1/24 F6F-5 Hellcat--In Flight

[Rockie Yarwood]

Love the way the Tamiya aluminum looks on those cylinders - did you use a black base coat?

[TaffyMan]

Love this and the display is going to be way beyond cool looking at the others you have done.

 

Just incase you didn’t know Airfix do a lecky motor kit to fit their 24th scale kits. If this kit is like the Mossie it is as close to a click fit as is posable especially compared to their older kits

 

Mail order  way better than fighting the masses at the mo!

 

https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/airfix-electric-motor-1-24.html

 

Really looking forward to seeing the end of this build - almost tempting me to break into the piggy bank

 

Cheers - Taff

[easixpedro]

11 hours ago, Rockie Yarwood said:

Love the way the Tamiya aluminum looks on those cylinders - did you use a black base coat?

That’s why I love that Tamiya rattle can stuff. It’s impervious and dries hard as nails. That’s 2 coats over the plain plastic.

 

6 hours ago, TaffyMan said:

Love this and the display is going to be way beyond cool looking at the others you have done.

 

Just incase you didn’t know Airfix do a lecky motor kit to fit their 24th scale kits. If this kit is like the Mossie it is as close to a click fit as is posable especially compared to their older kits

 

Mail order  way better than fighting the masses at the mo!

 

https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/airfix-electric-motor-1-24.html

 

Really looking forward to seeing the end of this build - almost tempting me to break into the piggy bank

 

Cheers - Taff

Thanks for the compliments! And I agree with you, wrt shopping at the moment. Thanks for the tips on the motor...seems to be OOP and OOS everywhere. I’ll keep digging. In the interim, I have worked on the base and the Zero. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to post pics later today.
Onward and upward!

Peter

[Neo]

If you have old cell phones the vibration motet is great for this. Simply remove the offsetweight. And since their tiny its easy to conceale

[easixpedro]

OK, here's some snaps of this weekend's progress. Worked on the base. Started by covering it in styrene.  I like to buy "For Sale" signs for large amounts of styrene (usually from the big box home improvement stores). Cheaper than buying smaller pieces from the hobby shop that will take a bunch of 'em. I also don't care if only 1 side is usable. Easy enough to scribe and snap and you've got a nice straight edge. 

 

 

And here it is after some rough sanding and a quick shot of Tamiya primer. Some work to do on the edges, but totally acceptable for this stage.

 

Started fiddling around wit the Zero and how to attach it and get some acceptable smoke. You can see the hole I drilled in the fuselage to accept the stand.

 

 

To get the steel rod through the foam, I used a combination of drill bits and long lengths of wire from a hanger to nibble away the inside of the foam and hollow it out enough for the rod.

Here's a shot to see how it'll potentially look. I have some work to do to shape the foam. Actual pretty easy as it cuts and sands well. If you glue it, you'll need a foam safe cyano,  other it'll melt.

 

Peter 

[TaffyMan]

Nice base mate - so you use the foam tube. Interesting thought you might have squirted the expanding foam on to get some random organic shapes and them some cotton wool whilst it was still sticky for smoky texture. Looking forward to seeing it how it’s done.

 

Sorry for the bum-steer on the motor looks like they might be stopping doing them - but still design their big 1/24 stuff to use them.

 

Well good hunting and hope you find one will defiantly save you some bother

 

You can really start to see how this is going to finish - nice!!!!!

 

Taff

[easixpedro]

1 hour ago, TaffyMan said:

Nice base mate - so you use the foam tube. Interesting thought you might have squirted the expanding foam on to get some random organic shapes and them some cotton wool whilst it was still sticky for smoky texture. Looking forward to seeing it how it’s done.

 

Sorry for the bum-steer on the motor looks like they might be stopping doing them - but still design their big 1/24 stuff to use them.

 

Well good hunting and hope you find one will defiantly save you some bother

 

You can really start to see how this is going to finish - nice!!!!!

 

Taff

Thanks! And no need to apologize for the bum gouge--I was stoked about it. I can't even find them on EBay though.  I can probably pull it off, but am tilting towards not motorizing it.  Starting to get unnecessarily complicated with lots of pitfalls. I did manage to score a smallish solar panel to provide juice though. Now just need to find a suitable motor--I have lot's of them laying around from my collection of ultra-micro RC planes. Problem is they're actually too small! While I'm sure they'd spin the prop, the don't fill up the space set aside by Airfix. That's a lot of torque, and lots of potential to have things knocked loose. Last thing I want is a prop dangling off the front end of my display. 

 

Wasn't happy with my previous rod, so just re-bent another and have some pics of how I did the foam--will post those in a bit, once I get them uploaded. The expanding spray foam is really a bit of trial and error until you get something you're happy with, so I've got several attempts laying about, that will hopefully be educational for all.

-Peter

[easixpedro]

Alrighty, here's a quick tutorial on how I make the 'smoke.'

