In-flight Nightfighter Hellcat :: Eduard's F6F-5N in 1/48 scale

[Arseny]

Greetings Ladies & Gentlemen,

So after more than 10 years being out of the hobby I’m back I wasn’t able to get back my Aeroscale.co.uk account and started this new one.

In order to get my modelling mojo, I’ve started building two kits. Both in-flight. This forum thread is gonna be about building Eduard’s 1/48 scale kit of F6F-5N Hellcat (Nightfighter version). Why in-flight? Well, I think that aircrafts of all sorts are like birds - they looks more natural while in-flight. Essentially with wheels up and canopy closed. That, of course, doesn’t apply to WW1 aviation

This gonna be in-progress build of this beauty:

So, what I’ve done this far:

1. Riveted the whole airframe
2. Primed the fuselage and wings
3. Built and painted the cockpit. I will keep the detailing of this area to a minimum, because seated pilot’s figure will occupy the most space in the room.
4. Built and painted seated pilot figure

I’ll keep posting more photos in the following posts.

Cheers,
Arseny

[Arseny]

The aftermarket used:

1. Master’s barrels - “F6F Hellcat early armament (.50 cal Browning barrels with drilled cooling jackets)”
   

   

2. Quickboost’s resin engine - " Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat - Engine for Eduard"
   

3. Resin figure of seated pilot from " WW2 US Navy Pilot & Rear Gunner set" by Legend Productions
   

   

4. I’ve also bought HGW seatbelt’s set for Hellcat, but the pilot’s figure already features seatbelts and I’ll only add a small length of seatbelts going down from the pilot’s shoulders to behind the seat

[Tank_1812]

Welcome aboard Arseny.

Look forward to seeing more as it checks all my interested boxes.

[Arseny]

Here’re more in-progress pics of the pilot’s figure:

[Arseny]

The process of scratchbuilding wheel well covers

Because kit’s wheel well covers looks like this:

Basically Eduard’s kit (like all of 95% of the kits on the market) are not engineered to be built in-flight

[Arseny]

I must note myself that shadows are bit overdone. I’m still in process of making it a bit more subtle

[Dan]

Good looking pilot

[Rokket2001]

Looks great, nice start. I like the aftermarket stuff, too. Looking forward to following this. I’m working on my first tank, but have always loved the Hellcat and might have to put one on the schedule,

[Arseny]

I consider this build as my inspiration:

found here

[Rokket2001]

That site - there’s a lot of detailed analysis, especially for 1/48!

It certainly is a good build, and you are starting well.