Revell re-released its 1/48 scale A-6E TRAM Intruder last year. Several detail sets soon followed. The Intruder has had some previous detail parts made for it in the past, and I chose to combine the three into an interesting project. The Revell kit captures the look and dimensions of "The Iron Tadpole" very well. Except for having the panels displayed in the traditional raised line style, this kit stands up well against its other 2 engine jet counterparts.

I choose to learn some scribing skills and started with the easiest sections first. The tail planes are flying surfaces and have a few straight lines. I used a steel ruler and the Bare Metal Scriber. I lined the ruler up flush with the raised line, and then dragged the scriber with light pressure. The result was a light scribe about the same thickness and depth of the previous raised section. This process works well on the tails, wings and flat sides of the fuselage. Before I scribed the lines crossing the top and bottoms of the fuse, I glued and sanded the halves together. Some other work had to occur first though.

"Black Box" is a new resin company that is making interiors for some previously neglected kits. There first release was for the A-6. The castings are very crisp, detailed and most importantly accurate! I bought my set States side last fall, but have found that only UBH is importing them locally. The replacement interior is designed to simply replace the stock parts, however I did not find it so simple. The kit features some side wall details, and these are to be blended in with the new set. If you glue the set to the navigators side console first, aligning the other side may prove trouble some. I am not sure if this was due to a slight warp with my part, or just the way the part uses the existing pins. Anyway, I glued the pilots side in place, glued the rear deck in flush, then let the SuperGlue cure. I then glued the two fuse halves together and made sure the fuse spine was well coated with CA to prevent cracking. Leave the nose cone and joint between the exhaust cones unglued. This will give finger space to help force the resin into place. The part will need to be pressed down about 1/16" and will click as it fits on to the mounting pin. A shot of Zap Kick and the part will stay fastened. While your at it, put some weight into the nose cone.

Scribing over the spine is best done after sanding and filling the seam line. I found a light pass of liquid putty filled two small dents. To scribe the curved sections, I cut a strip of sheet styrene and bent it along the curves. I scribed many of the hatches and panels at the intake / cockpit a little heavier as these lines are very apparent in photographs. Weathering will also be heavy here later. The kit has some screw heads around several panels and I left these in place.

"Paragon" released a set of flaps and slats for the Intruder / Prowler several years ago. These may have to be ordered from England as not many shops here import them. They are nicely cast and cut away from the casting blocks easily. Once again, looking good, does not mean fitting good. Photos show that the Intruders flap is pinned to a pair of straight brackets, and as a hydraulic ram actuates, the flap slides back and down. Paragons instructions, show cutting out the flap, and leaving the brackets in place.

I referred to photos and choose to also cut off the brackets. Each bracket was replaced with a section of styrene I beam about 1/2" long glued so the flanges were pointed vertical. Sand the top two down flush to the horizontal part. Put the top wing half in place and trim the brackets back flush with the upper cut out. The spoilers will need to be sanded down to a thin edge to accommodate the flaps, and to look scale! The real flap has pins holding it in place on both sides of the bracket, and can travel back almost to the very end. The ends of each bracket have two short C channel parts that force the flap down. These are cut into the bracket and the flanges will face each other. The flap has a recess where the bracket fit into place, and a piston connects to the back of this section. The piston is made from a C Channel styrene section and simply glues at an angle from the recess in the resin to the middle of the new bracket. A small rectangle of sheet styrene can be glued over the width of the bracket and about 1/4" on its length. Typically, the Intruders flaps will be deployed at 20 - 45 degrees.

The leading edge slats are also provided in resin, and require similar work. Notice the bumps that cross the slat on the upper surface. These split apart as the slat deploys, but at an angle! Cut the slat out but leave room around each of these, and then sand the plastic up to them. Thin them from below as well. If they break, then they can be replaced with a small styrene block sanded to shape. A resin insert is provided to block in the gap between the two halves for the flap bay. This is best glued into place now, but only use the plug section. Each of the bracket support parts have been replaced by the previous work. have the wing halves held together while this part in fitted to ensure its proper placement. A minor space will require filling at the engine / flap root. After glueing the halves together, a spot of putty and sanding fills in the void. The insert for the leading edge can be glued in place now. It should fit flush on the underside, and have a very thin ridge on the upper surface. This is not the case as the resin part will be the thickness of the wing. I did not go to the effort of block sanding the part down. Eventually the red / top color demarkation line will provide this visual break. The slat will require some sanding to fix its forward edge where the casting block was attached. The hinges cast to the underside of the slat will also cause some problems. Fitting the slat to the leading edge will show their uneven spacing. I chose to sand them away and replace them with properly spaced strips of styrene.

