F6F-5 HELLCAT 1:24 AIRFIX

[spartacus2000]

Hello everyone, since sometimes they come back, here I am to present my "PROJECT".

As the title suggests, I am working on one of the latest Airfix products, which for my part was much awaited.

It is my wife's gift for Christmas 2019 for which I have been holding the kit for a year.

I must admit that I was rather disappointed especially with regard to the level of detail which, given the scale and the price, I find unacceptable, I do not want to get into the usual modeling talk regarding this topic so I will limit myself to exposing the various improvements.

First of all here are the various aftermarket that I found for this model, I think I will add something else but I want to design and print the various pieces with my resin 3D printer (Anycubic Photon 3D for those interested).

THE KIT AND AFTERMARKET

ANYZ upgrade for the engine (power cables, spark plugs and various line connectors) of excellent workmanship, brass pipes from MASTER, seatbelts from HGW (fantastic is an understatement), Decal from AEROCRAFT MODELS to be integrated with those of the kit(maybe  cockpit detail fromAIRSCALE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now the comparison between the various pieces of the kit and the one I printed in resin  they are not the definitive pieces as over the past few months I have refined the details, so be satisfied with the quality of the prints and photos made with flash and in hurry

 

 

Here's what I mean by poor quality of the kit, ok the limits of plastic, but here they are not wasted (even if looking at the presentation videos it seemed that they had done a superlative job.

 

 

Front and rear cylinders; I gave it a coat of paint as I am using a black resin so the details remain a little more visible

 

 

The evolution of the main body of the engine, at the bottom the one proposed by the kit completely wrong as a size in fact it does not enter the cylinder ring so you have to reduce it by at least 1.5 mm even here I do not understand how they could have been so wrong. The one on the top right is the semi-final shape as it lacks the housing holes for the cylinders

 

 

 

detail absent in the kit

 

 

 

 

Crank case reduction in comparison

 

distributors

 

 

 

Bendix magneto

 

Now some renderings of the morore with all the pieces already designed and some images of the pieces ready for resin printing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All this is the result of hundreds of photos found on the net, technical drawings, maintenance and overhaul manuals of the Pratt & withney R2800-10W, tests and retries both in 3D and in print to arrive at a more acceptable detail result as the scale 1 : 24 does not forgive and risks making everything very toy. That's all for now, any help with photos, documents etc. is always welcome.

[Neo]

Wow this looks great

[alaninaustria]

Man, what an amazing start to this build! Awesome work so far mate!

Cheers

Alan

[MikeMaben]

Impressive stuff Spart...   

[John Stambaugh]

Wow, I was seriously considering the Hellcat as my next build but I must say that I am a little deflated after seeing these fantastic 3D improvements. Ignorance is/was bliss! 

 

[spartacus2000]

Thank you all for the compliments, this is the kind of fuel that keeps fueling the strength to keep going. @John Stambaugh do not despair I see how I manage to assemble everything and maybe I put it on the market.

I will keep you informed about the updates (for now in 3D) and any resin prints so I will comment on the various improvements compared to the kit

Edited January 1, 2021 by spartacus2000

[easixpedro]

Great start. I assume you’re going to have all the panels open? You can check my WIP here and see how much will be visible if you close everything up (hint: not much!) 

 

I’ve done mine pretty much OOB, save a scratchbuilt pilot. Be sure to dry fit everything as any layer of paint will throw things out of tolerance. I found it to be a nice kit and a pleasure to put together. I look forward to seeing yours come together!

-Peter

[John Stambaugh]

On 1/1/2021 at 4:21 PM, spartacus2000 said:

Thank you all for the compliments, this is the kind of fuel that keeps fueling the strength to keep going. @John Stambaugh do not despair I see how I manage to assemble everything and maybe I put it on the market.

I will keep you informed about the updates (for now in 3D) and any resin prints so I will comment on the various improvements compared to the kit

Thanks Spartacus, I would definitely be interested in your 3d engine. 

 I have pretty much all current aftermarket for the kit. The Airfix Hellcat is very much worthy of an all out build.

  John S 

[spartacus2000]

Hi everyone. Small update: the affected area is the blow crankase. Obviously the J6 piece of the kit is very approximate so you absolutely have to put your hand to it.

This is how it is represented in the original P&W catalog

 

 

This instead is the Airfix J6 piece assembled here to check the alignment of the intake manifold of the kit on the resin pieces with positive result apart from the cutting errors in the front

 

 

 

 

Analyzing the piece we can see that the engine supports are very approximate (they are those 45 ° cylinders that protrude to the left).

The following are renderings of the pieces so far modeled with some details and final positioning. The work is 80% completethe support needs to be finished, make the manifolds and finish some details of the coupling to the area of the supercharger and carburetor, but this is another piece that brings me closer to the goal.

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for now See you next update

[John Stambaugh]

On 1/1/2021 at 4:21 PM, spartacus2000 said:

Thank you all for the compliments, this is the kind of fuel that keeps fueling the strength to keep going. @John Stambaugh do not despair I see how I manage to assemble everything and maybe I put it on the market.

I will keep you informed about the updates (for now in 3D) and any resin prints so I will comment on the various improvements compared to the kit

Thank you sir, I will be a customer should you decide to market the engine. This level of expertise and dedication should be rewarded. 

 For now my Hellcat will be on hold to await developments.

[spartacus2000]

Hi Guys here is a small update it is about the anti-vibration coupling between the engine mount and the  engine from the Lord corporation now I have to replicate it 6 times around the mount ring.

I have arranged some holes for an insertion of a metal rod instead of the resin one to have greater solidity in a very stressed but also very small area measures in fact are only about 5mm in circumference x 4 in depth, the ring is only 2.5mm in diameter .

 

 

the little pig

 

 

for this week it's all

Cheers Marco

[crobinsonh]

Great work

[spartacus2000]

Hello everyone, little update (busy working week so little time to model) Air intake and small finished parts now I have to move to the carburetor and accessory support area.

 

 

 

Edited January 23, 2021 by spartacus2000

[spartacus2000]

Hi  friends.

Last update was 2 years ago, meanwhile covid, work and 2 moves kept me away from this project.

But, finally the 3D design phase sees the light at the end of the tunnel. The bulk of the work is done, (right now I'm printing the PT18G1 carburetor to test my new 4k resin 3d printer) and see if it fits on the kit parts indicating I haven't thrown away 2 years of work.

For now you have to settle for 3D images, I hope to show you the real pieces soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For now it's all.

[spartacus2000]

Ok raw print finished ,not so bad it it was set as with default slicer parameter, layers 0,05mm no orientation end support cut in coarse mode  : some little dettails gone awaybut it was only for a fitting test.

 

On Left Airfix peices(K18 K19 K20) on Right 3D prtint.

Misures 9,2H X 19 X 6,8 mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Test fitting on kit

 

 

 

stay tuned

Bye

Marco

Edited March 26, 2023 by spartacus2000