Eduard 1:72 F6F-3 Hellcat

Eduard 1:72 F6F-3 Hellcat

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dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Wednesday 23rd September 2015
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I thought I'd build a couple of Pacific theatre aircraft to expand the collection a bit. Luckily this Eduard ProfiPack kit, along with Tamiya's new tool Zero are arguably two of the best 1:72 aircraft kits ever made, so I'm looking forward to a couple of straightforward builds.

First the Eduard F6F-3:



I guess to say I'll build it "out of the box" is true, although the box does include paint masks, and two photo-etch frets, one of which is in colour:



Plastic looks superb, with finely engraved panel lines and no flash:



Excellent instruction booklet, with full colour diagrams for 5 schemes. Decals also look great:



...all for a grand total of £10, brand new.

I'll be finishing it in the early (1943) VF-16 USS Lexington 3 tone scheme, with the red outline insignia - just because I like the look of it:



I found what I think are the correct colour codes with Vallejo paint, so hopefully it will be in the right ballpark:


dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Wednesday 23rd September 2015
quotequote all
It's not a particularly elaborate kit - only 44 plastic parts:



The design is refreshingly simple compared with some needlessly complex recent kits; wings and tailplanes simply push into sockets, which even without glue gives a rigid assembly and is self-aligning:





Doesn't look like any filler will be needed either.

Ayahuasca

27,427 posts

278 months

Wednesday 23rd September 2015
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Excellent - more vicarious model building pleasure. Go to it!

Eric Mc

121,775 posts

264 months

Thursday 24th September 2015
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I really must build an Eduard kit some time.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Thursday 24th September 2015
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Refined a few small details this evening:

Started by cutting a tab of the tailwheel so that I can add it last rather than having to fit it between the fuselage halves and mask it:



Also drilled out the pockets in the drag link fabrication:



And opened out the moulded-in exhaust stubs:



...and the exhaust bulges in the early version cowlings:



Drilled out the tiny gun barrel inserts:



As with the exhausts, it would have been better to fit brass tubes I guess, but it's meant to be OOB, so I'd class refining kit parts as acceptable.

Finally, the gunsight reflector plate is moulded solid:



So I notched it and I'll use the resulting stub to mount a shaped bit of spare transparency sprue to represent the glass (it is in the box after all so why not use it):



I'm going to wash all the parts in detergent tomorrow ready for painting. I've never really bothered with this before, but I seem to have had increasing issues with both lacquer primer and acrylic paint not sticking. Not sure whetherit's the paint, some kind of mould release agent ar just an inherent property of modern plastics.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Saturday 26th September 2015
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The engine is nicely moulded, and includes p/e ignition leads (which I annealed and bent into shape before priming) and a couple of data/manufacturer plates which are pre-coloured:



The seat base is also p/e and was attached using cyano:


dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Monday 28th September 2015
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Not much progress: The cowling comprises three parts. Pretty straightforward to put together, and only a few dots of filler needed to make perfect upper and lower joins. Surprising given how long they are:


sad61t

1,100 posts

209 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
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Hi dr_gn, what drills do you use? Thanks.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
quotequote all
sad61t said:
Hi dr_gn, what drills do you use? Thanks.
From here:

http://www.uschivdr.com/shopping-categories/shop-t...

ETA And one of these generic sets for larger sizes - the small ones in these are often very brittle:

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details...

Ta.

Edited by dr_gn on Tuesday 29th September 10:27

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Tuesday 29th September 2015
quotequote all
Preliminary detail painting done:



The annoying thing about pre-coloured photo-etch is trying to match the cockpit colour they're printed in. Both times I've used it it's been a mix of Tamiya paints, and even then it's not been spot-on.

jamieduff1981

8,022 posts

139 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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I noticed that too. I have a pre-painted Eduard set I'm using with a Great Walls 1/48 TBD Devastator. I had already painted the interior with Colourcoats US Interior Green which I know is accurate both in terms of actual colour but also looks right and still looks right when dirtied with washes but the Eduard green bits were like a day-glow colour by comparison. TBH I just painted over the green bits of brass. All the good bits of the pre-painted set were on black bits in this particular case anyway so nothing lost.

