F6F-5 Hellcat in Indochina - rivetting again and again

[dutik]

Tackled the gun bay. Articulation city alert! Boys, this is old-school PE at its best (or worsest). Thin, flimsy, microscopic parts to be bend like origami, and no real mating surfaces - you are expected to glue razorthin parts face to face...    It took me the whole weekend spare time to get one gunbay ready. It pays to have debonder at hand. Had to remove some misaligned or ill-fitting parts here and there. Replaced some parts for styrene where appropriate and added some more styrene in places were it should be invisible after fitting the bay into the wing. Don't follow the instructions! Read them carefully, but make subassemblies first before bending the main body into the box shape. I started "making the box" at the ammo storage. I filled the ammo boxes with some styrene cut to size to get something square and level to start with, than added them into the ammo compartment and glued the inner bulkheads and the outer walls to the ammo boxes. The styrene inserts provide also the base to add a ammo belt on top - or you have to fill the whole box from bottom up with a belt. Will show the lowest box at the image empty and put the ammo belt onto the wing. With the ammo compartment ready I moved to the gun bay and added all the tiny struts and supports. Well, Eduard wants you to make the gun mount of an hollow outer frame - with parts to be bent into different directions - plus some more hollow frames inside. Should look great if you want to show one or more guns removed, but I doubt this flimsy construction is able to support the gun body and ammo chutes... So I replaced the whole thing with some styrene. Oh, and Eduard missed to cut out the spent shell ejection ports    They are marked at the bottom part, but you have to cut them out by your own if you want to have some nice and deep ejection ports. And the pre-marked ports don;t correspondent well with the slots at the wing, so I made them longer to fit. Same with the spent belt links ports - but I didn't cut them out. These are much smaller, so the look is ok with me:

 

 

Whats next? Painting of course. Making the gun bodies ant fit them. I want to use Live Resin ammo belts. I guess other people too - they are sold out in Germany. Just found a single set at an online shop. Also ordered Tamiyas glossy Royal blue, some metallizer, a set of Eduards Brassin bombs (250 kg) and Haulers US bomb shackles, and some 1/35 related stuff.

 

The wires are my attempt to make ignition wires for the engine. Scrapped off the plastic lumps at the centerpiece, added some styrene at the backside and started to glue the ignition wires. 18 cylinders with dual ignition - do the math Want to add some styrene backing too, if possible.

 

OK, some boring construction work ahead but some nice painting sessions too. Can't wait to paint the gun bay and the engine

 

Regards

- dutik

[Guest]

Good work !....Harv

[LSP_Paul]

Dutik! You've been a busy guy! Great work on overcoming the flimsy PE stuff, I know that's frustrating but I'm sure you're going to come out with a nice looking plane in the end.   

All the best,

Paul 

[Guest Peterpools]

Dutlk

Steady hand and heart for sure... Some nice nice work for sure.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[dutik]

Some paint added:

 

 

Got a note from the online shop that the Live Resin ammo belts are available and on the way    Maybe I will get the gunbay ready this week

 

Note: Only one gunbay. Too time consuming to make another one.

 

Also had a look at the wheelbay PE and made the decision to use it too. Have a set for a -3, but checking the instructions of both the -3 and -5 revealed no major differences, so it will fit the job. But I will replace some of the fiddly bits (U-shaped open channels f. e.) with styrene parts. They mostly inside the wheelbay and less visible, while the PE will enhance the look of the legs and hatches

 

Regards

- dutik

[LSP_Paul]

Dutik,

I really like the way the gun bay came out, it's going to look really great with the live resin ammo in it!  Keep up the great work!   

 Paul 

[Girlscanplay2]

Looking great Dutik !

 

I feel your frustration, but keep keep it up, end result will be nice! 

 

Teresa

[dutik]

Please, no, I am not frustrated. It's just the oh-so-low modelling time issue. But to be honest: I am able to spend some time at the workbench every day (or mostly), so I am happy   And fiddly bits are just fiddly. Some things will never change

 

OK, made some progress with the engine, paintwise. Looks like I misaligned some parts. There are locating pins everywhere, but somehow I managed to fit the subassemblies of the cylinder rows wrong. Well, its a radial, not an inline, so no worry about if cylinders are up or down, but the ignition wire distributor at the front, which is not circular, but horseshoe shaped, would be upside-down when attached per locating pins

Not a biggie, I will cut them off or drill some new holes at appropriate locations. My advice: When building Trupies R-2800 engine -and the same one is in the Corsair kits too- tack the rearmost part to the firewall using the given locating slots and pins and then work your way step by step up to the front.

