1/72 A-6E Intruder

This project started out life as a gift from a friend. It's a Revell kit, but took some work. The cockpit was fairly heinous - to more or less rectangular stubs that were supposed to be the seats, and nothing else. Through the forums at ARC I was able to find a white metal cockpit on E-bay. But installing that would take some work. I had to remove a couple tabs from the fuselage in front of the cockpit in order to allow the white metal parts to drop in. This, however, had the side effect of compromising the cross section of the nose area. So, with some styrene sheet I did a little bracing. This provided support and framing for the white metal cockpit, but also gave me something to cement the radome to, restoring and maintaining the cross-section of the forward fuselage. (See below).


I also rebuilt the nosewheel well area.


I had to scratchbuild an air-conditioning intake at the right wing root out of Evergreen styrene strip, and made the air-conditioning heat exchanger exhaust (forward of the right main landing gear well) from scrap sprue I sanded to shape. I moved another intake scoop near the tail to match reference pictures, and scratchbuilt one that wasn't represented.





Finding the kit's markings uninspiring, I opted for Repliscale's "Libyan Raiders" sheet, portraying an Intruder from VA-85. Weathering was with a wash, and also pastels.

A more detailed description of the project is here.


Kit: Revell
Scale: 1/72
Markings: VA-85, USN
Date: 2004
Aftermarket: White metal cockpit, Repliscale decals