1/48 F6F-3 by Eduard

[playdoh]

I'm building Eduard's 1/48 scale Hellcat for the GB. Eduard's kit is a great model out of the box but I'm going to jazz it up with a Big Ed PE set along with a Quickboost engine, Ultracast wheels and a Obscureco prop. I have never used this much aftermarket stuff on a build so it should be interesting.

For a change of pace I started with the wheel wells instead of the cockpit. The wheel wells on the Hellcat are pretty complicated and Eduard does a pretty good job with them out of the box.

The Eduard undercarriage PE set takes them to a whole 'nother level.

Thirty some odd parts later I've got one well done. I get the feeling this might take a while :)/>/>

Thanks for looking, more to come!

[rightwinger26]

Thats a really nice job with a whole lotta PE. Keep up the good work.

[xavi84]

That is some crazy work! I can't wait to see the rest of this build.

[dnl42]

That is a nice bit of work!

[playdoh]

Well life has been crazy preparing for a move and I haven't had much time to work on the Hellcat, but I thought I would post a small update.

Here is the back of the cockpit as it comes in the kit.

With the additional PE you have to hack it up until there's not much left.

This is how it looks with most of the PE added.

Here it is painted. I still have more pieces to add plus some plumbing and then I will add a little more weathering and a wash to highlight it as well.

Here is the starboard side panel

There are still more parts to add and some additional painting.

The tail wheel-well is blanked off in the kit. I have opened it up and added a bulkhead for the tail wheel. I still need to add some additional stringers and bulkheads and replace the green primer with Grumman Gray.

One last thing. If you are making a late model -3 the cowl ring doesn't match up well with the late model cowl.

Because of the compound curves and engraved detail it can be problematic trying to sand it smooth. Thankfully the mid and early production cowls match up nicely with the cowl ring. I found it easier to sand off the side scoops on the mid production cowl and use them instead. Six one way, half a dozen another I suppose.

This is just dry fit on without any glue.

That's all for now. Hopefully I will find more time in the near future to get more done. Thanks for looking.

[Neo]

Nice progress

those PE wheel wells are amazing.

i did my 1/32 KI-84 with pe and it was no where near that complex!! this is the kind of result you cant get with resin

[Ridgeline]

Wow, seriously... that wheel well blew my mind.