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

[easixpedro]

35 minutes ago, jmel said:

This is one of the threads that I always look forward to seeing.  Awesome work, my friend.

 

Jake

Thanks Jake. And a BIG thanks for getting your Modern Prowler Guide published.  I'm shocked at how many details I've forgotten about in the ensuing years...  But your book has them all in glorious color and detail!  This morning I started working on the fuselage details as I bounce back and forth between things.  I'd forgotten how beat up those panels were on the spine. And about eleventeen bazillion Dzus fasteners!

6 minutes ago, jeroen_R90S said:

Thanks!

 

And nice work on the rest, too! You seem to be going faster than I am at them moment... the time just isn't there at the moment.  :S

 

Jeroen

Honestly, I'm playing hooky from a kitchen remodel. Have been teleworking for sometime, so during meetings etc., I just pull the kit over and mute myself and keep the camera off till needed.  Allows me to get plenty done--much more than if I was going into work from 7-4 everyday. Looking forward to more of yours though--the GRU-5 seats look fantastic!

[easixpedro]

OK gents,

Proof of life. Work on the Prowler continues. Figured I needed to scribe the fuselage and get the details situated so that I could be ready to attach the wings. Easier to do when it's a long slender piece vice having X & Y axis.  I gotta say, I hate scribing. Only thing I detest more in modeling is photoetch. Mostly because I suck at both. Lots of re-do's here. Usually fill with superglue and back at it.  To scribe, I use a variety of tools--from scribers, to dental picks and even PE saws, as well as the ever trusty Dymo tape.

 

Here's some pics. The turtleback (the area along the spine) is another of those areas on the Prowler that screams Grumman. Big panels w/ a metric boat load of Dzus fasteners. They're usually beat to heck and some big ol' seams in between. Also took a blade and ran it along the fairing that's just above the wing along the fuselage. That was something unique to the A-6 and carried over.  Most, if not all the wiring ran through there. If there was ever an issue it was easier for electricians to pull panels and run the wiring than to dive into the fuselage.  You can see the SATCOM antenna I put on as well. That's a tracing of the Kinetic kit part, enlarged to the right size and made by sandwiching layers of styrene stock. Also used Archer's rivets to make the screw heads along the football. Turned out OK.

Here you can see where I made the vent above where the wing goes.  Total PITA. Drilled it out and this is my 4th attempt, using slits of .010 stock. Probably could have used super glue impregnated paper to get the right thickness. There's 6 vanes in there, but I could only manage 4.  They were usually beat to snot as well. Original parts to the plane and dang near 50 yrs old in some cases (and being manhandled by 20 year olds working on her in the hangar bays or on the flight deck). Still debating how to finish off the Dzus fasteners. Archer has some--might try those. Or might try to draw a sharp blade across my indentations to make the screw head...

And here's the Port side... You can see the slime lights I added, as well as the various cooling scoops and exhaust vents.

 

Close up of the SATCOM antenna fairing. I used the scoop from the Trumpy kit. I thought they were different, but the kit one looked spot on, so I added it in the correct location. Earlier Prowlers had 2 of these (one on each side)--they provided cooling to all the black boxes in the fuselage there. You can also see where I added the seam sealant along the HF antenna and on the spine. That's done by masking a thin line and then building up Tamiya surface primer w/ a brush.

 

Along the empennage, I added the antennas for the radar altimeter.  Also added a bit of styrene in front of the tail skag as it needed beefing up. Needs to be blended now, but looks better than the pics show.

 

Here's the intakes in place. You can see the single point refueling area I built up.  Can't go any further with the engines and exhausts until I get the wings on. Then back to securing those and adding the engine doors to make this area solid. As it sits right now, it's very 'bendy' and I'd like to get it closed up to add strength before I start hacking away at the forward fuselage to get that done and make the canopies.  I'd hate to break it halfway through the build...

 

And finally, the wings! Made some careful cuts to get the piece out and make the slats the right size.

