Grumman F6F Hellcat blog

So I just finished Airfix’s 1/72 B17 with resupply and I have the new Hellcat release ( well 2019) now on the bench. I have a separate mask set for the markings I got from Telford last year and other than that its gonna be out of the box.
A few taster pics

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Ooo! I’m on board for the ride, Pete: watching with interest :slightly_smiling_face:

Made a start already Russ

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Ditto what Russ said! This will look amazing once you finish it!

Early days yet bud. But based on the B17 build I have high Hope’s for this one and so far the parts fit great.

Pete

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From what I’ve seen on other builds of this kit, it’s important not to let paint onto the joins between parts, as the tolerances are so fine that any paint build up may affect the final fit :thinking:

Yes correct Russ. I was warned about this when I purchased the kit. I have built the cock pit up nearly completely to over come this.
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I will paint in the detail in situ

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Here it is painted with interior green.

There seems to be quite a few sink holes but they seem to be hidden once they are in place. I have filled some but some I left and you cant see them

Pete

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Looking good! Will you be planning on adding AM seatbelts?

No I have gone with the kit belts and they look not bad

Pete

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The cockpits coming together! Your right the kit belts look pretty good.

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“Holy smokes Batman, this looks big!”
This looks like fun. Will it be larger than a family size pizza box when completed?

Lol depends on whether I have the wings folded or not. :rofl:

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Yeah the detail is pretty good all round on the kit and I didnt want to go down the after market road on this one.

Pete

Here is the cockpit in the port fuselage

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Awesome looking kit. This thing is going to be huge. Watching with interest. It’s probably my favourite American plane of the war

Thanks Mead. It is an easy kit to build, you just have keep the mating surfaces clean of paint as tolerances are tight.

Pete

This sucker will be bigger than a smoked turkey drumstick from the fair. Gotta love it. You may need more than one bottle of paint.

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To be honest Pete, I’ve made masking mating surfaces standard practice at my workbench on all models of all scales.

The results are a marked improvement over my old method of scraping the paint off after painting :slight_smile::+1:

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Yeah it makes sense Russ, paint and glue is messy

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