BIG Intruder GROUPIE GROUPBUILD...

Hmmmmmmm...not sure about that Vance...on the ground I'd have 'em stowed anyway...

Sealing up the Intruder. I've got a few small seams that need work, I suspect it has more to do with me working on her after 11pm than the quality of the kit.

Topside join - has a tiny step-up to deal with. The putty I've used makes it look worse than it really is.

Do I remember reading earlier that the fuselage-mounted airbrakes were closed up permanently on this bird in favour of the wingtip-mounted units??

Now that the fuselage halves are together I should be picking up speed - the wing sections are already together, weapons loadout and undercarriage partly painted. Liking this machine.

Good to see someone back to building in this GB again...git er done...

wow - it's Monday again? Wasn't I supposed to have a Saturday/Sunday in there somewhere?? Not a lot accomplished, but enough to satisfy the good Field Marshall that I'm doing something I hope!

Did a little painting on the ordnance using the Vallejo paint. The white does cover pretty well but needs multiple coats to cover. Seems to brush over itself quite well after only a short drying time. Won't bother with pics of that stuff until they are done.

I did seal ip the fuselage halves though. The compressors & exhausts dropped right in with no problems. I did have some issues with the IP and cockpit inserts though, they seemed a little too wide, only noticed after the glue was being laid down though of course. A little wiggling as I went, some elastic bands & adding the (already weighted) nosecone immediately seemed to help. I'll need to do a little filling on the IP coaming, but it seems alright now.

I just think that that era produced some of the most striking schemes the jet-age has ever seen, particularly the Navy birds,,,just bought this for another F-4:

Got it for the "Sundowner" scheme...but that A-7 scheme "Stingers" looks like it may have to be used as well !!!

Odd, you'd think Vietnam-era decals would be a decent time frame to develop decals for. Free time has been split between softball fields & yardwork at the house. (We've had a good long stretch of beautiful weather up my way recently) I should be able to get "the bench" dusted off again this weekend though.

Hmmmmm...I have had a heck of a time finding decals for any US jets during the Vietnam era in 72nd scale.  Try Hannants in UK...

I am about to start on the Italeri 1/72 Intruder.  I want to build it as she appeared aboard the USS. John F. Kennedy around 1976.  Does anyone know a source of decals that would work?  Thanks.

Manstein's revenge

fermis

Markings done. Had to cobble together some white strip decal for the 7 and 4 on the tail, and used decals from 4 different sheets.

No load-out?

Not quite yet, got a ways to go still. Wings are just dry fit for the pics. She'll be loaded as per kit instructions. As a side note...my older bro was in town for the week (332 "Moonlighters" was his first squadron)....I showed him what I've done so far.....I can't say what he said, but it starts with an "F" and ends with a "YEAH"!

For the moon, as you noticed earlier, I used a circle cutter to cut out the mask. Sprayed with a flat white "primer".

I then sprayed yellow (at the same time as I did the leading edges), then freehanded the red to get the fade.

Manstein's revenge

Post pics...

Absolutely!

fermis

Markings done. Had to cobble together some white strip decal for the 7 and 4 on the tail, and used decals from 4 different sheets.

Post pics...

Manstein's revenge

'bout time ya'll mugs got some work done and quit crying about being too busy to model...

I'm liking these Intruders...

Fermis, how did you get that "Moonlighter" insignia on with the two-tone moon???

Back in earnest on the weekend, should be closing up the fuselage on Saturday.

'bout time ya'll mugs got some work done and quit crying about being too busy to model...

I'm liking these Intruders...

Fermis, how did you get that "Moonlighter" insignia on with the two-tone moon???

DiscoStu - "The rear of the cockpit is being held on by some glue and the hopes of children…" lmao! Luckily I haven't encountered that sort of fit recently, but I've been there buddy!  Frustrating, but sealing up the cockpit may take a great deal of pressure off. Don't let it beat you!!

fermis - liking the big black tail on that machine. Nice work.

Markings done. Had to cobble together some white strip decal for the 7 and 4 on the tail, and used decals from 4 different sheets.

Whoops, those seats are from another project......Still trying to figure out this new format.  Haven't found the "edit post" button yet.

Anyway, here's the goodies I found in the spares box:

So here are some pics of the Kinetic Intruder.  Not nearly as bad as I thought it was last night.  There is just a lot of sanding and filling in my future.  This will definitely be a closed canopy.  I don't get that warm fuzzy feeling that I've seen the worst yet.

Lets start with the good news.  The spares box is a magical place.  Look what I found but forgot about...

This lets me ease up from the lack of compressors!  Next up is the splitter:

Here you can see just how much of a guess the pit is.  The port side of the BN's position doesn't even come into contact with the sidewall.....Ugh!

