Eduard 1/48 Hellcat Mk I

Post by **Garion77** » Fri Mar 19, 2021 6:37 pm

well I thought more work was left on the engine when I posted earlier. It is now finished. Hope everyone likes it. Feel free to comment. Positive or not.
Went a bit to heavy on the aluminum paint.

by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

When I do an another resin radial engine in the future I will for sure approach it differently. May approach one cylinder at a time. Anyways please comment, positive or not. I know have to make a decision for the riveting !!

Post by **digger303** » Fri Mar 19, 2021 10:09 pm

Post by **RangerNeil** » Sat Mar 20, 2021 12:31 am

Excellent job - whatever issues you had with the engine it's turned out most realistic. Well done!!

Post by **BigWall** » Sat Mar 20, 2021 2:18 am

Very nice. It's a shame how planes hide their main areas of detail (the engine and cockpit) You've done excellent work on both!

Post by **Kevthemodeller** » Sat Mar 20, 2021 8:27 am

Super looking radial

Post by **Stokesy44** » Sat Mar 20, 2021 9:50 am

Beautiful engine work

Post by **Garion77** » Sat Mar 20, 2021 11:54 am

BigWall wrote: Sat Mar 20, 2021 2:18 am Very nice. It's a shame how planes hide their main areas of detail (the engine and cockpit) You've done excellent work on both!

You are so right ! that's why, since I started detailing more, I always try to see what is going to show for the cockpit. In this case there's not much showing. As for the engine on this current project, well it's going to show because I'm going to open the engine cowl.

Post by **Garion77** » Sat Mar 20, 2021 11:55 am

thanks too all for the comment ! I didn't think it was that good. Mostly the pictures ! I don't know why but I have real problems taking good picture with my iPhone.

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Sat Mar 20, 2021 5:50 pm

Fabulous engine details
I love the copper lines, really stand out
You weathered everything perfectly
Excellent modelling

Post by **Garion77** » Sun Mar 21, 2021 5:56 pm

well.... after 4 hours and half of work

I finished riveting the top wing.... love the result !!!! hope the rest takes me less time because now I don't have a choice to go trough to the end !! Only one top wing, 2 bottom wings and fuselage to go

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Time to head outside ! spring is finally here and only a few days before I finally see my lawn !

Post by **digger303** » Sun Mar 21, 2021 11:09 pm

Garion77 wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 5:56 pm well.... after 4 hours and half of work I finished riveting the top wing.... love the result !!!! hope the rest takes me less time because now I don't have a choice to go trough to the end !! Only one top wing, 2 bottom wings and fuselage to go

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Time to head outside ! spring is finally here and only a few days before I finally see my lawn !

That is a beautiful piece of work....

Which riveting tool did you use and what did you use to guide it. I'll be devastated if you did it free hand and lose all hope for myself.

Post by **Garion77** » Sun Mar 21, 2021 11:17 pm

digger303 wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 11:09 pm
Garion77 wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 5:56 pm well.... after 4 hours and half of work I finished riveting the top wing.... love the result !!!! hope the rest takes me less time because now I don't have a choice to go trough to the end !! Only one top wing, 2 bottom wings and fuselage to go

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Time to head outside ! spring is finally here and only a few days before I finally see my lawn !
That is a beautiful piece of work....
Which riveting tool did you use and what did you use to guide it. I'll be devastated if you did it free hand and lose all hope for myself.

Thank you !
I use the RB riveting tools. Love it. I have a few wheels of different sizes. Easy to use and just connect it to an xacto handle. I would love to try one day the Rosie one we see a lot in youtube but too expensive for me even before shipping is added ! as for the reference I just typed hellcat blue print in goggle and printed it. I found it on this site : https://scale-model-aircraft.com/plans- ... 6f-hellcat
A lot of other airplanes in it. Added a few panel lines and cheated a bit because of other moulded already in the kit.

