The A-6 Intruder is the twentieth model in Hasegawa’s Eggplane series. Several of my friends have finished these cute little models, so I jumped at the chance to try one myself. The box top showed a drawing of the model along with a typical manga character cheering the model. The kit consisted of thirty crisply molded parts plus a transparent canopy. A fairly extensive decal sheet was included covering markings for two aircraft: a Navy Intruder with VA-115 from the USS Midway and a Marine Intruder from VMA (AW) 242.

The instruction sheet shows two exploded view steps. This requires the modeler to plan the assembly steps and, more importantly, the painting steps in advance but is not a major problem. The basic egg consists of two parts for the front half and one part for the rear. Careful gluing is required but the parts fit well. Some minor filling was required between the intake scoops and the rear fuselage, but that was all.

I assembled the fuselage and wings, leaving off the horizontal stabilizers and the cockpit. I then painted the assembly white. When I was satisfied with the coverage, I masked the model and painted the Gull Gray areas. I screwed up a little on this. I left the control surfaces on the top of the wings white but the white area should have been larger. Oh, well! Next came the hardest part of the painting – the radome. With no panel lines to use, I had to figure out how to mask the area. I ended up using a circle template. I taped the entire nose, placed the proper circle template in place, marked around the circle, removed the tape and cut out the circle and then reapplied the tape. I was pleased with the outcome. The remaining parts were painted separately and assembled. The canopy had a couple of minor flaws but these were in the painted area and the canopy fit well. The decals were in register, were thin, and installed easily, conforming to the surface of the egg. I chose the Marine scheme because I liked the Bats marking. One of the interesting features of this kit is the underwing ordinance. The large drop tanks and the bombs under the wing make the model look “mean”.

I enjoyed this project. I was building three models at the same time and this one was finished before I took any in-build photos. This model is thoroughly recommended for all modelers. It is a relaxing project and adds a cute little model to the collection. The model can be purchased from local hobby shops and various on-line retailers. My thanks to Hobbico for providing this product for review and to IPMS/USA for letting me have this fun project. Well recommended.