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

[LSP_Kevin]

Nice tutorial, Chuck. An extra tip, though: I find it easier to thread the straps into their respective buckles while the latter are still attached to the PE fret wherever possible. This way, the buckles themselves are much easier to handle, and the whole process becomes much less fiddly.

 

Kev

[Maw1963]

Ciao Chuck, your cockpit is fantastic and I like the clean appearence of it.

Sometimes I wonder how modellers discuss about the EXACT match of paints of different brands, and then all is covered by a layer, a thick layer too many times according to my test, of Burnt Umber.

Bravo.

[Antonio Argudo]

Really nice work on those belts, are you going to paint the black stitching? I used decals  from Barracuda and really add even more realism, Anyz produce decals for this also, keep the good,  cheers

 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Antonio Argudo

[chuck540z3]

5 hours ago, Antonio Argudo said:

Really nice work on those belts, are you going to paint the black stitching? I used decals  from Barracuda and really add even more realism, Anyz produce decals for this also, keep the good,  cheers

 

 

Thanks for the decal tip Antonio, which brings up an issue I've had with HGW seat belts.  The first few I used had nice stitching on them, while the last few, including this Hellcat set, had weak stitching on them, so I have no idea why.  Had I known that these decal stitches existed, I would have used them for sure, but now that they are wrinkled up, twisted and attached to an installed seat, I'll just make a mess, so I'll pass this time.  If you look close though, you can still see light stitching, so it's not too bad.

 

Also thanks for the buckle tip Kevin.  While I don't usually have too much trouble threading the buckles, it would definitely be a bit easier if they were still on the fret so that they didn't move around.

 

One other thing I forgot to mention is that I didn't use the parachute seat cushion supplied with the kit.  With the kit seat belts cut off of it, I was tempted, but I couldn't find a pic of one installed in a seat and I wasn't sure how the belts and cushion should look in combination, so I went the easy route with what I thought was probably correct.

 

FYI, Adriatic is working on some new engine resin but are a few months away from having anything definitive to show.  I am also a few months away from getting to the engine, so maybe I will be able to use some of it in the future.  Time will tell.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2021 by chuck540z3

[Thunnus]

Always a pleasure to follow your work, Chuck!  The Hellcat cockpit looks great and the extra bits add a lot of fidelity.

[Finn]

Here is another pic Chuck:

 

 

Jari

[chuck540z3]

What a great pic Jari!  I see rust-brown fastener detail on the engine cowlings in the future of this build!

 

With the cockpit pretty much done, a few more glamour shots for the build archive.  Unfortunately like most WWII fighters, a lot of this will be hard to see when I close up the fuselage- hence the lack of dark weathering.

 

 

 

Note how the floor is open on both sides.  I'm not sure how the wing root will fill this, but if it doesn't, I will add some strips to close it up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited May 12, 2021 by chuck540z3

[Ryan]

12 hours ago, Finn said:

Here is another pic Chuck:

 

 

Jari

Could that be Grumman grey on the firewall?

[Ironwing]

Sweet..sweet..sweet. As always, stellar pristine work. The pit couldn't be better...keep her going

 

Regards

Geoff

[Martinnfb]

Fantastic work as always ! 

[LSP_Ray]

1 hour ago, Ryan said:

Could that be Grumman grey on the firewall?

I would guess NMF.

[chuck540z3]

7 minutes ago, Jennings Heilig said:

That’s all looking fantabulous Chuck!! As usual. One thing though - Airscale seems to have put a modern colored artificial horizon on their decal. The WWII era instrument was just black and white. Seems odd that they’d have made a mistake like that, since their stuff is so uniformly excellent...

 

Hi Jennings,

 

I don't see any "colors", other than black, white and grey.  Is "grey" wrong?

 

 

 

Also, since we're on the topic of cockpit accuracy, and while I am no expert on anything Hellcat, I have the Detail & Scale, F6F Hellcat book by Kinzey and Sakal, amongst many other pics of Hellcat cockpits, including the F6F Erection and Maintenance Manuel (I always snicker at that title).  What I have found is that some of the changes from the 3 to the 5 were gradual and some late 3's have features of early 5's and early 5's have some features of late 3's.  For instance, while all 3's had rear windows, some early 5's had them as well, so the rear headrest/armor plate had cutouts on either side.  Instrumentation was quite variable, with certain displays that are distinctly for a 3, while other displays were for 5's only, but then there is are many instruments that came and went between the two versions.  This made it a bit tricky when I was trying to figure out which instrument was which between the Airscale, Kit and Adriatic parts.  I am certain that I got most of them right and I am also certain I have a few dead wrong, but then again, who cares if it looks cool? 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[Citadelgrad]

On 5/11/2021 at 6:39 AM, chuck540z3 said:

 

Thanks for the decal tip Antonio, which brings up an issue I've had with HGW seat belts.  The first few I used had nice stitching on them, while the last few, including this Hellcat set, had weak stitching on them, so I have no idea why.  Had I known that these decal stitches existed, I would have used them for sure, but now that they are wrinkled up, twisted and attached to an installed seat, I'll just make a mess, so I'll pass this time.  If you look close though, you can still see light stitching, so it's not too bad.

 

Also thanks for the buckle tip Kevin.  While I don't usually have too much trouble threading the buckles, it would definitely be a bit easier if they were still on the fret so that they didn't move around.

 

One other thing I forgot to mention is that I didn't use the parachute seat cushion supplied with the kit.  With the kit seat belts cut off of it, I was tempted, but I couldn't find a pic of one installed in a seat and I wasn't sure how the belts and cushion should look in combination, so I went the easy route with what I thought was probably correct.

 

FYI, Adriatic is working on some new engine resin but are a few months away from having anything definitive to show.  I am also a few months away from getting to the engine, so maybe I will be able to use some of it in the future.  Time will tell.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

 

 

I am an absolute newb at the HGW seatbelts, but noticed that mine had no visible stitching detail, I was a bit disappointed.  Upon advice here i shot them with a clear gloss, then hit them with a dark wash, BOOM, stitching became very obvious.  

 

Please take this as a humble suggestion, but I noticed your complaint and thought this might help.  I was amazed at the difference.  

[airscale]

3 hours ago, Jennings Heilig said:

That’s all looking fantabulous Chuck!! As usual. One thing though - Airscale seems to have put a modern colored artificial horizon on their decal. The WWII era instrument was just black and white. Seems odd that they’d have made a mistake like that, since their stuff is so uniformly excellent...

It's supposed to be very dark grey to differentiate the ball in the artificial horizon- not sure what has happened but looks like I need a word with the printer 

 

Peter 

[Cheetah11]

Hi Chuck

Another crazy good build.
 

Just a thought on the AI since we are splitting hairs.  If it was suction driven it won’t be erect as depicted till the engine runs and most likely not with the red flag in view.

 

Nick