Clunkmeister

The instruction book is well laid out, and generally easy to understand.

The major airframe surfaces are moulded with “oil canning” effect, which is a neat effect. It looks overdone on the sprue, but should settle right down under a coat of paint. I love this effect, and it can be fully utilized to great effect in these larger scales. Grumman fighters were notoriously well built, strong and tough and not many pictures show oil canning, so again, check your references and further research on your specific prototype is certainly warranted. One of the oft quoted quotes regarding these Grumman fighters is that upon return to the ship, mechanics would comment that there's a lot of holes where big parts of the airplane used to be.

Airfix gives us four different schemes on the decal sheet, two US Navy schemes, an FAA scheme, and one French scheme. We are also given a full stencil placement guide, although with the postwar French version one may want to check references in cas stenciling had been overpainted.

Now for some Sprue shots.... The big top opening box is nicely packages with all sixteen sprues individually bagged and sealed in the standard clear poly. Clear parts are wrapped in soft tissue and wrapped in bubble foam before being bagged and sealed. They are well packaged to prevent scratches and damage. My kit showed no shipping damage whatsoever, although I expect the sturdy box would protect the parts nicely. Pour biggest sprue consists of four parts: fuselage halves and upper wing halves. These big molding look stunning on the sprues. A dual sprue! A beautiful and complete R2800 engine one one, and landing gear on the other. Well, we have two sprues in one mounding. Armaments on one, and cockpit internals on another I hope you like building internals, there’s plenty of it here. Wing structure. More cockpit and structural components. So far, the parts are presenting clean and free of flash. A few mould marks and possible low spot are present in the stabilizers. More on this in a bit. The clear parts are definitely,.. umm, clear. On mine I see no sign of crazing, blushing, or fogging whatsoever. But like all other transparencies, a dip in Future will make them sparkle. So far, I'm really liking what I see!

Airfix 1/24 Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat This kit was announced with much fanfare at Telford, and has been eagerly anticipated ever since. With this kit, Airfix fills a huge gap in the Large Scale Model world, as a decent modern kit of the Grumman Hellcat has been missing. The 1/32 Hasegawa kit is generally accurate in shape, but is sorely lacking in detail and modern refinement. The big question was, could Airfix follow up on the home run they hit with their masterful Hawker Typhoon. i’m here to tell you that from what I’ve seen so far, the answer is a resounding YES! The history of Grumman’s F6F Hellcat fighter has been discussed and rediscussed now for decades, and launching into a detailed history of this big, tough fighter is redundant here, other than to say that the Hellcat, along with the Vought F4U Corsair helped the Allies finally gain complete air superiority over Japan’s much vaunted A6M fighters. Creative parking space. Pack ‘em and stack ‘em. Check out the bootfull of right rudder that pilot is holding in. To counteract the huge torque of that massive R2800. Without that rudder, it’d roll over and die.

Mike, we’re BOTH in a race to the finish! I’ll be cheering you on, mate!

The tape test was successful, so tomorrow, I dig into my special stash of these, and paint the fuselage underside Mwahahaaaa! I bought up every bottle I could find after MM discontinued the color

Alright, an old 109 airframe took the brunt of my test shots, and I was happy enough to give it a go on the Lanc. MMP aluminum with a light misting with MMP chrome after the fact. The aluminum over grey gives a nice High Speed Silber appearance, and the light mist of chrome gives the bare metal look. Not too shiny, but not a painted look, either. After a dull oat and a bit of weathering, it’ll look the part. I purposely tried not to make it super smooth the aircraft were pretty used in the 1960s, with all kinds of warts and bumps. This is a MAJOR milestone for me. Now I’ll give it time to set, hit it with the coffee filter and maybe a dryer sheet to knock off any fuzz, then mask and paint the rest. I hope to have some decals on her by next weekend. Then on to the wings. Block tread wheels hopefully are coming, and then we be home free.

Same as me then. 65 was a good year, eh? I’ve heard how east Berliners saw the planes leaving Berlin and bought about the “sound of freedom”.

It’s great to have you back, man. Seriously! Now build something and show us that magic, man!

You were in the East, Rob? I’ve talked in depth to Martin and to some semi distant relatives who grew up in the USSR, and I still can’t fathom being forbidden from leaving, especially when you’re told you’re free. Pugh!

Brian, Tony and I scoot d out of there for lunch at Tolbert. We lifted a few in honour of those who couldn’t be there.

So Paper Doll looks cool, but I’m drawn to the FAA bird, of course. But when I think FAA fighters, I think Martlet and clipped wing Corsair, not Hellcat so much.

Well, I just laid down the aluminum. I’ll let it dry overnight then mist it with chrome as recommended. Right now it looks like RAF high speed silver.

Hobby Bunker in Malden, Ma

Mission goes on over grey primer. NO undercoat. Im glad I fixed the little errors. It looks 50x better now.

I get the fuselage painted and decaled and I’ll be happy.

Mail order only right now, Tony. They’re odorless. I just wanted to try something different for my NM?f. Something a bit less “finicky”. Dave Crosby convinced me to try them, so we’re off and we’ll see...

Gonna mount the rear view camera next

Well OK, first attempt with Mission Models. Tried the primer.... Bloody‘ell the stuff is brilliant! And no odor! Boscombe Down can now communicate with Whitehall in relative peace and not expect reprisal.

Had to backtrack a bit last night but now we have the ugly! Now, on orders from Whitehall, we’re priming with Mission Models primer and then on with the Mission Models metal paints.

Where IS Nige? I haven't seen him here in awhile...

Very observant, Cat. It’s actually the niece’s car. My previous Ford. I took it in for for her to be serviced. She has the cleanest apartment, but if you ever wanted to use the rear seat, you’d need to bring a shovel.

Jerry, may I post this on the LSM FB Page?

This is by far my favorite Bearcat racer. Sure, Rare Bear is all dominant, but Mira Slovak in an all white Smirnoff Bearcat? Ohhh, it doesn’t get any better than this! I put Mira Slovak right up there with Janusz Żurakowski when it comes to influential Aviators that moved here after the war.