Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat 1/48

[Col.]

Clever work  

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Miniature update:

 

I have assembled the engine. It looks extremely basic like that though, so some detailing with wire seems mandatory. We've got friends over tonight though so I doubt it'll have happened before tomorrow evening. I keep looking at the Quickboost and Vector engines and wishing I'd bought one of those instead, but I'll just plod on and dress this one up and hope it looks passable. I think I'm getting fussy with my old age because I wouldn't have thought twice about it a few years back but now I have a nagging doubt that the kit engine is going to annoy me forever more.

 

 

Anyway, on to the wings. These need some cleanup. There's a lot of flash, around the wing tips, in the undercarriage wells and blocking the empty case ejector holes under the wing. There are also large ejector pin type protrusions that will prevent the two halves from mating, so if you're building one of these, TEST FIT EVERYTHING BEFORE GLUING!

 

Once cleaned up though, the two halves do fit together fairly well. The nav light cutouts don't marry up top and bottom, but that's fairly common on kits.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

We have wings!

 

Ok, they're not the right colour yet but it's a start ...

 

[Stew Dapple]

That's looking really good Jamie, some very nice airbrush work there  

 

I imagine the Profipack must include an etched ignition loom (if that is the correct term) as I'm sure I've seen one in the 1/72 kit...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[fewr9fkr9595]

1 minute ago, Stew Dapple said:

 

I imagine the Profipack must include an etched ignition loom (if that is the correct term) as I'm sure I've seen one in the 1/72 kit...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

Correct! 

 

Ps @SovereignHobbies how long was the paint left to dry before using the masks? Seems very impressive for enamels, and the spray pattern looks nice and tight 👍🏿

 

Very very tempted to put an order in... 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

2 hours ago, Tony Oliver said:

 

Correct! 

 

Ps @SovereignHobbies how long was the paint left to dry before using the masks? Seems very impressive for enamels, and the spray pattern looks nice and tight 👍🏿

 

Very very tempted to put an order in... 

 

The time stamps on the photos say 14:32 for the ones with the Intermediate Blue coloured in and 17:34 for the one with the 21 painted in white on the tail. I had other stuff to do in between. I could probably mask up safely an hour after spraying so long as it's a thin black basing type coat. If it was a flood of paint of a good old thickness (like from a brush or novice airbrushing) I'd give it a good 6 hours at least.

 

The binder cures pretty quick so long as it's only as thick as it needs to be to get the colour

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

The wings are painted. The blue is a hard colour to photograph at night time

 

 

The white was sprayed first so that the numbers and stars could be masked off.

 

I've been up to my eyes today so have rushed this all a bit, and it shows in the finish which is a little rougher than I'd have liked, but it's not the worst I've done.

[Cookenbacher]

Lovely work Jamie, the masking is leading to great results. My first Colourcoats arrived yesterday and I can't wait to try them out.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I went to my wife's best friend's for dinner tonight and got home an hour ago, so there's only been time to quickly get the last of the insignias done and I have to go do other stuff (like get a suit ready for tomorrow, since there's an opportunity to go win some work for current day-job client which might safeguard my income!) ...

 

So, last masks on:

 

 

The Montex masks are quite stretchy, which is good for fitting around inconvenient features on the surface! For panel lines, I run along the mask with my steel paint stirring stick (Tamiya) to press the mask right into the panel line to prevent bleeding.

 

Doing that, and going very light & dry at low pressure with very thin paint there's no need to seal the masks with the colour underneath, like so ...

First pass:

 

Second pass:

 

Third pass:

 

It flashes off so quickly that bleeding just isn't an issue, and ridges built up along the masking lines are almost non-existent.

 

Just two passes for the upper surface:

 

 

And the underside numbers for good measure:

 

 

Demask, and motivational trial assembly (with blutac to hold the tailplanes on):

 

 

With no masking between the blue and white upper and under surfaces, there's a nice feathered transition on the leading edges like the photos of the real thing usually show:

 

And since my phone does them automatically, a "vintage / faded" filter applied:

 

And in greyscale:

 

I still need to dress that engine up, and I think I'll do some of the exhaust weathering and wing walkway distressing whilst it's in bits too. I reckon it'll be easier.

