A few weeks ago I completed Eduard’s F6F-5 Hellcat and I’m finally getting around to post the photos and compile my thoughts about the build.
If you’re just here for the photos check them out below 👇
As for my thoughts, this build was a pretty fun, short project. I really didn’t invest a ton of money or time into this project but it was still a blast.
Weathering was fairly straightforward and basic seeing as due to the extensive pre-shade, a lot of the work was already done in creating surface variation. I started with a grey wash completed with oil paints. Washes can be tricky with dark base coats as using a dark colour can really blend in and be hard to see. With a grey colour it’s a lot easier to see the panel lines and added rivets and, in my opinion, looks more realistic.
After the wash I did some oil paint rendering, primarily on the fabric control surfaces in order to show some colour variation in the different type of material. I did some further OPR on the gun access panels in order to represent crews servicing those areas with oily hands.
I knew I wanted to pay specific attention to the exhaust staining as well. From my reference photos I could tell the Hellcats had the tendency to build up both dark and light soot if left uncleaned. I even found a photo of the specific aircraft I was building which showed a substantial buildup of exhaust gasses.
To re-create this effect I first did a pass this the airbrush painting a heavily diluted coat of a dark brown (almost black) mixture in the area I wanted the staining. I then went back over the area with a grey-white mixture, being careful to remain in the larger area covered by the black soot.
After the paint dried I then added some oil paints directly over the previous layer to further add colour variation. I added straight black over the darker areas while a light tan colour was used with the grey tones. I think the results speak for themselves:
To wrap up the build I did some light oil streaking around the cowling which almost disappears into the Navy Blue finish. I added ultra fine wire as the arial and that was it!
Enjoy the photos below!
Nomad Models 