Neils F6F-5 Hellcat 1/72

[Neil]

This will be my first GB - be gentle!

Eduard 1/72, not sure of the exact price but from SMS and about £8.50. Typical nice Eduard spues and detail, I really like their kits.

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[papa 695]

Nice one Neil glad to have you onboard looking forward to watching this come together, from what I've heard it's a good kit

[Guest]

Looks good, Neil. I have this in my stash - bought it when it wasn't under a tenner. Doh!

[Neil]

Looks good, Neil. I have this in my stash - bought it when it wasn't under a tenner. Doh!

One immutable law of this site I've found, if you have a kit in your stash, someone else will probably have it but bought cheaper

[Neil]

I seem to be one of the last to start this, however, got some PE now so the office:

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I do have some PE switches and belts but a combination of finger size and eyesight means I am not even going to attempt getting these in place.

As per normal I painted the main parts on sprue in a couple of thinned coats but I have to say the Tamiya sea blue (XF-17) is very dark so I may add some white to it when I do the final coat when it is all together to lighten it a little bit - although I guess it might lighten with kleer and flat clear so I can try them on a spare part.

Oh I found a reference piece that shows all the F6F-5 which this is, were painted interior green below the side control panels and black above - which is why it is both black and green, also some ref pics show this as a very heavily weathered aircraft (Death and Destruction) so some scope there.

[flyjoe180]

Nice work on that cockpit Neil.

[Neil]

Progress report...

Altogether except the canopy and prop and a few add on's (added a couple of bits since these were taken).

Next is sanding any joins down such as underneath, a final coat or two of sea blue, then the decals etc. Leaving the prop until that is done with decals and final seal. Wish I had done that with the front undercarriage (not in these photos) as they also have decals and they will be awkward. I may see if they pop off easily and can do them with the decal too.

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[Guest]

Looking good Neil.

[Neil]

Nearly there, must apologise for the photos, bit rushed and I really ought to try taking them in the morning when the light is better. I need to re-fashion a pitot tube, decals, flat clear coat and then some weathering. I've seen some photos of "death and destruction" and it was one dirty plane. Oh, and rockets to be added under the wings too.

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[Neil]

So after mangling the original decals I needed to get some more which duly arrived from Hannants but now I have a dilemma, I now have 8 marking schemes that all use the same colour scheme that I have already used (all over sea blue) - 7 of them are US carrier based but there is an Armee de l'Air for Vietnam 1952 - the only difference is the decals. Still as I have a few of the "death and destruction" decals on, rather than try to get them off too I'll use that set - I may need to buy another F6F-5 and use the French version though - nice looking decals - PrintScale ones.

[flyjoe180]

Nice to have spares for later Neil. The French Indochina version would look pretty good, I think they were possibly more colourful than the standard US schemes with yellow stripes from memory (I wasn't there!).

[Neil]

these are the decals I got:


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The roundels are the French ones, sorry about the glare. It's the bottom right scheme on the image with 7 schemes.

[flyjoe180]

Well, the stripes I must have imagined. Still a nice scheme Neil.

[Neil]

Nearly done, decals on and humbrol clear applied (the Klear - cloudy stuff - was making the acrylic run). I am going to apply a little bit of weathering - not too much, but out of interest as it is a dark blue, if I wanted to apply a wash would a black wash even show up? Would it be better to apply a lighter grey perhaps? I'm thinking I don't want to ruin it as it is my first GB but a dark wash seems a little pointless.


I did see in AMW someone use a yellow pre-shade on an olive finish, presumably, a pale blue or off-white at least, pre shade on the middle of the panels would have worked here - well it would if I used an air-brush anyway? It's a nice little kit but there are plenty of US Navy kits I could try that on I suppose.


Pics to follow when I have taken some more.

[flyjoe180]

Avgas in particular (leaded high octane petroleum) tends to leave a light grey residue rather than black, so that's what I'd recommend to apply for exhaust streaking if you were so inclined Neil. I think these aeroplanes were pretty well maintained, and with a gloss finish were probably much easier to clean that their land based contemporaries.