 

Here it is attached to the slat. Will need some blending, and then thinning on the backside to match the kit slats. Hopefully I can pull it off as the ones from the kit are quite crisp.

That's it for now. Next steps are to finish up corrections to the wing to get them attached and wrap up the fuselage basics. Then onto the cockpits and dreaded canopies...  Actually starting back at work tomorrow, (vice telework) so we'll see how much modeling time I can eek in during the evenings. It will certainly slow things down. We'll have to see which kit gets worked on first--this or the F-4B conversion.

Till next time!

-Peter

[Out2gtcha]

Great work!

 

Really wish we had an IM prowler in 32nd

[A-10LOADER]

You've done a ton of works that's for sure. Things are shaping up. Keep up the great work.

Steve

[blackbetty]

i wish i´d "suck" at scribing like you.....

[easixpedro]

5 hours ago, blackbetty said:

i wish i´d "suck" at scribing like you.....

Thanks, but honestly, that’s the internet for you. It ‘looks’ good in the photos, but not zoomed in enough for the nitty gritty. Also only seeing the end result, after almost 2 wks of work (done in small batches to preserve my sanity).

[easixpedro]

OK Chaps, 

 

Small, but I feel significant update. Have one wing attached!  After I posted the other night, got a few more moments at the bench.  Managed to fix the slats and the resultant hole I'd cut out of the wing. Here you can see the flap, now at the correct length. I still have some work to do wrt filling in the leading edge, but came out pretty decent. The trailing edge isn't perfect, but about as close as I can get to matching the kits crisp trailing edge.

 

Here's she is with the wing attached.  I've had to reassess my plan here. I was going to finish of the major sections of the wing (wing fences, speedbrakes etc.). I'm putting these on hold to get it attached so I could attach some of the engine doors underneath and stop the flexing. I'd just break that stuff off while manhandling it during construction, so it'll be a delicate dance to finish up the nose and cockpits prior to going back and working on some of those things.

 

Here's a shot of the engine bay doors underneath. Frankly, Trumpeter nailed these things. Best I've seen in any scale, A-6 or EA-6. Minus the rivets, they've got the contours and panel lines spot on.

 

What I really love is how they actually captured the 'step' between the doors and the airframe.  The two main engine doors were held on by latches and swung down. Getting them closed sometimes took an act of Congress. While not super low to the ground, the clearance was still impeded enough that you had to kneel, then twist around to try and get the latches to catch, all while holding a seeming 100lb door in place. It was also usually covered in oil and hydraulic fluid.  Fun times. The fit was always suspect, and you were always concerned that you'd gotten it closed correctly. There were a few occasions where the door wasn't completely latched and then was ripped off in flight. My squadron lost one in Afghanistan, then had to send an Army patrol out to locate it in the village where it had landed. If you thought the fit was poor before that incident, imagine the fit after the airframers then had to pound it back into shape...

 

Another detail that Trumpeter captured is the little EMI fingers around the exhaust. The detail is a little soft, but it's there. They look like little notches on that aft most door around the exhaust.  What's an EMI finger you might ask?  Well they were all over the jet and helped ground panels to prevent EMI, or electro-magnetic interference. Those jammers put out a TON of power, and let me tell you that you knew immediately if something wasn't grounded right because whatever component wasn't shielded/protected usually stopped working immediately after the jammers were turned on.  Random factoid, but I'm pleased that Trumpeter caught these details.

 

Next up, I'll start modifications on the other wing and get it attached. Then I can get the engines completed and the doors on.  From there, we'll see what I decide to tackle next. 

 

Thanks for following along and I appreciate all the comments!

Till next time.

-Peter

[jmel]

I love it!!!!

[A-10LOADER]

WOW, she's taking shape, nice work so far. I once again commend you for tackling this project. Looking forward to future updates.

Steve

[jeroen_R90S]

Really looking great, thanks for the heads-up on the engine doors. I'd been thinking on how to get them to sit flush!

The do have very thin mating edges, though.

