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1:48 Hasegawa F6F-3 Hellcat


timmah

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Hi All

Decided to get some modelling done again and saw this group build and as I had a kit that fitted the bill, I thought I would join in.

The kit is the 1:48 Hasegawa F6F-3 Hellcat with decal options for aircraft from:VF-9 USS Essex and VF-16 from USS Lexington.

P9160242.jpg

Apart from adding some PE belts its going to be out of the box.

Whilst doing a bit of research on Google I came across this picture of the exact aircraft from VF-16 that is given as the second decal option

F6F-3VF-16.jpg

So I've decided to do that one without the crash damage!

I'm off on hols till next week so I won't get much done until I return...... :coolio:

Best regards

Tim.

Edited by timmah
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That's a really good reference photo isn't it? Shows all those scuffs and scratches and the exhaust staining too. I have a 'thing' for crashed and battered aircraft and can't help thinking that this photo could be the basis of a charming little diorama.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A start has been made......

P9260244.jpg

Cockpit complete (apart from headrest) and about to be installed in the fuselage. Got some other assembly of the small parts done also so hopefully won't be too long before another update.

Thanks for looking.

Tim.

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Progress continues.

Before I closed up the fuselage, there is a large seam running through the tail wheel well which I wasn't sure how to deal with. My first thought was to remove all the plastic and add rib detail inside but when the tail wheel is installed, there's very little to see so I decided to put a piece of plastic card in to cover it up.

P9280245.jpg

Fuselage all closed up.

P9280246.jpg

Wings attached and now just need to clean up the seams.

P9290248.jpg

Thanks for looking

Tim.

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Nice progress Tim. If you were doing the crash scene I'd say the tailwheel bay would need creating and detail but as it'll never be seen with the model on its wheels that would be wasted effort and time better spent elsewhere thus agree with your decision.

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A small amount of progress as I have been getting on with the Zero.

I wanted to add some wiring to the engine so I started by gluing some lead wire to the ignition ring and drilling out the cyclinder heads on the two banks. Looking at pictures on the internet I'm not sure how accurate the Hasegawa offering is?

P9250243.jpg

And a zoom in on the finished article, looks a bit "factory fresh" to me so when it's all dry I will dirty it up a bit

PA090251a.jpg

Just need to attach the tailplanes and this one will also be ready for primer.

Thanks for looking

Regards

Tim.

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And we continue............

During the week I added the tailplanes and sanded and polished the seams, once I was happy, I airbrushed on a coat of Mr Surfacer 1200 primer.

PA120242.jpg

The primer showed up a a couple of seam issues, one on the fuselage spine and the other on the under belly; I'm sure both could have been avoided if I'd applied better consistant pressure whilst the fuselage halves were drying (must ask Mish where she got the clamps I see in her build reports!). A bit more Mr surfacer 1200 was applied with a small brush and left to fully dry. Today I flatted the additional spots of Mr Surfacer down and went over them with the airbrush and all is good.

Just need postie to deliver my fresh paints from Hannants and I can start adding some colour!

Thanks for looking

Tim.

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and sanded and polished the seams,

Tim.

It's your attention to the basics that makes this build stand out for me. I confess to being a bit of a slapdash

assembler of kits and I reckon I could improve my stuff a lot by following your excellent example. I'll get

some of that Mr Surfacer stuff next time I see it. I looked at a spray tin and a bottle at the show on Sunday

but the instructions were in Japanese so I couldn't work out which to get. Also, there were several grades

on show. What do you recommend for a new user to begin with?

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That engine wiring is great stuff, i wish i had done that on mine.

Hi Chris

Thank you! It doesn't take that long to do but I have to say once the engine cowl is on you will hardly be able to see any of it so I do sometimes wonder if the effort is worth it in the end. :shrug:

It's your attention to the basics that makes this build stand out for me. I confess to being a bit of a slapdash

assembler of kits and I reckon I could improve my stuff a lot by following your excellent example. I'll get

some of that Mr Surfacer stuff next time I see it. I looked at a spray tin and a bottle at the show on Sunday

but the instructions were in Japanese so I couldn't work out which to get. Also, there were several grades

on show. What do you recommend for a new user to begin with?

Hi Don

Thank you for your comments, the quality of the kit certainly helps and I do wonder if I pay too much attention to the basic stuff rather than simply enjoying the build?? Your builds seem to come together quickly and looking at the results I don't see how you could ever describe them as slapdash!!

Mr surfacer is a great product, I have two of the 40ml jars, one is 500 grade and the other 1200, I'm not keen on aerosol cans, I tend to flood the model with paint as I find them less easy to control. I've never seen it for sale here in the UK so I purchased it over the net (I presume the japanese only instructions don't help!). It's available in lots of different grades, 500 is quite thick and 1200 is quite thin so works well as a spray primer. I use the 500 grade for filling in gaps in wing roots etc, I overfill the gap using a tooth pick or similar and leave it to dry, then using a cosmetic pad with some IPA (isopropyl alcohol) wipe over the joint which cleans off the excess and leaves the gap filled. 1200 grade I thin with cellulose thinners and airbrush on which can really help to show up any issues and it covers well before painting so those two would be my choice.

Ok, at the end of last week I managed to get some stuff done:

Preshaded the entire model.

PA150243.jpg

Undersides painted with first coat, the preshade is still a bit too stark, a second light coat will help it blend in.

PA150245.jpg

The second coat covered a bit too well so most of the preshade was lost but after weathering it should be ok. I made a cockup of the cowling and so that has to be redone, just another case of trying too hard to get the finish correct in one session and then over doing it..............

