1/24 F6F-5 Hellcat--In Flight

[TwoHands]

Can Ibuy your drop tanks???

[easixpedro]

1 hour ago, TwoHands said:

Can Ibuy your drop tanks???

Maybe? I gotta figure out where I put 'em! Removed all the ordnance sprues and I have no idea where they've gone off to in the midst of renovating the kitchen...  I'll let you know if I find it!

[easixpedro]

OK Lads, let's get caught up shall we?

 

Zero is done, minus little bits like the cannon and pitot. I'll leave those off till the bitter end, as they're miniscule and will get snapped moving this large display while I work on it.  Not much to report on the Tamiya kit. It's a gem. It's also tiny...  As I mentioned earlier, I gave it a shot of rattle can aluminum prior to painting anything. That allowed me to use Tamiya acrylics for the IJN Green and Gray, and then chip them. The Aluminum finish is rock hard and you can lightly sand it to get a realistic weathering effect.  Some will say I went overboard, (especially with my limited understanding of Japanese aircraft--call it artistic license). I'm shooting for a war weary Zero that's defending the home islands in the Summer of 45. By that point the USN had essentially parked off the coast and was launching daily strikes over the entire country. 

 

Here's a pic of Atsugi back in August 1945 (part of the surrender terms was removing props from a/c so they couldn't be used as Kamikazes on the fleet anchored in Tokyo Bay).  Oddly enough, lived there for a few years almost 60 years later, hence some of my fascination with it. 

 

Here's pics of the Zero and painted base.  You'll note I still have some areas to touchup on the smoke and flames. Not much--pretty good work for guessing how it would sit.

 

Before I attach this to the base, I'll take a section of the prop hub with a propeller blade or two and cover up the last bit of rod you see peaking through here.

 

 

If you want to attempt this, it's imperative that you use a "foam safe" super glue. Otherwise, the foam will melt and dissolve into a gooey mess. Learned that the hard way trying to repair ultra-micro RC planes (which are a blast btw). Here's what I used. It'll take accelerant as well with no issues to the foam.

 

And lastly, here's a quick fit check.  I filled the previous hole I'd drilled in the base and moved it up about another inch. Makes everything center up over the base for stability's sake and looks a lot better (a lesson learned from my 1/48th experiment shown on page 1).  Have also decided against motorizing it. Would it have looked cool? Yes. Would it have added a ton of complexity to this and perhaps taken away from the dramatic scene I've already built? Also, Yes. (Pleased as punch when my teenage daughter came upstairs and exclaimed my model "looked epic!" Small victories when raising teenagers...)

 

Next up I'll get back to the engine and start working on the harness etc. so I can start buttoning up the nose section.  Still plenty to go, but I feel I'm over the hump with the stand and Zero done. Back to enjoying this Airfix beast!

Thanks for following along, 

-Peter

 

[LSP_Kevin]

That looks fantastic, Peter!

 

Kev

[easixpedro]

1 hour ago, LSP_Kevin said:

That looks fantastic, Peter!

 

Kev

Thanks Kev! Pretty pleased with how it turned out. It's one thing to do it in 1/48th, but in 1/24th?!

I've already got a lot of other ideas for scenes floating around in my head! Will have to be smaller for certain, but kind of fun to imagine the display possibilities.

-Peter

[Out2gtcha]

Yep, looks great!  

[Oldbaldguy]

Dude!  I think it’s going to be, like, epicer than epic.

[Rockie Yarwood]

10 hours ago, easixpedro said:

(Pleased as punch when my teenage daughter came upstairs and exclaimed my model "looked epic!" Small victories when raising teenagers...)

This is looking really cool! I know what you mean about your daughter. My youngest daughter (now 36 - OMG I'm getting old!) used to build models with me when she wasn't off doing teenage-girl stuff. Great times for a dad.

 

Cheers,  Rockie

[easixpedro]

5 hours ago, Rockie Yarwood said:

This is looking really cool! I know what you mean about your daughter. My youngest daughter (now 36 - OMG I'm getting old!) used to build models with me when she wasn't off doing teenage-girl stuff. Great times for a dad.

 

Cheers,  Rockie

Ha, yes! She won't build with me anymore, but I've given her a love of history that I hope will serve her well in life. Buzz Aldrin actually has a FB profile and she follows him with me. Knows all the Mercury 7 etc. We chatted about Chuck Yeager last night.  My soon to be 18 yr old son will still go out and fly our little RC planes with me--he'll even check the wind to see if it's calm enough and suggest we go out.  I'll take what I can in a crazy world!

