1:72 A-6E Intruder Canopy Mask for Trumpeter

The all-weather attacker of the carrier squadrons

The Grumman A-6 Intruder arose from a requirement for a machine that would reach its target in any weather and at night. The crew consisted of a pilot and a navigator sitting side by side, which is an unusual arrangement on combat aircraft, but it proved itself for joint work with the radar. The A-6E version received a more powerful radar with a movable antenna and later also a turret with a tracking system under the nose. Its pylons carried a greater load than the four-engine bombers of the end of the Second World War.

The type went through Vietnam, the strikes on Libya and the operations in the Persian Gulf, and left the decks only in 1997. Characteristic are its bulbous nose and wings that fold upward for parking in the hangar of an aircraft carrier. The model thus takes up less room if you decide on the folded position.

How to handle long frames

The set brings cut shapes for the glazing panels. The wide cockpit has a great many long straight frames on which every hesitation of the brush shows, and spraying through a mask is therefore a markedly faster route.

When applying them, start with the largest area and work toward the smaller ones. If some shape does not seat at the first attempt, lift it off carefully and lay it on again while the adhesive is fresh. After spraying, wait for the paint to flash off, and only then peel the film back over itself, not straight upward. Before closing the fuselage, check how deep the transparent part sits in the opening. If it drops lower than it should, the frame comes out optically narrower and the mask then only seems to line up.