Neils F6F-5 Hellcat 1/72

papa 695

papa 695

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Nice one Neil glad to have you onboard looking forward to watching this come together, from what I've heard it's a good kit
 
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Looks good, Neil. I have this in my stash - bought it when it wasn't under a tenner. Doh!
 
Neil

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\ said:
Looks good, Neil. I have this in my stash - bought it when it wasn't under a tenner. Doh!
Click to expand...
One immutable law of this site I've found, if you have a kit in your stash, someone else will probably have it but bought cheaper :smiling3:
 
Neil

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I seem to be one of the last to start this, however, got some PE now so the office:

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I do have some PE switches and belts but a combination of finger size and eyesight means I am not even going to attempt getting these in place.

As per normal I painted the main parts on sprue in a couple of thinned coats but I have to say the Tamiya sea blue (XF-17) is very dark so I may add some white to it when I do the final coat when it is all together to lighten it a little bit - although I guess it might lighten with kleer and flat clear so I can try them on a spare part.

Oh I found a reference piece that shows all the F6F-5 which this is, were painted interior green below the side control panels and black above - which is why it is both black and green, also some ref pics show this as a very heavily weathered aircraft (Death and Destruction) so some scope there.

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Neil

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Progress report...

Altogether except the canopy and prop and a few add on's (added a couple of bits since these were taken).

Next is sanding any joins down such as underneath, a final coat or two of sea blue, then the decals etc. Leaving the prop until that is done with decals and final seal. Wish I had done that with the front undercarriage (not in these photos) as they also have decals and they will be awkward. I may see if they pop off easily and can do them with the decal too.

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Neil

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So after mangling the original decals I needed to get some more which duly arrived from Hannants but now I have a dilemma, I now have 8 marking schemes that all use the same colour scheme that I have already used (all over sea blue) - 7 of them are US carrier based but there is an Armee de l'Air for Vietnam 1952 - the only difference is the decals. Still as I have a few of the "death and destruction" decals on, rather than try to get them off too I'll use that set - I may need to buy another F6F-5 and use the French version though - nice looking decals - PrintScale ones.
 
flyjoe180

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Nice to have spares for later Neil. The French Indochina version would look pretty good, I think they were possibly more colourful than the standard US schemes with yellow stripes from memory (I wasn't there!).
 
flyjoe180

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Well, the stripes I must have imagined. Still a nice scheme Neil.
 
Neil

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Nearly done, decals on and humbrol clear applied (the Klear - cloudy stuff - was making the acrylic run). I am going to apply a little bit of weathering - not too much, but out of interest as it is a dark blue, if I wanted to apply a wash would a black wash even show up? Would it be better to apply a lighter grey perhaps? I'm thinking I don't want to ruin it as it is my first GB but a dark wash seems a little pointless.


I did see in AMW someone use a yellow pre-shade on an olive finish, presumably, a pale blue or off-white at least, pre shade on the middle of the panels would have worked here - well it would if I used an air-brush anyway? It's a nice little kit but there are plenty of US Navy kits I could try that on I suppose.


Pics to follow when I have taken some more.
 
flyjoe180

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Avgas in particular (leaded high octane petroleum) tends to leave a light grey residue rather than black, so that's what I'd recommend to apply for exhaust streaking if you were so inclined Neil. I think these aeroplanes were pretty well maintained, and with a gloss finish were probably much easier to clean that their land based contemporaries.
 
Neil

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Ah, OK, so looking at pics of Hellcats they seem to have a distinctive white streak from the exhausts following the wing profile, that grey colour is what I probably need but other that than they do look "clean". Thanks Joe.
 
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