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1/72 Eduard Grumman F6F-3 & F6F-5 Hellcats *FINISHED*


Stew Dapple

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Here's what I hope to build:

 

DSCN7020.jpg

 

It's the Profipack boxing of Eduard's F6F-3 Hellcat. By all accounts it is an excellent kit and those I know of who have built it have been very positive about it so I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes for me. I also have the F6F-5 Profipack as well so if this one goes according to plan I might sneak a second build in before mid-July :) 

 

Here are the box contents; instructions and transfers:

 

DSCN7023.jpg

 

... the sprues:

 

DSCN7025.jpg

 

DSCN7027.jpg

 

DSCN7028.jpg

 

... and the clear parts, etched frets and mask set:

 

DSCN7031.jpg

 

I'll sort my paints out presently.

 

There are a lot of alternate parts provided including engine cowlings, tyres and weapons loadouts so I'll need to follow the instructions carefully and watch my step. There are five markings options provided but obviously I will be building Lt Richard Stambook's aircraft based on the USS Princeton because it has a shark-mouth. It was sunk with the Princeton on 24th October 1944. Dick Stambook, a double ace who had previously flown the Douglas Dauntless and the Grumman Wildcat in combat, survived the war and ended his US Navy career with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He died in 2000.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Thanks gents :)

 

By all accounts it is very much a kit without vices, so I hope to have little to report in the way of hints and tips. It did occur to me that since this is a four-month group build I should be able to finish both the F6F-3 and F6F-5 boxings, and it would be more time-effective in terms of construction, painting, airbrush cleaning etc. if I did them in parallel rather than as consecutive builds... so I dug the F6F-5 out of the stash (and amended the thread title):

 

DSCN7043.jpg

 

Here are the contents of this boxing; instructions and transfers:

 

DSCN7045.jpg

 

The sprues - Eduard were perhaps channelling Matchbox at this point as one sprue is a sort of olive green and the others are grey:

 

DSCN7047.jpg

 

DSCN7049.jpg

 

DSCN7051.jpg

 

... and the clear parts, etched frets and mask set:

 

DSCN7053.jpg

 

There are four markings options provided with this boxing, I'm not sure which I will go with for this one - there is another sharkmouthed aircraft in this set but two seems a bit excessive for one group build...

 

I also sorted out my paints:

 

DSCN7039.jpg

 

Interior Green for both versions, Non-Specular White, Intermediate Blue, Non-Specular Sea Blue (for the upper fuselage) and Glossy Sea Blue (for the uppersurfaces of the wings and tail) for the F6F-3 and overall Glossy Sea Blue for the F6F-5.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

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2 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

 

I also sorted out my paints:

 

 

 

Interior Green for both versions, Non-Specular White, Intermediate Blue, Non-Specular Sea Blue (for the upper fuselage) and Glossy Sea Blue (for the uppersurfaces of the wings and tail) for the F6F-3 and overall Glossy Sea Blue for the F6F-5.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

Stew,

 

What do you thin these with? Do they spray OK?

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On 3/25/2018 at 9:31 PM, Mitch K said:

Stew,

 

What do you thin these with? Do they spray OK?

 

Hi Mitch; Colourcoats have an own-brand naptha-based thinner but for my sins I am still working my way through two big tins of cellulose thinners which I generally use as I don't mind the smell... if I am expecting visitors I use the Colourcoats stuff as it only has a fraction of the smell. You could also use white spirit if you were so inclined but obviously the Colourcoats thinners is recommended as it is the same composition as that used in the manufacture of the paint. And yes, the paints do spray extremely well :) 

 

I de-sprued the cockpit parts and dry-fitted them together. One of the joysticks was broken on the sprue but I successfully stuck it back together again:

 

DSCN7055.jpg

 

I then sprayed them in Interior Green:

 

DSCN7058.jpg

 

Looks a bit washed out thanks to the lightiing, I also did the fuselage interiors:

 

DSCN7061.jpg

 

... and the wheel-wells for the F6F-3 as recommended here:

 

DSCN7062.jpg

 

I've got a late shift today so probably won't get anything done, the next step will be detail painting in the cockpits and starting to add the etched bits...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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welcome aboard Stew, glad you could come along, and with 2 models....Enzo would be proud! 

 

I think you're the first with a or pair of Hellcats as well. They do look to be really nice looking models, nicely detailed as we come to expect from Eduard.

 

Well good luck with the builds, looks like you're off to a good start as well. Hope you enjoy the build, well be great to follow your progress.

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9 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Nice start Stew :D

 

Remember the -3 was light grey inside aft of the bulkhead the seat is attached to (if it matters in this scale!). Same goes for inside the cowling on the -3 :D

Thanks mate; I was planning on re-visiting your Hellcat build for a quick refresher but Photobucket seems to have stolen all the pictures. I hope that little stunt did their business all the harm I imagine it did... 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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1 hour ago, Stew Dapple said:

Thanks mate; I was planning on re-visiting your Hellcat build for a quick refresher but Photobucket seems to have stolen all the pictures. I hope that little stunt did their business all the harm I imagine it did... 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

If I ever meet someone who admits to working for Photobucket, they're getting thumped on behalf of everyone.

 

The originals were on my old phone memory. I've retrieved them and uploaded them here instead: http://village.photos/members/jamieduff1981/Eduard-1-48-F6F-3-Hellcat

 

I haven't had time to rebuild the thread yet though.

