Airfix A19004 Grumman F6-F5 Hellcat

Product Information

Further detail is added in the second picture, but we are certain that your eyes will be drawn to the third image and the unbelievable amount of work Chris has put in to what actually looks like a real de-skinned Grumman Hellcat. All decals appear to be in register and show fine detail, especially for the airframe and cockpit stencils and instruments. There is a particular step in the instructions which shows how to align the engine and bulkheads up - a really tight fit. The kit comprises more than 570 parts and manages an astounding level of detail solely with injection-molded plastic, including a full set of seat belts.

My original thought was to separate the horrid plastic pipes from the control surface wires underneath and use the control wires while making new pipes. After painting and applying the kit-supplied stencil and instrument decals, the large cockpit looked fantastic.

Here it is (along with the edges of the booth in the background), next to my 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire, which appears tiny in comparison. For most modellers, we simply have no idea how complicated this design process must be for Chris and his Airfix colleagues, when we are enjoying our latest 1/24th scale build project and the sheer number of variables they must have to consider at every stage of this design work. your execution of a weathered non-specular blue paint job is very very good, one of the best I've seen yet.

Maintaining their impressive criteria for naval aircraft design, what the Grumman engineers managed to produce was an aircraft which was ideally suited to the rigours of combat from the decks of aircraft carriers and operations over large expanses of ocean. If the oil is cool enough already as it enters the cooler the valve stays open and it bypasses the cooler ant heads straight back to the oil tank. Operated by both Naval and Army Air Force units, the Zero ruled the skies over the Pacific for almost three years of fighting and when America was dragged into the conflict following the attack on Pearl Harbor, they quickly learned that their current naval fighters were no match for this agile Japanese fighter. The clear sprue has extra padding being wrapped in tissue paper, bubble wrap and then sealed inside a plastic bag.

Weathering tends to be not only an eye of the beholder thing in my book, but also dependent on real pictures that you might be using. The fit of the wings is complicated by numerous internal ribs, many of which in retrospect are unnecessary and impede a clean fit. B.Speak, as you will see from the reference photo, it came to grief on the flight deck (take a close look at the front of the engine, pilot fine. XVI - Airfix (1/72), , Sea-Harrier-FRS1 - Airfix (1/72), Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat - Airfix (1/24), De Havilland Chipmunk T. So I tried a trick that the WWI boys use of painting in a lighter colour than the base colour then sticking thin 1mm strips of masking tape over the ribs then spraying with the base colour.

As capable a fighting machine as the Hellcat undoubtedly was, this was only part of the story as to why the aircraft had such a dramatic impact on the Pacific air war. The whole cockpit assembly went into the port half of the fuselage as sweet as a nut, then came the other side!A fighter aircraft is only doing its job when it is in the air fighting and is of little use if prone to excessive hangar maintenance time. I wish the rocket stubs had been provided separately as these were often mounted whether or not rockets were carried. To illustrate the strength of the Hellcat’s design, a late production F6F-F3 machine, which was the former mount of famous US Navy ace Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry ‘Butch’ O’Hare, was sent back to the Grumman factory for repair, having sustained significant combat damage.

Maintaining their proven design philosophy and building on the many impressive qualities of the Wildcat, the new F6F Hellcat design made use of the very best existing aviation technologies, intentionally not waiting to incorporate all the latest innovations which would delay its service introduction, but combining the best existing technology with world leading mass production quality control. Continuing the Hellcat exclusives theme of this latest blog and courtesy of Paramjit’s modelling talents, we are pleased to bring you a selection of these fantastic build images now.The Number 32 decals were going to have to be used as There was no way I could mask around all the little instruction ones near the cockpit successfully. I ended up sanding the sides of this and the rear cockpit bulkhead, but I still had a small gap that I filled with super glue. According to the paint instructions the sliding part of the canopy is a single colour slate grey and doesn't follow the airframe camouflage. At least both the designer and the modeller know that this impressive level of detail is included in the kit, which is a faithful scale representation of the real aircraft.