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I’m new to this forum, but I wanted to share the build I’m doing of Eduard’s F6F-3.  Naval aviation has been an area that I haven’t spent much time on and wanted to try my hand at painting some blue.  My end goal isn’t to create an accurate Hellcat down to the last rivet, but rather, my interpretation of a Hellcat.  To that end, I chose the Eduard kit as the reviews seemed generally more favorable than the other offerings, plus the Profi Pack has the bonus of the resin wheels and photo etch detail sent.  I also purchased a set of Brass barrel upgrades and a resin pilot.

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32 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

Welcome to the forum! :wave:

 

Any model of a Grumman aircraft is obviously a brilliant choice! I'll enjoy following along! :popcorn:

 

Thank you, I'm still trying to figure out how to get images loaded on here properly, here is one shot of all of the contents prior to kicking off.

 

 

IMG_5374.000.jpg

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2 minutes ago, Hammerhead11 said:

Thank you, I'm still trying to figure out how to get images loaded on here properly, here is one shot of all of the contents prior to kicking off.

That worked fine!

 

Oh, and good choice on the Master barrels--they're amazing! :thumbsup:

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Hopefully this shows up, I started by working on the engine.  The kit components offer a nice place to start from, but in general are pretty simplified.  I began by adding detail to the Distributor caps, Magneto and Reduction gear housing as well as added the ignition harness.  

gEyvxMG.jpg

 

Here is another shot:

KHRAo5h.jpg

 

After that, I began adding detail to the cylinders, including completing the ignition harness, and magneto wires.  I also build a new bolt ring connecting the reduction gear housing to the crank case.

UiOv4p5.jpg

IMh2fOy.jpg

 

Finally, primed it all black in preparation for painting.

K0MWmQT.jpg

Overall materials used were Evergreen Styrene, copper and steel floral wire and lead solder. 

 

Completed engine, painted and weathered.  Sorry I didn't photograph this part.  Paints used were Vallejo Model Air acrylics and oils for the weathering and washes.

cV9hVAU.jpg

iMQdJii.jpg

Edited by Hammerhead11
Added additional pictures
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9 hours ago, ViperZero said:

Nice start on this Hellcat.

The engine seems great! :pollice su:

 

7 hours ago, Falconxlvi said:

Great job on the engine!  Wow!

 

Steve

 

5 hours ago, Brett M said:

Welcome to ARC and nice opening thread! Like others have said, that engine looks great. Looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate very much your kind words.

 

Continuing on, I started working on the engine cowl.  I plan on displaying this Hellcat as though it just landed and so I decided to open up the cowl flaps a bit.  I also decided to attempt to add some more detail into the inside as a good portion of it would be visible around the engine. I wasn’t going super accuracy, but at least give the impression that there is some structure in there. I also needed to partition off the lower ducting, this was done mainly to make sure you couldn’t see the engine through the lower grill, so again, not accurate at all.

bIvgScI.jpg

6dbJz5F.jpg

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Paints used are Vallejo model air and weathering was done oils.

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Continuing on, I started working on the cockpit.  What Eduard supplies for the cockpit leaves a little to be desired.  The sidewalls, floor and rear bulkhead are VERY simplified.  Somewhat ironically, the kit supplied instrument panel is quite detailed, but the Profipack comes with Eduards brilliant photoetch IP, which just takes things up a notch.  Anyways, I decided to scrap most of the cockpit and build a new one.  

PAu121y.jpg

new floor and rear bulkhead, evergreen styrene.

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kit seat vs new seat, the kit seat was overly thick and too large.  Photo etch piece is from the kit.

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building up the structure of the floor.

UUuAlgH.jpg

test fitting into the fuselage.

qL3UpNV.jpgI decided I would use the kit control stick, rudder peddles, and parts of the right side console.

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Additional detail added to the seat to represent the support structure.  In the back group you can see that I ended up using the kit part for the head rest on the bulkhead.

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here is the mostly rebuild right side detail.

xs0gsDK.jpg

here is the left side detail.

hodXwxC.jpg

completed floor and rear bulkhead.  It’s still very simplified compared to the actual aircraft, but I think it looks far superior to the kit supplied detail.

OaP5jl9.jpgand all of the cockpit components ready for some paint.

xjaS1JH.jpg

and base coats laid down.  Now to start on the instrument panel photoetch.

MGsJ8Fh.jpg

so, the Eduard photoetch is amazing.  So many tiny little pieces, but absolutely worth it.