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I did the required detail painting on the interior parts:

 

DSCN7071.jpg

 

... and got out my punch set to do these:

 

DSCN7065.jpg

 

There. These:

 

DSCN7067.jpg

 

I will use them to replace the moulded-on solid, opaque reflector sight lenses, which I cut off:

 

DSCN7068.jpg

 

It seems odd to not mould the gunsight as a separate clear part, yet to be so obsessed by tiny details that there are about 450* levers, t-bar grips and little pieces almost too small to see on the etched fret. The F6F-5 kit was re-issued in 2015 with 'changed parts' and I hope this refers to the etched fret - it was bad enough on the F6F-3 (13 parts for the instrument panel, 6 for the seat harness) but the F6F-5 took that to a whole new level - 16 parts for the IP and 10 parts for the harness. I know etched metal parts are Eduard's core business but does a single instrument dial in 1/72 scale really need a separate bezel to give it the extra height of the etched metal sheet? I suppose that's the kind of question we can only answer for ourselves, for what it's worth I did use the separate instrument bezel but after the third red t-handle pinged from my tweezers into the void I decided my remaining life span was most likely too short to bother with them and disregarded the remaining handles and levers. As it was, here are the 8 parts I did use for the F6F-3 IP:

 

DSCN7073.jpg

 

... and here they are attached:

 

DSCN7075.jpg

 

It does make up a nice IP and the interior green parts match the Colourcoats Interior Green very well, however I'm not sure how visible it will actually be once the fuselage is joined up and the canopy on. The right-hand console does not get any etched parts, the left side has 3 (F6F-3) or 6 (F6F-5, which has the individual levers as separate parts) - here is the -3 console:

 

DSCN7078.jpg

 

... and the seat harness fitted:

 

DSCN7077.jpg

 

...and finally the two cockpit tubs completed:

 

DSCN7080.jpg

 

DSCN7081.jpg

 

There will be a brief pause now as the dog and I are off to Aberdeen for the Easter Weekend. the next step when I get back will be joining the fuselage halves :)

 

Cheers,

 

Stew 

 

* Actual figure may be lower

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Thanks Zeg :)

 

16 hours ago, zegeye said:

But I thing that wheel wels shouldn't be interior green. They were undersides paint colored I think 8-)

 

That was my initial belief too; the undercarriage parts themselves are certainly the underside colour, so are the wheel-wells for the F6F-5 but the wheel-wells on the F6F-3 were apparently painted in interior green (though not masked when the underside was painted, so will have some white overspray... please see here or here  :) 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Nice work Stew.

 

I think that’s about the first time I’ve ever seen the paint colour on Eduards pre painted etch actually match the proper interior colour and the subject aircraft. 

 

Look forward to to more updates.

 

James

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Thanks gents :cheers:

 

I haven't made the best use of my time off work with regard to the Hellcats, but have made some progress... I fitted the clear fuselage inserts that go behind the cockpit bulkheads, for the F6F-5 I am building Lt Leo Bob Mc.Cuddin's 'White 71' of VF-20 based on the USS Enterprise in October 1944 - this does not have the 'quarterlight' windows, so I used the masks for the F6F-5 as an interior mask for the F6F-3 which does have them:

 

DSCN7084.jpg

 

I then sprayed the relevant colours in the area behind the cockpit bulkheads and inside the engine cowlings - I believe Jamie recommended ACUS01 Light Gull Grey as a good match for Grumman Grey Primer but typically I didn't have a tin so working on the assumption that no-one would see, and if anyone did they probably wouldn't be able to tell, and as long as I kept my mouth shut about it no-one would be any the wiser, I used ACUS03 Light Ghost Grey instead:

 

DSCN7087.jpg

 

So I just need to install the F6F-3 cockpit tub, add the little rollover bars behind the bulkhead (Eduard provide these amongst the etched parts but I have made a couple of of stretched sprue; it's unlikely the difference will be visible but I prefer them to be 3D as I believe the originals were tubular steel)... and then I'll be at the point where I thought I was when I signed off last time: ready to join the fuselage halves :)

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Nice job so far Stew. You'll have no problems with the kit, I managed to complete a Weekend Edition (in the 3 colour scheme too) in 47 hours a couple of months back and it even looked half decent! (so to answer the question, Yes a Weekend Edition kit can be built in a weekend if you are daft enough to try).

 

Duncan B

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Thank you gents :cheers:

 

I got the fuselage halves joined together and used just a little Citadel Liquid Green Stuff to eliminate the seams:

 

DSCN7109.jpg

 

I drilled out the holes for the two lights on the fuselage spine so that I didn't have to worry about losinging the raised ones on the kit parts during sanding - I'll replace them with a little stretched clear sprue.

 

Yesterday I assembled the wings and detached and cleaned up the tailplane parts - these are a good enough fit to just push into position for priming, as I have done (along with the cowling parts) with the F6F-5 on the left:

 

DSCN7110.jpg

 

Before the priming I need to add the gunsight lenses and mask and attach the canopy parts; hopefully I will do this today... :)

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

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I'm hoping to get one of these at Perth Scot Nats on Saturday for the Pacific Sea group build. Your thread will be the study and guide material. Good work 

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