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The dilemma now is that to close the wings up, there are 2 wedges with moulded gun barrels to fit inside. I think I want better guns:

http://www.master-model.pl/product/am-48-107.html

 

I kinda need to decide now though.

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That is looking nice mate B)

 

I just got the 1/72 F6F-5 to complement the -3 I still haven't got round to building since whenever it was back in the mists of time when I actually bought it.

 

I have used some of the Master barrels in the past - not those particular ones, the 1/72 ones for the Browning .303s. They were so beautifully made I didn't want to use them, it seemed like a waste :D 

 

Are you using the kit markings or have you got something else in mind?

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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20 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

That is looking nice mate B)

 

I just got the 1/72 F6F-5 to complement the -3 I still haven't got round to building since whenever it was back in the mists of time when I actually bought it.

 

I have used some of the Master barrels in the past - not those particular ones, the 1/72 ones for the Browning .303s. They were so beautifully made I didn't want to use them, it seemed like a waste :D 

 

Are you using the kit markings or have you got something else in mind?

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

Yes the barrels do look rather good. Hmm I shall sleep on it!

 

As for markings and following on from those photos Troy posted on Duncan's questions thread, I think I will use those #21 markings from the Montex mask set - a completely ubiquitous looking F6F-3 from USS Yorktown (CV-10, the Essex class) which as I said on Duncan's thread is so generic that it conjures up almost every mental image I have of a Hellcat (the exception being the all blue F6F-5 "Minsi III" which I built in 1/72 as a youngster.

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I can't seem to help but interfere with this model.

 

Tonight I complicated matters by thinning down the cowl flaps (in US lingo) to offer a more scale-like appearance, and razor sawed them out so they could be cracked open a touch. Here's the before and after:

 

20170116_183439_zpszk727jlj.jpg

 

20170116_183431_zpsjatzxxws.jpg

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Looking good Jamie, I do like your cockpit & the additions therein. Its a bigger scale than mine will be but neverthelss some very pertinent comments of what to look out for. I've several of the Eduard Hellcat in 1/72 in stock. :)

Steve.

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The cowl flaps almost always are open on the ground, I believe. 

The master guns are better than the eduard guns, but probably just as bare looking as the eduard guns. Most of the hellcats have 'boring' tube like guns. 

Wheels are too thin and could use more robust AM ones.

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Thanks folks :)

 

The windscreen is on now, but I've had a mishap with it. I used my now-usual technique of wicking Tamiya Extra Thin into the join with the fuselage, but the combing is a very close fit with the glazing above the framing lines which wasn't apparent until I touched the glue brush and it drew the glue up the inside of the glazing. If I get another Eduard F6F I'll make sure it's a -5 so I can swap out the spare -3 windscreen, but for now I'll just live with it.

 

I haven't built the wings yet, but the glazing was sprayed Interior Green. I've black based the fuselage, cowling and tailplanes & elevators with Alclad black lacquer base which is smooth and fast drying.

 

I don't want to commit to the Eduard plastic guns yet but am shying away from spending money on Master guns for the time being.

 

Oh - and I was pleased to find a photograph of "my" Hellcat - now I have a good steer on the nature of the paint work on this particular aircraft. Now to see if I can approximate it! The free-hand spray painted numbers on the cowl might be a challenge, but at least the photograph shows the non-specular sea blue and intermediate blue to be a fairly sudden transition on the fuselage, whilst the intermediate blue to insignia white transition is very rough with apparently several horizontal passes with a spray gun to try to blend them on the cowl, but with a sharper transition on the rear fuselage. The semi-gloss sea blue transition to insignia white on the leading edges of the wings is sudden and the transition is at the extreme leading edges, rather than wrapped under the leading edge a bit like some I've seen.

 

Any thoughts on the propeller hub dome? Insignia Blue maybe? I've seen many that are intermediate blue but this clearly isn't.

