I don’t know about you, but in my opinion the A-6 Intruder has something special to it. So I was happy to get this kit (Italerie 041) from a friend who only builds stuff with propellers. According to Scalemates the molds have their origin in 1994. Sure the detail can not keep up with the newest kits, but it is still a very nice kit to build. Fit was no issue at all. I would not call myself a rivet counter, so I won’t comment much on accuracy. But there is a major issue with this kit: The outer wing pylon should be flush with the wing-fold mechanism. In this kit it is moved inwards by one or two Millimeters. Actually this should be an easy fix – if you notice it in time and not after finishing the whole model…
As usual the build starts with the cockpit, which is nicely detailed and can be painted up nicely. Next I added some details to the pylons and the MERs. I also added some hydraulic lines to the landing gear and replaced the Pitot tube on the vertical stabilizer with brass tubes. As the AGM-88 HARM missiles are very prominently visible on the outermost pylons I decided to replace the kit parts by an aftermarket set from Eduard. Otherwise the kit was completed out of box.
After everything was in place the kit received its colors from the Ammo of MIG range. Kit decals were applied after a coat of gloss varnish and went on without any problems. After another coat of gloss varnish I applied an almost black panel line wash. This makes for a very contrasty look which might be a bit too much for some. At the time of this build I did not jet feel comfortable with any further weathering. So everything was sealed with matte varnish and all the small parts like landing gear and weapons were installed to the plane.
And there its was… my own version of this lovely and special plane:
IG Allgäuer Modellbau Freunde 