Gato del infierno **Finished**

[Foxbat]

I was browsing the interwebs as you do, looking for something and I came across an interesting image. That lead to a specific Google which gave me a little more info and then a search of the Big H which told me the whole project was feasible. So here I am.

 

This is what I'll be doing, an F6F-5 of the post WW2 Uruguayan Navy: Uruguayan F6F-5

 

I'll use the Eduard Weekend kit, as everything I've read tells me it's a good one:

 

Markings will come from this sheet:

 

Don't think I've used LF decals before so a bit of a leap in the dark.

 

I can get the little ventral teardrop antennae from one of my Harvards that doesn't need it, which is nice. The photo gives a better idea than the decal instructions, the undersides are light grey FS36622 rather than white. I'm going to assume the decal instructions are just left white for ease as they tell you the correct colour on the back.

 

Andy

Edited August 17, 2021 by Foxbat

[Col.]

That photo is great inspiration Andy. Nice choice  

[Foxbat]

Postie's been, so some shots of everything pristine (Ahem, more on that later) before I dive in.

 

We have sprues. There are enough spare parts to make sure I can get things wrong several times over (three engine cowls and two sets of tyres - and that's if I don't mix and match parts ). The detail is worlds away from the Matchbox kit that was my last Hellcat.

 

Instructions and decal sheet are both comprehensive. I will use most of the former, and almost none of the latter (don't need the painting guide or US Navy markings). A quick look through the instructions show there is loads of detail in the cockpit even without PE or resin, so no fogging the canopy on this one.

 

The front of the decal instructions artfully photographed to hide where I sliced through them opening the box from Hannants  Fortunately I missed everything important including the decals but I really should have been more careful. 

 

And the reverse showing the colour call outs (note the underside is shown as white instead of light grey as they've used grey for the silver bits - another mystery solved). The scheme is interesting as the blue looks very like the Gloss Sea Blue the USN was using at the time BUT photos show it is only slightly shiny, not full gloss and the undersides are quite matt. I've got colours picked out, I'll worry about the final finish when I get there.

 

I think I've about hit the limits of procrastination. Next post will have some building in it. Promise.

 

Andy

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by Foxbat
Four typos in a three letter word

[Col.]

You've everything in place for this project now Andy  We'll be expecting those in-progress photos soon!  

[81-er]

That should end up as an interesting build. It's good to see the box contents, I'm using the same kit once the postie delivers it

 

James

[Foxbat]

I've been poking around for references a bit more and it appears these aircraft were even more distinct than I thought. I was told they had the guns removed but it looks like they kept the rocket rails. This pic shows that rather well: 

 

Smooth leading edge but lumps and bumps below

 

Note the total lack of visible gun barrels, or even openings for them, but the front of three somethings visible under the wing. Wonder what they were used for - a fighter without guns in the pre-missile age isn't really a fighter any more.

 

Andy 

[Foxbat]

OK, I have confirmation that part of the contract for supplying these aircraft stipulated no armaments were to be fitted so the guns were removed and the wing leading edge faired over and the gun sight was taken out. That would suggest that whatever I can see under the wing isn't a rocket rail so I'm going to do mine completely clean which will be an interesting variation.

 

Andy

[shortCummins]

I wonder why they had to be supplied without weapons?

[Foxbat]

1 hour ago, shortCummins said:

I wonder why they had to be supplied without weapons?

 

Took a bit of finding, but this is lifted from a Uruguayan article on the history of the Hellcats: "As with the TBM, the acquisition of the F6F had been formalized by our government through the signing of a contract with the company "Cobell Industries Inc.". The reason why the purchase had not been made from government to government was because the sale of the same ñor part of the United States Navy to foreign governments was not authorized. Yes, on the other hand, without their weapons, to private companies within borders, which in turn, did it to third parties."

 

So active USN equipment couldn't be sold toforeign governments, but decommisioned stuff sold on the civilian market was fine 😊 The article talks about gunnery and rocket practice later in their service life so it looks like the no gun thing was just a temporary nicety to comply with the letter of the law.

 

Andy

[Foxbat]

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

 

There is a scary level of detail in this kit. The cockpit tub has eight parts and as many decals. I've built entire tanks with less of each  Fortunately Eduard's engineering is such that if you take you time and use just  a modicum of common sense it all comes together beautifully. This is the cockpit mid build, after I'd painted everything on the sprue. The seatbelts and top switch panels are decals, everything else is me wafting paint at what came out of the box.

 

The completed tub. Even the rudder pedals combine lovely detail with being dead easy to fit. 

