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World War II
Discuss WWII and the era directly before and after the war from 1935-1949.
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1/48 scale Eduard Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat
Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
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New York, United States
Joined: December 04, 2010
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Posted: Sunday, December 31, 2017 - 12:14 AM UTC
I haven't had a whole of time for modeling these past few weeks, but I've still managed to trudge along little by little towards that elusive finish line.

Up next on my list is the main landing gear, which has the scissor links in two separate pcs. Not sure why they this was necessary as the more complex strut itself is one piece. I cleaned up the parts and glued the well door to the strut prior to painting. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take the before pictures, so here's the strut assemblies already primed with Mig Ammo Flat Black acrylic primer.



And the Brassin wheels with the outer hub dry fitted



As well as the prop



Next was painting them with Mig-047 Satin White, their color for FS37875 thinned 2 to 3 with Tamiya Yellow Cap Lacquer thinner.



the prop tips were painted Mig-048 yellow, the Hub Testors Steel, and the hub cap Mig-228 ANA 608 FS35164 Intermediate Blue



All the decals were given two coats of Tamiya X-22 gloss so that the weathering process can finally start.

Happy Holidays to all of my friends on Aeroscale, and may each of you have a fantastic New Years.

Joel
goodn8
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Berlin, Germany
Joined: October 12, 2008
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Posted: Sunday, December 31, 2017 - 12:57 AM UTC

Quoted Text

...
Happy Holidays to all of my friends on Aeroscale, and may each of you have a fantastic New Years.

Joel


Ditto! And same to you combined with a lot of health, Joel !
Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
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New York, United States
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Posted: Sunday, December 31, 2017 - 01:07 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

...
Happy Holidays to all of my friends on Aeroscale, and may each of you have a fantastic New Years.

Joel


Ditto! And same to you combined with a lot of health, Joel !


Thomas,
Thank you so much for the well wishes. health just has to be better this year.

Joel
rdt1953
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New Jersey, United States
Joined: February 06, 2015
KitMaker: 1,098 posts
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Posted: Sunday, December 31, 2017 - 01:28 AM UTC
Joel - Nice to see you progress and all looks good - just as we all have come to expect from Leroy Grumman's secret twin !
Holiday hubbub slows down the bench time but now we face the long stretch after New Years Day - All the best to you and yours for 2018 !
Richard
Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
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New York, United States
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Posted: Sunday, December 31, 2017 - 01:49 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Joel - Nice to see you progress and all looks good - just as we all have come to expect from Leroy Grumman's secret twin !
Holiday hubbub slows down the bench time but now we face the long stretch after New Years Day - All the best to you and yours for 2018 !
Richard


Richard,
The same to you and your family. And stay warm in these sub artic conditions.

Joel
thegirl
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Alberta, Canada
Joined: January 19, 2008
KitMaker: 6,743 posts
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Posted: Sunday, December 31, 2017 - 03:10 AM UTC
Hey Joel , nice to see some progress coming from the bench once more .


Happy New Year


Terri
Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
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New York, United States
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Posted: Sunday, December 31, 2017 - 03:34 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Hey Joel , nice to see some progress coming from the bench once more .


Happy New Year


Terri


Terri,
Now ain't that the truth. And a happy New Years' to you and your family.

Joel
greif8
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Bayern, Germany
Joined: January 17, 2006
KitMaker: 673 posts
AeroScale: 492 posts
Posted: Sunday, December 31, 2017 - 02:33 PM UTC
Hi Joel, I hope you had a nice holidays and your progress is looking good on the build. I am currently building a 1/32 Hasegawa Fw190 A5, and I'm using the "black basing" technique on the build as well. I am also trying out the Mission Models paints and I have to say they airbrush very well indeed. One disadvantage to them, at least for me, is it is very difficult to bring off the "hair spray" technique to simulate chipping - a technical challenge when black basing as it is. Anyway, I wish you great fun with the remainder of your build and I will be following along.

Ernest
Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
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New York, United States
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Posted: Monday, January 01, 2018 - 12:46 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Hi Joel, I hope you had a nice holidays and your progress is looking good on the build. I am currently building a 1/32 Hasegawa Fw190 A5, and I'm using the "black basing" technique on the build as well. I am also trying out the Mission Models paints and I have to say they airbrush very well indeed. One disadvantage to them, at least for me, is it is very difficult to bring off the "hair spray" technique to simulate chipping - a technical challenge when black basing as it is. Anyway, I wish you great fun with the remainder of your build and I will be following along.