 

Recieved the Live Resin ammo belts yesterday. Some bits were broken in the bag, but there are enough good parts to fit my gunbay. front of the belts looks nice, but at the rear there are no belt links - there is just a solid and raised resin strip   Disappointing, if you want to show is runnig open through the air (think of door-mounted weapons f. e.), but they they will fit the bill inside the gunbay.

 

What else? Brassin bombs look nice. Haulers PE bomb shackles too. Glued one wing (the no-gunbay wing). Did some fiddling with the UC-bay PE. Will show it in the evening.

 

Regards

- dutik

[dutik]

Proof it or it didn't happen!

 

 

Closed wing with styrene gunbay (to be closed, but needed to fit the gun barrels), open wing with painted PE gunbay (note the ammobelts inside the cans) and wheelbay PE started. Live Resins ammobelts - the broken pieces are among the short ones to the right, one painted leftover to the left in the clothpin. Engine painting in progress. Ignition harness ready. Brassin bombs and Brengun shackles to the right.

 

Thats not working at many fronts, nor even a modelling skirmish. This is fullsize melee

 

Regards

- dutik

 

[airscale]

Thats not working at many fronts, nor even a modelling skirmish. This is fullsize melee

 

Regards

- dutik

 

 

I for one love it!

 

details, props, 'Naam, PE, French je ne sais quoi, and wonderful to watch..

 

fan for life

 

Peter

[dutik]

Family has a vote, so not that much progress at the weekend. But I mastered a small yet important step: Fitting the gunbay into the wing.

 

Did a lot of cutting, grinding, sanding to make the bay fit and sit level, not to mention well aligned to the gunports at the front.

 

 

Had the superglue can opened while fitting the bay and shot a front face half first when it looked well aligned. Manipulated the other half into correct fit and shot it too. Used a liberal amount of filler at each shot, well visible at the photo. Then worked my way around the gunbay. Where the thin PE was wrinkled I pushed it down wiht some superglue as necessary, added some more superglue and at last the filler. Now anything is flush and level:

 

 

To fit the lower wing I had to scrap off some styrene where the rear end of the gunbay hits the wall. No problems here. Will have to add some more green in front of the bay. Oh, the shell ejection ports of the PE don't meet the ports of the styrene... Thats live. I know that someone cut off the paneel of the lower wing and inserted a piece of styrene with correted cutouts,  but I feel no urge to become adventurous with more cutting, fitting, sanding

 

Will add some little details, do some paint touch-ups and then add the guns and stuff into the gun bay next.

 

Enjoy!

- dutik

[LSP_Paul]

Dutik,

Progress is Progress! and you're doing great, I'm sure the rest of the model wont put up such a fight. It's amazing all the little problems to solve we create when trying to be more accurate isnt it?  You're doing a great job!  

 All the best,

 Paul.

[dutik]

Looks like a starfish, sounds like a starfish, must be a starfish:

 

 

- dutik

[dutik]

It's not a starfish, it's a radial!

 

 

Wired!

 

Took some shortcuts. Didn't drill and fit the wires at the invisible back sides. Just glued them to holes leftover from other leftoff parts or wrapped them around the piping. Some paint to follow. Next step are refinements and detailling of the magnetos and all these other visible parts at the front.

 

- dutik

[dutik]

Started making the engine bits:

 

q

 

 

Does the R-2800 engine (a -10, if I understand it right) of the F6F-5 have this little center device in front of that larger sqare part or not? Right in the middle, where the socket between the cylindrical parts is. Side note: Are the cylindrical parts correct? If yes I would add a pipe to the lower front of both.

 

Yes and yes. Got a mugshot of Minsi at Airliners net, showing the goodies

And I have to rethink the look of the cylindrical parts. The bolts are around the edge, not at the top

 

 

 

Added some nuts, bolts, styrene and wire to meet the look of the frontal devices.

 

Regards

- dutik

Edited May 22, 2014 by dutik