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1/72 Revell F6F-5 Hellcat


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Hi guys!

I've started my 1/72 Revell F6F-5 Hellcat (Italeri rebox) recently.

Plan is to build it without AM goodies, but with some scratchbuild details with the help of reference pictures.

It will be a late-war Hellcat, overall Navy Blue and with the typical "angry cat" decals on the nose (I'll use the kit decals; maybe some of the Academy kit).

This is the kit:

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I already added some detail to the cockpit. The kit's sidewalls, side consoles and IP had no detail at all, so I added consoles, pedals, engine control levers, landing gear levers and made some seatbelts.

The cockpit is painted in Vallejo Air interior green. The rest of the details were painted with various Revell, Humbrol and Modelmaster enamels.

I also added some paintchipping and a Promodellers dark wash. The wash might look a bit "heavy" on the pictures, but "in real life" it looks OK and you'll not be able to see much of it later.

I'll leave the upper seatbels loose for the moment, as I haven't decided yet if I'll just glue them on the seat or let them hang out of the cockpit, like on a take-off ready plane...

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Edited by Flyingraptor
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Already a next update! B)/>

The Hellcat has been put together more or less. Seams were filled with Tamiya white putty (this stuff looks more aggressive then the grey putty, or is it just my imagination?). Seams were later sanded and some panellines were rescribed with the Trumpeter scriber.

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I also replaced the kit's gunbarrels with pieces of 0,7mm injection needle. The holes in the wings for the gunbarrels still need to be filled with putty.

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The kit's wheel bays were reworked with some plasticard. The aft sidepanels and lower panel was not included in the kit, there are just gaps over there (shame on you, Mr. Italeri!). Maybe I'll add some more detail in that area.

I also opened up the ejector holes for the bullet shells. Turned out to be a bit wide in some areas, so I filled these wider holes with plasticard.

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I also added brake lines out of fine copper wire onto the landing gear legs.

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I'll use pieces of 1,2mm injection needle for the exhausts.

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I also had to adapt the Hellcat's star engine. If following the instructions, you'll end up placing the front row of cilinders backwards...

So I corrected that. Next step is to add spark plug cables out of fine copper wire.

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Comments are always welcome! :)/>

Edited by Flyingraptor
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Next update!

After checking some reference pictures, I build the spark plug cables on the Hellcat's engine out of very fine copper wire and small pieces of metal foil for the connection pieces.

I've put it onto a Lego-piece for size comparison. B)/>

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Edited by Flyingraptor
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Next update already!

Made some progress on the Hellcat.

Got it assembled a bit more. Armored glass installed, created a gunsight, filled some gaps and seams, installed and dropped the flaps...

The Hellcat is actually already a step further: primed up with Vallejo's white primer, etc...

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Edited by Flyingraptor
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  • 8 months later...

After a long time... Next update of the Hellcat!

I've given the Hellcat a coat of Gunze US Navy Blue, added some light paint chipping (with an undercoat of Vallejo Air Aluminium and then some Humbrol Maskol added with a sponge + some 'after'-chipping via scratches).

Next was a coat of Sols Plus (= Future). :)

Pictures:

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Hey guys!

New update (with a lot of text)!

Quick version:

The Hellcat finally wears its decals!

Longer version:

I used a mix of decals of the Revell and Academy kit. The Hellcat "Paper Doll", flown by Bob Burnell is often chosen when building a F6F-5 Hellcat. Decals for this version are included in both the Revell and Academy kit. However, I chose the Hellcat "Paoli Local", flown by Paul Drury. This version was included in the Academy kit, so I used the specific decals to make this bird and used Revell decals for the rest (the Revell decals are much easier to work with, IMHO: not so stiff and respond much better to decal solutions).

I first used the "angry cat" decals of the Academy kit, but those did not respond at all to the decal solution and did not adhere to the kit that well, nor did they take the shape of the cowling... I also tried to "glue" them in place with Future... didn't help...

So, I had to sand of the decals and respray the cowling because it had become a true disaster to look at! :bandhead2:/>

Luckily, I still had the Revell decals (although they are not 100% correct for this particular plane... oh well...) and these responded much better! They still needed some cuts to make them conform to the cowling and decal solution to get them nice and smooth.

However, there was still a problem... I wasn't able to get the Revell decal in place on the exact right spot: really on the edge of the cowling, I had to place it at a 2mm distance of the edge. Luckily I knew that Revell's matt red paint is an exact match for their red decal color. So I masked the still blue edge of and sprayed it red. But still: troubles! When removing the masking tape and blue-tack, the right decals broke into pieces and got stuck on the masking tape. I forgot to put a protective Future layer on top of the decals in advance! :doh:/>

Luckily I was able to scrape the decals back off the masking tape, piece by piece, with a scalpel. Then I glued those pieces back in place with Future and did some touch up with Revell matt red. A final coat of Future and everything solved in the end, PFEW! :woot.gif:/>

Comments and remarks are very much appreciated, BTW! :coolio:

The end-stage pics:

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Edited by Flyingraptor
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