Post by **Garion77** » Thu Mar 25, 2021 9:01 pm

Small update as not much been going on...still riveting !

All wings on all sides are finish. It took me may be an additional 5 to 6 hours to the other wings, which is much more faster then it took me for the first one. I closed the wings after installing my Master gun barrels.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

You can also see the riveting pretty good in the picture. I think it came out really good !! Let's hope I don't scrap everything with the paint job ! What's funny is that it's the last wing that gave me the most trouble. I'll try riveting the fuselage before the end of the weekend, if I find time through all the painting I have to do in the house.

Post by **Stokesy44** » Thu Mar 25, 2021 10:08 pm

Beautiful work

Post by **BigWall** » Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:53 pm

That looks like a whole lot of work but it came out very nicely.

Post by **Garion77** » Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:23 am

BigWall wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:53 pm That looks like a whole lot of work but it came out very nicely.

it was ! but it was worth it ! at least for now. Don't know how much it's still going to show after the priming and different layers of paint... didn't have time to start the fuselage yet. Realize I still had to care of the seams.

Post by **Garion77** » Sat Apr 03, 2021 9:14 pm

Hello everyone
it's been a while since I did a real update on my building thread. Been caught up with work on my house. And I finally don't have snow left on my lawn since the day before yesterday so it's nice to be outside. So the update is really small. Just wanted to say, and show, that the riveting on the fuselage is finish. It was easier than I thought it would be. But a problem with the fit of the fuselage halves. I had to repair it a bit more than what I had already did
Happy Easter to everyone and stay safe.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Post by **BigWall** » Sat Apr 03, 2021 10:25 pm

Nice! It looks great.

Post by **digger303** » Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:15 am

love the riveting it turned out well.

Post by **DRUMS01** » Sun Apr 04, 2021 4:59 pm

Nice job so far, looking really good....

DRUMS01

Post by **Garion77** » Wed Apr 14, 2021 12:36 am

Hello everyone,
haven't made an update in a while... I think for a week and half. Didn't spent much time on it with the spring finally here and the work that needs to be done outside and inside the house. And I stumble in a few fit issues too. The main one being the wheels. I had many rounds of filler/primer and sanding for the joints.

I first wanted to put the landing gear struts on the plane for the painting phase. I bought a set of Quickboost landing gears doors and PE and had trouble figuring out what would replace the kit's parts. And since I want to add more details on them with brake lines I left it for some other time when I have less to do around the house.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Other parts I had problem was at the junction of the wings. Thought I made a good job at the beginning but finally not ! So that being said, it's easy to understand that the assembly of the main body and wings is finished and ready to be prime.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
I will put this time as a primer Mr. Surfacer 1500 with leveling thinner. I never use this product for priming because of the smell and fumes but decided to go ahead with it because of my riveting. I think it will show better with this primer than Ultimate or Tamiya (smells even worse and makes even more fumes !!) So, let's hope I haven't put all those hours in riveting for nothing and it still Shows afterward.

I also added the straps and sway bars to the reservoir. Looks pretty nice. Put some putty at the junction of my straps and the ones on the reservoir.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So I should be able to show you the primed airplane tomorrow

Post by **Donkeywalloper** » Wed Apr 14, 2021 10:01 am

Awesome work.
DW

Post by **digger303** » Wed Apr 14, 2021 10:35 am

Look forward to seeing how the primer goes. 1500 will show all the details and flaws it doesn't fill scratches at all so you shouldn't have to worry about all your lovely rivets being lost.

Post by **Garion77** » Wed Apr 14, 2021 10:57 am

digger303 wrote: Wed Apr 14, 2021 10:35 am Look forward to seeing how the primer goes. 1500 will show all the details and flaws it doesn't fill scratches at all so you shouldn't have to worry about all your lovely rivets being lost.

thank you ! hope everything is going well on your side. I read yesterday that your in one of the region that was it and had some damage. Keep safe.