It would be better if the green they used was half-way passable though.

Norco

40 posts

118 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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Good luck with your build! Looking good so far. Got one of the 1/48 dual-combo kits in my stash. Looks very comprehensive.

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
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Norco said:
Good luck with your build! Looking good so far. Got one of the 1/48 dual-combo kits in my stash. Looks very comprehensive.
Ta very much!

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
quotequote all
Completed some detail work tonight: Cockpit is finished apart from the transparent gunsight glass which I've not made yet:









And the engine & propeller:







Also applied Bare Metal Foil to the u/c legs to represent the chromium plated sliders; paint never looks right (not that these are too visible when assembled):



Still a few small finishing touches to all of the above, mainly coating some of the balck bits with Klear to remove some of the greyness and give some variation to the rather extensive matt finish, but at least some assembly done.

Ayahuasca

27,427 posts

278 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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Superb.

Have you thought about putting say a coin or ruler in the pics to show the scale of the parts?

jamieduff1981

8,022 posts

139 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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That's looking great.

Subconsciously inspired, perhaps, I ordered the 1/48 version (albeit in weekend edition - it's easier to slip the profipack contents past Ground Control in pieces) for less than £7 from Mike Jolly the other night. Can't go wrong at that price!

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
Ayahuasca said:
Superb.

Have you thought about putting say a coin or ruler in the pics to show the scale of the parts?
Ta very much. Here is a pic for scale - it's 1:72, and pretty standard stuff TBH:


dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
jamieduff1981 said:
That's looking great.

Subconsciously inspired, perhaps, I ordered the 1/48 version (albeit in weekend edition - it's easier to slip the profipack contents past Ground Control in pieces) for less than £7 from Mike Jolly the other night. Can't go wrong at that price!
Ta! I've not built a 1:48 kit yet in this modelling era, but I'd have had a go at that for £7. I fancy the Eduard Polikarpov I-16, so if I see one at Telford I might have a go. There are some real bargains at model shows sometimes. Don't know why, but I've always had a soft spot for that type after completely screwing up the old Revell version when I was about 6 years old:



Edited by dr_gn on Wednesday 7th October 22:48

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
Fuselage and wing halves together tonight, so I thought I'd dry fit the wings and other main bits together to see how it looks. I'll probably leave the cowling loosely fitted for painting so that I don't have to mask the engine, and it will allow me to paint the exhaust stubs much more easily:





The rear glazing is formed as a separate transparent assembly that has to be masked before sparaying the camo. The masks are included in the kit:



The ventral tank has an insert for the front stays, which are extremely finely moulded. It would have been easier to add them separately, especially since there is a very slight step around the mating surfaces, but...whatever:



I was going to fit bombs, since they have very nice photo-etched fins, but the fins appear to be much too small:



(they are on the wrong end of the bomb in the image!).

dr_gn

Original Poster:

16,140 posts

183 months

Thursday 8th October 2015
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Coated the fuselage and wing joints with Mr.Surfacer just in case there were any gaps (don't think there were, but difficult to see), and filed the cut-outs for the wing-tip navigation lights. I also removed the moulded-in dorsal lamp bumps and drilled pilot holes in preparation for inserting some more realistic clear sprue, and for the VHF whip aerial. There is another hole drilled on the underside for the IFF aerial, and one on the side behind the cockpit for the radio flying lead:



I might yet snap the gun barrels off and use brass tube; as they are they make sanding the l/e joint difficult and will be a nightmare to mask.

Also snapped off the ventral tank struts by being clumsy, so I thought 'sod it' and went for my initial idea which was to drill and use brass tube. Also makes sanding the insert flush much easier:



And fitted the photo-etch mesh into the oil cooler intake: