1/48 F6F-3 Hellcat on the hunt

[Collin]

Eduard kit almost OOB. Added a pilot figure, some aftermarket gun barrels (the original kit barrels would never say on during construction, I'm too clumsy), and of course some Prop-Blur blades for my in-flight look

Kit goes together just as well as a Tamiya kit. Just a super kit and I think is the best Hellcat out there. Test fitting the pilot before closing the body up is a must, I had to shave almost his entire backside off to get him in there...but finally he decided to "man his aircraft" and start his climb out from launch hunting for the enemy (with a new recently replaced drop tank since he dropped the last one on his last flight).

Painting started with everything primed in black

Then a marbled coat of Reefer White with some Tamiya flat white thrown in

Intermediate Blue (mixture of many shades marbled on to the black undercoat). And finally a light marble of Dark Sea Blue on the upper surfaces. All the blue colors were put on with a

Badger SOTOR 20/20. After that it was back to my other Badger airbrushes (Velocity and Patriot 105). My gloss of choice is a few coats of Tamiya X-22 gloss...followed by a final misting of Windex to level everything out with a nice gloss.

Weathering is a bit of traditional and armor techniques. A very weak panel line wash (I hate stark and very dramatic panel lines), followed by mist coats of AK filters. Finally a satin/flat coat and then some more "dirty" colors around the cowling/engine/walkways/and gun bay areas. I then used colored pencils to chip away at the kit overall where wear and tear would be present (using a lot of reference photos). Only used silver colored pencils on the cowling fittings where they really showed maintenance work.

Only issue I ran into was the front canopy. I broke the -3 front windscreen, so threw on the -5 windscreen. Oh well.

Cheers

Collin

[Mr B]

Lovely finish

Rgds

[falcon20driver]

Wow! The painting is superb and the pilot's look and pose are perfect. Love it.

[Adam1818]

Looka awesome!! Very nice weathering and the pilot and prop add to the realism! Just need a nice blue sky backdrop and it would look like the real deal!!

[RKic]

Beautiful! I like the effect of the filters. They introduce a lot of variation in color tone. Pilot looks very well posed.

The only thing is the wee block of wood you use for the base. It looks comically small, and gives the model a precarious sense, as if its all going to tip over (which may be a real concern!) A more solid base might give the whole thing a more deserved, mighty look!

Stand physics aside, this is one splendid piece of artistic modeling.

[Grandboof]

Awesome . An Ocean base would really add atmosphere. Well done

Martin H

[murad]

ÜBER

pose of the figure is also very convincing, at least he's not sitting like he's got a stick up a his a** :D

[vise101]

Outstanding! ! ! ! !

[Rocat]

Must love the Hellcat with gears up...the pilot is stunning!

[fulcrum1]

Fantastic!

[Joel_W]

Colin

Just an overall outstanding build. The weathered finish is really just right to emulate a well weathered operational aircraft.

Joel