1/72 Fujimi A-6E  Part 3

With a Verlindin Resin Catapult set

by Everett McEwan

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Having used decals and a Photoetch part to show the formation light strips or "Slime Lights" on my 1/72nd EA-6B I was unsatisfied with the result. This time I found a better way, I used the Eduard Photoetch light strips as masks instead of directly gluing them on. I took a piece of super thin 0.05 plastic card that I already had painted grey and taped the PE parts to it (Fret and all), then I mixed up the right color (white with a small bit of yellow) and air brushed lightly. The first time I did it the yellow paint over sprayed a little, because the mask was not tight enough so I started over and really taped down the part as tightly as I could.  It was also a matter of lightly applying the paint in gently strokes, the first time was to much paint.  After I was done I cut them out using a straight edge and glued them to the model. 

I also masked and painted the wingtip area, and later drew on the panel lines with my fine tip marker.

Painting has always been a problem for me and on this kit I finally got it right.  I found that what I had been doing wrong was not using enough thinner and laying the paint down too thick (I suspected this all along), and like many things in life I had needed enough practice to get it right.  For the paint on the Intruder I used Testor's Light and Dark Ghost Grey on the lower and upper surfaces respectfully.  I then chose to mask off several areas in varying patterns (some along panel lines and hatches) and sprayed lighter and darker shades of Grey.  I did this to simulate the splotching that Naval aircraft get on ship because of spot painting to prevent corrosion.  

 

The wing walk areas were done using a spray adheisive trick of mine.

 

Decaling itself went pretty well, I used Superscale decals for VA-95 Green Lizards (again in honor of Scott Murphy's squadron) and although they were a little big in scale in spots they look good in the end. 
 Everything was sealed with Testors Flat Acrylic. Later after decaling I added more weathering with chalk pastels washed in and smeared.  I went a little heavy on weathering because this is one plane (and most Naval aircraft) where it is actually accurate, these planes got really dirty.  

      

 I added detail to the landing gear struts and the nose gear door using electrical wire and strips of plastic.  One thing needed was to lower the launch bar to engage the catapult shuttle.  To do this I cut the bar off and inserted florist wire in both the bar and the nose gear and set it to the proper height.

Everett

1/72nd Fujimi A-6E With a Verlindin Resin Catapult set diorama  Part 1 1/72nd Fujimi A-6E With a Verlindin Resin Catapult set diorama  Part 2 1/72nd Fujimi A-6E With a Verlindin Resin Catapult set diorama  Part 4 1/72nd Fujimi A-6E With a Verlindin Resin Catapult set diorama  Part 5

Photos and text © by Everett McEwan