EDUARD 1:48 F6F HELLCAT BINGE BUILD

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Thanks guys. While waiting for the yellow leading edge markings on the GB Typhoon to dry I got back to this. Before I can glue the innards into place these whacking great lugs Eduard thoughtfully included need to be removed as they will be visible through the rear quarter windows.


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Speaking of rear quarter windows, these need to be place now. I've already Future'd them twice. Still pondering how to go about this when it comes to painting the air frame. Plan "A" is to mask the clear parts first, glue it into the half, spray and then remove the mask. This runs the risk of me being clumsy and popping the window in while trying to remove the mask. Plan "2" is to glue the window in and then mask. This has the risk of popping in the window twice; placing and removing the mask. Plan "III", there is a set of panels that run slightly larger than the windows. I can paint the panels in camo colour, glue in the windows and then mask off the panel. The risk here would be a slight mismatch in paint colour which seems to happen when I brush paint over airbrushed paint and vis versa
 
I like Plan 2. If you mask then glue, you run the risk of glue getting under your mask and, believe me bro, you don't want that. Ask me how i know. I don't understand Plan 3 so didn't vote for it.
 
Plan 2 it was. Innards are installed and am now closing it up. Instrument dials were added using Airscales dial decals for U.S. Navy Aircraft. The detail on these are great but the selection is lacking a lot of dials on the actual aircraft, at least for the F6F-3. It was missing a lot of the smaller dials but in this scale I just added some duplicates to fill the gaps


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I could only find one photo of this aircraft and it was in flying formation. This leads to the following conjecture; would the wheel wells and insides of the gear covers be left in "Sky" or would they have been painted black as well? As there is no (that I could find) photo of the aircraft on the ground, I could go either way. Thoughts......?
 
This is for the all-black Hellcat Mk.I. I've been looking at more photos and the antenna on this mark could be straight up or canted forward depending on the serial number
 
From Vintage Wings of Canada, maybe this is the pic of your bird that you referred to above:



I have nothing else on this apparently black aircraft.. I could only speculate on whether the crew would have painted the gear struts, inner doors, and wheel wells black but my first pick would be to leave them in "Sky". No good reason.
 
fubar57 said:
This is from the instructions, several references given

Click to expand...

Apparently the FAA had far less stringent rules regarding individualism as something like this would never had been tolerated in the US Navy. all F6F-3s were to remain in their original tri-color paint scheme, even after the overall Glossy Sea Blue paint scheme was adopted in April 1944. This change also coincided with the introduction of the F6F-5, which is a convenient way to differentiate between the two variants.
 
Thanks for that Andy. Karl and I have been having a back and forth this morning and it looks like this is not JV 104. This aircraft never left the UK while in FAA service. There is a possibility that it could be an early F6F-5/Mk.II with a serial number JW 704. The early F6F-5s retained the small rear window. To make an early Mk.II from a late F6F-3/Mk.I I need the new windscreen which Eduard has provided and add an extra aileron trim tab to the other wing. There may be some other slight difference as well
 
Does that mean that the aircraft was the standard gloss dark blue rather than black? If so, then wheel wells, struts and inner door surfaces would be the same colour.

I have some spare parts left over from my Eduard Dual Combo so if you need anything, let me know.
 
fubar57 said:
A good possibility I'm leaning to Dk. Blue now, Andy. The black Hellcat came from the May 1980 IPMS Magazine (conversation here...Royal Navy Hellcat queries ) but I swear I saw a photo of a black Hellcat on the ground in another book
Click to expand...

Many times night fighting Hellcats have been mistakenly referred to as being painted black. I see why this can happen, as Sea Blue paint can look deceptively black in wartime photographs.

fubar57 said:
To make an early Mk.II from a late F6F-3/Mk.I I need the new windscreen which Eduard has provided and add an extra aileron trim tab to the other wing. There may be some other slight difference as well
Click to expand...

Another difference to consider is the fairing added under the center section behind the cowl on the F6F-5. I don't think this detail is often included on models of any scale. I'll have to check my 1/32 Hasagawa but I don't remember there being a fairing to add if building a -5 variant.



Source: Difference between a late F6F-3 and F6F-5 cowling
 
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