LSP_Kevin Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Exceptional weathering, Chuck! I'm in two minds about the clean fuel hatches, though. Kev chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted March 16, 2022 Author Share Posted March 16, 2022 5 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said: Exceptional weathering, Chuck! I'm in two minds about the clean fuel hatches, though. Kev Me too. A 3 minute and easy fix if folks don't like it. Sometimes less is more. Cheers, Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwagmyre Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 I'd go with staining on the fuel hatches as well. The photos you have of in service aircraft don't appear to show any indication that they were wiped clean. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dpgsbody55 Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Love your weathering. Not over done. As to the fuel cap door, as a modeller I'd go with what's in the period pictures, though if it were me servicing a Hellcat, I'd clean it to make sure it shut properly. Sloppy mechanics... Cheers, Michael chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TankBuster Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Magic work with the weathering, looks real as, cheers. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldbaldguy Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Since the fuel doors were handled ALOT by the kids on the flight deck, you’d expect them to be chipped/worn more than most of the rest of the fuselage. If they were wiped clean, then it’s likely the area around the door would probably be wiped clean as well. And I can tell you from experience that any fastener that requires a tool to open will have chips and scars all around it. Just the cost of doing business. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted March 16, 2022 Author Share Posted March 16, 2022 (edited) March 16/22 Thinking about the cleaning of the exhaust around the fuel door, I searched around for an example. Here’s the one shown earlier from the website above, which has my subject on the right. A crop of this pic reveals that the area around the fuel door was indeed wiped off, and here you can barely see the fuel door open. Having seen that and when compared to all the other pics I can find, it wasn’t “typical”, or at least not often enough to warrant this model to have the same thing. Exhaust stain reapplied, with a few smudges retained. The chipping and scratching of the wing areas is really hard to photograph due to the reflective nature of the glossy blue paint, so I tried to take a few more. Another angle or 2.... Weathering, at least to the main model, is now declared DONE! Cheers, Chuck Edited March 16, 2022 by chuck540z3 Buster99, LSP_Kevin, zerosystem and 15 others 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Chuck, one thing to remember about this, especially as you get towards the forward panels, is that the war time AVGAS was super high octane and 'burned' hotter. A lot of the marks you see on the GSB planes is actually burn marks and scorching from the exhaust. There's some pretty good articles out there about US refineries producing this fuel and why it gave allied fighters such an advantage and a boost in their engine performance. That's a bit you just wont see in a warbird, as the fuel is different and it's tough to make out in B&W pics. -Peter chuck540z3, Anthony in NZ and scvrobeson 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 I'm really enjoying seeing your weathering come to life Chuck. Always impressed with your absolute devotion to getting the look as close as humanly possible to the real thing. Those scratches are beautifully restrained......how do you get them so fine? Mine always end up being considerably larger blobs...... Cheers, Craig chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justplanecrazy Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Looking excellent Chuck! The picture above of #7 on the Randolph was taken on August 14th 1945, or so the photo credit says on the pic I saw, making it a Hellcat from VF-16. To confirm this, the Helldiver in the background has an "L" on the tail. My Dad flew with them. He made the 12000th landing on the Randolph on August 13th. Got a picture of him with the cake! As a side note, Dad said they were using boom mikes by this time, and you can see this in the photo of #7. Great job with this kit! I've built 2 so far in VF-16 markings and am trying to figure out how to get the pics from my android to the computer, to the RFI page. technology.....ugh chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayW Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 Man - this is going to be a competition winner Chuck. The time will come when I have to weather my Corsair - I hope to learn from you. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigH Posted March 16, 2022 Share Posted March 16, 2022 19 hours ago, chuck540z3 said: I tried to get a pic of a Hellcat belly to check for exhaust staining on the bottom, but all I can find are pics of 3’s with very light colored lower fuselage that don’t show too much, so this is just a guess based upon where the lower exhaust stacks likely came out. Not sure if you have this one Chuck. I found it useful Dragon, Rockie Yarwood, Greg W and 3 others 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwissFighters Posted March 17, 2022 Share Posted March 17, 2022 On 3/16/2022 at 2:11 PM, chuck540z3 said: Hi Chuck, beautiful work, as always. One thing I notice, and thought you might have an explanation, is how the light grey in part takes on a pale blue colour, rather than remaining light grey over blue. I think there is a difference. The pictures you've shown of the original aircraft seem to depict the latter. I wonder whether the paints are interacting, despite the clear gloss coat, or is it an artefact of the photography? I wonder what you see when you look at the model? Looking forward to the motor going in! chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted March 17, 2022 Author Share Posted March 17, 2022 43 minutes ago, SwissFighters said: Hi Chuck, beautiful work, as always. One thing I notice, and thought you might have an explanation, is how the light grey in part takes on a pale blue colour, rather than remaining light grey over blue. I think there is a difference. The pictures you've shown of the original aircraft seem to depict the latter. I wonder whether the paints are interacting, despite the clear gloss coat, or is it an artefact of the photography? I wonder what you see when you look at the model? Looking forward to the motor going in! Good eye sir and you are correct! By way of explanation, to get the smudged walkway and a few smudges on the sides where there is exhaust stain, I used a sponge dipped in solvent to remove some of the MRP light grey paint. That was a mistake in choice of paint, because I should have used a whitish enamel and not a lacquer, because the only thing that would remove the MRP paint was Tamiya lacquer thinner, which makes you walk a very thin line between success and disaster. With enamel paint and normal solvent, the X-22 would have protected the paint, but the lacquer thinner I used cut right through the exhaust stain, X-22 AND some of the blue paint underneath in a few places, like the area you refer to. As mentioned, this process of exhaust staining included a few cuss words, and this was definitely one of those times! The MRP Navy Blue paint I used requires 2-3 coats to get the dark color and when I repaired this area with more blue paint to cover up the light primer underneath, I only used 1 good coat which was light blue, thinking the whitish exhaust stain would cover up this sin. It didn't entirely, resulting in the light blue look, rather than what you see on the other side where I had no problems. One thing I will point out is that to the naked eye under normal lighting, it's hardly noticeable, but it's still there and if you can see it, so can everybody else, so I should try to fix it some more. Possible solutions: 1) Strip the paint in this area and re-do everything. Not going to happen. Sometimes it's better to live with our mistakes than try and fix them, which can (and likely will), make things worse. 2) Spray more MRP light grey to tone down the light blue. The fuel door is still fairly exposed, so this shouldn't be too much overkill with the staining, but the chances of getting rid of all of it is low. 3) Spray a darker grey instead, which will kill the light blue look more than light grey. There are streaks of dark grey in the exhaust stains on the real deal, but the dark blue background doesn't show them hardly at all. On a lighter colored F6F-3, however, all you see is dark grey exhaust stains and hardly any of the lighter color. 4) A combination of #2, #3 and more blue. The most obvious area is just left of the "3" on the side, which I can still make dark blue with more paint. After masking off the white number and the fuel door where I have a decal (with a light tack mask so I don't remove the decal) along with the wing root, I'll make sure to get this area dark blue again. When this dries, I'll try #2 and if it still isn't satisfactory, I'll move to #3, but in all cases, #3 has to be subtle, because I have enough staining already. Wish me luck and thanks for the input! Cheers, Chuck Landrotten Highlander, scvrobeson, Greg W and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAG Posted March 17, 2022 Share Posted March 17, 2022 What a gloriously dirty birdie, that weathering is on point, Chuck. Shame about the (barely noticeable) kerfuffle with that exhaust stain, but considering your skills I reckon that... you got this! chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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