Official Alley Cat GB Sept2010-Sept2011

I'm baaaack!  

There used to be a time when I churn out builds at an almost assembly line pace, but with all the distractions in life going on , I'm having to focus more on on build at a time. Sooooooo.......

Now that I've got the Lightning finished, I can get back on track with this Grumman classic. 

Here's a pic of where I'm at.

The Arii kit had decent enough wheel bay detail to build OOB , but it's totally inaccurate, and since I put so much work into the cockpit and engine. I decided to give the wheel bays a total remake. 

 I started by carefully scribing around the edges of the kit bays and cutting them out . Then, using images of an Eduard PE set as a pattern , resized and printed , I'll make new ribs, bulkheads and what not from sheet plastic , sprue, and other bits and pieces. Should be fun. I think my biggest hurdle will be mounting the struts in an accurate but strung way. Such is the world of scratch building.

On to the workbench,

 Howard

Cant wait to see more. My cats are on the back burner at the moment.

Well now that the Osprey is done i'll be getting on with the Tomcat. Pics to some soon.

Yay, were getting some progress. Hopefully the new end date wil encourage a few more people.

I'd like to throw my Hellcat into the Alley, please.

Grumman F6F-3N Hellcat, VMF(N) 534, Orate Field, Guam September 1944.

Nice night 'Cat you've got there ,Satch.

 Making progress building new wheel bays on my Arii kit. Found the instructions for the Eduard PE undercarriage set on their site. Very helpful in figuring out where everything goes . Mostly a tedious matter of cutting tiny bits of plastic to size and gluing in the proper place. Gradually building up the new bays.

I've also clipped of the molded on gun barrels. Will replace them later during final assembly with short lengths of brass tube. 

Howard 

I've got the wheel bays done , wing halves glued together . Just need to rescribe a few panel lines and bring the wings and fuselage together. Not to much longer before I can get some paint on this cat . 

In the mean time , a couple pics of the completed wheel bays.

Howard

Looking good howard. Youve put alot of work into those wheel wells. My fingers are far too fat to do detail that fine.

Satch, sorry buddy, while thats a fantastic looking cat, im gonna have to say no at this stage, mainly because the kits already complete at the time of entry. If you wanted to do another one id be more than happy to put you down though

daddy1

I've got the wheel bays done , wing halves glued together . Just need to rescribe a few panel lines and bring the wings and fuselage together. Howard

Fantastic work on the wheel bays.  You have put more work into the 2 bays than most people do for an entire kit.  I am very anxious to see the finished model.

Darwin, O.F. 

Daddy1, Incredible work on the gear bays.  That's enough to make old Mr. Otaki turn over in his grave.  Rick.

Daddy1 your scratch building skills are no less than mind numbing Beautiful work sir.

 Thanks guys, it was kind'a mind numbing cutting all those itty bits of plastic and some times my fingers get a bit stiff( hooray for tweezers and jewelers needle nose pliers). I did cheat a little by printing out a resized image of the Eduard undercarriage PE set. It really helped get close to the size of each part ,then a final trim when installed.

Not that I'm against buying the PE set but, when building on a budget , the aftermarket stuff can really add up. One of the reasons for buying the Arii kit was the $17 I paid for it.  Like the the ol' Revell/Monogram stuff , they make great inexpensive starting points. How far to go with it is up to you.

 As far as Mr Otaki , I have an A6M5 Zeke, and J2M Raiden by Arii. Now , I'm not sure if those are also old Otaki kits but, the detail on them is a bit nicer OOB than the F6F-3.

 I"ll be attaching the wings tomorrow. Actually , will be affixing the elevators as well so I can start getting her prepped for paint. Test fit shows a small gap along the bottom wing root seams. Nothing a little shim and putty can't fix . 

Nice Hellcat Satch!! Looks great.

Got the wings on . Here are the pics.

 Notice the shims on the under side , goes a long way toward filling those gaps. Also had to put a couple shims thick on the one side to bring the wing up level. I've got putty on them ,drying over night . I'll get them sanded smooth tomorrow and hope to have it prepped and paint going on by the end of the weekend.

I need to make up a gunsight  and install the canopy . The kit "glass" is fairly clear and free of distortion but a bit too thick to cut apart and pose open. Although, I have given thought to trying to heat a peace of clear sheet plastic and pull down over the kit part to get a thin enough part to pose open. We shall see.

Howard

 I've got the wing and stabilizer seams filled, sanded, and rescribed where needed.

 Then got to looking at the canopy , I really wanted to open it up but it would have sat too high on the back of the aircraft. Decided to give a go at a trying to heat a piece of clear sheet and drawing down over the whole canopy.  Couldn't keep the material hot long enough to get a good copy of the canopy. So heres how it went.

