**** DONE: 1/48 F6F-3N Hellcat - Night War of WWII

[JKim]

Could be. You seem to be the exception as most pages go like mine.

You should actually rethink that John. If you or Photobucket ever move your pics or change the site name, they will be gone off of this site forever. I've had many frustrating searches on similar sites stymied when a pic that I needed was discussed but no longer available.

Perhaps but that goes for any server that hosts your information, including this site. I have reports on my fishing message board that are still viewable, pictures intact, from when I started using Photobucket (2003) to the present date. As of right now, I can't see any pictures hosted by ww2aircraft.net earlier than 2011. While I'm sure that the admin of this board will fix this particular problem, no server is safe from calamity. I've seen lots of info lost when the message board software is updated or some other error occurs.

I choose to trust Photobucket with my online photo needs and it has worked relatively well for the past 12 years or so. I've worked out the bandwidth issue that I ran into early by creating a separate modeling-only account. Hopefully, Photobucket will remain viable for the years to come. If not, I cross my fingers that other players will offer migration plans to keep the original URLs viable.

 

[JKim]

A little bit of cockpit work to report. The seat looks a little bit clunky, especially the sides so I shaved it down.

The instrument panel consists of the plastic panel piece and four "sandwich" PE sections (instrument bezels over the dials). The four IP sections were glued together using Future and then attached to the backing panel. The little PE handles and switches were glued into place using CA glue. The whole thing was given a flat coat and then the dials were touched with drops of Future.

A piece of thin brass was punched to depict the optical part of the gunsight. The reflector glass was painted and attached using Micro Krystal Klear.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Nice start.

 

[rochie]

Nice start.

It is !

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Good stuff John.

 

[Wayne Little]

Nice work!

 

[JKim]

Thanks gents! I almost forgot about the small addition to the instrument panel... the radar display. I used a little disc punched out of brass and painted bluish-green for the instrument face.

The fuselage interior has a few injector pin stubs that need to be cleaned off.

Here are the interior parts. The supplied cockpit is decent but not great. The molding detail is a bit soft. But the small canopy opening makes adding detail a low return investment and I have chosen not to add anything except a little throttle lever to one of the side panels.

The cockpit parts are painted Interior Green over a black base. This will be set aside for a bit of detail painting.

In the meantime, I can work on other stuff such as drilling out the lightening holes on the tail wheel strut.

The prop is painted gloss black and then Alclad Aluminum. I'm planning to use the hairspray method to add some paint chips to the propeller blade.

The engine is molded in four parts with separate banks of cylinders.

The engine cylinders are painted in an Alclad Dark Aluminum shade. The crankcase cover is painted grey but I think I'll make it darker.

Here is the assembled engine after painting. I will do some additional painting/weathering/detailing before the wiring harness is added.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Nice work John.

 

[Crimea_River]

Brings back memories.

 

[JKim]

Brings back memories.

You've built a couple of these right? Your Hellcat Mk I build is still missing all of the attached pictures... that would've been a good reference due to all of the detail you added.

 

[Crimea_River]

FWIW John, the only additional things I did were 1) to discard the cooling louvres and rebuild them with card and 2) widen the tires since they were too narrow - but I think you have resin wheels.

 

[Wurger]

 

[JKim]

First of all... a salute to everyone who has ever done military service... happy Veteran's Day!

Thanks for those pics Andy! I think I'm going to keep my cowling flaps closed and yes, my kit does come with wider resin wheels with the diamond tread. I'm sure there are other additions you performed on your Hellcats that have slipped your mind but the pics help... esp the flaps.

Moving on with the engine. I painted the delicate wiring harness while still on the PE fret. Several coats of brush painting help beef up the wiring and make it seem less flat.

The harness is sandwiched between the crankcase and front row of cylinders. Since the harness base isn't keyed, make sure you secure it to either the crankcase, cylinder block or both or it will rotate freely. Just to note, the crankcase and cylinder rows have been given a weathering wash of blackish pastel. And I've added a piece of piping coming out of the bottom of the crankcase.

In my experience, the Eduard wiring harnesses are perfectly designed to fit the engine. Use patience and carefully bend back one wire at a time. You'll see that each pair connects to a single cylinder head, one in the front and one in the back. The shorter pairs attach to the front row and the longer pairs to the back row. Sometimes, just bending the wire around the cylinder head is enough to secure the back wires but use a dot of CA glue if necessary. The front wires are almost pulled into place by the back wire and I hardly used any glue. When finished, you'll have an impressive scale replica of a radial engine... almost a shame to hide it behind the cowling.

I can set the engine aside for now and move on to other areas. Dry-fitting the fuselage halves and tail wheel gives me pause. Does this look right? Where does the retracting tail wheel go??? Odd to see such an obvious flaw in an otherwise superbly detailed kit!

I did some plastic surgery and cut out the tail wheel opening.

The cockpit has been painted and I can start putting the components together. The lap belts have been put onto the seat. The shoulder harnesses have been bent randomly to get rid of the that rigid PE look.

The shoulder harnesses are attached. Not completely realistic but better than ramroad straight yes?

The control stick is stuck into place.

And finally... the instrument panel is glued in. I've just got my hands on a couple of Hellcat sources and both of them show the instrument panel of the F6F-3N with a tube-like radar display and not the flat dial that I've put on. I think the Quickboost conversion has this tube so I may swap out radar displays.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far Jeff!

 

[rochie]

Great job John

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff John. Regarding other mods that I did, the dark blue Hellcat from the PTO GB was pretty much OOB. The only mod I did on that was to widen the tires. On the Mk I, you're right. When I saw your issue with the tailwheel, I went back and checked and it looks like I did detail that a bit more.

 

[ozhawk40]

Great work John