My next build is a little known aircraft that was pivotal in the Vietnam War against ground based air defences. Back in the early 2000s I had built a Fujimi KA-6D which shares the same base mold as this one. I never did finish that kit, hopefully this one doesn’t share the same fate.
The kit is so old the instruction sheet has yellowed.
I started by dryfitting the parts together. While it looks to be an uncomplicated build I foresee some problems at the wing roots.
The cockpit is pretty decent but had a pair of injection pin marks on the rear deck. I opted to cover them with 0.18mm plastic plate. The ejection seats look pretty good straight out of the box.
The decals have yellowed and dried severely but I tried to save the instrument markings using Microscale Liquid Decal Film and carefully attaching them with Mark Fitter. The decals still tore a bit but thankfully turned out OK. The rear deck had details picked out with a handpainting and was given a light drybrush and wash with Citadel Nuln Oil.
The kit includes the intake fans and short trunkings to simulate engine details. They require assembling at this point.
During this time period, the EA-6A still had the perforated speed brakes. The kit part only has recessed round cutouts for the holes so I drilled them out. Note I damaged a corner which will need fixing.
The speed brakes fit nicely into their wells.
Unfortunately the bottom shows some gaps. I shimmed these with 0.25mm plastic plate.
Now we come to the part where I had the most problems. The separate cockpit assembly and nose gear bay need to be carefully trapped between the two fuselage halves. It took me some time to align all four parts together before the two halves closed properly. Three hands would have been handy here. Note a small piece of sprue that I cemented to the rear deck/fuselage join as reinforcement.
Even when properly done there are some gaps where the gearbay joins the fuselage which can’t really be eliminated.
There are also injection pin marks in the main wheel bays which should have been fixed before I had put the halves of the wings together. The intakes required some work to fit. I opted to have a better fit on top and leave the gaps to be fixed at the bottom. Thankfully the bottom fuselage plate fit well with only minor rescribing required.
The main wing attaches very solidly but the starboard wing root has a full length gap.
I started by adding shims.
The gap is still present however. I decided to fill the remaining gaps with Vallejo Plastic Putty.
Fujimi includes the option to deploy the slats but from research these were usually locked in place when on the ground so I’ll have to trim the actuators off to fit the slats in the up position.
Build Log
Pt.1 – Construction | Pt.2 – Construction | Pt.3 – Painting & Finishing