The engine nacelles and fan details are a nice touch on this kit as they are visible from the front. Looking up the exhaust cones will however show no detail at all. I have previously cast the fan detail from Hasegawa's F-4 cones and have used the detail for several other projects. They were put to excellent use again, glueing them to the rear of the exhaust compartment on the wing side. Some sanding was required to get them to tuck in behind the kits molded details. The kit tries to represent the S curved pipe from the back of each engine. This looks okay when peering into the cavity, but the upper section shows into the hollow area of the wings. I used a thin section of sheet styrene to lower the engines roof and block the view. Although the opportunity existed to bend some brass tubing and plug it with the fan, I decide that effort was not worthwhile.

Photo references will show very congested gear bays. There are many hoses and wires running around all sides of the bay, but the upper surface is clear. The stock kit has only a minimal number of wires shown, and since the wing and fuse both have sections of the gear bay, this will be a tricky area to detail. Many wires cross between the joint line of these parts. The wing section also does not fit tightly into place, resulting with several gaps. Fill and sand these gaps before adding any details. Each gear bay is painted white, but the rear section that houses the main gear leg is chromate green. This may be a field patch on the A/C shown in my references, but it adds an interesting difference! A mix of styrene rods, brass wire and Guitar Strings will provide the varying sized wires and hoses. The lines also vary in color; white, silver and black. Several lines will cross over onto the gear doors. The main gear struts do have some brake lines molded onto them, but replacing them may be desired. The nose gear bay and strut will also require a similar treatment. The work space is however much smaller and requires fidelity.

Well much work has been done to the kit so far, but the fun is just beginning. Now is the time to start painting. The cockpit has so far been left bare. There is a lot of space though to get at the details with a fine brush. The interior will be Aircraft Grey, and the dials / panels are black. A number of lights and switches can be picked out with red and yellow. The CRT screens have a green tint. The hoses and mechanics on the rear deck are a mix of colors as shown on both the instructions and references. I used several books to find which version of the navigators scope Black Box modeled. Eventually I found one picture for the final version of the A-6E TRAM. This worked fine for me as I will be painting up a Desert Storm veteran, but A/C earlier than around 1986-90 would not have the scope unit modeled in the resin. Backdating with the kit supplied unit would be required. Likewise, an A-6 without the TRAM would have to use the other instrument panel supplied in the kit. Kit bashing will be necessary to blend the pilot and navigators panels for accuracy. Good luck!

The seats are painted in the traditional American fashion; black with yellow and red markings, and green padding. The canopy may be closed up and masked for painting. One may look at using the kit supplied fairing that attaches to the windscreen for painting as it fits better over the rear deck. The resin one can be sprayed separately and attached later when the risk of under spray is gone.

Surprisingly there are not many decal options for the A-6. Superscale ran some Libyan Raiders and Prowlers, but I could not find any other options. A picture in the World Airpower Journal A-6 special shows a Desert Tan / Brown over medium grey undersides camouflaged Intruder stting on a carrier deck. It also had a replacement nose cone painted in light grey. This craft flew several missions with this temporary scheme. It was also suffering from some heavy weathering. This attracted my attention. The NAVY and unit markings were also painted light / dark where they crossed into the camo shades. This was going to lead to a fun masking job. The intakes, exhaust cones, gear bays and canopy were all masked off, and the light grey nose cone was sprayed. This was also masked. Next the medium grey was sprayed on the undersides and about half way up each fuse half. the upper surface was sprayed with the light tan and the demarkation lines between the upper / lower colors was defined using a paper mask held back about 2mm from the surface. I hand drew the unit marking and scrounged my decal box for the aircraft numbers. These were laid out on a photocopier and I used a special film for making the masks. The images were cut out from the sheet and placed onto the model. More paper masks were used to define the darker areas and then sprayed. The areas under the masking where the text / badges altered their color was then sprayed with the darker shade as well.

Any photo of an Intruder will show some wear and tear. Many of the panels around the front end of the plane are used to access the engines, fueling points, and access ladders. Many fluid stains are visible on the sides and bottom of the A-6. Whether your model has a white or grey underside, stains will be very visible. Although the topside will have minimal staining, it will not be void of weathering. Navy planes have always had patchy paint jobs as layers of paint are added. The harsh conditions they are operated in requires constant attention against corrosion and fatigue. Since it is impractical to repaint an airplane after every such repair, only touch ups are done. Such a paint job will be more noticeable with the newer all grey scheme, but also can be put to good effect with the grey / white schemes.

Despite this kit approaching 20 years old, it easily stands up with the current offerings. Although the additions made to the kit may sound like a lot of work, I enjoyed the process. The changes made to the kit were really only basic steps in scratch building and super detailing, but results in a very different look when compared with the stock kit. If you are looking for a quick and easy build, pick up an Intruder. If your looking for a good project to learn some new techniques on, pick up and Intruder.