 

For this I used LockTite expanding spray foam. Any brand will do--they all have the same characteristics and behave the same.  Before you do anything (and I can't stress this enough!!!). Do it on a piece of wax paper. It'll stick to anything else, and you'll never get it off!  Begin by spraying a small amount and make a line of it. Remember, it expands, so a little line becomes a big one pretty quickly. Depending on the size of your stand/rod, you won't use much.  Here's 2 I did this morning as I messed around.

 

Another view as they dried. The outside dries pretty quickly. Once it's hardened enough to keep its shape, the backside will still be tacky. Peel it off and rotate, and the foam will expand again and you'll get rid of the flat side. 

 

Next, I used a metal wire (hanger in this case) to create a small hole for the stand to slide through. Once I get it going, I'll start using a drill bit or a file to expand it. In this case, I used a big metal file (used for sharpening chainsaws). 

 

 

Here's how it'll look. Already much happier with this than the previous scrap I had been using. You can see it in the background--I'd even tried spraying more foam on it to get something I was happy with.  The upper most section on the Hellcat will wrap around the fuselage a bit. As I mentioned before, it's sand able and paintable (I tend to do a first coat of latex house paint to build it up and fill air bubbles, followed by acrylics). I've already filled in the flat sections with another small round of spray foam and will sand the edges to get rid of obvious seams. 

 

It's going to be a big display...!  But I'm happy with how it's looking.

 

Need to make a decision about motorizing it. If I do, I'll have to run wires from the base and power source up through the smoke and then through the fuselage to the motor.  Decision soon so I can get back to working on the Hellcat.

 

Hit me with your questions, comments and concerns!

And thanks for following along!

-Peter

[TaffyMan]

As I said before - it’s going to look way beyond cool when its all done.

 

Smoke looks fab and thanks for sharing the technique.

 

Cheers - Taff

[easixpedro]

4 hours ago, TaffyMan said:

As I said before - it’s going to look way beyond cool when its all done.

 

Smoke looks fab and thanks for sharing the technique.

 

Cheers - Taff

Thanks! I figure some might find it a bit hokey/dodgey looking, but I think of it as artistic license and adding a bit of drama to a scene. I'm happy with how it's turning out and I think it beats having just a metal rod like I usually do.  At the same time, I'm attempting an F-4B shooting down a MiG-17, with the smoke from the Sidewinder supporting both. It's stalled at the moment (and also not an LSP, so no pics on here). One day I'll get back to it...

[easixpedro]

Not much to report...have assembled the Zero. Gave it a shot of Tamiya Aluminum so I can give it a nice chipped paint effect after painting. After building this big of a model, I'm not sure how folks build in smaller scales--everything is tiny and I kept losing parts! 

 

Started dorking around with the smoke. Brush painted with Vallejo black gray, then airbrushed black into the shadows.  Mixed up a blend of tannish gray highlights to drybrush with.  For the flame section, I started with yellow first, then orange. Blending in the layers and drybrushing over the lumps and bumps to give it that realistic look. I literally Googled 'explosion' and there were plenty of Hollywood style explosions to use as reference. Just picked one that looked like an oily fire and went with it.  Have some more blending to do, but for a first cut, I'm pretty happy with it!

 

-Peter

[Out2gtcha]

I really like the idea of the forced perspective diorama. A FP dio won first place in its category back in 2017 at the US Nationals, and the effect really works here too. Your eye just naturally makes the Zeke the "same size" in your head, but just further away. Well done! 

[easixpedro]

13 minutes ago, Out2gtcha said:

I really like the idea of the forced perspective diorama. A FP dio won first place in its category back in 2017 at the US Nationals, and the effect really works here too. Your eye just naturally makes the Zeke the "same size" in your head, but just further away. Well done! 

That's the one that got me thinking about this!  I live less than 2 miles from those hotels btw, so I HAD to go. (I'm the one that had those huge carrier scenes.)

 

 

 watched that fellow bring in that SBD scene and was blown away. He had set it in the "in-flight" area, so I thought I was safe. I came back a little while later and it was moved into the diorama section...  He totally deserved it though. It was immaculate in every way possible. I hadn't been to a contest since I was in Jr. High, so it was fun. Don't normally do contests, but it was fun to see all the incredible skills on display. That and the vendors area...I only bought like 3 kits, but next time I have a new pickup

 -Peter

[Out2gtcha]

13 minutes ago, easixpedro said:

That's the one that got me thinking about this!  I live less than 2 miles from those hotels btw, so I HAD to go. (I'm the one that had those huge carrier scenes.)

 

 

 watched that fellow bring in that SBD scene and was blown away. He had set it in the "in-flight" area, so I thought I was safe. I came back a little while later and it was moved into the diorama section...  He totally deserved it though. It was immaculate in every way possible. I hadn't been to a contest since I was in Jr. High, so it was fun. Don't normally do contests, but it was fun to see all the incredible skills on display. That and the vendors area...I only bought like 3 kits, but next time I have a new pickup

 -Peter

 

 

huh! I never noticed you were in the "Big O" as well!    Cool, another LSPer here, learn something new every day! And yes, those hotels were a tremendous value to the show for sure. 

[Out2gtcha]

The carrier decks were amazing up close  btw!