-Peter

[easixpedro]

Well dangnabit! File this under life is harder when you're stupid...

 

And a mea culpa (as no one ever seems to post when things go wrong). Last night I was feeling rather chuffed at having accomplished all this and went ahead and glued the engine together in preparation of adding the ignition.  Well I plumb forgot that I'd stopped painting it as I was deciding whether or not to make the prop spin.  And I hadn't painted the engine gray!    So now I'm about an hour into painstakingly trying to get a brush in-between all the cylinders!  It'll come out OK, but man, I certainly made things harder on myself! In aviation parlance, that's a "Below in headwork."  

 

Pics once I get the engine wired up and hopefully in place. Lot's of details that Airfix provides, especially if you want to have the panels open. As this is in-flight, I'm trying to carefully pick what sections will be not needed and unseen so they'll be left out for weight-saving measures. I'm not too concerned about weight--she's hefty, but so is my support rod, so call it insurance.

 

More later

-Peter

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Man, that Zero looks GREAT!  

 

Loving this build, and the Carrier deck you posted with Phantom and A-4s, and SPAD.... To cool!   

[easixpedro]

Plugging along on the engine. In this scale, everything is visible, and it'd be a shame not to have the ignition wires going to the cylinders. Airfix is nice enough to show you how to do it with a schematic and a handy little instruction box with the actual size/length to cut the wires.  Their callout is for .7mm copper wire. Grabbed some .65mm/22 Gauge wire from the local mom and pop hardware store. Might have worked in a smaller scale, but looked pretty dodgy.  Went to a craft store and bought some copper colored thread instead. Gives a hint of the woven texture on the real deal, without being too overly complicated. And it cost me all of 60 cents...!  Have experimented with it by soaking it in both white glue and thin super glue to keep it rigid, yet malleable. The front row of cylinders took me all day yesterday in small increments of course.  (And in no way am I doing justice to this engine)

 

Here's the backside--you can see where I've stopped painting and adding parts. None of which will be visible or structural. Still kicking myself over the painting fiasco--I pulled it off, but sure made it painful on myself.

 

 

More soon, hoping to get the aft row of cylinders wired up so I can start getting the nose buttoned up. Need to start thinking about markings soon!

-Peter

[Neo]

WOW mind blown ! 

[easixpedro]

Hola Amigos,

 

Close to wrapping up the engine. Remember how I said I was trying to leave some stuff out?  Yeah, not so much...  The more I built, the more I realized that Airfix has done a bang up job and it's like the real airplane. There's bits and bobs that are all connected and some of the ducting even forms the panels like the real deal.  So at this point, I've resigned myself to building it all, but not everything must be painted. Pretty much everything forward of the firewall does, cause I think you'll actually be able to see quite a bit--even with cowl flaps closed. I might be wrong, but I'd hate to have light grey plastic showing where there shouldn't be...

 

About the engine. It's fantastic. For the exhausts, there's 22 parts and 19 steps (I was running out of fingers and toes to count, so I think that's right) to assemble it all. I've never built something so complicated, and yet so well engineered. Take your time, dry fit and have the firewall handy to ensure the pipes are going where they ought to. I've been working on it for almost a week and the only thing I've added are the ignition wires--its like a kit itself. I'm not sure how JayW does it by scratch...?!

 

Before gluing everything together, I realized I'd better paint the firewall. Did a quick google search and here's a great example of the grunge (it's a radial after all!) Believe this is the a/c that became part of the Paul Allen collection in Everett (posted under fair use, to show the wear and tear) Take note of the exhausts. For mine, I sprayed them while still on the sprue, with a gray/black automotive primer. Next step was to take my daughters watercolors and blend some colors in to get an approximation of that rusty/oily/burnt look. I think I came close--not much will be visible, but enough to give a hint and let the viewers mind fill in the rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please excuse the sloppiness on the second row of cylinders. It won't be visible. In fact you can see how I didn't even bother putting the ignition wires all the way back. If I was going to have an open cowling, you bet I would have done it, but no point doing extra work that's going to be hidden forever.  Also need to find some copper paint to work on the ignition ring--not happy with how that turned out.  For now, I'll keep working towards getting this attached to the fuselage and I'll worry about that before buttoning everything up.

 

Thanks for following along.

-Peter

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

I think it looks great!