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

Looking good John.

It sure is.

Looks real good John!

Thanks guys! I was wondering if you did any mods to the tail wheel Andy so your photo is helpful. I was going to use this to add some bits to the tail wheel before sticking it in place.




I have removed the molded backing plate on the stem of wheel strut(like you apparently did) so that I can attach it after the fuselage halves are put together.

Nice work John.



Geo

Lots of little things to report this morning. First, I replaced the radar display dial to the tube-like unit as shown in my references.



The F6F-3N had the front windshield of the newer F6F-5. You can see this in the picture of White 10, as the windshield's front frame goes all the way up to the top. Luckily, the Eduard kit includes both types of windscreens.


Although the clear parts are quite clear, I decided to dip them in Future to make them more clear and give them a layer of protection from glue fogging.


The engine cowling is comprised of three parts. Ideally, this should be a single part but I guess it wouldn't be an Eduard kit if it weren't for some unnecessary complications such as this. The trailing edges of the cowling are blunt and need to be thinned out.


The trailing edges are shaved with an x-acto blade and sandpaper. Here are the cowling halves after trimming and painting. I've painted the inner trailing edges black to accentuate the sharp edge. Those nasty ejector pin discs are bothersome but not visible when the engine is in place.


Instead of glueing all three pieces of the cowling at once, I've decided to glue the halves together first and take care of the seams and then attaching the front piece afterwards. I used Mr Surfacer 500 on the cowling seams.


The cockpit sidewalls have been painted and the little side windows have been added. Make sure you glue these windows in securely as they will be subjected to inadvertent finger pressure as the fuselage halves are glued together. I've elected not to add any cockpit detail since I am planning to model this one with the canopy closed.


The cockpit is glued into one of the fuselage halves and then the fuselage halves are glued together. Make sure to open up the slot on the bottom if you are planning to use the drop tank.


The cockpit opening is very small and curves away from the opening, limiting your view inside. The gun sight reflector glass, which was attached using Micro Krystal Clear, is removed at this point because of the projected puttying and sanding that I'll have to do along the fuselage seams.


The kit comes with masks for the F6F-3 so I used precut masks for the sliding canopy and a manual combination of Tamiya tape and scotch tape for the windscreen.


The fuselage seams is treated with Mr Surfacer 500 right off the bat since there is a bit of concavity along the seam line. Cleaning up the seam will time consuming due to the lapped panels... I'll be going one panel at a time.

Nice progress John

Coming along nicely. Why Scotch tape? I've found it to be a PITA to remove.

Thanks guys! Not quite done with the update... stay tuned!

Crimea_River said:

Coming along nicely. Why Scotch tape? I've found it to be a PITA to remove.

Click to expand...

Gawd I don't know Andy... I'm hopeless without those Eduard masks. Even though I KNOW that White 10 had a F6F-5 windscreen, I was VERY tempted to use the F6F-3 style just because I have the pre-cut Eduard masks for it. But I man'd up, chose the correct windscreen and tried to mask it MANUALLY. I started the first panel using thin strips of Tamiya tape. I found it difficult to use this approach on (a) curved frames and (b) clear parts treated with Future. It was hard to force the necessary bends in the tape because the pieces were so small and the tape kept slipping (presumably due to the Future). So... for the front panel and the other side, I used the Scotch tape method.

Hehehe... I had to break up the post and step away for a minute but this update ain't quite finished! The fuselage halves are together and have been touched up with putty. That assembly along with the cowling halves can be set aside to allow the Mr Surfacer to fully dry before sanding. That frees me up to knock out a few small details.

The Quickboost resin radar housing is attached to the casting block on the bulbous end. The actual connection isn't that thick and can be cut by scoring with a sharp knife but being cautious, I sawed off the casting block first to get better access to the joints.


After the casting block is fully removed, the remnants can be carefully trimmed off using a sharp knife.


Careful sanding with progressive finer grades of sandpaper net a nice smooth finish.


The wing tip landing lights are clear parts. Using a micro drill bit, I've drilled into the clear part from the interior to replicate a portruding light bulb. This depression is then filled in with either red or green paint.


This aircraft has lights all over the place! In addition to the wingtip lights, it has lights on the bottom of the fuselage, on top of the fuselage, under one wing and this one in the leading edge. A small block of clear plastic is provided. I punched out a small disc from a soda can to replicate the light. This is glued to the back of the clear piece.



