1/24 Airfix F6F-5 Hellcat "Kicked Up A Notch": New eBook Now Available!

[JayW]

 

11 hours ago, chuck540z3 said:

Thanks for the tip Jay, so is this right or wrong?

 

 

Well, not right Chuck.  Here is a picture of a Corsair wheel, which is identical to a Hellcat wheel: 

 

 

There are two types of stiffening elements inside the wheels - eight of each per wheel.  Sixteen stiffening elements.  One type is a short blade which lines up with each of the holes between the spokes.  You can see it clearly in the picture above.  And that is also what you see in your picture of the Hellcat wheel.  The other is the full rib, which you do not see above, because the full ribs are hiding behind the spokes.  Your Barracuda wheels also have both types of stiffening elements.

 

So rotate that inner wheel 360/16 = 22.5 deg!   That way, the inner wheel holes will line up with the outer wheel holes, the blade stiffeners will be exposed in the outer wheel holes, and the full ribs will be hidden behind the "spokes", except at oblique angles peering inside the wheel.

 

It makes sense - the wheel "spokes" see great load with hard carrier landings and the like.  Without backup webs, they are just thin plates that can buckle under that load.  So the full ribs reinforce the "spokes".   Makes for a light weight, but strong wheel.

 

Not just Corsairs and Hellcats either.  All the big models I have made - P-51, P-38, P-47, and now the F4U - they all have full stiffening ribs behind the spokes, just like the real thing.   

Edited November 21, 2021 by JayW

[chuck540z3]

Thanks Jay!  You just saved me a lot of grief later.  

 

So interesting that the Corsair and Hellcat wheels are identical, but apparently not all the time as I pointed out earlier.  Although not typical, I have found this type of wheel on a few Hellcats, so they must have changed from one to the other type at some point, or maybe this is a land based wheel?

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[John Stambaugh]

6 minutes ago, chuck540z3 said:

Thanks Jay!  You just saved me a lot of grief later.  

 

So interesting that the Corsair and Hellcat wheels are identical, but apparently not all the time as I pointed out earlier.  Although not typical, I have found this type of wheel on a few Hellcats, so they must have changed from one to the other type at some point, or maybe this is a land based wheel?

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Yes those are the post war wheels used on Hellcats and s.orsair

On 11/9/2021 at 7:39 AM, DonH said:

This thread deserves a bump up the batting order and to add to the Airfix tale of woe:

 

I sent an email to Revell Germany with a speculative request for some replacement parts. I offered to pay for the relevant sprue and the postage out to Singapore. Two working days later, I got a reply saying "we will send you the parts to your address without charge." They also kindly warned me that shipping time might be up to six weeks because the parts were coming from the USA. So, Airfix, that's the way to do it.

 

Anyway, back to this amazing build. Chuck, I love the crispness of your building and the informative tips and tricks. I am looking forward to the next instalment.

I to have had good service from Revell. 

[JayW]

4 hours ago, chuck540z3 said:

So interesting that the Corsair and Hellcat wheels are identical, but apparently not all the time as I pointed out earlier.  Although not typical, I have found this type of wheel on a few Hellcats, so they must have changed from one to the other type at some point, or maybe this is a land based wheel?

 

 

Chuck - I believe late model Corsairs went with that wheel also.  I like the older ones!

[Wolf Buddee]

On 11/21/2021 at 7:35 AM, chuck540z3 said:

Thanks Jay!  You just saved me a lot of grief later.  

 

So interesting that the Corsair and Hellcat wheels are identical, but apparently not all the time as I pointed out earlier.  Although not typical, I have found this type of wheel on a few Hellcats, so they must have changed from one to the other type at some point, or maybe this is a land based wheel?

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

 

 

This wheel and tire combo are post WW II items.

 

Cheers,

Wolf

[Nigels modelling bench]

Hi Chuck,

 

When you come to build the engine you will find the central core is a complete joke. The thing is oval and oversized when assembled.. so much for Airfix doing test builds.

 

If you wanna PM me I'll send a resin one out to you.

[chuck540z3]

On 11/24/2021 at 2:38 PM, Nigels modelling bench said:

Hi Chuck,

 

When you come to build the engine you will find the central core is a complete joke. The thing is oval and oversized when assembled.. so much for Airfix doing test builds.

 

If you wanna PM me I'll send a resin one out to you.

