AMT's 1/48 ES-3A Shadow

[keyda81]

Decided the Hawkeye needed a friend. I wanted to pick something that was in service alongside the Hawkeye. Other than the F/A-18. I don't have one of those in the stash. It was either the Shadow, or the Intruder. I went with the Shadow. It's one stubby plane with a pretty big wing span. Barely fits on the shelf above the Hawkeye. It's an older kit, 1995 I think. Decals still worked. The instructions kind of sucked. Positioning of some of the antenna was not clearly depicted. Some color call outs were entirely wrong. I managed to find a couple of pics of the actual aircraft to use as reference fortunately. Kit wasn't horrible, but it did have some fit issues here and there. I managed to lose one of the main wheels, I literally have no idea when or how it went missing. But it did. So I had to go dig through old sprue, and found a set of F/A-18 wheels that worked.

[BlackSheep214]

The S-3 Viking baby brother...

Looks spectacular!

[LyleW]

Keyda, that looks great!

[keavdog]

Wow, you have become such a great modeler! I have that one in the stash and hope mine comes out 1/2 as good as yours. Well done.

[KSaarni]

Wouh, looking really good, wonderful paintwork !

- Kari

[tempestjohnny]

Wow that looks great. Used but not abused

[keyda81]

Thanks guys!

Wow, you have become such a great modeler! I have that one in the stash and hope mine comes out 1/2 as good as yours. Well done.

Thanks! I suppose you've seen where I started back over on finescale. I shudder to think about some of my first builds. None of which are around anymore, aside from the giant 1/48 Herc with LED's in it. Which is in serious need of replacement. I have the kit to do it, just haven't gotten around to it. I'd need to order the resin replacement engines, and sponsons for it. If you can even get them anymore.

Wow that looks great. Used but not abused

I could only find two pics of the actual aircraft. One when it was still in service, and the other in a sad state.





I'd seen some others that were pretty "used". I may overdo the weathering a bit, but in my opinion it looks more real that way. Non, or lightly weathered stuff to me just looks like a toy for some reason. I would also think that being on a carrier out in salt water areas in the sun would do some damage to the paint.

[Stikpusher]

Great work on your Shadow build Keyda! You really nailed the patchy look of the TPS gray colors when in service at sea.

[jeaton01]

Keyda, that is really a fine job. I have been watching your builds since you started posting on FSM and am impressed, though a little depressed in that your builds look better than mine now!

[Duke Maddog]

What stunning work! You've done an amazing job painting this in a way I have yet to learn!