Jump to content

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


chuck540z3

Recommended Posts

Looks great Chuck!

 

It’s all coming together brilliantly if not always easily. This, however, made me laugh: “This view confirms that any spark plugs attached to the rear of both cylinder heads is a waste of time.” Just think of the poor bastards that had to change those plugs for real!
 

Cheers,

Wolf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, spartacus2000 said:

Great job done on the engine, Chuck.

Your mounting tips are as always very useful, one thing, the rocker covers were usually painted black on the r2800 8-10, only in the new cylinders with the differently shaped covers were not painted. I don't know how much of the engine you will leave visible and how much it can be visible even when closed, but I think that a little more work will not slow down your work plans. I am waiting for an update.

Greetings

 

 

OK, OK, this was bugging me so much I just had to "fix" it.  In almost all of the pics I have of the R-2800 engine, which of course is many different versions, the rocker covers are bare metal aluminum, so I left them that way.  On this particular kit, these features are split down the middle as the cylinder halves come together, which usually leaves a big gap which I filled with CA glue to make them look a bit better, but they have always been an inferior feature of this engine.  No two of these covers is formed the same and the size and outline of them is all over the place.  Painting them black would hide much of that, so I dug a little deeper thanks to spartacus2000. 

 

Here's a pic of someone working on the engine (Will Ferrell's Dad?), which sure looks like wartime and as an added bonus, it's even in color.  Note the color of the rocker covers.  Jet Black.

 

Also note the wing-root panel that he's standing on, which is a one piece wraparound and when the rear engine cowling covers are off, this panel usually is as well, so I think I'll be leaving it off too.  Also notice the rear of the front cowling, which is full of fastener receptacles, which I'll be adding later since the front cowlings will always be off, as well as the faint panel line just above the "4", while there is no join just above "Rocker" where the kit parts have one.

 

vZRxx1.jpg

 

 

I was reluctant to paint these little suckers, because I SUCK at brush painting and I didn't want to make a mess.  Using black enamel paint, which I could fix with plain solvent against a lacquer background, it turned out better than I thought it might.

 

06Xpbb.jpg

 

A reluctant close-up pic to show how crappy the rocker covers are formed in the first place- and my brush painting.  ^_^  At least the black paint forms a shape, which is mostly missing from the kit parts.

 

3AEmtc.jpg

 

 

There, it's now "fixed" and while I was at it, I learned a few new things about engine cowling details that I'll use later.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • chuck540z3 changed the title to 1/24 Airfix F6F-5 Hellcat "Kicked Up A Notch" Jan 4/22: Rocker Covers
10 hours ago, chuck540z3 said:

I was reluctant to paint these little suckers,

 

All 36 of them!!!  Well done Chuck.  I was faced with the same decision a while back - I chose black. 

 

  

10 hours ago, chuck540z3 said:

A reluctant close-up pic to show how crappy the rocker covers are formed in the first place- and my brush painting.  ^_^  At least the black paint forms a shape, which is mostly missing from the kit parts.

 

Reluctant.  LOL!  Me too.  God my I-phone can photograph electron shells almost.  I am always reluctant to post real close-ups - it reveals too much.  You suck at brush painting?  Don't think so; they look as good as they can.  I agree though - Airfix did so well on so many of the Double Wasp features, and then scrimped on one of the most visible (rocker arm covers).  BTW, the parts manual calls these "rocker box covers", but they indeed cover the rocker arms.    

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeesh...

 

My command of the english language is not well developed enough to say what I am thinking

 

It is along the lines of that is forking awsome..

 

your modeliing & painting style is just soo well evolved and I like how each subject you take on is pretty unknown to you at the start and by the end you know every inch of it

 

bravo sir

 

Peter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Wolf Buddee said:

Looks great Chuck!

 

It’s all coming together brilliantly if not always easily. This, however, made me laugh: “This view confirms that any spark plugs attached to the rear of both cylinder heads is a waste of time.” Just think of the poor bastards that had to change those plugs for real!
 

Cheers,

Wolf

That was my thinking as well!  Terriffic work on this project.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Wolf Buddee said:

Looks great Chuck!

 

It’s all coming together brilliantly if not always easily. This, however, made me laugh: “This view confirms that any spark plugs attached to the rear of both cylinder heads is a waste of time.” Just think of the poor bastards that had to change those plugs for real!
 

Cheers,

Wolf

Been there, done that on a -2800, and, quite frankly, it’s sucked! (Not a Hellcat, FG-1 Corsair!)

 

Looking good, Chuck!

 

Thor   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wonderful looking engine there, Chuck.  Really enjoying your build and getting some great tips for the eventual build of mine.  Mine's only been sitting in the stash since the kit was released. :(

 

One thing which does surprise me is the fitment issues you've encountered.  I was hoping that this kit would be at the same standard as the car door Typhoon, on which I had no such problems and was a joy from start to finish.  Still, fore warned is fore armed, I guess.

 

Looking forward to seeing more.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/11/2021 at 8:54 AM, chuck540z3 said:

 

HobbyWorld USA, but it comes with a catch after ordering this paint 3 times and about 60 bottles of paint.  Probably due to the pandemic and increased demand, you have to nag them to place your order after you have paid for it, and every order had back-ordered bottles of paint despite the fact that they were "in-stock" when I ordered them, which again I had to nag them to send later.  Eventually I got what I wanted over several months, but it was a big fight every time with several emails.  Still, they are the only game in town that will send MRP paint from the US or Canada due to our stupid Canada Post rules about shipping "volatile substances" across our borders, while we can still get paint through the mail if it originated in Canada.  Did I mention that it's stupid!?  Hopefully we get a Canadian supplier soon, to eliminate this hassle.