Still not done...

Looking good John.

Ok... final update for today. The putty along the fuselage seams has dried enough to work around but not to sand yet. So its safe to put some filler in the gap around the intercooler(?) vent on the bottom of the fuselage. As you can see, the square piece of plastic stands out in an obvious way and needs to be faired in a little without totally removing the panel line. I'm going to use White Milliput to do this.


Using a flattened end of a toothpick, I smear little gobs of milliput into the seam. Try to force material into the gap as much as you can.


Using a small paint brush wet with water, start brushing off the excess milliput.


When most of the big excess bumps of milliput are gone, I switch from a brush to a piece of moistened paper towel. This gives me a little more control to shape the removal and helps clean off the watery slurry.


Depending on how much material you remove, you can use this method to fill in a gap with or without leaving a seam. Milliput is water-based so application and clean up is very simple. The stuff is fairly slow setting so you have lots of time to play with it (at least 30 minutes) before it starts to harden.


I will set this aside for at least day and then begin the sanding process. Sometimes it's difficult to gauge your work due to the color difference between the Milliput and the plastic so giving the area a shot of primer is a good way to check your results.


Finally... I've cobbled together some spare parts to help beef up the tail wheel assembly.

My goodness John, you're on fire with this one.

Some more work on the Hellcat done the last couple of days. I wasn't happy with the fit of the two cowling halves when I started sanding the seams. I wasn't as careful as I should've been and there was some overhang. The way the two pieces fit, this shouldn't happen so I pried them apart. Took the opportunity to get rid of those ejector pins first.



The two halves were CAREFULLY glued together again with the outside edges perfectly even on both sides. The edges were primed in black to help me align.


A few details... the exhaust pipes, as supplied by the Quickboost resin set, were painted up. Hmmm... look a bit shiny... will need to shoot them with a flat coat. Can't really tell from this picture but they are multi-color... Alclad Steel with some Alclad Exhaust Manifold and a bit of black on the tips.


The prop has been painted, chipped, glossed, decaled, glossed, lightly weathered, and coated in flat.


The fuselage seam work has begun now that the Mr Surfacer has dried. It looks worse than it actually is. The fuselage halves fit well with no gaps or overhangs. But like I mentioned before, the join area is slightly depressed along the seam line so I filled the entire length of seam, top and bottom with a thin stripe of Mr Surfacer 500. After my first sanding pass, I primed the joints with thinned Mr Surfacer 1000 and then reputtied the areas that needed it. For this step, I used Mr Dissolved Putty for the first time. One thing I don't like about the Mr Surfacer products is that they shrink as they dry so even small gaps often need multiple coats to fill. Mr Dissolved Putty does not shrink. It seems to sand very well and I'm liking this stuff so far. And yup, like the Mr Surfacer, Mr Dissolved Putty has a very strong chemical odor... best to use a mask when applying this stuff. I'm really taking my time with the fuselage seam, making sure the gaps are filled and the panel lines AND rivets are restored. Hopefully, it will net a worthwhile result.



Based on pictures of the actual Hellcat, I've decided to get rid of the panel line surrounding that cooler vent, which will take some careful shaving since its surface is not on the same level as the bottom surface. After putty is applied and set aside to dry, I work on other stuff. Here is the tail wheel with some spare parts added to replicate the retracting mechanism. This should help fill up the hole that opened up in the tail wheel well. Notice the mold seam on the strut... I thought I got rid of that! Will have to mount it and see if that seam is visible... grrrrr.


The beautiful Brassin resin wheels included in this Profipack. I really enjoy working with resin pieces... the material so easy to cut, shape and sand. The pour gates are well designed to minimize the cutting and trimming.


The wheels after they've been cleaned up and weighted. The separate wheel hubs will make painting easier.


First look at the landing gear. The molding seam needs to be removed as well as the molded brake line. A brake line made of lead wire will be added.


The struts have been cleaned up. Note that the torsion links are not molded onto the struts... they are separate pieces and VERY small. They look a bit underscale. I pinged one into the carpet monster. I'm going to do the hands and knees search tomorrow but I made need to find replacements. Might not be a bad idea since the links are so small.

great progress John.

Some nice work going on here.



Geo