Airfix 1/72 Grumman F6F Hellcat

[Smudge]

I found this old Airfix Hellcat during a recent tidy up, and have been wanting to build it ever since. I feel I need to 'up' my painting techniques/skills a bit, and thought this might make a good subject to try out a few new (to me) things on. If it doesn't work out quite right, no harm done.

Here's how it has been going.

All the major bits sorted out, cleaned up and a bit of painting done.

Not much of a cockpit, but I made up some seatbelts, just for the hell of it. Didn't want to get to bogged down in here, as it might all go a bit 'south' later on.

The engine is quite nice, typical old Airfix Radial lump. The prop left a lot to be desired however, but a clean up with the needle files helped a bit

I couldn't help myself, and got carried away repositioning the rudder and elevators. Gave all those rivets a bit of a rub down, too.

Still getting carried away, I decided to make some nav lights. Another first for me, I drilled tiny holes in the back of some tiny pieces of clear sprue off-cuts, and filled them with red/green paint drops respectively. Then superglued them into the light shaped holes I had cut out of the wing tips.

Coming together.

Most major bits done.

The folding wing option on old Airfix kits is great, isn't it?

Edited September 23, 2014 by chockhead

[Smudge]

Up on her wheels. The legs were a little on the long side, so I took a couple of mm off the top of the attachment lugs. They then fitted a lot better and the 'sit' looks much better.

The fit of the wings to fuselage, and all the parts generally, was very good, considering this was released in 1967. I used a water based filler for the joins that needed it, and found it very user friendly.

I lost a gear door ( I think it fell in the bin ) whilst trying to thin them down, so I made a couple of new ones out of plastic card.

Edited September 22, 2014 by chockhead

[HOUSTON]

Sir..

I think it looks EXQUISITE already. .

can't wait for the end result. ..

it will turn out quite SPLENDIDLY.

Your HELLCAT is MY favorite build for this week..

Edited September 23, 2014 by HOUSTON

[Hamden]

Looking good so far, are you folding the wings?

Roger

[Smudge]

Cheers guys.

Houston, l suspect you are a fan of these old kits. They are great aren't they

Hamden, I most certainly will be. Although only as they come in the box. I won't be going to town, with hinges and pipe work all over the place

I was going to build this in a day, and just practice with my airbrush, but that has slipped slightly already!

[Lightning 17]

Looking GREAT

I'm working on an Airfix Eurofighter at the moment, there's something great about doing up an old kit and getting a great result, (or am I just a masochist?)

You're not wrong with 'old'. Is that 1967 I see on the fuselage?

Great work though, looking forward to seeing it completed!

[AdrianMF]

You are having far too much fun! I'm looking forward to the wing fold. I built the Frog version a while back, which has the same feel but fewer rivets.

Regards,

Adrian

[Smudge]

So, on to the painting. I did want to do a Royal Navy Hellcat, but the overall dark blue scheme in the box didn't really lend itself well to the weathering I am aiming for. As I had the paint colours to hand, I settled for the classic US Navy tri-color scheme as on the box top.

Now, I have not attempted the pre-shading mularkey before, but I am coming around to seeing the benefits. The dark blue plastic of the kit would I suspect, not be a good canvas for this technique, so a base coat of light grey primer was the way forward.

Then, deep breath and start 'pre-shading'. No recessed panel lines here to flow paint into, so I just tried to follow the major panel lines and rows of rivets. I used a black paint and a brush, and tried not to be to 'retentive' about how neat the lines were.

And the underside, which as it will be white is where it will hopefully be most effective.

I am not to sure about this

I think perhaps I should have been a bit more careful to get the lines a little straighter and more uniform. I have realised I can't paint lines as straight as I thought I could!

A bit more masking up to do, and then out with the airbrush.

If anyone would like to make a comment or suggestion about pre-shading, please feel free to help me out.

Cheers, and thanks for looking.

[Smudge]

Lightning 17, it is indeed 1967. Not bad considering. Thanks for the positive comments.

AdrianMF, yes it is good fun. I think there is probably a law against it, but what the hell. I dont think I have a FROG Hellcat, but I do have a few of their old kits in the stash. Maybe the Avenger next/one day soon.

[HOUSTON]

Cheers guys.

Houston, l suspect you are a fan of these old kits. They are great aren't they

Hamden, I most certainly will be. Although only as they come in the box. I won't be going to town, with hinges and pipe work all over the place

I was going to build this in a day, and just practice with my airbrush, but that has slipped slightly already!

yes I am...

keep it coming

[HOUSTON]

Great work ...its moving along at a pace...

[Hamden]

Coming along nicely

Roger

[Winenut]

Give it a crack ...looking awesome...My Academy Hellcat "nearly" made it next cab off the rank.

Not sure if you always brush hairy stick or airbrush for the preshading thing but I used both on my recent B&V build. (For the first time LOL!! so I am NO expert at alll!!!!!)

