Coming along nicely Mike. Excellent work my friend.

Great looking stuff Mike. It is indeed looking a Hellcat. And one loaded for bear at that.

Test fit looks tight

Here is the belly tank all fixed up with thinner parts.

With tail wheel and arrestor hook attached.

And then sitting on her wheels. She's looking like a Hellcat. :)

And now I'm working on the bombs and rockets.

The wheels and the propeller are only press fit on for the moment. I will paint them separately, of course.

Almost, but not quite yet. I'm working on the belly tank atm and then I will sort out the landing gear before I start painting.

They will all be the same color so I'm going to get it all attached to make painting a little easier lol.

Pictures to come later.  :)

Oh Boy! It looks like it's ready for some paint. Can't wait.

Thank you! That is an excellent effect! I've not thought of using alcohol with my paints before. I will have to experiment with this idea!  :D:D:D:D:D:D:D

And as you can see, I'm getting there.  :)

I have to admit Mike that the green you have going on there is a bit on the "loud" side. But, I do encourage you to simply tone it down a bit rather than paint it blue. I say this because #1 it's correct and #2 if you maintain the green then the contrast of color inside the cowling draws your one's attention to that area and thus, to the fantastic work you have done on the engine. If you paint it a dark shade of blue then it in essence tends to "hide" that sweet detailing you have done.

I have a couple of suggestions. One, which is an awesome technique I learned from Doug, aka. Rigidrider, here on the forums. If you have some Tamiya Buff or any light gray then highly thin it with rubbing alcohol. And I mean "tint" the isopropyl alcohol with the paint. Then dust the area with the mix and it will tone down the green. You can slowly build up the effect to your liking. This technique is awesome for spraying a light coat overall on a kit to tone down, or blend if you will, decals and paint jobs. In fact you can create all sorts of effects with this. The other suggestion would be to add maybe some dark green to that color to darken it a titch. Coupled with a wash or some pastel work, this might prove effective. I hope this helps you out a bit. 

In fact Mike, here is an example of the technique I described above. The streaking and fading on my Hellcat was achieved using this very technique. For the fading, I simply thinned some lighter shades of Tamiya blues and simply and slowly built up the effect. And then I sprayed it overall with iso thinned Tamiya light gray to tone it down and blend it together.

Stretched spruce for ignition wires?  Something new I just learned.  I will definately apply this on my next build!  Thank you for the tip!

Toshi

I usually don't worry too much about it. As long as I get it pretty close I'm generally happy with the results. You can always change the hue or the shade with filters or a wash.

I'm just curious to hear what others think of the neon green happening there lol.

My collection of Vallejo paints seemto grow by at least three bottles a month lol. Some of my Testors bottles have been around since I was a teen! Not all of them have survived, but there are still more than a few bottles that have. Once in a while I can still dig up a bottle of gelled enamel though. I just dig that stuff out, clean the bottle, and repurpose it.

When I can get to it I'm going to correct the shade of that green so it's not so bright. It should have a little grease and oil staining going on anyways so that should bring down the brightness a little on its own.  :)

You remind me of my nightmare trying to figure out which shade of green to use.  There is so many different paints out there, and I can't find 3/4 of them at my local hobby store.  I can't possibly store all of them either, lol.  I've got so many little jars of paint I had to buy a bigger container to store stuff.  This will be the 2nd time I've expanded my storage container.  I don't think hubby has noticed yet, lol.  Looking forward to watching this come together!

Thank you. I was most plesed that the Vallejo Neutral Grey dried with just that hint of blue hue to it. It does seem to be exactly as I would think it should look.

I think the Green Zink Chromate is almost neon in appearence and stands out too much, which is why I was asking if I should paint it to match the rest of the plane. If I don't end up painting it blue I will most likely add a wash to subdue it a bit more.

Its the Testors color from the little square bottle and not the Model Master Interior Green I felt I should have chosen in the beginning. But I think I can work with it.

Thank you for commenting, Tiger. I have never been an aircraft mechanic, but I did spend a little time when I was young in a CAP squadron. I got to log a few hours and it was incredible. Something I wish I had the money to do far more often lol.

