Global Scale Modeller

Hello Everyone

Welcome to my 1/48 scale Cutaway build of the British FAA Hellcat. You will find attached a series of images of the spru's included in the kit as well as other imagery I have borrowed for use when building this kit. This is Kit No. Build of 2 Hopefully I will be completing for this FAA build. My previous build was the 1/72nd scale cutaway Stuka... As with the Airfix kit i had a starting point and groundwork already completed by the kit to start adding the internal details e.g a reference point ... However with this kit there is nothing on the inside of the shell to guide me apart from external reference illustrations images I have located and technical drawings I have acquired. (please note all 3rd party drawings have been referenced)










Aircraft Cutaway / Pinterest



Grumman F6F Hellcat cutaway | MilitaryImages.Net

Can't wait to follow this, very best of luck making a cutaway masterpiece.

Can't wait to follow this, very best of luck making a cutaway masterpiece.

Cheers thanks ... Cannot wait to get started with this ... As soon as Paul gives the go ahead at Midnight Friday to commence with the build its all hands to the deck

Update 001

Since last night at midnight I have been working through the evening and all morning trying to get the wall thinned within the Hellcat fuselage .... This is probably the most tedious part of the build it has taken me several hours on the Dremel grinding and with Ultimate sanding so far to try and remove as much as the wall as possible from the inside of the shell.



The reason for wall removal is so that once the internal ribs / skeleton is installed the thickness of the existing mold doesn't warp the appearance of the structural supports .... diagram and description below



In diagram 1 ... the total width of the pre-molded part is both the green and red sections combined .... it is this red section that i am trying to remove so that the wall left is as thin as possible .... dangers at this stage is trying not to grind down too much and end up with a hole in the body panel .... that would be a disaster.

In diagram 2 ... this then shows a structural support slotted into the fuselage side on .... because the wall is as thin as possible this will enable the internal supports to look acceptable and not strange.

Nice choice mate good luck with this.
Looking forward to seeing this one

Now THIS is gonna be cool