F6 F3N HELLCAT

I'm working on a project that I don't know where it's going to take me. This photo inspired me. It is an advanced base in the Pacific where Navy operators are working to fix an F6 Hellcat badly damaged by anti-aircraft fire combined with the Japanese Zero.... 

After analyzing the plans and photos, I locate and decide which panels to "cut". First I mark them with the drill and then cut them on the inside of the mold so as not to damage the visible part. 

 

 

 

 

With thin strips of plastic I build the frame. Some horizontal crossbars don't quite convince me (they curve). I'll try to straighten them more. 

 

 

Working in the “office”. Almost everything is scratch  

 

 

 

 

Scratch sesión 

Work accident: precise cutting of a piece with a new xacto blade, the piece moves, I almost amputated my finger and on top of that the piece jumps out of the window...Total disaster! 

 

Some parts of the engine 

The work of the day 

 

detailing the propeller hub 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Designing the longitudinal members of the cockpit structure 

 

And we start the surgery on the wing 

 

 

 

 

...starting with the wing structure...and a small cut that fortunately does not bleed...ha,ha 

 

...and the finish highligths on the engine... 

 

This detail for the wing folding system already seems better to me... 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been working on the lifting tripods for the Hellcat. I have not been able to find it in the aftermarket market so with patience I have been building them with greater or lesser success... 

 

I want to simulate a Hellcat in the repair phase after a hard day of aerial artillery in the Pacific. In other words, they have left him like a sieve!...

 

You know...a little styrene, good photos and a lot of patience... 

So the ground team is rebuilding the tail rudder and flaps destroyed by the Japanese... 

 

We are moving little by little towards my final diorama idea. The F6 is in a repair shop on some base in the Pacific. He has received a lot of anti-aircraft fire on his last mission over the Japanese fleet. Many panels have been damaged and also some parts of the motoir. The ground guys have to change many parts, rivet new panels, paint parts and get the Hellcat ready for the next mission in the shortest possible time. The Japs can attack at any time 

The elevators almost finished. Some oils and weathering are missing 

The engine almost finished and in its final position on the crane. It is such a big engine that it almost hits the ground.
With scratch and all the documentation I could, I made the head of the crane and the pulley system. The chains are from an old pendant of my daughter... 

We begin the preshading phase. In principle I am only going to work this technique on the bottom part of the plane, the one that will have the White Insignia. In the upper part that has two tones of blue, I am not going to do this technique but rather I will tone the panels after applying the base paint. 

The landing gear has had a lot of scratch work to try to make it look like the real thing. It is essential to have good real photos to see what they look like. Fortunately, nowadays there is everything on the internet and it is easy to get it. The Trumpeter model gives you a good base but if you want a more or less faithful reproduction of the original you will need a lot of aftermarket or a lot of scratching. I have decided to go for the latter and try to learn from my mistakes. 

Flaps and elevators almost finished and painted in base color due to lack of oil paints, paneling and others 

 

The ammunition covers and machine guns also need to be completed to resemble real wings. A little bit of styrene and that's it 

Another of the main challenges in this project is the masks for the cockades. I have decided to experiment and have proceeded to trace the dimensions and shapes of the Trumpeter decal sheet, silhouette it with a knife, and paint with an airbrush using these templates 

I have quickly realized that I need a lot of practice and that it will not be easy to get it right, but it is about learning more and more with each project. 

 

 

 

I hope that with the paneling, lights and shadows on the panels and the rest of the weathering we can mitigate painting errors 

We continue with the Hellcat project that I had somewhat abandoned. This is the approach to the god that I want to build. 

With good documentation and a little scratch work we built the interior of the engine cover 

 

Painting and scratches of the engine cover. The order has been acrylic paint aluminum + hair spray + green interior acrylic + hair spray + hellcat camouflage with AK Real color colors.
Then with water and an old toothbrush I scratch the paint until removing the different lower layers. My idea is to show the green interior, but also the matte aluminum... 

 

 

Paneling and weathering the plane. The fun begins. On the upper part of the plane I work with oils and panelliners for the panel lines and rivets. On the lower part of the plane I work the panel lines with a 0.5 mm pencil and the rivets with oils. 

 

With great care and a little skill we will cover up the painting errors. 

 

After a coat of matt acrylic varnish, I work with watercolor pencils on the "salt effect" of the planes exposed to the marine climate of the Pacific during World War II. I also work with watercolors on the effect of the wear on the upper paint so that the yellowish primer of the Hellcat can be seen. 

A little scratch to bring the Hellcat Night Radar to life 

We have been finishing off the different parts of the diorama, finishing the weathering phase and removing the masking tapes. I am far from having done a good job but I am making progress. 

 

 

The figures are made of resin, compared to Aliexpress. It's not a great impression, but they give a sufficient result. I have painted them with an airbrush and I have noticed that the shadow/light transitions are much better than with a brush. 

 

I'm reaching a difficult stage in the project where I have to decide which elements fit into the vignette and which, for reasons of space, are left out. 

Obviously I would like to keep all the elements but I have to find a structure that has enough interesting elements (the plane, the radar, the engine, the propeller, etc.) but that at the same time is intelligible and not "noise" that confuses the viewer. 

 

 

 

At the moment I'm leaning towards this composition, what do you think? Any suggestions?

The area covered by masking tape is for the adhesive vinyl with the title of the work... 

I will "leave it to rest" for a few weeks to think about the final composition before gluing the different elements... 

 

Final photos. Two years of work that I have enjoyed very much