 

And a reverse angle shot, just to try and show off the detail. Hard to believe this is 1/72. Harder still to believe some people look and think "It could be busier in there, where's me photo etch?". I take my hat off to them. I'm used to a floor, a seat and a stick if I'm lucky, now I'm looking and thinking I must go back and touch up the grip at the top of the control column - I've truly gone through the looking glass with this one and I'm loving it  

 

I've started on the next stage, but nothing worth pictures yet. Stay tuned though, there'll be more lyrical waxing soon

 

Andy

 

 

[81-er]

That's looking nice. You've jogged my memory that there's decals for the tops of the side panels, I think I'll use those on mine. My hamfisted attempt at detail painting them hasn't gone well lol

 

James

[Foxbat]

1 hour ago, 81-er said:

That's looking nice. You've jogged my memory that there's decals for the tops of the side panels, I think I'll use those on mine. My hamfisted attempt at detail painting them hasn't gone well lol

 

James

There's 4 decals for the instrument panel too, and there are two panels on the sprure - one with moulded detail for the braver painters than me and one without for sticking decals/PE to. I love that kind of little detail and I'm really enjoying this build. I've remembered to remove the gunsight since I took those pictures too; the Uruguayan aircraft were delivered without them as they had no guns to aim

 

Andy

[81-er]

I'd seen the other IP shaded out on the instructions and assumed it was for the F6F-3, it didn't occur to me to check if it had any detail on it. Doh! I sanded all the detail off the other one. Mental note for any further builds, check if there's a detail-free part before you sand off the details

 

James

[Foxbat]

1 hour ago, 81-er said:

I'd seen the other IP shaded out on the instructions and assumed it was for the F6F-3, it didn't occur to me to check if it had any detail on it. Doh! I sanded all the detail off the other one. Mental note for any further builds, check if there's a detail-free part before you sand off the details

 

James

To be fair, I'd started painting the detailed IP before I stumbled on the other one while I was looking for something else. As you say, it's greyed out and never mentioned - maybe intended for the Profipack kit and the included PE?

 

Andy

[Foxbat]

I needed to remove the gunsight from the top of the IP as the Uruguayan aircraft were delivered without them. The easiest way to hold it steady was to button the tub up in the fuselage (honest  ) so that's what I did. 

 

There's a nice big aperture there so you can see lots of the lovely cockpit detail. I'm tempted to go with the open canopy option when the time comes which is a rarity for me.

 

I stuck a coat f primer on to help with checking seams - there wasn't much in the way of work required but that applies to this kit generally, it is still being a joy to build. I did remove the forward light from the fuselage spine (thanks to dnl42 for mentioning that in the reference section  ). Something to note - only the first batch of -5s had the windows behind the canopy. Luckily Eduard have this covered too as they give markingsand therefore parts for both versions. On the clear sprue, parts E1 and E2 have the windows, while E3 and E4 don't so it was a moments work to fit the right parts for my build. They just clicked into place too - almost didn't need glue.

 

Finally for this installment, I glued the wing halves together minus the gun inserts and filled in the ports on the leading edge. I still need to decide what to do about the stubs for the rockets as I have a couple of photos that show them still in place even though all the other armament was removed. It'll be a chore snipping them off the rockets and gluing them in place but that may be the easiest option long term. In the meantime. here are the primed wings and cowling added to the fuselage. Cowling is just pressed on for now as I haven't started on the engine.

 

More later. That's how time works I'm afraid.

 

Andy

[Cookenbacher]

Looks like a Hellcat already - looking forward to seeing this in its Uruguayan scheme.

[Col.]

Everything looks to be coming together well Andy, nice work, given the quality of your cockpit I'd be leaving the canopy open as well  

[Foxbat]

Paint. Love it or loathe it, you can't avoid it forever - unfortunately  

 

First coat of Xtracrylix Sea Blue Gloss. It's not very anything really; thin, streaky, runny and horrible. Nothing like your humble scribe then but nothing like the finish I would have expected from any other brand of paint in my stock either (and there are a few - including the Xtracrylix I used in the cockpit which  was fine).

 

The undersides took a couple of coats too, but they're getting there. Still need a least one more though. Tailplanes and gear doors probably need another two or three.

 

Third coat and it's coming along, as long as you can ignore the bits where paint has pooled or run. I'm having to rub it down (sometimes back to plastic) between coats. I HATE gloss paint 🤬

 

Fourth coat and that's me done for today. It's mostly blue, mostly covered and you can mostly still see Eduards lovely surface detail. Would have been a lot simpler if it was matt green though 😕 

 

I'm scared to take the masking off now, I just know there's going to be a monumental ridge, plus bleeding through and bits where the tape didn't stick properly. How you airbrush users cope is beyond me.  More next time. I hope it's more positive because this was a lovely kit and it deserves a good finish.

 

Andy

[Foxbat]

Another little update, just to show I haven't forgotten.

