Airfix A19004 Grumman F6-F5 Hellcat

Product Information

On the other hand a lot of the panels can be left open and there are folks who have sausage fingers and have a need for a opti-visor .

Significantly, each individual part has a construction relationship with a number of other parts around it.In the case of our new Grumman F6F-5 Hellcatannouncement, we deviated from this time honoured format somewhat, primarily because this was a relatively mature project and at the time of its Scale ModelWorld 2018 unveiling, we actually had a fully built and painted sample model to show people, along with several test build section constructions on display. Whichever medium is your preference, please do get in touch, as it is always interesting to hear from fellow modelling enthusiasts and the projects you have on the go at the moment. Matching the full-size Hellcat’s robustness and heft, Airfix’s 1/24 scale Grumman F6F-5 is loaded with detail and options, including four complete marking schemes.

To help us gain a better understanding of this detail ‘layering’ process, Chris has kindly supplied us with this fascinating series of CAD screenshot images, illustrating how he gradually applied the detail to one of the fuselage sections of the Hellcat kit, starting with his basic shape, then gradually applying all the detail this size of kit allows him to incorporate. As if one sortie had not been eventful enough, Brown’s home carrier, USS Princeton, had just taken a direct hit from an enemy aircraft, was on fire and unable to recover aircraft. 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. The photo conditions at the show were far from than ideal, I'm really hoping that next time Airfix would display their kit sprues against some dark background!The aircraft skins are stressed and for those folks who are interested in the inside of the a/c it does offer a lot. All the detail applied to each individual part is applied in layers, gradually building up until the designer is happy with the accuracy of the part, knowing that this will all have to be incorporated in the model tooling block itself and subjected to the injection moulding manufacturing process. The oil cooler assembly is invisible behind the firewall so I've nothing to scratch build or invent except for the little fittings which are holes and styrene rod, PHEW! After joining the two tire halves together and dealing with the seam, I used my razor saw to reinstate the lost or soft tread pattern. Since I put so much effort into the engine area, I left most of the cowling panels off as it would be "under maintenance" and due to the modifications I made to the engine area, they wouldn't have fit anyway.

More progress today, got the engine and other related parts fitted, outer panels to follow after dirtying the engine up a bit more. My first big mistake, I put all the tiny "oil filler her, water filler there, don't step here" kind of decals on first. We have the Hasegawa 1/32 F6F with soft detail (for the age of the kit- it is pretty good), and a Trumpeter 1/32 "F6F" with a wacky extra wide fuselage.

I really enjoyed this kit, because it had just the right amount of quality, details and flaws to keep me challenged throughout.