KA-6D Intruder Tanker Finished

Well it's done, a week later then I planned, but that's how things go especially in modelling. After the set back with the missing undercarriage door and the other things that took the place of modelling, with the odd hour here and there this week I've finally managed it.


The jobs left to do this week included weathering the externals, fitting a few final parts in place and oh yes, making the new door for the front undercarriage bay. Luckily, I have another 1/72nd scale Intruder in my stash of kits, so I used the one from that kit as a template. I toyed with casting a new one in resin, but decided against that as it would be time consuming. In the end the choice was to make it out of plasticard, but after a look in box of leftover parts from this kit, I used one of the unused blanking panels for the air brakes. This has a slight curve on it, close to the one on the door, so I marked out the door then cut it out a little over sized. 


Once it was filed and sanded to the correct size, a little more of a curve was added to it before a panel made from thin plasticard was added the the inside surface of the door. The landing light, etc on the exterior of the door was made from thin slices of plastic rod glued to it. Then the door was glued in place and painted on the model.


Now the construction and painting was done, it was time to get out one of my weathering paint mixes and finish off the weathering on the model. As this is an aircraft in active service, I don't believe they have to be clean. So a light misting with the airbrush slowly building up in certain areas was done all over the model. To finish the weathering off, I used some Carr's "Soot" Weathering Powders and brushed it around the jet exhausts and tail planes behind them. Job done!


Now I've got just over two weeks to get the Hawk finished.