Painting gave me some trouble but in the end worked out OK, I just wish that the paint job Matched the quality of the rest of the kit. Painting is something I am still learning and getting better at. Because it was a CAG bird I kept the paint job neat, without the usual splotching that other low-vis Prowlers have, and weathering was also kept to a minimum. I also used a semi-gloss acrylic finish instead of the usual flat that I use on modern Naval aircraft.

     Decaling gave me a lot more trouble than it should have, partly because of bad luck, maybe bad decals, and maybe because of poor technique on my part. Basically I ruined one stars and bars (masking tape pulled it off), lost part of the lighting bolt and the 500 nose number just to handling alone, even though I had sealed the decals with future. I replaced the stars and bars with one from a old Hasegawa F-16A prototype kit I have (kit decals were yellowed but star and bar looked OK) and it luckily was the same size. I filled in the yellow of the light bolt with paint (but non of writing could be replaced- "spirit of attack") and drew in the missing 5 on the 500 (now no drop shadow). Once again another reason to pull my hair out.

Next was the wing fold, difficult but not impossible to do.  

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I of course had cut the wings along the fold lines at the beginning of the project, and painted them separately from the rest of the kit. 

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I chose to use a bent paper clip to hold the two wings to the main wing for strength, placing it into the position occupied by the main hinge on the real plane. Although on the real EA-6B this is a triangle shape (I did try to add plastic strips to the inside to replicate this but looked bad), I had to settle for a simple U shape that works better than gluing the wings without it. The rest of the detail was added using bits of evergreen plastic and rod, using walk around pictures as a guide.  

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After all of that was done I finished up by adding wires and plumbing to the landing gear, including detailing the back of the front gear door using pictures for reference.

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Next came the canopies  which included adding all the detail to the overhead (lights, and coiled wire) as well as the Eduard framing and mirrors. Although they got a few scratches and dirty spots, tinting them with Tamiya Smoke and dipping in Future fixed most of that and looked good in the end.

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      For me this was a trying kit, one that proved difficult to super detail due to the small size, but on the other hand taught me a lot and allowed me to advance my skill. I think that given the right amount of patience and skill this kit can be built with all the detail I added without the problems I had, but for most people I would recommend getting your hands on Monogram's 1/48th version (now out of production). The next two EA-6Bs I will be building will thankfully be in 1/48th, allowing for much more details due to the larger size. I already have amassed several detail parts for my kits, including 2 very nice Black Box cockpit sets, two Eduard Photoetch sets (A-6), a cutting edge wing fold, Paragon flaps, True details Photoetch set, and several decal sheets. I look forward to building those kits with the experience gained from this one, as soon as my skills are ready for it.

Reference;
EA-6B Prowler by Detail and Scale
A-6 walk around by Squadron
World Airpower Journal

Everett

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1/72 Hasegawa EA-6B VAQ-136 CAG Bird part 1