However the engine in my Metro (Suzuki G10 983cm) was originally designed as a light aircraft motor lol. Three cylinders of fury! It performs best at high RPM's lol. So I guess I am a little aquainted with aircraft mechanics to a very small degree, after all lol.

Have a great day!  :D

Great work so far Mike. I really like the color of the hub. It reminds me of my HS days at Aviation HS in NYC. They had the same color and your zinc chromate green is very realistic.

Thank you, VERY much. 

Can't wait to make more progress on it!

Coming along nicely Mike!!!

Thank you for commenting, guys!

Jay, Scott , ! Glad to be of service 

Joe, Gamera, I think I didn't scrape the primer off of the cowling edge. I scraped it out of the inside of the cowling, but the parts don't make enough contact there. So I do think that some reinforcements will be utilized just to make sure it stays solid the second time around. When it fell off it suffered no damage. I was setting back down on the table next to me and it was enough to make the nose just fall off. Kinda odd that my handling of it didn't make it fall off though lol.

Glad you guys like it. That means I'm on the right track. I am wondering about the inside of the cowling however. That air intake is a rather large bit of bright green showing up and I was thinking maybe that should be changed to the same Dark Blue as the rest of the plane.
I'd like to hear some opinions about that. Should I leave it alone, or paint it to match the rest of the Fuselage?

Sharp work on the mill Mike. Hope there wasn't too much damage to the cowling and engine during the fall. 

Good work Mike, especially on how you are presenting your tips.  As usual, very helpful.

Very nicely done Mike. The engine looks terrific. Using stretched sprue for ignition wires worked effectively as did your paint and detailing. Interested if you solve the mystery of the cowling issue. 

Heck yea I'm inspired ! So much so that I dug out the Hsg. 1/48 F6 from my stash and it's waiting for me on the bench.

TY so much for taking the time to post all this Bro.

Well I put a few (or more. Didn't count) hours into the engine today.

I added the ignition wires, made of stretched sprue (is there anything you cant use this stuff for?) and it was a slow progress going around the engine twice, one wire at a time.

After that was done, painting went rather fast. I sprayed the engine with Krylon Camouflage Ultra Flat Black (the fusion stuff  ) and after that dried I touched up the backs of the cylinders and all the little spaces the spray didn't reach with Vallejo Black.

I also made up a very tiny little gun sight glass plate and then glued the conopy pieces on. I'll mask them later.

Thanks, Joe. If anything I do with my build helps you to make a better finish for your own, then I will be most pleased indeed.  :)

Always glad to see someone building a Hellcat. Especially in 1/72. Kind of interested in watching you build the Academy Mike as I also have one in my stash. I've built the Eduard 1/72 Hellcat which is heaven on earth but, it does not discourage me from the Academy kit at all. With your fine skills I should be able to pick up some tips on finishing this kit.

Thanks, Gamera. Since I'm still working on this "clean" build thing, this should be a great subject. The Navy did keep these Dark Blue F6F's pretty clean. Plus it's a glossy finish, which I typically have a difficult time with. I'm going to try cutting the gloss with matte to get the correct scale effect.

Should have some more progress to report by this next Friday.

Looking forward to watching you work your magic on this one Mike.

Beautiful plane. I love me some Hellcat!!!

Thanks guys. There won't be much modifying going on. I plan on fixing the tank straps, wiring the engine, and adding fuses to the bombs, but not much else. Just a few minor details to give it a little more life.

I do have a mild modification I want to do to the gear doors. There were a couple of mystery parts 14&15 that took me a while to figure out they were part of the gear doors, but the instructions don't mention them. They are too thick so I will be making new ones with card stock so I can make them fold in the way they do on the real plane.

That's all I have planned. Painting will be straight forward with no weathering. I will however be painting on the large checkers on the tail and wings instead of using the decals.

feldgrau23

Looking good Mike. Looking forward to seeing the modifications you got in mind for this one.

 

Looking good Mike. Looking forward to seeing the modifications you got in mind for this one.

I was hoping this would grab your attention, my friend. There are going to be a few minimal modifications to make this one stand out a little more. Those fuel tank straps are like bricks when they should be thin straps. lol

Thank you for following this one, Toshi. I hope you will pick up some more tricks along the way!  :)

This will be very cool to follow.  I'm excited to see what you'll be doing with this kit!  Great start so far.

Toshi