I'm a ship and Gundam modeler. This is only the second plane I've ever built. Being a ship modeler I like planes that are carrier bourne, and I picked up this 1/72 Eduard F6F-3 Hellcat. It's not completely finished yet, and I need to take some better photos.

Here's one of the paint scheme I used. First I primed everything gloss black, then in certain areas I put a bit of Mr Metal Color and Testors Interior Green for paint chipping. I thin did a quick glosscote. For the successive coats I used Mr Color white, Mr Color intermediate blue, and Model Masters Insignia blue (looked dark enough to me). Everything was done freehand.

and one with the decals applied with Mr Mark Setter & Mr Mark Softer.


I still have to paint the prop and add the wheels.

It's looking good so far. I like the patchy fading of the paint shceme. Now your challenge is to fade those freshly painted on decals to match the grunginess of the rest of it
Now you discover why I like to do factory-fresh models...

It may be a little late for this project but it's well worth a look. The guy is an absolutle god when it comes to fading navy aircraft. I found the method a little tricky but it's well worth the effort.

Here's the article:
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/tnt1/101-200/tnt177-tnt-weathering-Rapasi/00.shtm

And here's one of his builds:
http://www.arcair.com/Gal10/9601-9700/gal9657-PBY-Rapasi/00.shtm

Also, nice build i have been thinking og building a Hellcat for a while

Keep up the good work

Jakob

Thanks everyone. I have some ideas as to how to fade the decals, and along with what's written I think I'll be okay. I was planning on dot filtering over them with oils that somewhat match the blues I used. I have a few more planes to try out effects on.

I like it, the weathering of the decals will be the trick!! Welcome to Aeroscale. Russell

Hi Jon,

It appears that you are an experienced modeler. Good first wingy-thingy! Dot filtering should work well.

Everyone have already given you good ideas. I think that after the dots, consider glazing the entire upper surface with a diluted gray-blue (not the blue camo color, unless you mix a light gray into it) to unify all of the dotting and your present fading. That will help with the decals, too.

The ship - Arizona?

I'm 24, I've been building kits since I'm 17. Mostly ships, and Gundams so I don't have an opportunity to do stuff like this often. The ship is the WWI Imperial German dreadnought Kronprinz Wilhelm. I wanted to have it done for Mosquitocon in NJ in April, but I doubt it.

Need to get out to Michaels or AC Moore and get some blue oil paints for my weathering experiment on this one. Hopefully some time today!

Jon