u2fast

My Feedback: (37)

last year while doing the jet demo at the wings over houston airshow i met a man who said he owned the company that made the models for the flight of the intruder movie. he was looking for a new home for what he thought may be the last or one of the only two remaining models from the movie. bad part was, huricane ike had flooded the storage facility they were housed at. he wasnt sure of the damage, if any. well, we exchanged phone numbers and spoke a time or two. the other day i get a call from him, mr booth, and he tells me he has retrieved the model and to come pick her up. she was in bad shape. waterlogged, crushed a bit from other things floating around in the storage unit. over all, the fuse was in good shape. the rest would have to go no matter the condition since it was built light for ducted fans. he gave her to me under the agreement that i wouldnt sale her, but would do my best to restore and fly her. this model was flown in the movie by garland hamilton. mr booth showed me many photos of the video shoots. he gave me a movie poster and a cap and shirt that the film crew wore in the movie. it will be a big project, but worth it. after talking to mr booth, it was apparent how much love, blood and sweat went into this project and it must live on. my flying bud orlando came over yesterday and we stripped her down internally. also, some of the fuse required a litte heat to bring back her shape. this was easy, it is a polyester fuse. orlando, being an aircraft mechanic, was right at home working on this baby.the canopy rails were a little crushed too. you can see from the pics, they straightened out nicely. next up will be to cut some foam cores for her, clean the inside of the fuse and start laying things out. also, if anyone knows who might make gear for this baby, please chime in. i saw some tolling for her sold here on rcu recently but i havent been able to find out who bought them. barry

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Barry,
you have got your hands on a one of a kind project, this should be cool to follow. I believe the A6 that was sold here recently on RCU was sold by the owner of Jetmart-USA.. you might be able to get in touch with him to see who the OEM for his gear was... it may of possibly been matrix machine since they sell a 1/5.5 gear set.

http://home.earthlink.net/~matrixmt/id8.html

thomas

causeitflies

Barry,
What scale is it?
By the way, nice weathering

TSHARK203

My Feedback: (206)

I see Barry's plane for next years Top Gun in the works.

NickC5FE

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Dang Barry- We just flew through Cherry Point,NC on our way home on a mission and they have A-6's there. Lemme tell you- If you build up the inside, and leave the outside how it is, you will definety win "Best paint/scale details" at any show- those things are filthy!! Nick

marineA4

My Feedback: (3)

Hello Barry,

It certainly feels like restoring a full scale airplane. I've done my share of doing some restoring. Its going to be fun, thanks for letting me get involved and help in the build. I look forward to much more help to get this airplane up and flying for Mr. Booth. I think he'd really like to see his airplane from back in the days fly again.

If your not too busy during the week, i'll come by and give her a wipe down and get her ready for primer. I'd like to scrub the entire inside and clean it up some.

I've worked with my buddy about getting new wings cut on the CNC.

Regards,

Orlando

ianober

My Feedback: (12)

Even if the scale is not 1/5.5 Matrix will make any scale you need from the looks of their site. Should be an awesome project, I look forward to seeing progress on it, love this plane!!

Props4ever

Barry,

You got yourself one beautiful resto project in hand, it's a must to be flown again for sure, well worth it!. I have one also which is little ahead then your Intruder is, about the same size but not the same scale bird. It's one thing to put together an ARF, then a Kit or do scratch built project, but to do full ground up restoration is something else by itself specially if it's very rare or one of kind to say!!.

Best of luck Barry and i'll be watching how you bring her to life once again, i'll follow your lead for my F18, , ,

George

My Feedback: (57)

Barry,

What's the length? If it's 120", then the Matrix gear is what you're looking for. That gear is beefy! And if I remember correctly, I believe the mains were 6". The gear also weighs around 11 pounds.[X(]

Good luck on the project. At one time I was having one built, but it never came to fruition.


George

Harley Condra

My Feedback: (4)

Barry,
The guy who owned the company is Mark Hambeleton, of DCU. Hope I spelled his name right.
He made the two A-6's one of which you have, participated in the movie filming, and also made the F-14 ducted fan kit that I think was sold to Jet Mart.
He moved from Aneheim, Ca. to somewhere inTexas about 10 years ago, and sometimes is on this forum. He's probably lurking here somewhere.
I have his phone number somewhere, and will make an effort to find it.

I don't know who this Mr. Booth is, but believe me, Mark Hambelton built the movie models....Garland Hamilton, might have some insight about this........I'll call him today.

u2fast

My Feedback: (37)

thanks for the info guys. it is a 120 inch span. i thought matrix made gear for this thing, but i had not looked into it yet. harley, mr booth claims he was the owner of the company that built the model, so he says. maybe they worked together? he himself isnt a modelor to this level, but he does have and fly rc. any info would be great. thx, barry

u2fast

My Feedback: (37)

also, acording to mr booth, there were six intruders built for the movie. if i remember correct, he said 4 were crashed for the movie. most with pyro. he had a ton of pics of them blowing up etc. it is amazing this baby flew on two byron fan units, it had all the crap hanging under the wings. barry

Harley Condra

My Feedback: (4)

I'm sure that there are many of us that remember DCU. Mark made several kits, including a Bede 5, MiG 15, F-14, and some others as well as the A-6's that were used in the movie. In fact, the F-14 featured a wing swinging mechanism, and a beautiful set of machined aluminum scale gear. Quite a few of them have been built and flown, and some more noteable modelers might chime in here if they read this.
The movie credits in fact mention DCU and Mark's name, if I remember correctly.

