F6F-5 gun bay color

I do those areas of the F6F in green zinc chromate.

Although all of my books only show the gun bay area in B/W, they do seem to appear to be green zinc chromate primer.

land base - Yellow Zink. Carrier based- Green Zink. French - Cockpit style green.

I am sitting on my Airfix Hellcat for a while.

It gives me the chance to think exactly how I am going to tackle the beast, how I want it to look and what changes to the kit display options I can get away with, such as making the engine cowling panels stay in place, but still removeable.

It also gives the AM guys chance to get their stuff out And for me to decide what I need!

Also, it is a very good idea to go through the instruction book and work out which sections you don't need. This means that you have a finished picture in your mind and work back from that.

the engine is a kit in itself and the fact that they also include instructions for fitting HT cables is a first for me.... Pity they didn't include the copper cable to do it! That is something I have to source!

this is very much a sit and think about it first and don't rush kit.

snapdragonxxx

such as making the engine cowling panels stay in place, but still removeable.

Magnets!

Yes, Magnets. They will have to be tiny and easily hidden. This what I am looking into. How or where to hide them and still get them to work and not impede fitting.

They are major fit problems.W/engine,wings,and exhaust inner pipes.I wet through hell but completed the kit.Goid luck

Start building the engine first .Then the wings followed up w/ the fuselage.

I get my magnets [many different sizes and thicknesses] from Apex...
...and found that that they are strongly attracted to the tin lids from the cans of ALPO dog food.
Part of the fun is figuring out how to get it done, just like they do in some of the newer plane kits. I just punch or cut out a small piece of the tin lid and glue it to the part.

I don't need a strong attraction, just enough to hold in place.

I was thinking about using these

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/N52-1mm-dia-x-0-5mm-tiny-Neodymium-disk-magnets-DIY-MRO-science-sticks-of-100/182846358289?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=690149372695&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

and using some very thin aluminium sheet. It is all just in planning for now. Looking at the instructions give me a good idea of how the cowling and frame go together Just need to refine the idea so that the cowling panels drop snugly into place and hold there and the magnets are hidden!

It might just take one magnet hidden in the frame and one on the inside of the cowling and close enough to stick to each other. It is trial and elimination.

Silver, If you had trouble with this kit then you must have been doing something wrong! Nobody else has reported a bad fit at all! Maybe you are not up to these detailed builds yet? I don't know because you always say this stuff but never back it up with photos.

You said you had fit issues and problems with HK's Lancaster fuselage. I never had any at all!

I didn't need any putty or anything Just a bit of smoothng the joint in places and making it look like panel lines where needed. Primer and paint did the rest!

Might be better to use a magnet and an iron piece like a small washer, two rare earth magnets can be very hard to pull apart.  I use that method on flying models with good results.

A small thin bit of aluminium then!

Thanks for the info. It is throwing things around the forum and trial and error that increases your knowledge and abilities.

I can get some 0.3mm aluminium to play with!

snapdragonxxx

A small thin bit of aluminium then!

Aluminum (Aluminium for you Brits) is a non-ferrous metal.  Like copper it is not magnetically attractive.

Rare-earth magnets have a ery strong magnetic flux, but it is very short ranged (compared to, say magnetite or magentized iron). 

In areas of high magnetic flux, aluminum can be repelled by a magnet (it really isn't, that's a side effect of the electrical current induced in the aluminum at 90º to the magnetic flux lines.

What you might be able to use would be some fretwork from some stainless steel PE.  Most stainless steel is non-magnetic, but the flux on a rare-earth magnet might be enough to "grab" some.

All is not lost, though.  You could use a bit of broken measuring tape, if you found a skinny enough one (check it with a magnet).

Alternately, down at the craft store (and some hobby shops) they will have "Annealed Steel Wire" down to arounf 28 gauge.  The flat head of a pin might be nipped off for a contact (if it's magnetic).

(Magnets are very helpful in ship modeling, particualry is you forget to build a mounting point into the hull before closing up same; not bad for sub-assemblies, either.)

This is getting an interesting excersise in out of the box thinking to alter a built in display option to make another and to make camo painting easier!

it looks like I am going to have some experimentation to do. Who says our hobby isn't educational!

Oh, Yes! It is the Americans who can't spell (and have at strange pronunciation of words and have mangled the Queens English! )

I do remember Tamiya using magnets in their 1/32 aircraft and I might just end up using just magnets to do the job. The ones in the listing look just right and are probably easily hidden on the frame, but not the panels. I'm OK with that.

snapdragonxxx

Oh, Yes! It is the Americans who can't spell (and have at strange pronunciation of words and have mangled the Queens English! ) 

We are just getting rid of some of those unnecessary silent letters in certain words. After all, English (the King’s or Queen’s, depending upon who is in charge at the time) is most inconsistent in rules for both spelling and pronunciation. Especially when compared to languages like say Spanish or German.

Looks like a privately owned Hellcat gun bay freshly painted.Or a very good model.