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

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

Thank you good sirs. Doing more work on the Hellcat as the weekend wraps up. The second round of puttying and sanding has been completed on the fuse seams so its given a primer coat for (hopefully) final inspection and touch-up. I've restored the rivets on the top of the engine cowling but the panel line needs to be rescribed. Note the cooler vent now being fully blended into the bottom. At this point, the engine cowling isn't glued on yet.



Checking the fit of the tail wheel assembly in the opened well. Looks ok.


Wing guns, also supplied in the Quickboost resin set, painted and ready to be installed into the wings.


The main wheel wells have been built up but not yet painted.


Here's the wheel set after painting. The treads were painted a slightly lighter shade of dark grey than the sidewalls to show tread wear but it's pretty subtle. The wheels still need to be weathered.


I couldn't find the missing torsion link so I scrounged up a replacement from the spares box (Tamiya P-47D kit). I'll drill holes into the links before I glue them on.


Here are the landing gear struts with new torsion links, brake line made of lead wire and a kit-supplied PE part.
 
Spent some time on some sub-assemblies... the external fuel tank and the main landing gear/wheel wells. But first some odds and ends. Under the magnifier, I noticed that the shortest gun barrels weren't hollowed out. I verified that the F6F-3N was armed with six machine guns and then used a micro drill bit to hollow the barrels out. These short barrels will be buried in the leading edge of the wing but the devil is in the details as they say.


The colored lights on the bottom of the fuselage were punched aluminum discs painted appropriately. I'd like to add something in the middle of each disc to represent a bulb but I'm not sure if I can find something that uniform and small.



Ok... on to the drop tank. After the halves have been glued together and vertical seam dealt with, I added the tubular brace that comes molded with a square chunk of the tank. The braces are nice and strong but leaves some awkward puttying and sanding to do.


I attacked the big gaps with Mr Dissolved Putty first.


Afterwards, I give it a couple rounds of Mr Surfacer 1000.


Once I'm satisfied with that joint, I add the thin flange around the vertical seam of the drop tank. I used stretch sprue for this, welded on in short increments using Tamiya Extra Thin cement.


The fuel tank needs a filler cap so I scrounged a PE part (I think from the Spitfire IXc) and glued it on using CA glue. But it's not very convincing and looks tacked on.


Using a drill bit a wee size bigger than the filler cap, I start a hole. It creates a shallow depression that should accommodate the cap without letting it fall through.


I like that MUCH better. I know its a small detail but I'm hoping that the accumulation of small details such as this results in a better model.


Finally, I added the PE straps to the tank. Bit of risk so early in the build and is easily susceptible to damage. I drilled a hole in the base to mount a toothpick as a holder and will keep it off to the side, hopefully out of harm's way. But... I want to address the small seam between the molded strap and PE strap.
 
The next sub-assembly, which I worked on when setting aside the drop tank for putty-dry time, was the landing gear and main wheel wells. Instead painting the parts separately and assembling after painting, I decided to glue the main landing gear legs together sans wheels and gear doors. This is pretty easy to do since you can use the wheel well attachments points as a "jig" to hold the landing gear parts in the proper orientation.


I can then pull the landing gear struts off and paint and weather the struts and wells separately. The tires/wheels have been weathered and sealed with a flat coat. I messed up on one of the hubs during weathering and took the time to strip the paint off and redo the entire painting/weathering process on the one hub to get it right.


The landing gear struts and wheel wells have been painted Tamiya White (with a touch of grey) over a base of gloss black and weathered with a dark brown wash. I'm going to differentiate the whites of the gear wells and bottom camo color to add some visual discontinuity to the bottom of the aircraft.



Here's what the struts look like with the wheels on them.



The landing gear sub-assembly, including the painted and decaled gear doors, can be put aside until they are ready to be attached.
 
Thanks guys!

Vic Balshaw said:
Pushing the boundary's again on this one John.
Click to expand...
It's funny you say that because I feel that motivation. Not saying I'm pushing the limits of the hobby itself... I'm just a weekend hack. But I feel that it is important to progress and learn and do things that you haven't tried before. So that has been a theme of this project... if it catches my eye, I'll do something about it.

It doesn't always work out. I regret trying to address those tiny seams between the PE straps and drop tank molded straps. It's difficult to eliminate a seam between to dissimilar materials, especially given the tenuous connection. One strap has already popped off after painting and the other three look messier than when I started. Looking at the picture above... oh, I should've just left well enough alone!!!
 
Continuing on with the Hellcat... the wings are glued together after the wing guns are put into place.


There's a gap between the top of the rudder and tail that needs some attention. It looks like the top edge was short shot in the mold or something.


I welded some small pieces of sheet styrene on to the rudder.


After a day for the glue to dry, I started cutting, snipping and sanding the excess plastic away.


That's better...


The exhaust pipes of the F6F-3N were elongated, presumably to serve as flame dampers.


The engine is glued into place.


I think I'll leave the cowling as a snap fit to aid in the masking/painting. The windscreen has been glued into place and the clear parts are given a coat of Interior Green.


I used white Milliput and water to fill the small gaps between the windscreen and fuselage.


The wing seams have been sanded with special care given to the spaces between the machine gun barrels. They are ready to be attached to the fuselage but I want to do something first.


The wing radome is glued into place before the wings are glued into place to make the putty work easier. The Quickboost instructions don't explain exactly where the radome is supposed to fit so I resorted to the plan view on the Owl decal instructions to get a more accurate placement. There are some gaps to fill.



Another perfect scenario for the Milliput/water treatment. If I do this right, I won't have to sand the joints at all.


I actually went to the trouble of drilling out the bottoms of the teeny weeny fuselage lights. At first, I could not hold the piece in my fingers securely enough to twist a hole using a sharp x-acto blade. I almost gave up when I thought of using the pin vise! That made it fairly easy to do... nice and secure. The holes were dabbed with green and white paint to simulate the bulb colors.


The canopy is given a coat of black over the green. This is a good time to check the Milliput seam.


Wings and horizontal stabs are ready to be put on but I'm going to wait until I make sure the radome seam is ok before I put her together.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)

Similar threads

**** FINISHED: 1/48 F6F-3N Hellcat - Night War of WWII
2
Replies
21
Views
6K
JKim
**** FINISHED: 1/48 Ju 88 G6 - Night War of WWII
Replies
11
Views
5K
at6
A
  • Sticky
**** FINISHED: 1/48 BP Defiant NF Mk.II - Night War of WWII
Replies
9
Views
4K
T Bolt
**** FINISHED: 1/48 Bristol Beaufighter VIF - Night War of WWII
Replies
15
Views
4K
Wayne Little
1/48 Mosquito B Mk. IV - Night War of WWII
Replies
16
Views
3K
Wayne Little
Menu
Log in
Register