can't fix though

 

the hook isn't glued hence why it dropped and the picture made me realise that the warning hook decal is messed up

 

the D704 drogue was replaced with the steelbeach one. It's much better and i'll have to scratch an opened drogue anyway

the Ram is feathered

 

The wing bags are decalled as well with a bit of artistic licence on the squadron ID. The rear end received homemade decals to simulate the holes in the skin for fitting other types of fins configuration, a feature missing on the trumpeter parts although very visible. Not perfect, but i'm happy with the end result

 

 

Edited September 19, 2018 by red Dog
sp