 

 

[Thom216]

Sweet paint job!

[Navy Bird]

Very nice work, Jamie. And even though no one can see that extra fuel tank, I'll know it's there.  

 

Cheers,

Bill

[stevehnz]

Now that is nice, really nice.

Steve.

Edited January 31, 2017 by stevehnz
missing word.

[Christer A]

Vinyl masks are great! Very neat paintjob!

[giemme]

Just found out this thread and went through all of it.  Love the detailing and the paint job  

 

Ciao

[Stew Dapple]

She's coming along very nicely indeed Jamie

 

Hope the work-related stuff goes equally smoothly.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

You folks are all too kind. The above pails by comparison to a lot of what's on this forum, but I thank you all the same.

 

Here, have some Hellcat aerobatics:

 

I try to go to Flying Legends every year and happily saw this display - which turned out to be its last in the UK before it was put on a lorry and taken away to a new home in the USA.

[Cookenbacher]

The Hellcat is much more spritely than she looks.

 

'Liked' for the video, not the Hellcat stealing lorry.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I made a start on exhaust deposits. As thought, it's easier with the wings off given the absence of wing fillets and the dirt getting right into the corner of the wing/fuselage. Photographs seem to show a lot of lead from the upper stacks dominating the streaking, but with the lower stacks being oily (intuitive, since radials need pulled through before starting up to clear oil out of the lower cylinders which then gets blown out the exhausts in a big cloud of blue smoke), so I'm trying to replicate that. It looks a bit strange just now with only the exhausts done, but I'm hoping it all comes together to look like a typical well-used carrier borne Hellcat as it progresses:

 

 

[giemme]

  Nice weathering so far, looking forward to how you carry on with this  

 

Ciao

[Stew Dapple]

Nice, is that powdered pastel?

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

2 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

Nice, is that powdered pastel?

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

Yes it is - applied with a spongey makeup type brush for the dusty bits, but it makes good streaks if you lick your little finger type and drag it along. If you screw it up you can clean it off with water and try again

 

It becomes fairly permanent if undisturbed for a while

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I did a tiny bit last night but wasn't really enjoying it much so parked it and did something else.

 

I came across this video though, which I saw a couple of years ago. I think it's interesting because few people see WW2 aircraft flown anywherr near the limits of their capability, and as such history likes to caste the Wildcat which of course preceeded the Hellcat as some sloth-like lethargic dud of an aircraft by the armchair critics. I think this video proves that it was a capable aircraft, and reminds us that those talking from the position of actual experience of aircraft in combat were talking about how relatively minor differences in performance in absolute terms could make a big difference in combat.

 

 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I've done zero modelling for a month or so. I just haven't been in the mood. I'm still not to be honest, and do not want to commit to finishing this Hellcat with the kit engine. It's really bothering me, and I think I will need to source a replacement.

 

The Ultracast propeller and wheels arrived several weeks back though, and I was able over the course of today to drum up enough motivation to apply a few colours of paint to the propeller.

 

I just went with Willow Green for the dome.

 

As usual, the castings are beautiful and accurate. The blade profile is spot on, as you'd expect from Ultracast.

 

Comparing the kit part to the replacement, the kit hub isn't great at all. The Eduard blades are quite good in profile (if missing a kink in the leading edge at the root, but that's being picky) however the plastic blades are rather thick.

[Duncan B]

Back on track Jamie. Nice looking prop blades you have there. 

I have done nothing to mine as I'm still in the clutches of Man-Flu. I'm on late shift this coming week so will be able to potter a little before work.

 

DB

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I've been too annoyed at being forced to sell my TVR to be remotely in the mood for modelling recently to be honest. I'm still seething at the thought actually.