Post by **Garion77** » Wed Apr 14, 2021 7:05 pm

Priming done !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Riveting, for the most part, still shows pretty well

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And, as Digger mentioned, the bad filling shows well with that kind of primer.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And, even though I cleaned my work area before, but forgot to clean my model !!!!! there's a bit of dirt trap in my primer. I still have 3 cats here even after the passing of my dog not long ago. And did a bit of renovating in the work area recently. So, since I found the surface to be rough, I'll sand all those littles problems. Hope to start the painting process this weekend.

Post by **BigWall** » Thu Apr 15, 2021 1:27 am

It looks great! I look forward to seeing it painted.

Post by **digger303** » Thu Apr 15, 2021 4:56 am

Post by **Stokesy44** » Thu Apr 15, 2021 8:21 am

Looking really good. The detail is showing through nicely.

Great pictures, they really show the brutal efficiency of the design by Grumman for a carrier borne fighter.

Post by **Garion77** » Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:40 am

hello eveyone ! hope the weekend is good so far for all. So I thought I would be able to start the painting process this weekend..... still going to have to wait

I found I still had some flaws showing through the primer. And the main one being on top of the fuselage in front of the canopy.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I don't know on how many stages of sanding, filling and priming I done on it but still is ugly as hell !!!! The last round (not the picture) seems to be getting me closer. Also found a mistake on my part being that my humbrol maskol on one the navigation light had gone off before my priming.

So again more work before the painting stage !!!

While waiting for all of the above, I decided to tackle the landing gears and struts with the Quickboost aftermarket I had shown. While removing the resin part, I discovered that they were quite fragile !!

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
I was able to fix it with quick setting CA glue and cut it the next day.
The same thing happened while cleaning all the flash on the landing gear strut

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
There was a lot of it on them !! And cleaned what was Eduard's representation of the brake line... or some other cable. Because I'm aiming at the recreating the following :

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And the process as started as follows:
1- I glued first the attachment on the landing covers

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

2- With a Cooper wire (would have preferred a lead one but didn't have any of the right size at hand), I pass it trough the holes of the attachments

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

3-If you remember the picture of the real thing, there's a kind of attachment that the Cable goes trough. So I stretched a cotton bud and pass the cable through it

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
A second one was pass too as seen on the real thing

4- sneak peak of what it will look like

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Only left to glue the strut in place and align the cable the right way. But before doing that I will prime and paint Both separately. I do the doors with an extra length of wire and struts separate. And then glue them together.

Feel free to comment, critic or suggest any thing on the ongoing part.
Thank you

Post by **BigWall** » Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:43 am

Nice details on the landing gear! Sorry about all of the frustrations.

Post by **digger303** » Sun Apr 18, 2021 1:35 am

Fragile bits breaking off is bit of a nightmare, but you seem to be taking it in your stride and making good progress.

Post by **Garion77** » Wed Apr 28, 2021 11:00 pm

Hello everyone !
Almost 2 weeks since my last update. I've been quite busy with work and house. And, as I had said in an older post, I had an ugly seem on top of the fuselage. Finally got it !
So, since I had tonight's evening alone with no girlfriend or kids at home, and a rainy weekend ahead, I was going to start my paint job.
As with almost everyone does, I was starting with the underside with sky grey. the callout on the instructions says sky from Mr. Hobby which looks duck egg green or the regular greenish sky. I'll come back on the subject of colors in a future post, but when researching the plane colors I stumble on something saying that almost all FAA planes made by the USA, the underside was in fact sky grey.
But the goal in my post for tonight isn't at all the colors... I planned a kind of mottling/preshading for the all plane. So I started slowly but then disaster struck !!!!!!!

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

The joint of both fuselage halves open on me !!!!!!! I tried putting more Tamiya thin cement but it does nothing. There's already primer on it. Any suggestion please help !!!