Ernest


Ernest,
Thank you for the holiday wishes. So far so good. And may you and your family enjoy the holidays as well. Hoping that 2018 will be a great year for all of you.

Sounds like you're pushing your painting bar to new heights. Black basing should make a real positive difference for German camo schemes. I've never used the hair spray method nor even the salt method, but I'm slowly finding a need for them, especially the salt method.

I've sworn off testing out one new brand of paint after another as I'm pretty happy with my current group of brands, where each fills a certain painting nitch for me.

I'm looking forward to seeing your FW190 build sooner then later.

joel
BlackWidow
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European Union
Joined: August 09, 2009
KitMaker: 1,732 posts
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Posted: Monday, January 01, 2018 - 01:20 AM UTC
Joel, your Hellcat is coming along really well now that the engine is done. Looking forward to see it finished.
And also from me a happy new year to you and your family with my best wishes for your health. Wish I could show you the fantastic fire works we had here in Helsinki last night which was special because of 100 years independence of Finland.

Torsten
Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
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New York, United States
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Posted: Monday, January 01, 2018 - 02:35 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Joel, your Hellcat is coming along really well now that the engine is done. Looking forward to see it finished.
And also from me a happy new year to you and your family with my best wishes for your health. Wish I could show you the fantastic fire works we had here in Helsinki last night which was special because of 100 years independence of Finland.

Torsten


Torsten,
Thank you my friend for those most kind words and well wishes. May 2018 be a healthy, happy, and prosperous year for you and your family.

joel
magnusf
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Stockholm, Sweden
Joined: May 02, 2006
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Posted: Monday, January 01, 2018 - 11:41 AM UTC
Joel! That's a set of sharp-looking wheels and landing gear! You should be quite close to final assembly now. And I feel that I really need one of the 1/72 Eduard Hellcats, most probably an FAA-version !



Magnus
Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
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New York, United States
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Posted: Monday, January 01, 2018 - 07:57 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Joel! That's a set of sharp-looking wheels and landing gear! You should be quite close to final assembly now. And I feel that I really need one of the 1/72 Eduard Hellcats, most probably an FAA-version !



Magnus


Magnus,
Thanks so much for stopping by and the thumbs up on my progress.

Yep, I'm finally getting closer to the finish line as this build is taking an extremely long time. I always put the starting date on the top of the instructions, and this build started: Sept. 23, 2017. Maybe having a lot less time at the bench the last few months or so has a lot to do with it.

I started the weathering process, and have a few steps left to go. Then it's all about the final details of antennas & antenna wires, lenses and a few misc. pcs.

Joel
Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
AUTOMODELER
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New York, United States
Joined: December 04, 2010
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Posted: Thursday, January 04, 2018 - 09:19 PM UTC
Getting closer to the finish line.

All the major work has been completed with the installation of the centerline gas tank, and getting those strip plastic straps to actually touch and stay in one place while the Extra Thin dried.

I still wasn't real happy with the bright tonal quality of both Blues, so I made an overall filter of 12 parts X20-A to 1 drop of Mig FS36622 Gray and over sprayed the top and sides. When dry I used Testors tried and True Dullcoat cut 1:1 with Tamiya Yellow cap to seal everything. Once dry, I was finally able to remove all the masking and see what my Cat looks like. I popped on the prop and the canopy.







I'm pretty happy how the random fading of the wings are greater then that of the fuselage, yet it also had evidence of the paint fading.

There's still plenty to do:
1-The exhaust streaking needs to be more pronounced
2-the wheels need the spaces between the spokes to be a lot darker, as you see the brake hub which I'm pretty sure isn't even painted white.
3- All the lights and lenses
4-finish the pitot tube painting
5-the Antenna wires
6-weather the prop

So I'm thinking by Sunday night I should have the final build pictures up.

Joel

greif8
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Bayern, Germany
Joined: January 17, 2006
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Posted: Friday, January 05, 2018 - 04:03 PM UTC
Wow Joel, that is one nice looking Hellcat! You got the tri-color scheme spot on. You also did a first class job with the black basing technique, it looks great. I was way too conservative using the technique for the first time using black basing and the effect is much too subtle on my Würger. I will airbrush the flat coat on it today and than do some lightening effects on the paint job. We shall se how that goes, doubtful I will get to look as good as your paint job though! On the plus, the pilot figure turned out well, ha, ha!