 First , selected a paint brush handle to match the radius at the top of the kit canopy. Then , with a long over sized strip of plastic ,the free ends held together with a clothes pin, and the loop of material draped over the handle. I applied high heat from a blow dryer till the plastic softened enough to pull snug to the brush handle.

Then taped in place over kit part to measure and trim to proper size.

Here you see the trimmed part with the framing lightly marked in . 

A test fit on the model , also to mark for length down the sides. 

Finished result minus frame. I will probably trim the sides a tad more and have the bottom  frame section lay over the fuselage track.  I thought of masking off the "glass" and painting the frames ,allowing the masked edge to simulate the frames. Decided to make the frames from strips of thin plastic,using a 10 0 brush to carefully apply some liquid cement  to the under side of each strip. Then carefully apply to new canopy in appropriate places. after all framing is in place ,I'll give it a dip in Future to seal and clear up the "glass".

Gap in left rear quarter window , Will replace them with sheet clear. 

You see how the kit part is too thick to sit down over the track rails. Also note graininess of kit "glass".  It actually looks worse under the camera flash as seen here. 

Begin work on the frame, and tools/materials used. 

I'll finish framing the canopy and post more plus I've started masking off the model and will start applying paint in the next couple days.

Howard 

That is an awful lot of work, but you should certainly wind up with a really nice canopy.

Darwin, O.F. 

yardbird78

That is an awful lot of work, but you should certainly wind up with a really nice canopy.

Darwin, O.F. 

 It wasn't as bad as it seems. The trickiest part was to apply liquid cement to the frame strips with a fine tip brush and attach them without smearing any on the "glass". Successful , Now I just need to give it a dip in Future to clear and seal it up. It sits down on the rails nicely. 

Started a new job this week , a little later hours so I haven't had a chance to get past painting the white underside. I also missed a tad on the seam under the rear fuselage. One side was still a touch lower than the adjoining side. Not even enough for the green stuff , so I layered over the low spot with a couple coats of flat white paint . Then sanded with fine grit to blend. I think that will take care of it. Going to crank up the Aztec this afternoon and finish  getting the color on my 'cat.

Howard

I've got the tri-color on. I went with a soft edge demarcation between the blues and white. Found lots of reference for the markings I'm doing. Several three or four view color prints. Some showed a hard edge , most of the more detailed drawings showed a soft edge. I thought that looked more natural so I went with it.

Now to do some fading and shadowing with ground pastels before a gloss coat in prep for decals.

Heres the pics so far.

And one of the canopy ,all framed and and dipped in future. It will sit down on the back in an open pose much better than cutting the kit canopy and using that part .

Now I've got to fiddle with the sizing of my markings a little to bring together a decal sheet to print up.

This is going to look very cool with the big teeth and eyes. 

Howard

I was doing some additional research on VF-37 ,USS Princeton and found all their Hellcats were late F6F-3s without the fairing over the side exhaust stacks and no lower cooling flaps . More like the -5s. 

 Double checked all my references and sure enough. I thought of going with what I had since it already had the paint on ,or going with a unit that used the early F6F-3s. Really want the cat mouth markings( rare to see something like that on Navy birds). 

Decided to carefully correct the inaccuracy by shaving off the little fairing on the side of the cowl and gluing in a small piece of sheet and filling in the panel lines representing the lower cowl flaps.

 I should be able to sand these areas smooth without damage to the surrounding paint and do a little touch up of the affected places on the cowl. 

 Howard 

Daddy1,  Shaping up nice!  The extra details are making this cat special.  Make sure to give us a good shot of those wheel bays when you're done.  Rick.

 Did the touch-up airbrushing of the modified areas, also cleaned up and straightened out the demarcation lines in a couple spots. Here's pics.

Compare with earlier pic, notice the fairing over exhaust is gone and lower cowl flaps also gone, which was true of the late F6F-3s on the Princeton.  This was carried over to the -5s. The rear windows were really the easiest way to distinguish the late -3s apart from -5s.

Another thing in the pic worthy of note is my next step, a light wash of water and ground black pastel. Add a drop or two of dish soap to the water , dip the brush in the water then pick up just a little pastel , or add a few drops of water to the pastel makes a great wash. 

Brush on in direction of airflow. If the wash is two heavy , brush on more water. Then lightly wipe of excess with paper towel in the same direction of airflow. 

My decals printed and bonded (sealed) . One clear and one white sheet. I've included duplicate stencils in a couple sizes to better determine which looks best scale wise on the model. I've also duplicated some of the color decals from the white sheet to the clear in case I need to overlay to bring out a full rich color. I've also did some duplicates of  kill markings and prop logos , should I mess up and lose one or two for some reason.