Post by **Garion77** » Sun May 23, 2021 4:16 pm

Hello everyone and happy long weekend to my fellow Canadians !
Almost a month since my last update ! Since my last post I fixed the joint that opened on me. Took me quite a while and had to redo a bit of of scribing and riveting.
But the heavy work started for me outside the house. Has I posted in the weekend goals subject I had to sand and stain around 955 square feet of wood decking in my backyard

So after 6 hours of cleaning, 28 hours of sanding and 18 hours of staining the work was finished !!!
So know that I have a bit more time on my hand I got back to my build. And I'm now at the painting stage ! Which is not my strong point. For my subject, I decided I would go with this scheme :

Hellcat mk I by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And has I said in my last post, I would get back on the colors subject. I know it can become quite a passionate debate for those who want the exact match of the colors used on the original subject. I'm not like that. I tend to go with the closest match with what I have at hand or what I can get my hand easily on. Because where I am, there's not much choice in paint except for Vallejo and Tamiya. So, since I hate mixing paint I have a lot of Vallejo. But I hate them ! They seem to never react the same way when thinning them and aren't tough enough to my taste and don't spray to a smooth finish most of the time. I know have easy acess to AK Real Colors, which I love, but only have a few bottles for now ; as I don't want to throw away what I already have.

As for my chosen scheme, as I said in my last post, I will go with sky grey. I stumble on some research while looking for the equivalent for the olive drab on top, that mentioned that most British planes made by the US were in fact sky grey. And the rest of the research stated that Gruman used their own match for Dark slate grey (and not olive drab) and extra dark sea grey. I was quite happy with that find because I already had those colors ! And they look good to me and look as the colors pictures I could find from the actual subject.

So as I said, painting with an airbrush is not my strong point. I have a lot to improve still. And I decided I would attempt a technique I saw, for the same plane, on MM Scale models youtube channel, called inter shading. It seems to help make the riveting, I worked so hard for, pop out a bit more. I started by applying my sky grey on all of the bottom. then on the rivet I went with the same color with quite a bit of white ; and quite a bit of a really dark grey on the panels line. After that went back with the original color on everything. Here's the result :

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Let me know what you think ! for me it looks good but as I feared my riveting disappeared quite a bit
Thanks for reading all the way down to a really long post !!

Post by **digger303** » Mon May 24, 2021 12:43 am

I'm armor so my technical opinion is suspect, but here goes.

I think the riveting is ok. Sure it has been toned down a little with the application of paint, but that's normal. Applying the pre shade with a paint brush might have induced some sharp lines in places and made it harder to blend it in to the base coat. Applying more paint will fill those rivets and that would be a shame as that was some marvelous detailing.

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Mon May 24, 2021 2:34 am

I think it looks great and love the colour scheme you chose
The preshade/marbling effect varies the grey base just perfectly

Post by **Garion77** » Mon May 31, 2021 9:32 pm

Hello again !
Painting process continued, this time on the upper side. I decided to start with the dark slate grey (olive drab in the instructions). I masked everything first because I'm trying to preserve my riveting.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Also, I decided to leave a bit of dark slate grey for later because when looking at the instructions, it seems like it was painted over the dark sea grey and the invasion stripe :

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I'm using the same technique as for the underside : base color mottling ; preshading on the riveting with lighter color ; preshading with darker color on the panels lines.
But this time I'm adding a twist as I'm trying my new mottling stencil I got. I used 2 different stencils ; one with dark slate grey and the other one with light slate grey

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
I took some getting use too to get it good... still need some practice with them before deciding if I'm going to use them more.
After the mottling I went with the preshading and an overall coat. Here's how it went. Let me know what you think

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

GO HABS GO !

Post by **BigWall** » Tue Jun 01, 2021 1:01 am

Excellent! The mottling came out very nice!

Post by **digger303** » Tue Jun 01, 2021 5:37 am

Very good result , very effective I like it a lot.

