Tag: Hellcat

  • F6F-5 Hellcat: Completed Build

    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

    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…

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    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.

  • Eduard F6F-5 Hellcat (Late) In Box Review

    Eduard F6F-5 Hellcat (Late) In Box Review

    Kit Features: 16/20

    As a typical Eduard Profipack kit, Eduard has well furnished this kit. It includes quite a lot of bang for your buck, coming with two frets of photo-etched parts, resin wheels and a complete mask set for the model. The resin wheels Are greatly appreciated and are often a very useful improvement over the stock wheels. The kit includes some armament options in the form of rockets or bombs as well should the builder choose to include them. Overall the kit is well stocked compared to older releases but it should be kept in mind that you are paying for these extras in the overall higher list price of the kit.

    Quality of Molding: 24/50

    Eduard’s Hellcat offers basic panel-lining and riveting, as expected from the manufacturer. It should be stated however that the detail present in the molding does leave some to be desired. I was surprised by the lack of crispness in the molding details. looking further, the build does lack the extensive riveting found in newer tool Eduard kits. I could be wrong, but when tracing back this kit’s tooling on Scalemates.com, it indicated that this is a re-box from 2008 originally. This isn’t especially surprising to be honest, Eduard frequently re-boxes and re-releases kits but it’s not always clear when buying kits when the molding was first produced. I compared the molding on this kit to 2017’s Tamiya’s Bf-109G-6 (of which a review should be up soon) and it’s clear that the Tamiya kit’s lines superior in every way. The one aspect of the molding that goes in the Hellcat’s favour is the inclusion of the “layered” skin on the fuselage. The vertical panneling is molded so that ever so slightly the panels overlap as seen in the real fighter. All of these issues together paint a unfortunate picture and the fact that this kit is priced as if it is a new tool build while not including the level of detail found in Eduard’s new tool kits.

    Instructions: 18/20

    Eduard claws back some points in this section as their instructions have always been excellent. In colour and clearly printed they offer more than the bare necessities. Eduard instructions have always been well done and this is no exception. As a matter of personal preference, I prefer instructions in the form of a booklet (stapled together) rather than the type that just fold out (like Tamiya’s). One high point of Eduard’s instructions are the full colour profiles and the details provided about the markings. I for one like knowing the details about the aircraft I’m building and Eduard goes so much further in giving us those details than other manufacturers, they’ve clearly done their research! I love reading about the bird I’m building and the story of the person who flew it. Eduard gets a monster score in this regard, and well deserved.

    Miscellaneous: 7/10

    Included in the kit are 6 different marking options. I do like the variety of options included, however I feel that they could have gone a bit further in the width of what was offered. I don’t mean that they need to have offered even more options, however more colourful options would have been appreciated. They do offer a French variant which helps to increase the score, and the fact that late war Hellcats were pretty universally dark blue also mitigates it. They do loose points on the quality of the decals however, as Eduard has struggled to print vibrant colours on thier decals, with the reds on this sheet being a particular example.

    Total: 65/100

    Eduard’s Profipack Hellcat is in an interesting space. Nearly everything about it is excellent, save for the molding. for 62$ CAD it’s not an inexpensive build. As a lover of naval aviation subjects I’m biased but it’s an undeniable fact that the molding is disappointing. My honest recommendation? If you’re planning to build a late Hellcat either OOB or super detailed stick to the weekend edition of this kit. It’s a third cheaper and offers more flexibility for adding aftermarket parts (like a resin cockpit or engine). If you’re going to buying a kit with below average molding you may as well buy the cheap option.