Ernest
magnusf
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Stockholm, Sweden
Joined: May 02, 2006
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Posted: Friday, January 05, 2018 - 06:06 PM UTC
Looking fine Joel! I'm also fond of doing a checklist when I'm nearing the end of a project, both to keep myself motivated and also of course to avoid forgetting something.



Magnus
goodn8
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Berlin, Germany
Joined: October 12, 2008
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Posted: Friday, January 05, 2018 - 07:43 PM UTC
Beautiful straight up build and the color filtering is really matching. This cat looks like ready to jump ...

Thomas
KelticKnot
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Scotland, United Kingdom
Joined: May 11, 2015
KitMaker: 768 posts
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Posted: Friday, January 05, 2018 - 09:23 PM UTC
Gotta agree with everyone, she looks fantastic and I can't wait to see the 'money shots' !
I think you've nailed the colour modulation effect, it looks very natural indeed.
chrispap
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Thessaloniki, Greece / Ελλάδα
Joined: August 30, 2016
KitMaker: 62 posts
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Posted: Friday, January 05, 2018 - 09:56 PM UTC
Beautiful build.Top notch paint job.The weathering is superb and not overdone.Cheers my friend! Christos.
Kevlar06
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Washington, United States
Joined: March 15, 2009
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Posted: Friday, January 05, 2018 - 10:36 PM UTC
Joel,
Excellent work- that's one great looking Hellcat, I especially like the fading and weathering, and it reminds me of color Hellcat photos I've seen in the book "Carrier Air War". Nice job.
VR, Russ
Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
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New York, United States
Joined: December 04, 2010
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Posted: Friday, January 05, 2018 - 11:38 PM UTC
A big thank you to Ernest, Magnus, Thomas, Paul, Christos, & Russ for your most positive comments. All of them mean a great deal to me.

And Magnus, Lists are about the only way I can actually keep track of what still needs to be done or redone. And I still find things that I've left off the list.

Joel
thegirl
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Alberta, Canada
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Posted: Monday, January 08, 2018 - 05:38 AM UTC
Really looking forward on the final pic's Joel .




Terri
Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
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New York, United States
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Posted: Monday, January 08, 2018 - 09:12 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Really looking forward on the final pic's Joel .


Terri


Terri,
Me too. But the Still to do list never seems to get any shorter.

Joel
Joel_W
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
AUTOMODELER
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New York, United States
Joined: December 04, 2010
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Posted: Friday, January 12, 2018 - 03:40 AM UTC
Finally, after 3 1/2 months my F6F-3 has crossed the finish line and is in the books. By no means is it a perfect build, but I did the best I could, and I'm more then satisfied with the final results.

Since the last set of pictures, I needed to correct the tire tread wear as there just wasn't any. I used a dark gray chalk to simulate that wear, but no dirt nor grime was added, as those elements just didn't exist on a carrier. I added some exhaust smoke from only the top exhausts but none for the bottom two, so I had to add it after the photo session, so I took a few more pictures to show those additions.

One big issue I had was the rudder mast as it just kept on breaking off. If I looked at it to long it snapped right off. I tried Tamiya Extra thin, Model Masters Liquid cement, CCA thin and CCA Gel, & 5 min epoxy, but nothing worked. I did manage to get the antenna on, but the next day the mask had popped off once again. So I had to suck it up, and drill a pilot hole with a #80 drill into a not so wide base. Then I enlarged the opening with the next larger size drill bit. I cut a piece of brass wire and CCA glued it in the hole. Gave it a good 15 min to dry then glued it to the fuselage. 15 min later it was rock solid. I remade the antenna from stretch sprue.

At this point I stepped back, took a look, and decided that we've crossed the finish line. Now it's ready for entry into the IPMS Noreastcon and IPMS region 2 Mosquitocon, both this coming April.

Thanks to all that have stayed the course, it's much appreciated.

Joel






































rochaped
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Lisboa, Portugal
Joined: August 27, 2010
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Posted: Friday, January 12, 2018 - 04:01 AM UTC
Nice work Joel, thumbs up! You made a superb Hellcat that’s a fact.
Still have the Hasegawa model on the pending pile, perhaps late this year I’ll give it a try...first comes the Jug for a upcoming campaign.

Cheers
Pedro
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