 

One thing I would recommend is to check out the other MRP retailers on their website below.  HobbyWorld USA has been out of MRP-014 Sea Blue for months and I obviously need this paint bad for my model, since it covers most of it, including the rear wheel well before I could close up the fuselage.  I started at the top and found that most of these retailers would not ship to Canada for the reasons given above, but some will, which is where I got my Blue paint.  Good luck!

 

MRP Retailers

 

Cheers,

Chuck


Just going caught up on the build now, great stuff as per your norm.

 

I'm in the same boat as you with Hobbyworld USA, used him for years but lately he has been less reliable. I don’t get my missing MRP paint sent to me. So sadly I stopped using him since he doesn’t return emails and doesn’t send product that I have paid for.

 

Edited by ScoobyDoo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

January 24, 2022

 

 

Not much modeling for me lately, because I’ve been really busy at work and I’m now happy to announce that after 44 years in the oil and gas business, with the last assignment of running a small private oil company that I started 17 years ago, I am now officially retired!  For me, the timing couldn’t be better, not just because I’m now 67 years old, but because oil companies are now vilified about the same as tobacco companies by some, despite the fact that everyone still “smokes” using fossil fuels.  That’s why oil and natural gas prices are so high right now, so it’s a good time to get out while they still are.

 

Theoretically I should be in a position to model a lot more without the hassles of work, but work has also impacted many other things in my life like a house in bad need of renovations, so maybe I’ll still be very busy as a general contractor and chauffeur to my grandchildren.  Time will tell.

 

Something that I’ve struggled with as I build this model is good reference photos of the rear of the engine, especially all the hydraulic and other lines just forward of the firewall.  There’s lots of pics from the side down low, but I can’t find any at wing level or higher looking downward.  If you guys know of any, I’d sure appreciate them.  I want to add a bunch more detail when the engine is installed, so I still have lots of time to find some.

 

With all the work I’ve put into the engine, this model will have the engine almost totally exposed all the time with only a few cowling and other panels attached.  Many pics of the Hellcat engine show that when the rear cowling panels are removed, so is the one-piece curved panel at the front of the wing root, like this guy is standing on.

 

HfgPUt.jpg

 

Here’s a typical pic with this panel removed, which shows large Dzus fastener holes on the outboard part on the wing, but no holes on the inboard side.  Also note the completely open notch above, where the engine mounts enter the firewall.

 

IqVbQq.jpg

 

The inside fasteners appear to be part of one of the lower panels over the intake, so when this panel is removed, so are the fastener holes.  Note the notch on this side as well, which has some sort of line entering the firewall at this location.  This is why I want more reference pics!

 

smB0VM.jpg

 

The upper notch on the kit parts is just a recess, so it should be cut out if you want it to look more accurate, while there isn’t really a curved wing root panel.  Instead, there is a large lower cowling Part M21 and 2 small upper wing panels, Parts M6 and M7.  If you want to leave them off like I do in the first pic above, the recess for these parts is too deep for scale.

 

S9Xk3l.jpg

 

So I made a number of changes, first by drilling out the big holes of the front supports on either side to make them a bit deeper.  I also had a few gaps where the cockpit fit the top of the wing, so I used a couple of styrene strips to cover them.

 

srO7A0.jpg

 

For the wing-root panel recess, I added some styrene strip to raise them a bit, then drilled holes completely through the wings.  Not completely perfect for scale, but a lot better than before.  For the holes on the firewall fuselage, I drilled them fairly deep, but not all the way through, because they look different and shallower on the first few pics above.  Hole spacing was approximately 4.5mm to match references.

 

twM3UE.jpg

 

On the starboard side, there are 2 holes that are fairly close to each other, while I didn’t cut the tab when I cut out the notch, because this part helps hold the engine mounts when they are glued in permanently.

 

gmqCK2.jpg

 

The panel recess on the engine should also have fastener holes, which I wish I had known about before I painted it, because handling the engine erodes the paint every time I do, which is getting tiring.  I will make a number of touch-up repairs later, but only after the engine is finally installed.

 

DKYi2m.jpg

 

Checking reference pics closely, this is where I think they should all go, as indicated by red dots.  Again, the spacing is about 4- 4 ½ mm and the bottom intake only has 2 large ones at the top and bottom, with some very fine ones in between that I didn’t bother with, since you’re unlikely to see them.

 

ib7KsG.jpg

 

I will be added the top panel, M8, because it will help support the engine and it helps hide the gap at the front of the fuselage that I had to fill earlier.  Lots of parts still to add to that firewall, then detailed painting of everything.

 

fJU4qm.jpg

 

You may have noticed that I finally masked off the canopy, which I’ve been avoiding because it’s so hard to do with nothing to grab onto behind the seat.  For those who might be interested, here’s how I did it, using lots of liquid mask to fill the tight recesses.

 

REwASg.jpg

 

HtvwY1.jpg

 

That’s it for now Gents.  No more alarm clocks, no more commutes, no more Zoom calls and no more work hassles, because did I mention, I'm retired!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • chuck540z3 changed the title to 1/24 Airfix F6F-5 Hellcat "Kicked Up A Notch" Jan 25/22: Engine Firewall Prep.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...