 

Grumman-F6F-3-Hellcat-VF-1-21K-1943-01.j

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Time for some white

 

20170120_162050_zps3e3hqlmw.jpg

 

I'm using this thinned 50/50 with our own thinners, spraying at 15psi through a Badger 150.

 

20170120_165639_zpsubnrboa9.jpg

 

20170120_165656_zpsqaqpvlvi.jpg

 

20170120_165549_zps9iunebi5.jpg

 

It's all personal taste really isn't it? Anyway, I like playing with these different techniques but my personal preference is to take it to the point where it's not immediately obvious that it's been done. I personally feel it's a bit artificial and "in your face" when the effect is heavier.

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We've been away in a Premier Inn for the night for my daughter's 5th birthday (both girls love going to Premier Inns - they call them "Bedtime houses") and took her bowling, to the cinema and to Pizzahut for dinner.

I'm back now and after leaving the cats with food overnight, we arrived home to find 3 mice, 1 bird and 1 dismembered rabbit in the living room. >:(

That is now cleaned up, so I masked the white bits - there are markings on the fin too but that mask will be much easier used to mask of the blue and spray the white - and have applied ANA607 Non Specular Sea Blue to the upper fuselage.

 

20170122_125529_zpsuebwf4mx.jpg

20170122_131214_zpskbhooeqk.jpg

 

I'm giving that 30 mins to dry whilst I type this, have a cup of tea and some birthday cake, and add a few more colours to Scalemates.com then I'll crack open the ANA608 Intermediate Blue.

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And the intermediate blue is now done too. Most photographs give the impression that the intermediate blue was quite crudely applied and non-uniform in coverage, so I've had a go at mimicking that. How successful it's been is up for debate I guess!

 

I've botched the white under the tailplanes so will fit that when I paint on the markings on the fin.

 

20170122_143211_zpswu4lz7vx.jpg

 

20170122_143246_zpsg8ieplra.jpg

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Thanks lads. I'm starting to enjoy this one. :D

 

I've added the next insignia masks and sprayed the ANA605 Insignia Blue. I have to admit that I'm delighted that all these colours look so good together.

 

I don't know for sure about VF-1, but lots of photos of the hand sprayed numbers on the cowling don't look start enough to be black, but look different to non specular sea blue. In black and white, the insignia blue can look darker than the non specular sea blue so I figured maybe the numbers were sprayed on using insignia blue? Anyway, that's what I've done.

 

20170122_185233_zpsczu8ohyb.jpg

 

20170122_190918_zpsqw53bcfi.jpg

 

20170122_191548_zpspgkvgyma.jpg

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10 hours ago, Duncan B said:

In the picture of 21 the number on the nose looks like it has been overpainted, what do you think?

 

DB

 

I've reached the conclusion that if it's the same aircraft, the photograph was taken a few months earlier or later than the Montex masks depict. The big 21 on wings opposite the insignias is missing from the photograph too so one's a replacement for the other aircraft, or it was repainted at some point.

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I spent the past couple of nights working, but to try to maintain some momentum did a token amount of Hellcat this evening. I sprayed the engine cylinder rows with Alclad dark aluminium. The pushrod tubes were normally black on a P&W R2800 though, and there is a tube for each inlet and outlet valve pushrod. There are two rows of cylinders, each with 7 cylinders. That equals 28 pushrod tubes to paint black.

 

Now, anyone who's known me a while will know two things about me. 1) I'm honest. I don't like brush painting much at all. 2) I'm lazy.

 

I quickly realised that if I cut a V into a piece of card I could spray black through it.

20170125_195001_zpsqdyn2pi1.jpg

 

Test run with more Alclad:

20170125_195244_zps8oqwl7br.jpg

 

Done. Much faster than brush painting. I'm all about speed and time efficiency. I want everything done as fast as possible without really hurting the risk or the out-turn product. I'd call this little cheat a success.

20170125_201122_zps9c1hlx70.jpg

 

I also sprayed the reduction gearbox casing grey. Or gray. Or something.

20170125_202506_zpsyndcw65f.jpg

 

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