 

Thanks Nigel for your kind offer.  Yes the central core is way oversized and a bit oval, but with lots of sanding I was able to make it workable as shown below.

 

December 4/21

 

With the landing gear mostly sorted out, I decided to get to the highlight of this kit, which is a very detailed Pratt and Whitney R2800 Double Wasp Engine, which was used in many other aircraft including the Corsair.  Like all aircraft engines there are several variants, so exact details can change slightly from engine to engine, so I’m going to pick and choose how I detail this engine with what I like, rather than worry too much about accuracy.

 

 

Almost all of the engine parts are on Sprue J and fortunately, none of them are short shot like the Sprue F in my kit!  I finally got my replacement parts from Airfix in the mail after waiting for 3 weeks, which is sort of normal these days for deliveries from Europe. 

 

 

All of these engine parts have a noticeable seam lines on them that needs to be removed, which takes a lot of work and patience, but the quality and detail of the parts is really well done.  Here’s a pic of the parts needed for Steps 150-158.

 

 

 

 

The assembly of the main engine parts is an engineering marvel, but like most of this build, the fit of all of them is way too tight.  This is especially true of the ring on the right, Part J6, which needs a lot of sanding in the interior before you can even begin to fit it over the tubular assembly of Parts J3 and J4 on the left, which also needs to be sanded down quite a bit to allow clearance for all of the other parts, like the push-rods on the top.  Note the notch in all of the parts that fit into the groove of the central tube, which ensure proper alignment of this complex assembly.

 

 

 

 

As shown at the beginning of this build, I’m going to be using ANYZ upgrade parts and braided line, but there are no specific instructions on how all this should be used, so I’m just going to wing it.

 

 

 

 

The ANYZ spark plugs come in a straight version and also one with a curved lead, which is perfect for the front cylinders as you will see below.  To get them to fit, the small holes in the cylinders were drilled out to size.

 

 

 

 

A close-up pic, showing the kit and ANYZ detail.

 

 

 

 

Only the front cylinders should have the curved spark plug leads, since most of the rest of the plug wires need to be placed through shrouds that protect and hold the wires.  The cylinders on the left are the front of the rear bank, showing the straight plugs.

 

 

 

 

The rear view of both banks with all straight plugs, which show the holes for exhaust manifolds that will be added later.

 

 

 

 

Here are the main engine parts dry fit together.  The fit is tight enough that no glue will be required for anything other than the front cone and electrical conduit horseshoe.  While the push-rods generally touch the cylinder heads where they should, some have a bit of a gap.  The solution is to paint everything first, assemble, then close the gaps with CA glue and touch-up the paint with a brush.

 

 

 

 

While the cylinder heads should have a distinct seam line in the middle, the oval assembly on either side of the cylinder (valve covers?) do not.  The fit of these parts is a bit crude, so they should be sanded down smooth and the seam line filled, which I’ve done with clear CA glue, which still shows the gap.  Although hard to see, I also punched three fasteners into the top of each cover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The spark plug wire shrouds need to be opened up a bit to allow the ANYZ braided line to thread through.

 

 

 

 

The kit instructions in Step 159 and 160 show the location of where the plug wires and other wiring should be located, which at first looks very complicated and intimidating.  Once you realize that every cylinder has two spark plugs with wiring that goes into the wiring harness side by side, the light bulb turns on in your head and everything is really quite simple.  Using the same color scheme as the instructions, this is generally how the wiring should be located, with the Purple/Red pairs for the front cylinder and the Green/Yellow pairs for the rear.  Note the size differences of each wire, to accommodate short or longer routing of each wire.  There are a few more wires underneath, but they are quite simple to locate as well.  Looking at the ANYZ assembled engine pics, the wiring harness connectors have been cut off and replaced with ANYZ resin replacements.  While this looks attractive, this wiring is going to be fragile enough, so I’m going to stick with the hollowed-out kit wiring connectors that will provide a solid base to glue the wires within.  Sometimes function trumps form....

 

 

 

 

The next step is to paint all of the engine parts and then re-assemble the engine, but before I do that, I will add the plug wires to the front of the rear cylinder bank (yellow wires) for ease of access, while the remaining wiring should be easy enough to do with all the parts in place.

