Here’s my next Prowler project, another 1/48th Kinetic EA-6B. I’m using the newest Fightertown Decal sheet, “Dark Knights & Dragons” VAQ-209 and VAQ-130, sheet no.# 48050. I’m going to use the VAQ-209 Starwarriors BUNO 161883. It has a gloss black tail, spine, wing fence and upper surfaces around the canopy. The tail art is a silhouette of Darth Vader.







The decals are of a ICAP II Blk89 Prowler from Feb 2009 - Aug 2010. I have the Aries resin pit but haven’t decided if I’m using it, I may use the kit cockpit and built it up as I did in my last Prowler.





Right now I’m cleaning up all the parts and I’ll take photos of the detail work on the cockpit and ejection seats.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

Good work as always.which markings are you going with?

Hey Justin I’m going to use the VAQ-209 Starwarriors BUNO 161883. It has a gloss black tail, spine, wing fence and upper surfaces around the canopy. The tail art is a silhouette of Darth Vader. The second photo is of the Prowler in it's markings.

The following photos were found on “Airliners.net” a great source for aircraft photos.





Happy Modeling,
Joe

Awesome!

Now i'm upset, i was gonna do those markings, but i know mine won't be a patch on Joes!!

Andy

I was hoping it would be that one can't wait to see it done

Come on Andy I'm sure yours will look just as good or even better, go for it!

Happy Modeling,
Joe

Ok we’re off…first I have to say after opening the box I noticed 6 loose parts off the sprues and found some minor damage to a few pieces, nothing a little glue and a sanding stick won’t fix. I had the same problem with my last Kinetic Prowler; it comes down to nine large sprues jammed packed into a small box.

For missing parts Kinetic included a parts code and item number for each sprue and two email contacts for costumer service. Check page 2 for information.

As with most kits you start off in the cockpit. Construction of the cockpit and ejection seats and illustrated on one page. Though there’s no step numbers to follow along it’s pretty straight forward. Paint numbers are also listed for the following two, GSI Mr. Color and GSI Creos Aqueous Hobby Color. There is a FS number listed for the Yellow and White colors. I’ll be using Tamiyas and Model Master paints which I’ll list during my build.

The whole cockpit assembly totals of 42 pieces. During clean up I noticed I was missing two pieces, C9 (tube behind seat) and E14 (flight control stick). I will make a replacement part for C9 and go through a parts box for the control stick.







In my next post I’ll show how to detail the ejection seats using tape, foil and wire.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

As with my first Prowler I had a small fit problem with the ECMO-2 seat, just a quick snip fixed that problem and the seat fits in.





Here I decided to detail the back of the seat. I made up the catapult device using 1.5mm and & 2mm round rod. I also added a in a 2.5mm channel.



Also detailed the personnel parachute container, it’s a bit short so I added on a scarp piece of plastic to lengthen it 1mm.



Using masking tape I was able to make the parachute container cover, then added very thin strips for the tension straps.





The ventilated back seat cushion is molded onto the personnel parachute container, to me it doesn’t look right so I made four sets using thin plastic and adding on strips.



Now it looks like a seat cushion against the chute container.



I cut the back section of this part to show the top of the catapult device, the molded section was weak in detail and barely visible.



And lastly some minor detail was added to the seat.



More to follow.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

Amazing work Joe You Sir are my hero

Awesome stuff, Joe. Those seats look far more convincing now that you've had your way with them.

Excellent choice of subject Joe , looking forward to viewing your progress.
All the best.
tim

How are things coming Joe?

It’s been two months since I worked one this so I thought I’d finish it, here the cockpit is finished.













My plan is to have this sitting while getting some maintenance work. I will open some panels and make a birdcage. More to follow.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

looking good joe

The only thing more fun than building models is watching Joe build them.

Joe, I'd like to place an order for a custom F-16 cockpit for the F-16 campaign if you don't mind. I'll do the painting myself.


Hermon

Here is the (EEP) extensible equipment platform “birdcage”. Most of the electronic were removed over the years. Mine will be a ICAP II BLK 89 version.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

Thanks Justin and Hermon.

Send it on Hermon...I'll tackel it. No rule saying it can't be passed or parted out.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

Anyhow I finished the (EEP) extensible equipment platform, I only left of the two side bracing pieces. I’ll add them on once I finish painting the inner parts.

Awesome Joe, it's alway good to see an update from you.

Just out of curiosity, how long have you been modeling?

Thanks Jeremy.




Oh somewhere between 13 and 17 months.











Just kidding, anyhow over 40 years.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

Jeez, Joe! What a work of art.

Makes me wonder if I should concentrate on pits more...

What did you use for seat belts? And how do you cut the plasticard so precisely?

I'm just a humble kit sticker I'm realize seeing this....

Joe are you going to put flight tags on the out side as well

Yes. And at the rate his super detailing is going, there will probably be tiny little boogers on the windscreen, cigarette ashes on the console, a wee little coffee mug full of steaming coffee.........and a microscopic picture of the pilots wife hanging from the dash.

Seriously cool stuff man. And for the flight tags....do I remember you saying somewhere that you make your own? And if so can you give us a refresher course please?

Hermon

Thanks Leo, and as to the belts, made from thick foil. The stuff you can get from food containers. The plastic was cut from a metal ruler and metal L-shaped ruler while taking my time and going slowly.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

No not really. My plans are to do a Prowler going through some maintenance work. I’m going off a photo that has a few panels open the nose cone removed, I’m just using different markings than the photos.

Happy Modeling,
Joe