Post by **Garion77** » Sun Jun 06, 2021 1:36 pm

Hello everyone,

painting process continued with extra dark sea gray. As I said before, I'm really in need of improving my airbrush technics and I hate Vallejo paints. I used the same technique as for the dark slate grey but wasn't able to achieve the same result by far, even if the result is ok. Had all sort of problem with the paint while preshading with dark on the panel lines and when finishing the last coat. so all my mottling/preshading kind ifs disappeared. The riveting is still showing but not popping out as I wanted with the lighter preshading.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sorry for the bad picture quality also... What ever I tried they came out darker. Feel free to comment or critics. Next up will be the painting of the roundels (a first for me) and the invasion stripes (also a first).

GO HABS GO
Francis

Post by **digger303** » Sun Jun 06, 2021 2:55 pm

no criticism from me constructive or otherwise ....coming together well.

Post by **BigWall** » Sun Jun 06, 2021 10:12 pm

It's looking great! You could always do some post mottling if you felt it was really needed.

Post by **Garion77** » Mon Jun 07, 2021 10:58 am

BigWall wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 10:12 pm It's looking great! You could always do some post mottling if you felt it was really needed.

thank you. For the post mottling, I am not good enough with an airbrush for any "post" work. May be I'll do the salt technic on all the plane and a bit more on the gray. I don't know yet. I'll see after the invasion stripe and the roundels.

Post by **BigWall** » Tue Jun 08, 2021 12:35 am

I've never tried the salt technique but that could be the answer.

Post by **Garion77** » Thu Jun 10, 2021 8:00 pm

Hello guys !
hope everyone is having a great week ! Work continued on my hellcat with the invasion stripes ! It was a first for me so I decided to tackle on side at a time, and started with the top. I'll show this one and come back when I finish the underside and the sides, and remove all the masking.

My new Infini cutting board was of great help. Hope the pictures show all the tonals variations in the black and white.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Pretty happy with how it came out ! I left, on purpose, the edges of the tapes a bit lifted so the demarcation would be a bit uneven as they were painted by hand in real life and by what I've read even with a mope at time. Hope everyone likes it.
Love a plane with invasion stripes !
I'll come back when all the invasion stripes are done, and the overspray of dark slate grey and sky grey is also done over them.

Have a great weekend everybody !

GO HABS GO !

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:02 pm

Excellent work

Love those cutting mats a well...very useful

Post by **Garion77** » Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:57 pm

Twokidsnosleep wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:02 pm Excellent work
Love those cutting mats a well...very useful

Thank you ! nice job yourself on the presentation video for the sci-fi build ! You even gave me the itch to participate even if I'm not in that kind of modeling ! But unfortunately don't have the time for it with my current build, work around the house and finally able to go on a summer vacation ! take care !

Post by **BigWall** » Fri Jun 11, 2021 2:32 am

It's looking great!

Post by **Kevthemodeller** » Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:17 am

I've been quietly following along on this build, the engine was/is superb and the rest of the build is exactly the same. Lovely attention to detail, the stencils worked a treat for mottling effect, I've got the very same for some of my future builds, I just hope I can match your skill.

Post by **Garion77** » Sun Jun 13, 2021 12:49 am

Kevthemodeller wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:17 am I've been quietly following along on this build, the engine was/is superb and the rest of the build is exactly the same. Lovely attention to detail, the stencils worked a treat for mottling effect, I've got the very same for some of my future builds, I just hope I can match your skill.

thank you ! really appreciated !

GO HABS GO !

Post by **Garion77** » Mon Jun 14, 2021 12:05 am

Hello everyone ! hope everyone had a great weekend !

Work continued on the invasion stripe on the sides. Same process as the top and underside of the wings. But this time, I had to make a small mask for the side markings which show the camouflage pattern underneath and not the stripes.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Pretty awesome I think ! Being my first time attempting this kind of painting. For the keen eye, you'll notice that unfortunately, even with all the precautions I took with masking, my demarcations aren't parallel with the panels lines ; so still some touching up to do. You can also see the use of my mask.

Also, I painted the engine cowl :

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Let me know what you think...good or bad.