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Greetings one and all. Been a while since I built anything, and even longer since I posted a WIP.... So, with no further waffle - progress so far on a build of many (well... two at least) firsts - 1st WWII USN airframe... 1st Eduard kit (I know, I know... I only just crawled from under my rock....) Obligatory box art shot... Photoetch gets taped down to a kitchen tile - this prevents (for the most part at least) pinging of tiny bits of metal shrapnel into the ether.. 1 I still maintain my position that photo etch is the work of Beelzebub... Still... should look OK when wrapped around the seat (I hope) Cockpit beginning to take shape... OOOOH... another first... first time using Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black as a primer... Thinned 4:1 with Mr. Color Levelling Thinner. Gives a cracking base for colour and dries super fast Winner!! On the down side - don't try to clean out your airbrush with IPA... The resulting crud looked like coffee grounds, and took me the better part of an hour to clean out of my H&S Evolution 🤬🤬 Tally Ho Chaps and Chapettes... More soon!

This model was begun as part of the 2021 F6F Hellcat STGB. Finally, it is finished. Another abandoned project done. Construction details in the link below. I hope that you enjoy these images of the completed model. Don

February 16, 1945 marked the combat initiation of yet another Hellcat formation in the air war over Japan. USS Randolph had joined Task Force 58 with VF-12 and VBF-12 on board. Sixteen F6F-5s, led by VBF-12 CO Lt Cdr Pawka, attacked Chōshi Airfield. When they entered hostile airspace the approaching Hellcats were awaited... (read the opposition's account here). I first built this 1963 Monogram kit in the nineties more or less OOB with a few scratch upgrades. It is one of those toy-like Monogram creations that had a number of workable parts but lacked accuracy and detail. In 2015 it returned to the bench for a complete overhaul. The general dimensions are OK and the raised rivet detail looks more realistic than on later products - so why not try it? The most substantial modification is a Quickboost replacement cowling of which I used only the nose ring and the lower half to trim the width to the fuselage. Inside works a Verlinden P&W R-2800-10W that I had in storage. The propeller is a surplus Corsair unit the origin of which I forgot, and the gun barrels are from Quickboost again. Another area of major improvement is the undercarriage assembly. A wheel bay consisting of Aires resin and Eduard PE parts was inserted into the big Monogram emptiness after the outer wings had been removed. The undercarriage legs and tailwheel are white metal parts from Scale Aircraft Conversions, completed with wheels from CMK. The bomb racks are scratch-built. After reassembly of the wing I re-scribed the folding joint, the landing flaps and the gun access doors because Monogram's panel lines were 'a bit' off. The decals except stars-and-bars are home-made. The external tank was provided once more by Quickboost, and the 5 in. HVARs were taken from the Accurate Miniatures 9900 Armament Set. The cockpit, finally, is embellished with parts from an early Reheat PE set, which was one of the first I ever used when I built the original model in 1994, and is topped with a new Squadron vacuform canopy. The gunsight - you guessed it! - comes from Quickboost. Well, I suspect I used aftermarket parts of nearly all suppliers in the modelling universe to bring this model up to date. I hope my venture was not in vain. To finish the story, VBF-12 returned to their carrier also recording a success when LT Lou Menard destroyed a Ki-61 'Tony' which crashed in the water after he had fired a rocket at it. Thanks for your interest, Michael REFERENCES GRUMMAN F6F HELLCAT, FAMOUS AIRCRAFT OF THE WORLD NO.22, TOKYO, 1972 F6F HELLCAT, AIRCRAFT IN ACTION NO.36, JIM SULLIVAN, CARROLLTON, 1979 HELLCAT, DAVID A. ANDERTON, JANE'S, LONDON, 1981 U.S.NAVY CARRIER FIGHTERS OF WORLD WAR II, AERODATA INTERNATIONAL, CARROLLTON, 1987 F6F HELLCAT WALK AROUND, RICHARD DANN, CARROLLTON, 1996 HELLCAT ACES OF WORLD WAR 2, OSPREY AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES 10, BARRETT TILLMAN, LONDON, 1996 F6F HELLCAT AT WAR, CORY GRAFT, MINNEAPOLIS, 2009 GRUMMAN F6F HELLCAT, NAVAL FIGHTERS NO.92, CORWIN MEYER / STEVE GINTER, SIMI VALLEY, 2012 GRUMMAN F6F HELLCAT, WARPAINT SERIES NO.84, CHARLES STAFRACE, DENBIGH EAST More naval fighters? Visit my Corsair here

Hello all Below are some pics from my recent build of Eduard's F6F-5 Hellcat (early). In line with the review of this kit posted here, I found that the kit went together beautifully, don't think it required any filler at all. The profipack extras allowed some nice additional detail, although I only used the resin wheels and the pre-painted photo etch cockpit parts, due to my ongoing love-hate relationship with photo etch. The kit was airbrushed with Mr Hobby acrylics, which I think are fantastic. This was my first attempt at diffusion seeing as the scheme was largely one colour, but I think a mix of the nozzle width of my Revell Standard airbrush and that I didn't lighten the paint enough meant that the intended effect doesn't show through sufficiently. I used a mish mash of decals from the 4 options provided in the kit, so it isn't an attempt to depict an any particular individual aircraft. Weathering was done with some oils, dark panel wash (with hindsight I think a light wash might have worked better with the dark blue scheme) and Tamiya weathering sticks. Apologies for the limited quality of the pics, the light wasn't great and my simple point and click camera is several years behind the times now. Thanks for looking Adam