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A cheeky Hellcat


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At the start of the year, I went a bit mad with Hellcats in the Grumman GB.

 

One would have thought that I would have Hellcat burnout after that, but nooooooooo.  :) 

 

For previous Blitzbuilds, I have built simple "easy build" kits.  For this one I'll attempt a standard kit - albeit one classed as a "weekend" kit. 

 

Here's another Hellcat! :D   Previous experience has shown that it should be perfectly feasible to complete this in a 24 hour period.

 

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I'll be building the second option. 

 

Here are the sprues.  Photos recycled from an earlier groupbuild.

 

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It should be noted that the PE and masks on the left are not included in the Weekend boxing.   That's not a problem.  The seat harness is provided on the decal sheet.

 

I'm never one to make things easy for myself...  :wall:   I'm building Hellcats in the Specialists GB and the Sharkmouths GB.  I'm going to try and build all four in parallel.  I won't document the other three here as there's a very good chance that I'll crash and burn.  But hey...   gotta give it a go... :mental:  

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21 hours ago, Enzo Matrix said:

At the start of the year, I went a bit mad with Hellcats in the Grumman GB.

 

One would have thought that I would have Hellcat burnout after that, but nooooooooo.  :) 

I'm surprised that you have got any of these left Enzo. :P It will be good see another one finished though.

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22 hours ago, nimrod54 said:

I'm surprised that you have got any of these left Enzo. :P

I've always got Hellcats in The Stash. :D 

 

Here we go.   This was the secene yesterday morning. 

 

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First job is to complete the cockpit.   This is a lovely little assembly.   If you buy the Profipack boxing, the instrument panel and seat harness come as coloured PE.  In the Weekend boxing, they are decals which in my opinion look just as good.

 

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Cockpit interior painted.   I used Xtracrylix XA1117  Interior Green and gave the while think a thin coat of matt auto lacquer from a rattle can.

 

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Fuselage and wings assembled, ready for main assembly.

 

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Which is now done.  The cowling is assembled as well.    The joint lines have been painted over with Mr surfacer, but it's not absolutely necessary.  Sanding with 400 grade wet and dry and then sealing with liquid cement works just as well. 

 

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Engine built.  Well...   engines...   as I'm building four of them at once.  :banghead:  

 

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Windscreen fitted and masked.  Primes with auto grey plastic primer from a rattle can.

 

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After that, it was time to spray the blue.  That took a while.   I don't know why, but I always have problems spraying blue.  Doesn't matter what manufacturer makes the paint or how much is is thinned, it always seems to clog the airbrush.  I spent most of yesterday evening laboriously spraying thin coats and then stripping down and cleaning the airbrush in an ultrasonic bath. 

 

 

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I finally got a good blue coat on.  This was Lifecolor UA044 Non-specular Sea Blue.  It was sealed and glossed up with an overspray of gloss auto lacquer from a rattle can.

 

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The greeblies are always time consuming.  They took me a good couple of hours.  Decals are from the kit.  The kit destructions show the rockets as being painted white.  I have my doubts about that and painted them olive drab instead.

 

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And finally...

 

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So...   there we go!

 

As I said earlier in the thread, I was building four of these in parallel.  Well... at least I was yesterday.  :lol:    Two are for the Specialists GB and one for the Sharmouth GB.  I will document those builds in the correct place, but it's difficult to see how the photos will be any different to what you see here. :D 

 

I cannot recommend this kit highly enough.  The Eduard Weekend editions have always been a very stripped down version of the Profipak boxing but the more modern ones have a choice of decals schemes.  This Weekend kit has everything you need in the box except for masks.  No need to buy PE or resin.  The kit is a perfect mojo restorer and can actually be built in a weekend!

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5 minutes ago, nimrod54 said:

it should look great with the rest of the line-up.

I'd love to photograph them all together, but by the time that the Sharkmouth GB finishes I'll have ten of 'em.  I'm gonna need a bigger light tent.  :D 

 

Still haven't build a French one though.  :fraidnot:   I need to sort that one out. 

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27 minutes ago, Enzo Matrix said:

I'd love to photograph them all together, but by the time that the Sharkmouth GB finishes I'll have ten of 'em.  I'm gonna need a bigger light tent.  :D 

Nearly enough for a football team then. :D

 

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I've noticed that the Profipack boxing has a different VF-83 aircraft.  There is a Microscale sheet (which I have) that has yet another VF-83 aircraft.  I'm thinking how much fun it would be to build all three of 'em...   :mental: 

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On 25/05/2019 at 19:58, nimrod54 said:

I'm surprised that you have got any of these left Enzo. :P

I've just had a look at The Stash.   I have six boxes, but one of those is a Dual Combo. 

 

I also have two Cyber Hobby boxes. They can be built with folded wings.  

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That is great, and an actual weekender kit built inside a weekend. Lovely colour, perfect sharp build. I think you’ve tempted me to try one of these. Great job getting it over the line 

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A one-post wonder! You really have these Hellcats nailed.

 

Looking forward to your treatment of the big Airfix - might take a bit longer though!

 

Alan

Edited by Alan P
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