Joe's 1/72 Academy Grumman F6F Hellcat

[flyjoe180]

Yep, bane of the working class

[colin m]

Could have been worse. Decorating. Nuff said

[flyjoe180]

Could have been worse. Decorating. Nuff said

Got that lined up too Colin... SWMBO has a schedule and it doesn't include shed time. She can't be here all the time though

[colin m]

Got that lined up too Colin... SWMBO has a schedule and it doesn't include shed time. She can't be here all the time though

Only the brave dare disobey the good Lady....

[Neil]

Nice work, I do love the hellcat, something so right about it. You've got the Spit which is sort of Muhammed Ali - elegant, fast and deadly and then the Hellcat which is more of of your Roberto Duran in his prime - can take a beating but packs a hell of a punch.


I probably have some extra decals from my hellcat - different sets including a French Indo-China one - but includes a number of the sea-blue ones with different tail schemes?

[flyjoe180]

I've drilled those six gun ports out:


[ATTACH]112339.IPB[/ATTACH]



And then primed the beast in grey:


[ATTACH]112340.IPB[/ATTACH]



And added some white to the sections that will be masked off for the carrier markings:


[ATTACH]112341.IPB[/ATTACH]



The painting stage won't take too long, it's one colour all over.

[flyjoe180]

So much for the paint stage not taking too long. I really shouldn't pre-empt such things. Whether it was a bad tinlet or the cold prevented it from drying properly, my initial paint job has dried weirdly with patches all over it. I'll try again after a light sanding.

[Neil]

Looking good though Joe, nice clean lines and will no doubt come up a treat with the sea blue scheme.

[colin m]

Dried patchy - or instant post shading out of the gun ?

[flyjoe180]

Dried patchy - or instant post shading out of the gun ?

A bit of both, it dried with varying surface effects giving what can only be called an eclectic finish. I sprayed another coat on last night after a light sanding and seems to have come out okay this time. No idea what happened the first time.

[Guest]

Just right Joe. Now I know what they look like in detail. Just reading a book by a Carrier Aircraft Pilot during WW11. Just to day he has transferred from his previous carrier aircraft to the HellCat.


Remarkable story. Quite interesting to read about his opinion of the Seafire () compared to the US carrier aircraft. He had service on a couple of carriers with a Seafire group. Previous to the Hellcat he had spent about 2 years flying Wildcats.


Look forward to your work Joe as I progress thro. this book.


Laurie

[flyjoe180]

Well, my masking of the white areas failed somewhat and the decals that went over the areas I had masked crumbled. I knew this was not going to be easy.


Anyway, here is the initial (re) paint. It looks more grey in this photo than in reality. The wheels are just popped on with a dry fit to allow the landing gear doors to remain off the ground whilst drying. And also to get the same colour as the airframe, into the wheel hubs.


[ATTACH]113684.IPB[/ATTACH]



Blurry photo sorry, but this is a better representation of the colour (it looks brighter here than in reality, can't win with the dark sea blue!)


[ATTACH]113685.IPB[/ATTACH]



I've given up the decals as they crumbled. So masked off the areas to be painted white and have gone back to ye holy brush work. I found another set of Hellcat stars and bars, so might get away with double layering those to stop the opacity issue (assuming they don't break up). The numbers will have to do. If I had time and money I'd get a stencil set for it and paint the white insignia but at present I have little of either for this model.

[flyjoe180]

Update. I had an accident with the Hellcat (I dropped it). Had to reattach the landing gear legs and part of the tail section was damaged.


[ATTACH]114642.IPB[/ATTACH]



So it has required some rebuilding. In a test of patience and the will to carry on, I've sanded back the paint work after repairs. It's currently in the drying stage in overall sea blue again. I've had enough of the white unit markings so I'm simplifying the build finish or I'll be late getting this to the finish line. So I'm now going for a machine from VF-85 (Sky Pirates) coded simply 'Z' and numbered '69' on the tail. This converts this build to a F6F-5P, the P standing for Photo Reconnaissance. I'll add the camera as required.


The new scheme:


[ATTACH]114643.IPB[/ATTACH]

[flyjoe180]

Been busy with work and other things and I've just realised there is only a few days to go to the end of this GB . So I'm off to apply some decals and do some touch ups and add the final pieces. I'll update later today with progress photos.

[Guest]

I'm glad you've revived this thread, Joe. Somehow I missed it first time around, so it's been good to catch up with it. Also (ulterior motive coming up) I have the Eduard Hellcat near the top of the stash, so I might learn something.