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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

Hellcat F6F-5 Fleet Air Arm


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Hi this will be my build of the airfix kit mostly out of the box but a few differences. Firstly it'll be Fleet Air Arm, that means a q type harness. Luckily HGW make one which is the Sutton q that will fit the bill nicely secondly colour schemes I'm good friends with Sean at top notch masks so I suggested some fleet air arm schemes and he came up with this lot one of which is a kit scheme 

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I'll be going for the last scheme in glossy sea blue. 

The ejector pin marks need some work but the photos below show the starting of where I am 

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8 minutes ago, TJTX said:

Well dang, now after seeing those color schemes I want one of these.  Hello Christmas present. 

Tony, there's one at Hobbytown Plano with a very decent price on it.

It's a big, imposing kit with plenty of options.  This makes 1/24 Airfix #4 for me: Both Tiffies, the Mossie, and now the Hellcat. And I'm a 1/32 modeler!

But I like the "new" Airfix.   Some incredible detail right OOB, but not so "shake the box" that you don't need to work at it.

 

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34 minutes ago, TJTX said:

Well dang, now after seeing those color schemes I want one of these.  Hello Christmas present. 

Looking at your picture, Tony, and you've got to be the only guy I know who can do a visual inspection of the upper surface of a Cub's wing, FROM THE LEADING EDGE.

Personally, I always needed to stand on the wheel, or better yet, get a stepladder

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Hey Grunhertz

  Don't forget to check out my post #2 on how to build that big P&W R-2800-10W that comes in this kit. You can find out what colors to use for painting it because Airfix got it wrong. Also some custom detailing options. Post #1 explains what all the different parts of the P&W R-2800-10W are and I coordinated it with the kit parts. It seems like this kit is selling pretty good I see builds everywhere.

Ron G 

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On 7/5/2019 at 8:59 PM, Grunhertz said:

I'm good friends with Sean at top notch masks so I suggested some fleet air arm schemes and he came up with this lot one of which is a kit scheme 

 

can you share the reference photos you used for these planes?

 

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So I made progress over the weekend and the fuselage is closed up with the fabric belts in place and no rear bulkhead or radios in place. Why? Because they interfered with the fit so much I got fed up with arguing with it particularly as it would only be seen through a little Hatch in the floor. The radio trays were so far too big that they bent when I tried to close the fuselage up.

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And with me wanting to make progress I moved on swiftly. The fit is pretty good on the rest of the parts however. 

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I then moved onto the box section under the fuselage and this will hold the undercarriage in place as well as the wing folds

 

(still not made my mind up on this as it's huge )

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it looks seriously detailed and is not boxed in which is correct. The fit here is brilliant and goes together flawlessly if you read the instructions properly. There are aftermarket fuel tanks that can go in here if you want to buy them but I think I will leave it as they can't be seen anyway.

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I then put a coat of glossy sea blue over it all as per Grumman's instructions.

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Oh and my masks for the insignia have arrived so I now have every thing in place to carry on with the build. 

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