Mark built two of them, one as a twin ducted fan model, and the other as a slope soarer....both were used in the filming.

Maybe there is a connection betweeen Mr. Booth and Mark Hambeldon....I don't know about that, but I have been in Mark's factory in Aneheim, Ca. numerous times. Mark made a few epoxy fuselages for myself and Ed Allen for our twin engined seaplane back in the ninties. Mark is a good modeler, and he also had a custom Harley in the shop....he did everything from glass work, sawed his own balsa, vacuum formed canopies for other companies too......

I didn't think the A-6's were polyester...eveerything else Mark made was epoxy.

George

My Feedback: (57)

Then that's it Barry, Matrix is the gear. You'll have to contact them though to see if they have set "on the shelf". I happen to catch them in the middle of making a set and got them rather quickly. They told me they make the sets in pairs and were finishing the first set for a customer and the second set would have to be finished for me, (that was a couple years ago). I'm not sure how long it would take to get a set from scratch.

E.N.T.

My Feedback: (1)

This is going to be a beautiful project of yours. This is one of the
jets I love the most. It has something that attracts pilots. Hope to\see it flying.


Hector

Harley Condra

My Feedback: (4)

Here's an update!
Mark Hambelton did in fact build 6 of them, as you indicated, not two as I had stated.

I went out to the shop filing cabinet and pulled out Mark's DCU catalog, which has a two page ad for each of his kits, including a photograph of the A-6, and the specs for them. The specs include the fact that they are made from epoxy.
At the time, (1994) they sold for the price of $1,200.00.
I'm going to try to scan part of the catalog (I'll leave out the slopers) and post it on this thread.

u2fast

My Feedback: (37)

epoxy is great news. i hate working with polyester. i assumed it was polyester due to its age and also because we could warm it up and take out the mishaped ares so easily. barry

u2fast

My Feedback: (37)

george, do you still have your gear and or what was their cost? barry

George

My Feedback: (57)

No, I do not, they went with the build.

The cost is $3000 for the entire set that includes tanks and valves(?), etc.; can't remember everything exactly. You can save a couple hundred dollars if you don't get the "extras" which is what I did. I just got the gear set because I already had valves and tanks and airlines etc. I would also suggest having one valve per retract due to their size, at least that was my plan.

Harley Condra

My Feedback: (4)

Mark's catalog states that the retracts are 1/4 scale 90° rotating, but no mention of the manufacturer.
I've scanned it, and e-mailed it from my wife's computer to mine....it has to go through the provider's server, and has not arrived yet. If the file is too large, I'll break it up and re-do it.
I'll get it on this thread today.

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

Harley,
i'm 99.99% sure matrix made the Jetmart / DCU F-14 landing gear. So if assumptions are correct, they probly made the A-6 gear as well for jetmart / dcu.... Does anyone know who bought the A6 that was listed here for sale a month or so ago? I remember the ad mentioning something about selling all the tooling mods and some partial projects as well.. Maybe who-ever got all that stuff would chime in with some parts.

Kevin_W

My Feedback: (1)

Mark moved to Wylie Texas around 1997. I visited his shop several times way back then but I haven't been there since about 1998. He did have another one of those A-6's (unfinished) hanging from the ceiling.
I seem to remember hearing that Mark decided to get out of the jet business several years ago and may have sold all his jet molds, but I am not sure whether he is still molding other types of models (sailplanes) or not.
The next time I am out that way maybe I can swing by and see if he is still there.

patf

My Feedback: (4)

Kevin,

One time we visited he had been awarded a few pieces of the full scale model builds for the -22 contract and i believe he was focusing in that direction over the models.

geez that was 12 year ago?!

George

My Feedback: (57)

Yes Thomas,

Matrix makes the F-14 gear also along with the A-6.

The A-6 that was sold along with all the tooling was my A-6 that was being built for me. Ronnie has decided to get out of the jet business altogether and is trying to sell ALL the tooling he has.

Harley Condra

My Feedback: (4)

That's correct! Wylie, Texas. I had forgotton the name of the town.
I have his 1994 catalog in ready to go, so here you are.

I noticed that the model you have has a different paint job than used in the movie and depicted in the catalog, so is the model the same one, or what?
The Mr. Booth thing makes me wonder about the background story you were given.
Why don't you try to get in touch with Mark Hambelton and clear up the story?