Foreign Service GB - Hellcat - finished 6th Dec

[vespasia]

For the first time in ages, I'm joining a GB, hopefully with 2 kits, of which this is the first:



I'll be building this completely oob as a far east RN Hellcat (the lovely gloss blue scheme)



'pit tub - the decals for the instrument panel overlap, so I've trimmed them off now


fuselage together, a good fit with just a little sanding needed


Wings on, no filler


update coming soon!

Steve

[Deacon]

Great start Steve and its great to have you back in a GB.

I started the same kit a while back and messed it up as I wanted the earlier version with the windows.

Alan

[vespasia]

Thanks Alan

Here's how she's progressed...

Flaps and tailplane on, cowling left off for now for ease of spraying


canopy masked and on, I'm using some foamboard to blank off the cockpit interior for priming and painting the frame interior colour


A different technique for preshading the panel lines, using a faber-castell artists pen (indian ink) - I've found this works well on aircraft with a fairly clean finish though I still prefer airbrush shading when the finished item will be heavily weathered.




I've sprayed the wheel wells today, so first coat of gloss seablue goes on tomorrow!

Steve

[Deacon]

Looking good sir.

Now I am really interested how you will get on with the 'penned' panel lines.

I have been trying to think how you can achieve pre-shading, when brush painting a a build. Perhaps
you can't as the paint is too thick to allow the line to show through?

Alan

[vespasia]

OK, here's the progress update.

First coat of blue, using Mr Colour glossy seablue and showing the panels lines still in evidence:






but I'm not happy with that blue - it's just not blue enough!!

I also had a moment. You'll notice the canopy hood is open - when I was spraying away I suddenly realised that I hadn't painted the part of the fuselage covered by the hood

Luckily the PVA hadn't set hard and I was able to remove the hood to carry on, now using Tamiya Royal Blue as the topcoat


Engine mounted and given a gunmetal wash even though most of it will be hidden


Starting to look like a Hellcat at last


I've done the decalling tonight, now I need to finish the undercarriage and give her a spot of weathering (nothing drastic, just a bit of exhaust staining) and seal it all off with Klear. I'm hoping she'll be complete in a couple of days time


Steve

[vespasia]

She's finished!

More pics in the gallery...


Steve

[Deacon]

Well done Steve.

I like the exhaust staining. How did you do that?

I like the photos too. Whenever I take them like that the tail would be in focus but as you go down the fuselage
the image gets more and more out of focus.

Any more in the pipeline mate?

Alan

[vespasia]

Thanks Alan,

The exhaust staining is airbrushed dark grey (looks lighter against the dark blue) at a very low pressure, and well thinned which gives an "ashy" appearance. To be honest I made a cock of it on the port side (which is why I didn't take pictures of that side until I've tidied it up and next time I think I'd use Tamiya grey weathering powder instead (more controllable than my lamentable airbrush skill!)

As to the pics, I've tried with my D300 but have exactly your problem so I reverted to the coolpix P90 on auto settings and it works every time!

Next one will be an Israeli AF DC-3 from the '56 conflict, but probably won't have that done in time for the end of this GB, and then a 1/144th Grumman Albatross in ASR markings for the USAF GB

Steve