 

Unfortunately  I didn’t take a lot of photos painting the detail and weathering in the cockpit, but you can see a bit of it in the following photos.

PDsXVsF.jpgAI59kEv.jpgdLoA5YM.jpg

 

All paints used are Vallejo acrylic, weathering was done with oils and enamel washes.

 

I haven’t added the top portion of the harness as I plan on having these draped over the sides of the fuselage, so they will be added at the very end.  At this point all that’s left is to glue it all together and glue the two fuselage halves together.  Next I will be tackling the wings and landing gear.

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6 hours ago, Kurt H. said:

That is some really nice scratchbuilding.  A whole cockpit.  Can you answer something for me I have not been able to figure out ... how did you cut the curves on that bulk head? What kind of tool did you use?

 

Thank you Kurt, it was a little scary at first replacing almost the whole cockpit, but I rationalized it by thinking that if I totally butchered it, I could always resort back to the kit parts.  So, that took some of the pressure off.  As for your question, here is the process that I used.  I traced the kit part onto the blank plastic stock I was using.  Using very sharp long bladed scissors I roughly cut out the shape.  I then used a combination of back scraping with my hobby knife and files/sandpapaer to refine the edges.  I constantly test fitted it with the fuselage to see where I needed to remove more material until I was happy with the shape and fit.  I think it took less than an hour to get it to where I was happy. I hope that answers your question.  No special tool, just used the kit part as a template.

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36 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

Nice work on that cockpit! Love the seat. :thumbsup:

 

The F4F has an oxygen bottle just aft and slight to starboard of the seat. Do you know if the F6F is similar?

 

Thanks, It does.  See the image below.  When building the cockpit, I decided that it wouldn't be visible and would push the seat forward too much for me to put it in (my scratchbuilding skills are still somewhat lacking still) so, I left it out.  But yes, it does exist 🙂

f6f_08.jpg

Cheers

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Got a little more work done.  Got the fuselage all closed up and started working on the seams.

NC0wg6V.jpg

the fuselage halves were a little warped so it took some clamping, but other than that it all lines up pretty well.

djcWM0K.jpg

got the control surfaces glued together and drying.

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a few detail pieces added to the wheel wells.  I didn’t find any great references for this area, so I won’t be adding any additional detail.

xA01JJJ.jpgmoved on to the landing gear and removed the mounded on break line and add new ones made from floral wire.

UhYEPnJ.jpg

more shaping of the break lines.

vLzxDsa.jpgthe resin wheels included in the profipack are beautiful.  The detail is so sharp and clean.  These are a massive improvement over the kit wheels.  Totally worth it.

EQDAf1v.jpg

mostly completed landing gear.  I will leave these off and paint them separately.

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I also painted up the pilot figure while I was waiting for glue to dry.  This is a resin figure from Aero Bonus and is very high quality.  I found not defects or issues with the casting and the detail is nice and sharp.

Cheers!

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Quick update:  managed to get all of the major sub assemblies put together and prepped for painting.  I added one final detail to the cockpit, extended the lip of the hood over the instrument panel.  Got all of the seam work done and cleaned up, re-scribed the lost detail and restored the rivets that were lost.  Got the canopy masked and prepped for painting.  Eduard's pre cut masks are amazing and I feel I have been spoiled now.

mCLkUkq.jpg

t486G8f.jpg

Cheers!

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Well, everything is primed now.  Tamiya fine primer straight from the can.  I also started to lay down the zinc under layer that will be the base for my chipping.  My research suggested that it would have been rare for a navy plane to be scratched down to bare metal as this would have resulted in corrosion, service crews would have been quick to repaint any exposed metal, but often the planes would be scratched down to the primer.  That’s what I will attempt to replicate.

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propeller received a base of aluminum.

mSVjYf0.jpgI also prepped and primed the -5 fuselage to use as a test bed for the chipping process.  It’s new to me and I don’t want to ruin lol the work I’ve done so far.  Layers so far:

tamyia fine primer

tamiya mix of yellow and green for the zinc primer

clear gloss

hairspray

QWQ2HaA.jpgintermediate blue down.

8gWO6Qp.jpg

dark blue down.

2L6HvGu.jpg

The chipping is done with clear gloss and some panel liner added.  Over all I’m pretty satisfied with the results.  They look pretty convincing to me.  I will test this process next on the propeller then if that goes well I will proceed to do the rest of the plane.

 

if anyone who has experience with this process has any tips or critiques please share with me so I can make sure to incorporate them when I do this to the actual model.

cheers.

Edited by Hammerhead11
Fixing some auto corrected words
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