 

 

Closing thoughts and advice:

 

 

-        The biggest challenge of this engine isn’t the complexity, but all the seam lines and flash that needs to be removed from every single part

-        The fit of most of the parts on the central cylinder (J3/J4) is ridiculously tight or impossible as noted by Nigel above, so you need to do a lot of sanding to get the parts to fit properly

-        The quality of the parts and detail is terrific, and

-        The engineering of the engine is really well done, other than tight fit

-        Finishing this engine is going to be a lot of fun.

 

 

That’s it for now everyone.  Thanks for your continued interest in this build.

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

Edited December 5, 2021 by chuck540z3

[JayW]

Chuck - that is going to be a marvelous engine, with about 1% of the effort I expended on my 1/18 version!!  Not complaining, as that was what I decided to do.  It is good to see kits like this one, where attention is paid to a great engine.  Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

Question - were intake manifolds not included?  

Edited December 5, 2021 by JayW

[chuck540z3]

22 minutes ago, JayW said:

Chuck - that is going to be a marvelous engine, with about 1% of the effort I expended on my 1/18 version!!  Not complaining, as that was what I decided to do.  It is good to see kits like this one, where attention is paid to a great engine.  Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

Question - were intake manifolds not included?  

 

Thanks Jay.  No idea on the intake manifolds, other than there are a lot more engine parts to add, so I would guess they are included.  This stage is basically the core when you pause to add wiring if you want, then all sorts of stuff gets tacked on later.  The exhaust manifolds are very complex and I bet they really look the part when finished.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[SwissFighters]

Hello Chuck. I have recently studied several of your builds with admiration and have plans that will see me try and replicate several, just with different subjects (I am currently working on the KH F-5E and Tamiya P-51). Although the ANYZ spark plugs are pretty cool, I found the braided ignition lines very difficult to work with and ended up using lead wire. I just couldn't find a way of gluing it without 1. changing colour 2. losing the obvious, and attractive, braided effect by gluing it 3. positioning it in a way I required without having the glue cause 1. and 2.  If I may suggest trialing this material first? You may be the one to come up with a solution, which would please me no end! And let me take the opportunity to thank you for the countless hours you invest in sharing your trial, error and obvious success. Tony.

[Fanes]

4 hours ago, SwissFighters said:

Hello Chuck. I have recently studied several of your builds with admiration and have plans that will see me try and replicate several, just with different subjects (I am currently working on the KH F-5E and Tamiya P-51). Although the ANYZ spark plugs are pretty cool, I found the braided ignition lines very difficult to work with and ended up using lead wire. I just couldn't find a way of gluing it without 1. changing colour 2. losing the obvious, and attractive, braided effect by gluing it 3. positioning it in a way I required without having the glue cause 1. and 2.  If I may suggest trialing this material first? You may be the one to come up with a solution, which would please me no end! And let me take the opportunity to thank you for the countless hours you invest in sharing your trial, error and obvious success. Tony.

Brian had a fantastic solution for glueing the braided lines:

Cheers

Joachim

 

[petrov27]

looking great and very interested in your engine detailing. I am working on the same engine myself currently with the AnyZ set and yes as you noted the braided lines can be challenging to work with. In my trial and error over the weekend one thing I found was that you can insert a bit of fine lead wire through the braided line and just put a tiny bit of glue on the ends to keep the braid together and not discolor the entire line. The lead wire inside made it hold a certain "bend" better - I may go that way on mine though not sure yet if its worth the extra work....

Edited December 6, 2021 by petrov27

[chuck540z3]

Thanks guys for all the tips using the braided line.  I will try a few things and report back in due coarse!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[easixpedro]

Chuck, I'd also suggest checking the lengths that Airfix so thoughtfully includes in the instructions. It could have been me and my ham-fisted building, but their recommendations were a bit too long. Suggest cutting some solder or something with similar properties to the Any-Z stuff before wasting some expensive AM bits.

 

-Peter

[chuck540z3]

37 minutes ago, easixpedro said:

Chuck, I'd also suggest checking the lengths that Airfix so thoughtfully includes in the instructions. It could have been me and my ham-fisted building, but their recommendations were a bit too long. Suggest cutting some solder or something with similar properties to the Any-Z stuff before wasting some expensive AM bits.

 

-Peter

 

Good idea Peter.  I have plenty of lead wire of various widths to experiment with, to get the length just right.  This should be fun. 

 

Cheers,

Chuck