For me though I think I will airbrush the preshading in future just because my hairy brush preshade was a bit "lumpy"

But your paint looks correctly thinned so go for it and I'm keen to see your results

Chock away!

[Smudge]

Well, I have had a go with the airbrush. I found it quite hard to judge when to stop spraying the white paint. It was quite thin and the grey was hard to cover. I think I may have overdone it a bit, and the pre-shading is perhaps a little too faint. It is difficult to know when to stop, as the lines tend to look heavy and a bit false, and then suddenly they are almost gone.

I hope you can see them in these pictures.

It all looks a bit too clean and white, so a fair bit of work ahead to dirty it up.

I picked up some 'washes' and weathering powders today from my local model shop, so should be fun getting to grips with those.

Cheers for looking!

[HOUSTON]

AWESOME progress.

Very good work

[Val]

As Houston says, looking great! Brilliant work on this less-than-brilliant kit! Keep 'em comin'!

[Winenut]

Enjoying the build a lot.

One thing I noticed on my preshade was it was there but then almost disappeared after gloss coats, decals and then final matte coats.

For me I thing the matte coats might blend it all out too much so next time I will try a slightly heavier preshade and see what happens.

Every kits a new adventure!

[Smudge]

Thank you guys, you are very kind.

Winenut, thanks for your input. I was following your Bv-141 build and enjoyed it. I think I have to agree with you that a heavier pre-shade might be better. I was worried about going too heavy, but it actually covers quite easily with the airbrush, so no need to be concerned about being left with overly heavy black lines showing through.

It's a learning curve, and as you say, a new adventure.

Cheers.

[Smudge]

This evenings modelling. Well, I started with the light blue last night, didn't go quite as I would have liked (overspray and some blotchy splots) so I did a bit more masking up this evening and did the darker blue upper surface colour. Again, I lost quite a bit of the pre-shading, especially on the light blue sides as I had to go back over it several times after messing up the demarcation lines between the three colours. I did it 'freehand' to try and replicate the original look of the aircraft.

Anyway, enough waffle, here's how she's shaping up.

I tried to keep the dark blue quite thinly sprayed, and the pre-shading is still visible. Some cleaning up and re-touching to do here and there, but it's coming along.

Thanks for looking.

Edited October 2, 2014 by chockhead

[Smudge]

The Hellcat is coming along. I thought I would do a bit of decaling, so that I can do the 'weathering' over the top of the stars and bars etc.. Just using the old Airfix decals, and they seem to be going on ok.

Started to do a bit of weathering on the undercarriage. I used a black acrylic paint wash, and some Humbrol enamel oily wash. Some dry brushing on the prop hub helped bring out a bit of detail.

The other leg.

I am making up some decal strips for the canopy framing, so that should help tidy the canopy up a bit.

Cheers for looking.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Be careful using acrylics for washes, it can leave hideous tidemarks.....Oils are a safer bet, but take a long time to dry.

[The Crusty one]

Looking good there mate!:-)

[Winenut]

Gee whiz

I'm impressed with how it's coming along.

Loving it....very nice.....top subject and it's just a very cool camo isn't it?

[Smudge]

Be careful using acrylics for washes, it can leave hideous tidemarks.....Oils are a safer bet, but take a long time to dry.

Thanks for the tip, Sgt.

.....top subject and it's just a very cool camo isn't it?

I think it's probably my favourite!

[Smudge]

So, all this fun I'm having making an old Airfix kit is all very well and good, but isn't this supposed to be a 'weathering project'? Well, yes. So with the Hellcat pretty much made and painted, it was time to get on with it.

A recent browse in my local model shop introduced me to Humbrol Weathering Powders. Never noticed them before, but with my weathering project on my mind they caught my attention. I didn't really have a clue how to get the best out of them, but a visit to the Humbrol website directed me to some very handy tutorial/how to videos. Spurred on by how easy they made it look, and the nice effects they were getting, I gave it a go.

Word of warning; I had the lid off of a jar for about 30 seconds before I knocked it over, managed to get it on my hands and fingers and just about everywhere else. After a clean up, this is what I did:

The Hellcat has a very distinctive exhaust pattern on a well used example, and I was keen to get the 'look'.

This is 'smoke' mixed with 'white'.

The underside has a much darker stain (I don't know why!)

I used 'black' and a little 'smoke' for the underside exhaust stain. The guns and their cartridge ejection chutes also leave some pretty heavy staining on the underside of the wings, judging by some of the photos I looked at of hard working Hellcats. I used 'smoke' and 'black' for this effect.

I tried a little bit of the powders on the upper surfaces, to try and give it a bit of a grubby look.

For my first attempt, I am fairly pleased. Although I am quite easily pleased, so thats nothing to get excited about. The powders need sealing in with a spray of varnish, then maybe a bit more 'powdering', and some other effects with proper paint!

Thanks for looking.