BIG Intruder GROUPIE GROUPBUILD...

Kolja94

The only extra work required by the ladders was a little bit of filler in the upper (white) part.  It's a little hard to reach, so some thick craft type glue might be easier to 'clean up' after filling than honest to goodness putty.

As far as the white - every Prowler I've ever crawled up in the last 12 years had red lower and white upper ladders and I did a quick internet search to make sure the same was the case for the Intruder.  Turns out it is, or at least enough showed up in the interwebs for me to feel comfortable doing it...

Yes, once I saw the white on yours, it looked like it made more sense, red on the ladder portion as a warning, no need to do so on the stationary portion. Crawling on Prowlers?? You've got some personal experience then! Very nice.

The only extra work required by the ladders was a little bit of filler in the upper (white) part.  It's a little hard to reach, so some thick craft type glue might be easier to 'clean up' after filling than honest to goodness putty.

As far as the white - every Prowler I've ever crawled up in the last 12 years had red lower and white upper ladders and I did a quick internet search to make sure the same was the case for the Intruder.  Turns out it is, or at least enough showed up in the interwebs for me to feel comfortable doing it...

Beautiful work! I need to double-check my instructions, I was thinking the interior of those steps was red on the fuselage section too, white (as on yours) certainly makes more sense though.

Typical "long weekend runaround" happened for me, but SWMBO went to Calais ME on Monday with her mother & sister, leaving me the entire dining room table for the day! (well, for the afternoon I guess, once I did a little housework) Mostly spent making last cleanups to parts requiring white airbrushing, as I discovered with my Mirage that I DESPISE brush-painting white on missiles.

So, still some airbrushing to be finished tonight hopefully. Didn't actually take any pics of the progress, but this can all be verified by Agent 003....

Kolja94

2xAGM-88, 8xMk20.

Here's the promised 'good' (or, at least, better) pictures:

I've made some progress on the Kinetic kit.  Gonna have to rename it the Kinetic 1/48 A-6E Injector pin.  So many little cicrles.  They haunt me......

Anyway.  I know, "pics or it didn't happen" so I'll have some pics up shortly.

AIM- (such as AIM-7, AIM-9, AIM-120...) are all air-to-air.

AGM is air to ground (eg AGM-65 Maverick, AGM-84 Harpoon, AGM-88 HARM...)

SWEET!!!

Is the AIM an air-to-ground application???

2xAGM-88, 8xMk20.

Here's the promised 'good' (or, at least, better) pictures:

Wow---that looks great.  What load-out option did you use???

And done, despite the left main landing gear doors trying to make a run for it while mounting the outboard wings!

More pictures to come soon, but here's a couple in the meantime:

After a flat coat, some exhaust staining with pastels:

Earlier this evening I hung gear doors and ordnance; next up is the outer wings, ladders, and remounting the IFR probe and pitot tube (which, personally, I recommend saving for last...)

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OK, well now that I know what they are... I need to finish cleaning them up and painting them. fermis would probably scratchbuild the actual sub-munitions!

HA!  I was right!

MK-20 Rockeye

The MK-20 Rockeye is a free-fall, unguided cluster weapon designed to kill tanks and armored vehicles. The system consists of a clamshell dispenser, a mechanical MK-339 timed fuze, and 247 dual-purpose armor-piercing shaped-charge bomblets. The bomblet weighs 1.32 pounds and has a 0.4-pound shaped-charge warhead of high explosives, which produces up to 250,000 psi at the point of impact, allowing penetration of approximately 7.5 inches of armor. Rockeye is most efficiently used against area targets requiring penetration to kill. Fielded in 1968, the Rockeye dispenser is also used in the Gator air-delivered mine system. During Desert Storm US Marines used the weapon extensively, dropping 15,828 of the 27,987 total Rockeyes against armor, artillery, and antipersonnel targets. The remainder were dropped by Air Force (5,345) and Navy (6,814) aircraft.

Kolja94

What you've posted is a picture of an Intruder with Mk82 500lb bombs - which are unitary.

The parts in the kit depict the Mk20 Rockeye - which is in fact a cluster munition.

 

As for mine, I've got some clear flat on; I had to take an extra day to reattache the IFR probe (boo).  So I'll touch that up tonight, add some pastel weathering and unmask the canopy, then move on to attaching the ordnance and gear doors; that will about do it!

ahhhhh - thanks for the info Kolja94 - USN attack aircraft & systems are not my specialty!

What you've posted is a picture of an Intruder with Mk82 500lb bombs - which are unitary.

The parts in the kit depict the Mk20 Rockeye - which is in fact a cluster munition.

As for mine, I've got some clear flat on; I had to take an extra day to reattache the IFR probe (boo).  So I'll touch that up tonight, add some pastel weathering and unmask the canopy, then move on to attaching the ordnance and gear doors; that will about do it!

Not sure they'd count as "cluster bombs" per se. There are 4 bombs per side, hanging on one cool-looking rack. There is a pair sitting in line with each other, nose-to-tail, hanging under the rack, and the other pair is also sitting in line, nose-to-tail, but hanging beside the rack. Kind of a cool system, enabling more hardpoints with the need to add any more racks to the bottom of the wing. You can see it pretty well in this photo, the inboard pylon:

(OK, I swear I can see it when I post it...)

Wow, I love the Italeri Intruder kit more and more every time I see the parts details...

Are those bombs lined up in the front cluster bomb pods???

Trying to pick away at "Stuff from three different kits that will all need to be airbrushed white at the same time"...

From the Intruder, outer wing panels (7 pieces each!), bombs & air-to-surface missiles of some sort:

I won't be adding fermis-like details, but will probably add some hydraulic lines running between the inner & outer wing panels to both busy up the area and add a little strength.

Got it---looking like you are getting close to claiming that badge!  Fermis is at your six about 37 NM in the rear...

Yes, they're nonskid areas.  I've seen them painted black, a different shade of gray, and even when painted the same shade of gray, they seem to weather differently.  The Hi-Decal sheet would have you paint them on, but I made the decision to go with that sheet rather late in the process so I used the decals from the Italieri kit, figuring also that they ought to be the right size for where they were supposed to go which may or may not be the case for another Intruder project using a different kit down the road.

Manstein's revenge

Pics or it didn't happen...wait, can you still post pics???

I have to wear a foil hat when doing so, but yes, it does seem to be working now. Last night's work - cleanup & assembly of the Saab's anti-shipping misiles. They look freakin' huge hanging off that little Gripen. Should have the Intruder's payload finished up tonight.

What's going on in here???

Pics or it didn't happen...wait, can you still post pics???

I have a bunch of underrcarriage & weapons etc from the modern a/c I've got in the lineup (Intruder / Flanker / Gripen) that need a coat of white - prepping them all to be sprayed in the same session this weekend.

Cool...what are those greenish areas???  Non-slip green?

After finishing decals and another coat of Future, the 'sludge wash' (as described by Paul Boyer in FSM):

Then I used oils for the first time.  I like the effect and how easy it is to control. I found raw sienna to be a good match for the oil often seen streaked on the underside of the Prowler (and, presumably, on the Intruder). 

I used burnt sienna instead of black for some other weathering (it was after this picture).  I figured it would be a little less stark than black, though I think it might be good to have black on hand too.

I was thinking the same thing when I posted the pics...