EA-6B Prowler (02 April: Done!)

[easixpedro]

Quick update. First coat of color and some stickers. Used Pigs trick and painted it black first, the flooded areas gray to bring out the details. Lots of touching up to do and add the clear bits and decals for the pilots radar repeater. Pretty stoked how its looking  though. 

-Peter

[Anthony in NZ]

Looking real good Peter! Another masterpiece coming together

[easixpedro]

So funny story. Was attempting to attach the clear bit for the pilot's radar scope.  Of course it popped out of the tweezers with the momentum of a sabot round going down range. Felt it hit my toes and heard it bounce on the floor. 10 minutes later I still couldn't find it.  No carpet monster...its tile floors. Alas its a different monster, the 8 legged type that has spun a hefty web under the cabinets. Considering the number of wolf spiders I've killed down there, I quickly grabbed it and got back to building. 

 

Anyway, calling the IP done. Macro lens is brutal...need to do some touching up. 

 

 

This one ended up a bit blurry,  but you get the idea.

 

Next up figures and ejection seats for the front cockpit. 

-Peter 

[A-10LOADER]

I like it !

Steve

[Panzerwomble]

Fully agree ...........Macro lens is a mean mistress ......

 

I'm not convinced my modelling is better now that it was 40 years ago , I just can't see how bad it is anymore 

[easixpedro]

6 hours ago, Panzerwomble said:

Fully agree ...........Macro lens is a mean mistress ......

 

I'm not convinced my modelling is better now that it was 40 years ago , I just can't see how bad it is anymore 

It hurts to admit I’m right there with ya!

[easixpedro]

Started working on the pilot, and oddly enough this popped up in my memories today (lost him 21 years ago today): Russ Gates wrapping up preflight checks and about to taxi up to the cats. Gator was a HUGE dude. Was a linebacker for Purdue if I remember correctly. Best stick and rudder man I've ever flown with. Test pilot and made the first selection round to become an astronaut. One of his favorite things to do was an inverted climb out after launching at sea. Airframe limit was 30 seconds...so anyone that flew with him learned really quickly to cinch down the lap restraints-thats a lot of time for blood to be pooling in your head. That's Lumpy up front with him (...a short, squat guy). I'm probably in the back seat and out of the picture. You could always tell when we were up front as both our noggins were above the ejection seat. Another thing about Gator, he always wore the standard issue aviator shades. Dont think I ever saw him with his visor down. We'll see if I can add shades to my pilot...time will tell. 

 

Thought I'd share as it's just a great pic of a great dude!

[easixpedro]

Not much work happening as life has been busy.

Managed to get the base started. Similar to my Phantom conversion if you followed that one. Here it is with holes for the padeyes drilled and the padeyes inserted.

 

You can see I drew the centerline, the a faint line, 9 degrees offset.  That's how much the deck is angled from the ship's centerline. That's the line that I used to set the padeyes. 

Here's the pattern I used, as before

 

And of course a quick fit check. She's pretty saggy here as I haven't put a tube in the wood for the hook to fit snuggly. I'm at the limit as far as weight is concerned--it'll hold just fine,  but that moment arm is pretty heavy.

 

Here's the approximation of how she should look...will have to watch how much weight is added though.

 

Peter

[Uncarina]

Champion work and I love how you mix history with defying gravity in your builds!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[easixpedro]

Finally had a night to work on the build. Of course its Halloween,  so the time amounted to about an hour before the ghouls and goblins started knocking at our door and I stopped for the evening. 

 

Only managed to get the pilots console built out, which you can see here. Took some doing to get the throttles set up, but got a good approximation. Especially considering the pilot's hands will be covering 'em.

 

Here you can see the beginnings of ECMO 1. He'll be grabbing a small handle in the windscreen/canopy bow. You can see his left hand, resting on his thigh. Most ECMOs flew with their hands pretty close, but not touching the ejection handle, as the front seater was the only hope for getting the crew out should the situation arise. Night catapult shots were the worst, as SOP called for the Guy up front to have his flashlight out and illuminating the standby gyro,  as the main one had a tendency to fail during the catapult stroke.  The thought alone is enough to make my palms sweat.

 

Here you can see that I've got a bit of work ahead of me to try and get the pilots hands on the throttles. As it is, his arm is about 3 mm too long.