And here's to hoping a stiff breeze doesn't come along.  The rear of the cockpit is being held on by some glue and the hopes of children.  Again, no locator pins you can only guess.  It seems the rear of the cockpit is just a bit narrower than it should be.  This is why this will be a closed canopy.  I'm afraid too much shimming and filling is going to knock that part lose into the fuselage.

And of course, the fantastic fit of the intakes check out the gap in the nose gear bay.  Shimmin' and sandin' a comin':

I feel better though now.  I think I have a salvage plan and I think I have a good handle on what to do to correct it, but a "State of the Art" kit this ain't.....  Mr. Von Hammer would be loving this.......

 Managed to get the painting done yesterday. (Vance...nosecone is a mix of tan/yellow....little bit of this, some of that).

Will have to snag some "hi-viz" markings from spares box.

Get it Stu, GET IT!!!!

Now that I've had a night to sleep on it, I'm ready to get back at it.  This may be one of those kits that fights you every step of the way but now it's personal!  No way is this hunk of plastic beating me! :)

DiscoStu

So for any of you thinking of trying the Kinetic kit PASS!!!   This kit is a dog.  I managed to get the fuselage halves together after hours of sanding, fitting, sanding.  There are no locator points for the pit so you just have to guess.  I had to grind down half of the intake plugs to get the pit in.  This meant the compressor fans wouldn't fit in place so I omitted them completely just so the intakes would fit......spoiler alert they didn't anyway.  The pressure needed to keep the intakes on the fuselage resulted in me breaking the splitter plate in two!  I boxed it up before I ended up trashing it.  The recessed lines and wing folds are not worth it.  Stay with the Monogram kit!  I'll cool off and revisit it in a day or two

DiscoStu

So for any of you thinking of trying the Kinetic kit PASS!!!   This kit is a dog.  I managed to get the fuselage halves together after hours of sanding, fitting, sanding.  There are no locator points for the pit so you just have to guess.  I had to grind down half of the intake plugs to get the pit in.  This meant the compressor fans wouldn't fit in place so I omitted them completely just so the intakes would fit......spoiler alert they didn't anyway.  The pressure needed to keep the intakes on the fuselage resulted in me breaking the splitter plate in two!  I boxed it up before I ended up trashing it.  The recessed lines and wing folds are not worth it.  Stay with the Monogram kit!  I'll cool off and revisit it in a day or two

OUCH! Sorry to hear that Stu.

I'm feeling pretty good about my little Italeri kit now - hoping to seal up the fuselage halves tonight.

The loadout was, unoriginally enough, per the instructions.

However, I do know that on the Prowler, HARM can be carried on any of the 4 wing stations, for whatever that's worth, so it seemed plausible enough for me...

So for any of you thinking of trying the Kinetic kit PASS!!!   This kit is a dog.  I managed to get the fuselage halves together after hours of sanding, fitting, sanding.  There are no locator points for the pit so you just have to guess.  I had to grind down half of the intake plugs to get the pit in.  This meant the compressor fans wouldn't fit in place so I omitted them completely just so the intakes would fit......spoiler alert they didn't anyway.  The pressure needed to keep the intakes on the fuselage resulted in me breaking the splitter plate in two!  I boxed it up before I ended up trashing it.  The recessed lines and wing folds are not worth it.  Stay with the Monogram kit!  I'll cool off and revisit it in a day or two

Looking sharp, Fermis!  Hmmmmmm...if you look close you can detect a masking cut-out for the "moon" insignia on the tail...you painting that thing on???

fermis

Well, I finally managed to get somewhere with this project. This summer has been one thing after another getting in the way. Progressing has taken priority over taking and posting pics...time has beeen short!

I boxed in the gearbays.

Also did a bunch of other stuff....and flung some paint at it!

Hoping to finish with painting before I goota go to the lake for the day!

Happy 4th!

I figured you'd box those in! I was thinking about it just for the practice, but decided they'll be so hard to see on the finished model that only I'd know they were still open. (OK, me and you folks!) What did you use for the nose colour?

Well, I finally managed to get somewhere with this project. This summer has been one thing after another getting in the way. Progressing has taken priority over taking and posting pics...time has beeen short!

I boxed in the gearbays.

Also did a bunch of other stuff....and flung some paint at it!

Hoping to finish with painting before I goota go to the lake for the day!

Happy 4th!

Cool...I've seen some guys drill out the lightening holes on the ladder part and thinning it up a bit...looks great...

By the way, is it proper for the missilles to be on outboard pylon?  Some of my refs say they only went inboard...???  The world wonders...

Which are right???