Hellcat – Nomad Models

F6F-5 Hellcat: Completed Build

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!

F6F-5 Hellcat: Painting and Decals

For the past few weeks I’ve been steadily building Eduard’s 1/48 F6F-5 Hellcat as a sort of “reset” build to complete before diving into the painting stage of the Tiger project. I picked the Hellcat because I’ve always had a soft spot for U.S Navy fighters and also because I wanted to move this kit out of the stash.

Construction was straightforward although a bit disappointing. This kit is by no means a new Eduard release with the molds dating back to 2008. This is not that ancient but in the grand scheme of things it’s a far cry from the hyper detail kits the brand is releasing nowadays. If you’d like to hear more about my thoughts on this kit, I did a out of box review on it last year:

Eduard F6F-5 Hellcat (Late) In Box Review

Eduard’s Profipack Hellcat has impressive features including photo-etched parts, resin wheels, mask set, and armament options. However, its quality of molding is below-par as it lacks detail and crispness. Eduard’s excellent instructions and various marking options are commendable, albeit limited in color and vibrant prints. With a challenging price, the kit’s weekend edition provides better…

by nomadmodel October 4, 2023December 27, 2023

The chipping effects on this build required a two stage chipping process. The first stage consisted of a metallic colour underneath a custom zinc chromate mix chipped with standard hairspray chipping. This was done somewhat quickly as the results didn’t matter too much in that only a small fraction of this coat would be visible in the final model. After this coat was chipped, I hit it with a coat of hairspray and re-primed with 1500 black for the preshading coat.

The preshade/marble coat took an entire day to complete and I was very happy with how it came out in the end. I was able to get a lot of variability in the finish which I knew would be needed to show through the very dark blue final coat.

For the main coat I selected Mr. Colour 14 (Navy Blue). It’s a semi gloss paint to start and I added some GX100 gloss to increase the sheen which worked well I found. I knew that I’d be finishing this model in a gloss finish and wanted to make sure that my base coat was as smooth as possible.

I then got to work removing the masking fluid left behind as part of the weathering process and I was really happy with how this approach turned out. It was difficult at first to remove the fluid but with a plastic tool I was able to scrape it off quite efficiently. I was worried about paint peeling off in areas where the fluid was not applied but this ended up not being an issue as the main coat of Navy Blue was very durable.

After removing the masking fluid I hit the model with a coat of GX100 gloss varnish in anticipation of the decals.

Decals were out of the box, and went down somewhat well. Being from Eduard, I decided to experiment with removing the carrier film with Tamiya Enamel thinner. This went well and helped achieve an even greater painted on effect.