 BTW- I love being able to print out my own decals. I still need more experience at it, but  I highly recommend anyone contemplating doing the same to give it a whirl. It opens up all kinds of markings ideas.  

A couple pics after the pastel wash shows up much more on the white underside. A sort of pre grubby weathering.

 Next to do some light post shading with gpound black or gray pastel and fading with white or light gray pastel worked into the center of panels . Then a coat of future and decals.

Howard

Another update on my Tomcat. Got the fuselage havles joined and the horizantal stabs cut off (did that before the fuselage). Next up is the nose and gun. Here's a pic.

 Started the post shading on the Hellcat. Using a gray pastel along the panel lines on the under sides then to blend and soften the effect, working in some white pastel in the center of the panels. So far so good.

 I'll use black pastel on the panel lines on the topside with gray pastel in the center of the panels for a faded look.

Will post pics in a day or two.

Howard 

 Some update pics of my Hellcat.

First a pic of the ground pastels and the cosmetic brushes for applying. These brushes work great for pigments and pastels. It's a process not all that different from when women use them for applying make up and eye shadow.  

 I used the angled chisel eye liner brush to apply gray pastel to the panel lines on the underside. Followed by  the pointy round tip eye shadow brush to work the pastel into the paint along the lines, then blow of excess pastel and brush in direction of airflow with the large brush to soften the effect.

 Completed post shading on the underside. A little stark for my taste , but will be toned down with the next step.

  Next I used the pointy tip brush to apply and spread some white pastel from the center of panels outward. Followed by the large brush working in the pastel from center outward of panels.  Again blowing off the excess , then brushing in direction of airflow with large brush. 

 The topside got the same treatment ,but with black pastels along the panel lines and gray for the center of the panels. Go easy with the black, so not to overdo the effect. Gives a nice faded look to the paint. 

 With the extensive array of colors pastels can be found , the same technique could be used for OD/ Neutral gray , Luftwaffe , Japanese, anything .   

 View of underside before glossing her up for decals.

After a couple coats of Future in prep for decals. I start with a mist coat and build another coat until I have a nice gloss. Sometimes a third coat, depending whether I feel it has enough gloss for the decals.

Notice how the clear coat has lessened the intensity of the pastels . Just right for a pre-weathering  of the paint. 

Currently applying decals. I'm using Testors decal paper. Works good ,but is a touch thick withthe white sheets and does not react well with Micro-sol. Micro-set and water seems to be fine and the decals are tucking down into the panel lines well. One other warning of the Testors white decals paper, the decals will stretch like rubber to some degree, to the point of stetching out of shape if not careful. I'll have to give some other brands of decal paper a try in the future. Any recommendations out there?

That's all I've got for now . Back with more pics in a few days.

Howard

Ok. Got the gun and nose attached. That was not fun. My first attempt got the nose glued on in the wrong position. Had to take it off (scary) and reattach it. Here's the pics of before.

Here's the pics of the nose reattached. Had to add a little styrene under the resin gun cause of a big gap. Now to fill and sand.

daddy1

 I'll have to give some other brands of decal paper a try in the future. Any recommendations out there?

Fabulous work, Howard !! ...

Decal paper - try Micromark.com ... they have both clear and white and that's all I've used for years ...

pepper

 Thanks pepper. I'll have to give their paper a try. The Testors is good and the clear is thin enough but the white is just a tad thick, and it is in a 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch size . Makes resizing images then printing down to a 5x8 index card sheet a bit more challenging.

 Must say I love being able to print my own decals. To anyone contemplating doing the same, give it a try. It opens up a whole world of markings options. 

Medicman - Looks good so far even though youv'e got some nasty seams to deal with. Sometimes it takes more work to get where we're going in this hobby ,doesn't it. 

Howard

daddy1

 Thanks pepper. I'll have to give their paper a try. The Testors is good and the clear is thin enough but the white is just a tad thick, and it is in a 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch size . Makes resizing images then printing down to a 5x8 index card sheet a bit more challenging.

 Must say I love being able to print my own decals. To anyone contemplating doing the same, give it a try. It opens up a whole world of markings options. 

Medicman - Looks good so far even though youv'e got some nasty seams to deal with. Sometimes it takes more work to get where we're going in this hobby ,doesn't it. 

Howard

Yeah it does. It's just the filling and sanding I hate. But after all those are taken care of it's gonna be easy.

Are paper models allowed? Cuz I just got tons of Grumman Cat card models...they would be great to contribute...