 

That's it for now, more as I get back into working on her.

-Peter

[chrish]

great work!!

[stusbke]

On 10/22/2021 at 2:08 AM, easixpedro said:

 

Here's the approximation of how she should look...will have to watch how much weight is added though.

 

Peter

 

what are you doing don't tempt me in to one of these damnit... LOL 

 

about the aoa of the jet when she's almost plowing on to the deck it looks kinda steep no.? I know you have quite the down slope aft of the boat to get onboard. But doens't one have to see the meatball all the time? Or is that part of hte reason its offset tot the left so you can keep an eye on it all the time.? Anyway I know you know more on that then I'll ever will ,so I'll trust it will be right on the money, but damn that's quite steep! When looking at video's on youtube it never ever looks that's steep its all about perspective isn't it...?

 

Carry on my friend! I'm really looking forward to seeing this bird done... it's an epic display...and it's getting me all excited to try on of these myself!

 

Cheers 

Frederick Jacobs

Edited November 1, 2021 by stusbke

[easixpedro]

10 minutes ago, stusbke said:

 

what are you doing don't tempt me in to one of these damnit... LOL 

 

about the aoa of the jet when she's almost plowing on to the deck it looks kinda steep no.? I know you have quite the down slope aft of the boat to get onboard. But doens't one have to see the meatball all the time? Or is that part of hte reason its offset tot the left so you can keep an eye on it all the time.? Anyway I know you know more on that then I'll ever will ,so I'll trust it will be right on the money, but damn that's quite steep! When looking at video's on youtube it never ever looks that's steep its all about perspective isn't it...?

 

Carry on my friend! I'm really looking forward to seeing this bird done... it's an epic display...and it's getting me all excited to try on of these myself!

 

Cheers 

Frederick Jacobs

Well, you've already started with a deck scene, its just a natural progression! I don't know if anyone told you, but once you start doing scenes, you can't really stop. It's like addiction (first hit's free...the rest, well...).

 

I will definitely be tweaking the stance of the jet once I get the gear sorted. The standard carrier approach is 3.5 degrees, which provides some clearance from the ramp (and the LSOs can adjust it steeper if the deck is really pitching in heavy seas). Also have to remember that the Prowler was a beast in that Grumman took a solid airframe (the A-6) and stretched it and totally messed up the CG. Made landing at the ship difficult on a good day. I mentioned it earlier, but a good place to re-discuss.  Most pilots that selected Prowlers had the highest grades in flight school--especially during initial carrier qualifications. Most had dreams of being fighter pilots and then due to their excellent performance got stuck with "the needs of the Navy." Reason being was that the Prowler was all analog and had hydraulically assisted bell cranks/ pulleys, and always came back with everything hanging from the wings. No HUD, and no flight computer to assist you in getting aboard. Anyone that got great grades was virtually guaranteed a Prowler slot, which often wasn't enough. During initial carrier quals in the Prowler 75% of 'em failed and had to go back for another round--it was that big of a beast behind the boat!  She had some wicked tendencies and downright brutal stall characteristics. All in all, it led to some very disgruntled Prowler pilots: Great sticks, but stuck with 3 know-it-all NFOs that did the majority of the tactical work, except the really important bit about being able to get you home for sliders at Mid-Rats. 

 

But I digress. More to come of the AoA as I get there. Those pics were to convince myself that my hook would hold and that I can pull of this scene.  It'll be close. I'm wondering about all the pods and drops that will be hanging as well--might do an empty LAU, as we shot a lot of HARM on that deployment. In the end, I can always put a small bit of clear styrene under one of the main mounts, but that will be a last resort.  More soon!

-Peter

[stusbke]

36 minutes ago, easixpedro said:

Well, you've already started with a deck scene, its just a natural progression! I don't know if anyone told you, but once you start doing scenes, you can't really stop. It's like addiction (first hit's free...the rest, well...).

