1/72 Hasegawa EA6B Prowler

by Text and Model : Eric Bade on Nov 4 2003

Photos by Jean Emmanuel Reinhardt and Eric Bade

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The Hasegawa model of the EA-6B was released some years ago. Basically this is a very good kit and one of the first efforts of Hasegawa with recessed panel lines. Although the kit has been re-released a number of times with newer decals, the plastic itself remains quite unaltered. The constant flaw is the cockpit area which leaves a lot to be desired and with the Prowler big canopies it really shows. Second point is the fact that if the Prowler airframe still is the same after years of operation, the array of antennas changed a lot over the years. You then have to be careful about which aircraft you want to depict.

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Construction

2002 seems to have been a year of interest for the Prowler in the decal community. Cutting Edge and CAM released very interesting sheets of decals. They depict relatively recent machines so I needed to check references to know aircraft subversions. I needed to determine the correct array of antennas.
Construction was quite straightforward as one can expect from a Hasegawa model.
Cockpit was detailed using Eduard photoetched details, Neomaga GRU7 ejection seats and thin plasticard. Other details, as antennas were added or replaced using plasticard.. Rest of the kit was built as per instructions, except :
- access ladder which was built from the Eduard set
- landing gears which were detailed with Eduard parts and copper wires as brake lines
- engine exhausts which were deepened with Evergreen tubes.

Painting

Gunze acrylic paints everywhere. I used a mix of greys, mostly FS36375 (Light ghost grey) and FS36320 (Dark ghost grey). A little bit of FS35237, was used as were other shades like FS36440, white or black to alter some base colors. All this to depict a subtly mottled paintjob. It is a CAG aircraft so I did not want a heavy patchwork effect. Panel lines were enhanced with a dark grey oil paint wash.
All walkways were painted extra dark grey.

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Decaling and finishing

Decaling proceeded along the painting process as I wanted to blend my decals in the general paintjob by spraying them with very light layers of grey paint. Decaling of the fin was quite a challenge as the decal is large here, and a Prowler fin is full of humps and compound surfaces. A good knife and decal softening solutions are a must here.
Canopies were airbrushed with a mix of translucent orange and smoke while central windscreen part were spayed translucent blue, other (side and upper parts) were left clear.
It was quite a pleasing project and I am satisfied with the end result.

Thanks to my friend Jean-Emmanuel who shot the bright photographs while I was responsible for the "rainy day" photographs.

Eric

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Photos and text ©  by Text: Eric Bade
Photos by Jean Emmanuel Reinhardt and Eric Bade