1/48 Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat - Hasegawa

[nimrod54]

This Hasegawa kit is my offering for the GB, though it could be a little while before I make a start. I will also have to sort out the decals which seem to have yellowed over time.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

Cheers,

John

[Col.]

Perhaps a spot of sun-bathing in the window will help those decals John? Although there is some rather nice aftermarket sheets around too...

[nimrod54]

54 minutes ago, Col. said:

Perhaps a spot of sun-bathing in the window will help those decals John? Although there is some rather nice aftermarket sheets around too...

 

You are a bad man Col, encouraging a person to buying something else! I'll let Mrs N know that I had your permission if she asks.

[Cookenbacher]

Looking forward to what you come up with John.

[nimrod54]

With just a few weeks left to the end of the GB and whilst I ponder over the best way to paint the sails on HMS Victory, I thought it was time for me to push on with this. I have just managed to get outside and sprayed some primer on the inside of the fuselage and the cockpit parts before the forecasted thunderstorms hit. i will leave that until tomorrow and then I can start some assembly and detail painting.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

 

[Alan P]

Still plenty of time 👍

[nimrod54]

Thanks Alan, things are moving along and I have almost finished painting the cockpit. I found a suitable set of seat straps in the spares box and the instrument panel has had some dots of Glue 'n' Glaze added to the dials. A wash and some highlighting should have that finished, then I can get on with closing the completed sub-assembly in the fuselage. 

 

John

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

[nimrod54]

I buttoned up the fuselage and got the wings on last night. There was a very small gap at the wing/fuselage join, easily filled with some Perfect Plastic Putty. Next job will be to tidy up the fuselage join.

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Col.]

You're off to a flying start with this one now John

[nimrod54]

On 15/09/2021 at 19:05, Col. said:

You're off to a flying start with this one now John

 

Thanks Col. I was able to get some white primer on the underside this morning, which I think I am going to use as the base colour for the lower surfaces.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

I then spent most of the afternoon masking off the white with a combination of Tamiya tape, paper and Blu-tac sausages, then primed the upper surfaces in readiness for the upper colours.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

John.

 

 

[dnl42]

Wow, that's quite a lot of excellent progress! 

[nimrod54]

I have applied the Intermediate Blue (not easily seen against the primer coat) to the fuselage sides this morning using Colourcoats enamel. I will see how things are later, then decide if I can safely mask off and start to add some Non-specular Sea Blue to the upper fuselage and leading edges. 

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Roberto]

Nice work!

[nimrod54]

14 hours ago, dnl42 said:

Wow, that's quite a lot of excellent progress! 

 

1 hour ago, Roberto said:

Nice work!

 

Thanks guys. Things were dry enough for me to mask up the Intermediate Blue and I sprayed the Non-specular Specular Sea Blue on the fuselage and leading edges. I should be able to get some blue on the top surfaces of the wings and tailplane tomorrow.

 

by John L, on Flickr

[nimrod54]

I carried out the final bit of masking this afternoon before spraying the upper surfaces of the wings and tailplanes with Sea Blue to finish the main painting. I'll leave that overnight to harden off a little and the fun bit comes tomorrow when I remove the masking to reveal how I have done. 

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Alan P]

Very patient painting, great to see the four-colour scheme correctly applied 👍

[nimrod54]

On 21/09/2021 at 07:28, Alan P said:

Very patient painting, great to see the four-colour scheme correctly applied 👍

 

Thanks Alan. Having unmasked things today, I am happy to report that it was worth all of that effort to get it right, and that there are just a couple of touch ins that need to be done with Intermediate Blue. The most obvious ones are just under the tailplanes where the small white patch is, it should finish under the leading edge and currently it wraps around the front, the less obvious one is around the front edge of the cowling where it kicks up slightly on the port side - but that is me being hypercritical. 

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Bertie McBoatface]

That’s come out really well. 👏

[Alan P]

Ah, Colourcoats. Perfect results every time 😉 looks great 👍

[Col.]

Your effort has been rewarded John. Nice paintwork

[nimrod54]

On 21/09/2021 at 12:10, Bertie Psmith said:

That’s come out really well. 👏

 

On 21/09/2021 at 13:03, Alan P said:

Ah, Colourcoats. Perfect results every time 😉 looks great 👍

 

On 21/09/2021 at 21:05, Col. said:

Your effort has been rewarded John. Nice paintwork

 

Cheers guys. With Mrs N's polite request  for a full blown tidy up of the modelling room, I have not been able to do much for the last couple of days. I must admit it that it does look a lot cleaner and better organised in there now, but I hope to get back to creating more chaos today.

[nimrod54]

The decals and stencils are on which leaves a few bits of detail painting such as wingtip lights and those on the underside to wrap that up. Once that has dried I can add the smaller detail parts before wiping the model down to remove any residue left by the decal solutions and adding some clear coats to finish things off.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

[dnl42]

She looks excellent! 

[nimrod54]

I completed the build a short while ago, last job was to shorten the pin on the prop so that I could press it home a little more. A few weeks ago I hadn't made a start on the kit and that pushed me into taking the decision to build it as it came in the box and, with the exception of a seat harness that I had in the spares box and some elastic rigging line, that is what I have done. Even the decal issue identified in the first posting was resolved by following  the advice given by @Col.. Having several sunny days whilst I was painting the model meant that I was able to tape the decals onto a window for a few days, which lightened the white areas a treat.

I am not confident in my ability to weather a model well, and though I have tried it a few times on previous builds, the outcome has been quite varied, I either undercook it or feel that I have gone too far.  As per usual for me, for this one I decided to forgo the weathering, so here is the final result, with more photos over in the gallery.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

Thanks to all of you that have taken the time to check up on progress, even if it was just to drop by and leave a 'LIKE' it pushed me on to getting this one finished. A  again to @Col. for getting the ball rolling with this one, it has been a lot of fun.

 

Until the next time.

Cheers.

John

 

 

[dnl42]

That's a great finish!