 

I will definitely be tweaking the stance of the jet once I get the gear sorted. The standard carrier approach is 3.5 degrees, which provides some clearance from the ramp (and the LSOs can adjust it steeper if the deck is really pitching in heavy seas). Also have to remember that the Prowler was a beast in that Grumman took a solid airframe (the A-6) and stretched it and totally messed up the CG. Made landing at the ship difficult on a good day. I mentioned it earlier, but a good place to re-discuss.  Most pilots that selected Prowlers had the highest grades in flight school--especially during initial carrier qualifications. Most had dreams of being fighter pilots and then due to their excellent performance got stuck with "the needs of the Navy." Reason being was that the Prowler was all analog and had hydraulically assisted bell cranks/ pulleys, and always came back with everything hanging from the wings. No HUD, and no flight computer to assist you in getting aboard. Anyone that got great grades was virtually guaranteed a Prowler slot, which often wasn't enough. During initial carrier quals in the Prowler 75% of 'em failed and had to go back for another round--it was that big of a beast behind the boat!  She had some wicked tendencies and downright brutal stall characteristics. All in all, it led to some very disgruntled Prowler pilots: Great sticks, but stuck with 3 know-it-all NFOs that did the majority of the tactical work, except the really important bit about being able to get you home for sliders at Mid-Rats. 

 

But I digress. More to come of the AoA as I get there. Those pics were to convince myself that my hook would hold and that I can pull of this scene.  It'll be close. I'm wondering about all the pods and drops that will be hanging as well--might do an empty LAU, as we shot a lot of HARM on that deployment. In the end, I can always put a small bit of clear styrene under one of the main mounts, but that will be a last resort.  More soon!

-Peter

LOL 

 

alright then consider me hooked then... I guess..

 

Thanks for the stories..

 

Cheers 

Frederick Jacobs

 

 

[easixpedro]

Kay, so….this post IS NOT for the faint hearted. 
 

Last post was about building out the front cockpit. Got all the consoles built out and then started building the center section with all of the canopy mechanisms.

and here it is

and a quick coat of paint to see how it looks, with figures in place. Everything fits.

 

But then I put my canopy on and realized something was really off. All that stuff is really tucked up in there and not that visible, (unlike here).

 

 

If you’ve been following me on this journey, back in April or so (around page 12), the measurements just seemed ‘off’ to me. Couldn’t figure it out and set her aside to work on the Phantom.  Well, I couldn’t leave it alone as this was a pretty glaring error to me and would throw off the entire look. I scaled a decent pic I found on the internet to match the front section of the fuselage. It became obvious pretty quick…

 

I had shortened the aft cockpit by easily 5 if not 6mm. It looked tight to me to begin with, but I ignored that thought and kept pressing. Clue #2 was the circuit breaker panel in the aft cockpit. It was sticking way out into the canopy, so I cheated a bit there to try and fudge it. That led to compound errors as I moved into the forward cockpit and had extra space.

 

So. I did what any ‘sane’ person would do a proceeded to rip apart all my carefully scratch-built work! Here you can see the beginning. Also note where I marked the corrected position of the aft cockpit instrument panel.

 

Hold your breath, aaaaaand here we go!

 

Oddly enough, I was able to salvage all of it. Judicious use of debonder in surgical areas allowed me to peel things out no worse for wear.

 

 

I was able to use everything and just shift it forward 5mm. Worked like a charm, all things considered. Here’s pics of everything back together, awaiting painting and some final touches. Note how the  decking between cockpits is much smaller. Huge improvement in my eyes.

 

And here it is with my test canopy. I reworked the dimensions and used standard blue painters tape. Also helpful not having the striped Washi tape, which was doing all sorts of weird perspective things (almost like old Dazzle camo). Check out the scribed mark in the clear…that’s how far off my previous drawings were.

And another angle. Everything looks much better and frankly just ‘fits’ unlike what I was feeling earlier.

 

Years ago, Pig told me that when scratch building, be prepared to make to make things 2 or 3 times before you’re happy. Sage advice and I was singing his praises as I sorted it all out. Zen at its finest. Did it take longer? Absolutely. Was I happy with my previous attempt. Kind of. No not really. Fix it and do it right. I’m growing and learning as I build, so having fun, which is what this hobby is for me.

 

So now we’re all up-to-date, and you know why I’ve been silent on this net for a bit. Up next, I’ll finish off the details and get painting up front. I’ll double check for any missing details after all that cutting and regluing. Then hopefully figures and on to canopies…

-Peter