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Hellcat Wheel Wells


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I'm just confused,are the wheel wells of hellcats from uss princeton (the one with the cat mouth) painted white or the interior green?

I saw some here in ARC painted in white,some green...which is which?

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I've never seen a Grumman a/c with green wheel wells. The Navy called for them to be painted in the local camouflage color, whether that was NS White or later GSB.

J

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Usually they were the exterior color. On "Tri-Color" Hellcats the wheel wells would be white, and on overall dark blue aircraft they'd be dark blue.

SN

Hi Steve,

How about white and interior green? Here's an image of an inverted Hellcat. The aft portion of the wheel well is white. The forward part is clearly a darker color, likely interior green.

Don

Hellcat2.jpg

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tnx...what's the more accurate color scheme with the princetons cats? overall blue or the tricolor?

You need to specify a time frame, the switch to overall GSB ocurred before she was sunk, but the change-over was not instantaneous either. The order to switch was to be effective 7 October 1944, Princeton was sunk 24 October 1944. For most of her life she would have carried tri-color air groups.

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As was mentioned, the time frame and specific aircraft will determine if your Hellcat should be 3-tone or overall GSB. A simple rule to follow is if it is an F6F-3, it should be tri-color. If it is a -5, it should be overall GSB (not set in stone, but a very good rule of thumb to go by concerning the Hellcat). Also, as mentioned before, VF-27 off the Princeton had both -3's and -5's at different times. When it was sunk, most were -5's and GSB. At Phillipine Sea (Marianas Turkey Shoot), they were all tri-color -3's.

Edited by MathmanAHS
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There were no F6F-5s period that were in the tri-color paint scheme. The dash 5s were delivered after April of 1944 when the navy changed to the overall glossy sea blue. Princeton's Hellcats were unique. The cat mouths were painted on while the squadron was in Hawaii doing gunnery work-ups by pilot Bob Brunell if I remember correctly. Each airplane was free hand painted and there were no templates or masks, so each airplane was slightly different from the next. On the -5s the artwork was a lot simpler and lost some of the details such as the bloodshot part of the eyes and the blood dripping from the mouth. The best thing to do would probably to decide whether to do a -3 or -5 and pick a specific airplane. In October of 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf when the Princeton was lost VF-27 operated a mix of -3s and -5s, which was still common at the time so you can go with either. I hope this helps a little and gives some of the history behind it.

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tnx for the replies...I'd also like to ask if I can go away with painting the F6F-5 in a tricolor scheme since we do have the artistic license on our builds, I really would like to do it on a tricolor (guess I picked the wrong model,should have been the 3)... I think the hobby boss decals actually refer to the 5's since the mouth don't have the blood drippings and the eyes are no longer bloodshot...

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Well, it's your model..you can paint it pink with purple polka dots if you want. It's only purpose for existing is to bring you enjoyment! While it's true that all -5 Hellcats were painted overall dark blue in service, there are a number of restored -5s painted in tri-color masquerading as -3s..you could just say "this is the airplane I wish I had in real life."

When it comes to markings and detail accuracy, I can "count rivets" with the best of them..but I also try to keep some perspective. To quote the late Oracle of modeling wisdom Al Superczynski: "Build what YOU want, the way YOU want to, and above all, HAVE FUN!"

SN

Edited by Steve N
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tnx for the encouragement...well I'll go ahead and paint it with the tricolor scheme...just a curiosity though, are planes with the GSB scheme whether a corsair or a hellcat supposed to be more weathered than those that aren't?

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I haven't studied the weathering very thoroughly, but I'd say the overall blue ones were probably a bit cleaner. Gloss paint doesn't stain and weather as badly as flat..also, the grime doesn't show up as well on the dark color. That's not to say they didn't get dirty, but the pics I've seen don't appear as grungy as the tri-color aircraft. One thing to be careful of is paint chipping. I've seen many models of Naval aircraft with lots of bare metal chips. In reality, WWII carrier based aircraft exhibited little if any chipping..exposed metal was almost always immediately touched up to avoid corrosion in the salty environment.

SN

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while I was browsing through finished hellcats, I guess I'll stick to the GSB since I think my decals were meant for F6F-5 with GSB color scheme...guess I'll just have to use different shades of GSB to at least break the monotone look...

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The glossy sea blue was picked because it was remarkably durable and able to maintain its integrity in the elements. That's not to say it didn't wear but it was quite a bit better than the tri-color paints.

Ken

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