 

Are you going to install the rest of the engines? (I don't intend to on my A-6)

[easixpedro]

1 hour ago, jeroen_R90S said:

Really looking great, thanks for the heads-up on the engine doors. I'd been thinking on how to get them to sit flush!

The do have very thin mating edges, though.

 

Are you going to install the rest of the engines? (I don't intend to on my A-6)

Glad someone will get something useful out of my random streaming of thoughts and remembrances!

 

I'm leave the engines off to save weight.  Still debate how to represent the spinning compressor sections. I've used a printed photo before, but almost pointless that far back. I could paint it dark metallic gray and call it good and no one would ever know. Will experiment with it soon enough though.  Stay tuned!

-Peter

[Marcel111]

Impressive progress, learnig a lot here for my Intruder build.

 

Cheers,

Marcel

[Pete Fleischmann]

This thing rocks.

I love the Prowler- and you are making this look easy!

 

cheers

 

Pigfighter

[easixpedro]

On 2/4/2021 at 8:43 PM, Pete Fleischmann said:

This thing rocks.

I love the Prowler- and you are making this look easy!

 

cheers

 

Pigfighter

Thanks Pig. I don't think I've ever heard a Viper driver say that. I had a witty retort all ready to go last night, but life got in the way. I'll make it up w/ some Jeremiah Weed if we ever meet up.

 

As folks are apparently taking notes, here's the best example to illustrate the belly that I could find scrolling through my HD.  VAQ-140 over Afghanistan circa 2010~ish or so--if folks remember KOLJA from Arc and other various forums, he's in this bird. What you can't see is their helmets all done up like the helmets in Easy Rider.  Some might say over the top even.

 

But check out the bottom of this aircraft. I think it shows all those engine bay doors to good effect. Also shows the landing gear doors too--those are some monstrous seams...old Airfix style trenches! As I look at it, I'm reminded of how many scoops, inlets etc. are on this airplane. Believe it or not, her top speed was "LBA" or limited by airframe. With out stores on her, you could go beyond the speed of sound. Have done it a few times (sure, pointed down hill, but when you look at this picture, you understand why!).  But seriously, down low in the A-6's realm, she was a beast. Powered by J-52s, which was the same engine in the Regulus cruise missile, and later (?!) the A-4, before they started using them on the Prowler.  We could easily push 550 knots down low for over an hour. You'd be moving along at such a clip that Hornets and Tomcats would tap burner to keep up.  Sounds odd, but the ol' girl could get up and move! 

 

I also happened to find this pic in the same folder. Always makes me chuckle--most of the airframes I flew were built before I was born. In fact, the airframe I probably have the most time in, was the first production a/c (BuNo 158029).  But I digress, how about some glorious gray and white airplanes! CAG-9 on the Constellation at the end of Vietnam. For how little has been published about the Prowler, there's even less about the early planes.  I've got an original NATOPS manual--so I can kind of make sense of it. Cockpits are wildly different, and lots of variations in the airframes, antennas etc.  If you're building one of these original birds--study photos is the best I can tell ya.  And oddly enough, I think the old 1/48th Airfix kit has the right cockpit for one of these early birds.

 

Also, started working on the other wing and then got sidetracked (sometimes have the attention span of an ADHD 6 year old and I just have to try something on the kit--keeps the mojo fresh I guess). Broke out a block of balsa that I had laying around to start figuring out the ALQ-99 pods--the jammers.  Here's a couple of quick cuts. I'll do some plunge molding--should work fine. Will do both halves just like a vacuform kit--want them to be hollow and light weight.  To get ones the right size, I enlarged a tracing of the Kinetic 1/48 EA-6B kit pods (had done that years ago for the 1/24th build).  Don't use the old Monogram Prowler kit--those pods are an earlier generation pod and the wrong size. More on that process as I get around to doing it.

 

Hopefully more soon!

-Peter

 

[Zola25]

This is just amazing. I have always loved the Prowler, and now I just really really want to have one in 1/32 - When you are done with this incredible build, could you please send it to Trumpeter for some "inspiration"