 

Got the underside painted to an acceptable standard. Decided to fill the mounting holes for the rocket rail stubs as I've seen photos with and without and the latter seemed more in keeping with no guns. Started to apply decals and discovered they're all covered by a single carrier film so need cutting close to the design. No problem for the roundels, but the crossbar on the anchor folded up and took some persuading - then fell off 😕 Nothing I can't fix, but another chore.

 

 

Stuck the engine on and gave it a basic paint job. I actually mounted and painted each cylinder bank seperately, but didn't take pictures in the middle. Looks a bit messy at this point but a) it's hugely magnified compared to the model, and b) it's not finished here  

 

 

I decanted some paint and gave the uppers one more coat to try and get close to a decent finish. The colour is consistent now, but the paint is still weird: it won't brush out the way matt does because it's gloss but it dries in no time flat so you also don't have time to make corrections - I held the model by the dried starboard wing while I painted the port one. Hopefully the huge decals and a top coat of nice thin varnish will make things OK?

 

 

Engine has a wash of smokey tint, push rod tubes and valve covers are painted black and the crankcase and gubbins at the front has been painted, highlighted and washed. Looks lovely in 1:1 scale and will be almost invisible one the cowl and prop are on. We'll know though won't we so still worth it. Got to love the detail, right down the bolt heads round the boss where the prop shaft emerges.

 

 

That's it for now. Finished page 2 of the instructions. I'm dead excited to see what comes next .

 

Andy

Edited August 3, 2021 by Foxbat

[Foxbat]

You wait ages for an update then two come along together.

 

Decals are almost done. I decided I wanted to do them now because they looked more fun than painting the undercarriage. My build, my rules - take that Mr Eduard and your carefully considered instructions!!

 

Please ignore the awful paint. The camera adds 10lb... sorry, wrong thread. Ahem, the flash is very unforgiving and it looks a lot better under natural light.

 

 

I'll Decalfix and trim the tail flags in the morning when they've had a chance to dry. Have to say after the first anchor the rest of the decals have been a joy to use. Only the numbers for the undercarriage doors left to add so I'm probably past the point of jinxing anything by saying that.

 

Andy

[Cookenbacher]

The transfers have really brought this one to life Andy!

[Col.]

The decals certainly add a lot of interest to this particular machine

[Foxbat]

Onwards to the undercarriage. For some reason this fought me like a cornered (Hell)cat. Checking my reference pictures showed the undercarriage legs were in bare metal rather than the sea blue they originally came in. I couldn't for the life of me get any of my vaguely relevant Vallejo metallics to stick and give good coverage. "Not to worry," I thought, "bit of black ink for shading and weathering and they'll be right". Except the heavily thinned ink went on like tar and the entire legs looked like they had been bought in a sale as fire damaged  

 

I buffed it up and left it. The wheels and tyres are separate parts to make for easy painting. That worked. Then when I can to stick them together, one just didn't want to fit so in the end I had to resort to squeezing them together in the jaws of a handy pair of pliers. All good, except for the paint which was now mostly missing and had to be reapplied to both hub and tyre, neatly negating all the advantages of having two parts 🤬

 

I got the wheels onto the legs without any major drama, and then dropped them on the floor. Twice. Finally managed to get glue, leg and wing in close proximity, but they really weren't friends and demanded a trial separation 😢 Third or fourth time lucky and everything stayed stuck. Here it is with the glue setting

 

 

Cowl and prop next. Cowl went on sweet as a nut. Painted the prop blades and masked off the ends to paint white, then yellow, then yellow ink to deepen the colour as the yellow paint was a bit thin and weedy. No bleed and almost exactly straight lines when I took the tape off. Hurrah!!! Touched up the black and was happy. Painted the hub in the same silver that hadn't worked the day before and it went on no bother. Life's like that. Painted the boss red but it was too dark and browny. Overpainted it but that red was too pink. Slapped some red ink over it and it was just right. I've mounted the prop to the airframe before it could escape and ruin the paint so this is where I am up to:

 

 

By my reckoning there are 6 parts to stick on and only 30 or 40 little jobs to do and she'll be finished. 

 

Andy

[shortCummins]

she's looking very nice, I do like this scheme

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[Foxbat]

Think this is about done. Couple of touch ups and some proper pictures tomorrow (actually later today now I've seen the time). This is a great kit, all the blemishes and errors are entirely self inflicted. I'm tempted to have a go at the 1/48 version just because there's more of everything  

 

Several pictures show prominent exhaust staining so I stuck some on mine. 

 

Eduard give you roughly half a million stencils. I didn't use any from the little sheet as they're mostly black on a dark blue surface but I couldn't leave off the ones from the prop 

 

Went with the open canopy. Still hate painting them, and I need to find a different fixative - I'm gong through a bottle of Clearfix per kit as it keeps going solid in the bottle.

 

That's all for now. See you in the Gallery soon.

 

Andy