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I built this kit for a buddy that
I served with in the USMC. He'd had this kit for years in his
attic and never had attempted to build it. I volunteered to
build it for him when it came up in a conversation about
modeling. My friend wanted the kit built "out of the
box" with no major modifications and using the kit provided
markings, in other words, no expensive aftermarket junk…
Considering that the kit had been stored in an attic, it was in
remarkable shape with the decals showing hardly any ill effects
of the long storage period.
This is the second time I've
attempted to build an Airfix Prowler, the first being the one I
built for the Cunningham Museum display we had in the Beaufort
Library (anyone remember that???). The kit has many problems
with accuracy, fit, and detail!!!
While the overall shape of the fuselage and wings are correct,
the fit is poor and will require much filling and sanding with
the natural requirement of rescribing the panel lines lost
during the process. One of the wings was also slightly warped
although I didn't catch this until late in the build.
The cockpits were totally
incorrect in layout and lacking detail. There is little or
nothing in the way of wheel well and landing gear doors detail,
with the landing gear itself being far short of correct. The
intake and exhaust ducts require filling and sanding where they
join the fuselage and have little detail. The electronic
countermeasure pods and drop tanks also lack in fit and detail.
I found a lot of the parts to be way too thick for scale,
particularly the landing gear doors.
Because my friend wanted the kit
built OOB and in a somewhat timely manner, I ended letting a lot
of the inaccuracies go… except for the cockpit. There was no
way I could let that go without some correcting. I have bought
the Black Box EA-6B cockpit for my Monogram Prowler and figured
that I could shoehorn the Monogram cockpit (which is 1000%
better than the Airfix cockpit) into the Airfix kit with only
some "minor" modifications… Yea right!!
First of all, I sanded the Airfix
cockpit locators/supports out of the fuselage halves as well as
any other molded in flaws. I then started trying to fit the
Monogram 'pit into the void.
To get a good fit required much
sanding of the forward cockpit tub along the sides (to allow the
fuselage halves to meet) and bottom (which was hitting the
molded in intakes) and the adding of evergreen stock to the aft
cockpit sides and back wall (to fill a gap that was present
after getting the forward half squared away). I also had to
modify part #24 (the aft cockpit/fuselage fairing piece) by
removing the vertical surface and sanding the aft wall of the
aft cockpit to fit the remaining piece. The aft wall of the
forward cockpit and aft cockpit instrument panel had to be
sanded down to fit under part #25 (the piece of fuselage between
the forward and aft cockpits). The forward cockpit instrument
panel also required some sanding to fit as will the pilot's
control stick.
Once everything was
sanded/shimmed to fit, all the normal cockpit painting and
buildup was done and then the cockpit, fuselage halves, bottom,
tail hook well & two top fuselage-fairing pieces (parts # 24
& 25) were all glued together. I left the four ejection seat
backs out of the fuselage cause I felt they'd just get knocked
out or broken anyway when the sanding started… They're easy
enough to install just before the canopies.
Now the wing halves were glued
together and glued to the fuselage along with the exhaust
fairings. The intake fairings were installed. Some filling of
gaps was needed on all of these parts to one degree or another.
I used a combination of putty or superglue or both, depending on
the gap present… and there were gaps!!!
I scribed the new panel lines,
using the existing raised lines as guides with embossing tape as
help in a few spots. I didn't rescribe 100% of the panel lines
but near more 50-60% or what I felt was the most important
details.
Now, the sanding started… this
was near two weeks of the project, working almost every evening
for 1 to 2 hours each, more on the weekends. All the raised
panel lines, seams, ejector pin marks and poor fit issues were
eliminated as best I could on the fuselage/wings assy., drop
tanks, pods, landing gear doors, landing gear and horizontal
stabilizers. Some seams required refilling with superglue and
further sanding…
Once I felt everything was good
enough, I gave the parts a good scrubbing down and rinse off and
set them aside to dry for a day or three… The cockpits were
masked off with tissue paper.
The paint finish on this Prowler
was going to be a VMAQ-2 Playboy hi-vis scheme from the early
80's. Gull gray over white with a black tail and canopy area.
The first color applied was the white. I used Tamiya acrylic
flat white because I like the way it sprays, how well it covers
in one or two coats and because I've never had real success
using enamel whites. The underside of the aircraft/wings,
rudder, topside flaps, horizontal stabilizers, landing gear,
intakes, landing gear doors, wheels, drop tanks, and pods were
all painted and let dry. The engine face detail was painted
Model Master steel by brush, let dry and the intakes plugged
with tissue masks. The next color, MM Gull gray was carefully
freehanded next with any over spray issues fixed with more
white. The nose radome of the aircraft and pods were masked and
sprayed MM radome tan. Now the areas (on the aircraft, IFR
probe, wheels and canopies) that required the black were masked
off and painted. After removal of the masking, over sprays were
fixed as they were found (it never fails that however much I
choose to mask and cover areas, I still manage to always get
some over spray…). After a couple of days drying time, I
finished all of the oddball detail painting on the landing gear
and doors, IFR probe, engine exhausts, etc…
Final assembly was done next with
the installation of the ejection seat backs, landing gear, gear
doors, drop tanks, pods, and horizontal stabilizers using mostly
superglue. Once satisfied; I over coated the aircraft with
several light coats of Future and set it aside for about three
days to dry.
The EA-6B has gold plated
canopies to protect the aircrew from any radiation from the pods
when they are jamming enemy radars. The kit canopies were clear
and not being able to locate any clear gold paint, I attempted
to represent this using a mix of Tamiya clear yellow, smoke, and
Future mixed together. I sprayed several LIGHT coats but feel
that they came out a little too yellow and when you get close
enough the canopies are kind of foggy and a bit harder to see
through. It looks okay from a distance (a good "three
footer" as Andy would say…). The canopies were also
dipped in Future to try and reduce the fogging effect, with only
limited success.
The decals were applied next. The
Airfix decals were thick but handled well and settled down good
with applications of Solvaset. Another couple of light coats of
Future was sprayed to seal the decals down. My friend wanted his
bird shiny and new looking, so no flat coat or weathering was
done. I know this is heresy in the modeling world but when it
was done, I kind of liked it!! Even the tires are shiny… like
they're armor-alled.
Finally the canopies and IFR
probe were attached (this required some sanding/trimming to get
a good fit between the front windscreen/probe/and fuselage) with
white glue followed by some slight touch up paint.
After a day of sitting in my
"just finished model place of honor" and pictures, the
model was presented to my friend who was very happy with the
results!! And that made all the effort worth the while and
reminded me of why I keep hacking away at this hobby. When I
build stuff for me, it's something that I enjoy but I'm often
too critical of my own errors and goofs, sometimes to the point
of taking the fun out of it for me… When I build something for
someone else, I'm of course still too critical of those errors
and goofs but it's wonderful to see it through someone's eyes
that isn't "ate up" with this hobby but is happy to
have a nice reminder of a lot of great experiences and memories.
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