The picture of the actual aircraft showed that it was quite faded in parts and I wanted to replicate that. Using the perfect coloured decals would look odd against the faded airframe so I emailed Ian at Ad Astra masks about getting the numbers and insignia done as custom masks, I was amazed just how easy it all was. Ian sent an email that the masks had been despatched and that I should expect them in around 10 days time......

Well after only 4 days I had a nice present from Canada on the doorstep when I got back from work.

PA200246.jpg

The masks look so nice and I can't wait to use them, hope I do them justice!

More progress soon.

Regards

Tim.

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Hi Don

Mr surfacer is a great product, I have two of the 40ml jars, one is 500 grade and the other 1200, I'm not keen on aerosol cans, I tend to flood the model with paint as I find them less easy to control. I've never seen it for sale here in the UK so I purchased it over the net (I presume the japanese only instructions don't help!). It's available in lots of different grades, 500 is quite thick and 1200 is quite thin so works well as a spray primer. I use the 500 grade for filling in gaps in wing roots etc, I overfill the gap using a tooth pick or similar and leave it to dry, then using a cosmetic pad with some IPA (isopropyl alcohol) wipe over the joint which cleans off the excess and leaves the gap filled. 1200 grade I thin with cellulose thinners and airbrush on which can really help to show up any issues and it covers well before painting so those two would be my choice.

Thanks Tim, I'll have a go.

Don

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Had some free time on Saturday and as I really wanted to try out the masks I decided to postpone painting the topside and got the masks out instead. I also thought if I made a mess of it I wouldn't have too much to strip and repaint!

So off we go................

Mask positioned which took a couple of attempts as my hand was shaking and they are really sticky!!

PA220247.jpg

Outline of the insignia picked out and saved for later.

PA220248.jpg

Insignia red sprayed on in a patchy way to try and suggest a faded outline.

PA220250.jpg

I really wanted to get the insignia finished that I did not wait until the red was dry before carrying on. I refitted the red outline mask and removed the remaining masks in order to paint the blue.

PA220251.jpg

Overall I just could not believe how easy it was to do and I'm really chuffed with the finished insignia. The only downside was that as I was too impatient about getting it finished and the red was still not fully dry when I removed the masks some more of the red outline came away.

So here's the finished pictures...........

Without flash.

PA220253.jpg

With flash which helps show some of the fading on the blue but does wash out the red a bit more.

PA220252.jpg

I now would like to have a view from the Britmodeller clan as to if the red is now too faded against the blue or is the blue not faded enough?? I still have the masks so it would not be too much trouble to rectify it.

Many thanks for looking

Best regards

Tim.

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Hi Tim,

Since I haven't compared your results with any references, this is just a personal opinion. I think the red is better at the aft side of the insignia. There, the patchiness (and the peeling) seem to be 'naturally' aged whereas the forward half looks like it wasn't sprayed evenly to begin with. I think this has resulted from the spray at the front end not going up to the sides of the mask as much as at the rear.

The question of whether the more weathered red goes with the blue is a difficult one, different colours age differently, so I hesitate even to state an opinion without a reference to hand. Then again, WWII colour photo emulsions are always open to doubt, so maybe the best answer is, 'do you like it?' Reading your post, you seem unsure of that.

Edited by per ardua ad ostentationem
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I now would like to have a view from the Britmodeller clan as to if the red is now too faded against the blue or is the blue not faded enough?? I still have the masks so it would not be too much trouble to rectify it.

Many thanks for looking

Best regards

Tim.

I'm not sure the red would fade and wear out that way, US Insignia was pretty resilant, the red would fade to a rust color but I don't recall ever seeing it fade quite like that.

They only used that kind of insignia for a few months and carrier aircraft were usually pretty well maintained.

Its a nice effect though, love the masking of the insignia, a lovely job you are doing here.

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Thanks to everyone for all the nice comments!!

Hi Tim,

Since I haven't compared your results with any references, this is just a personal opinion. I think the red is better at the aft side of the insignia. There, the patchiness (and the peeling) seem to be 'naturally' aged whereas the forward half looks like it wasn't sprayed evenly to begin with. I think this has resulted from the spray at the front end not going up to the sides of the mask as much as at the rear.

The question of whether the more weathered red goes with the blue is a difficult one, different colours age differently, so I hesitate even to state an opinion without a reference to hand. Then again, WWII colour photo emulsions are always open to doubt, so maybe the best answer is, 'do you like it?' Reading your post, you seem unsure of that.

Hi Don, I think I like it?? I'm having trouble finding any pictures of the underside of an aircraft with this style of insignia to compare it to...........

I'm not sure the red would fade and wear out that way, US Insignia was pretty resilant, the red would fade to a rust color but I don't recall ever seeing it fade quite like that.

They only used that kind of insignia for a few months and carrier aircraft were usually pretty well maintained.

Its a nice effect though, love the masking of the insignia, a lovely job you are doing here.

Hi Chris, thanks for the heads up, the picture of the aircraft I'm doing does look faded on the top quite badly, the top wing and side insignia seem to have a definite faded red outline but it's a black and white old picture so who knows what it was really like?

Anyway, more piccies..........

Intermediate sea blue sides done Tuesday evening and this is how it looked on a very sunny Wednesday morning with some of the masking removed to check the demarcation line.

PA260254.jpg

Freshly painted gloss sea blue topside, the flash has lightened the overall colour but I still think it may be too light compared to the photograph?

PA270258.jpg

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Thought I'd have a bit of fun with Photoshop.

Here's the actual aircraft.............

F6F-3VF-16.jpg

And here the freshly painted model in black and white............

hellcatbw.jpg

Looks like another coat will bring it a bit closer to the photograph. what do you think??

Thanks

Tim.

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