Hasegawa F6F-3 as voted for by you!

[Guest]

Aw feck - Graham I cant believe I missed that - enamel on top of unprotected enamel!!! That was it!!!

Although - since typing that 1st line, I've just put a coat of ACRYLIC aerosol primer onto the cleaned surface and THE SAME has happened again! What's going on here...???

M1k - that would be hilarious - catching them with a complete stone waller like that!!

Stuart

[Guest]

Due to my old man hijackign my compressor, no progress this evening other than finishing cleanup of the wing edges, cutting and sanding gear wheels and test fitting aforementioned parts. Here are a couple of pics of the completed engine. I've added the ignition leads, but otherwise it's out of the box.

Stuart

[Guest]

Just about keeping up with you Stuart. Just come out of the cave having sprayed up the engine block for the Hellcat and a few bits for the Seahawk. From what I can see, there isn't much of the engine visible on the Hellcat and it certainly hasn't the detail to open any hatches like the FW190 did. Still, comfortably similar engines, your grey 'nose cone' looks better detailed than the Eduard and mine doesn't fit onto a plate like that. Picies tomorrow, it's too late now.

Ya doing a great job Elton ;-)

[Guest]

Na none of my panels are gona be open, there's sod all in the 'cat except 2 banks of cylinders and the pretty good cockpit I mentioned earlier. I would have liked to show at least one gun bay off but I could do that with the next build if I can find some resin parts!

Pics later I hope, now I have my air supply back, so hopefully I'll be ROCKETMANning along...... I'll get me coat...

Elton

[Guest]

Not much progress tonight, but got the cockpit resprayed and prop painted and decalled. Just got the tips to do then it can go back in the box til finishing time. The black is Halfords aerosol gloss black and the spinner is Alclad II Chrome - great stuff to work with.

Stuart

[Guest]

Mmmm, nice prop. I think my spinner is the same all over dark blue as the rest of the aircraft,

As for the tips, I always spray the tip colour first then apply a tiny mask on each end then spray the black. Don't know why but I find it easier to get the same sized tips this way. Just horses for courses as they say, makes no odds.

Does anyone else feel sometimes that black is too black? On the Seahawk, the 'pit is supposed to be blackish. Revell call out is for their Anthracite which is a very deep dark grey. I am coming round to the idea that this is a really good scale 'black'

[Guest]

Got to agree with you Graham I find black to black if that makes sense , I tend to use vallejo`s german grey instead of black .

Richy

[Guest]

Graham, once again your experience has given me a much needed education - that should have been what I did, light colour first then dark colour!! D'oh!!

Re the black, I agree. IMHO (which is not necessarily right!!) it depends on where it is. I like props to be BLACK (I dunno why I single them out) , but tyres, WWII RAF bomber undersides, control panels etc I do with a couple of drops of brown or mid grey in with the black - takes the edge off it. After all, tyres aren't actually black. Theres a brand (i forget which) that makes a "Black Grey" which is also meant to work really well.

[stona]

I always do black props grey. Nothing scientific,just random lightening of black. On the 1/72 P-40 I did for the diorama I lightened RLM66 a lot. Don't forget to weather prop blades (I don't mean chipping. Here's a picture of some other naval aircraft showing this. These are 801 Sqn. Sea Furies leaving Gibraltar en route to Malta aboard HMS Glory.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

You make a good point! I'm gona have to break out the weathering tools on the prop!! I'll get the yellow done first though! Cheers for the tip! Oh and nice photo too!!

Stuart

[stona]

Oh and nice photo too!! Stuart

Thanks Stuart,it's one taken by my late father and unpublished until I scanned and posted it here. Right click and save,he would have liked his photographs put to good use.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Thanks for that Steve, I appreciate you giving clearance to do that. An excellent shot of some Beautiful subjects (including the rock)

Stuart

[Guest]

Progress this evening - 'pit finished, one or two last looks before buttoning up

I've painted worse instruments, but this technique needs a bit of tweaking (I just used a wash of white, built up in layers on the dials).

Fuselage buttoned up, prop finished (before the masking tape took the decal with it), fuel tank and U/C painted.

Stuart

[Guest]

Nice to see it coming together Stuart. Looking good.

[Guest]

Cheers Graham - since these photos I've done some cleanup on the seams, attached the wings and engine, masked the cowling opening. Next on the list is drilling out and attaching the exhausts, and masking that darn canopy not my fave job

Dunno what to do about that decal - except scrounge the spares box for another set I've somehow not used, but I've not built any other WWII 1:48 scale!!!

Stuart