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Academy 1/35 M-18 Hellcat (Update 1/18)

A

Adam Baker

Active member
This is a build I decided to pull out to hopefully give a bit of a change of pace and see if maybe it can kickstart some mojo.

This build probably started close to 10 years ago, and has been worked on, packed up & pulled back out at least 3 times since I stopped working on it the first time, and now. Each time I'd do a little bit of work, and then stop & put it back on the shelf for various reasons. And then when it would get pulled back out, it would be broken back down and kinda started over.

This time I've decided to strip all the paint off of everything, and try to break things down as far as I can to clean up various things I've screwed up in the past. So b/c of this, that's why my start up pic's are of the parts being soaked in purple power. Didnt think about joining the shelf queen campaign w/ it until everything was already soaking.

Hellcat_001.jpg


Hellcat_002.jpg


Hellcat_003.jpg


Hellcat_004.jpg


This is going to just be a straight OOB build, w/ nothing being added. Going to hopefully work on some painting & weathering techniques but beyond that it will be a straight build. Should hopefully have most of the paint stripped off tomorrow morning, gonna leave it all to soak overnight, to remove what isn't budging so far. Then hopefully by tomorrow afternoon I'll already be back in the rebuilding stage.
 
Academy 1/35 M-18 Hellcat

I'm sure your Bride appreciates you using her toothbrush like that :smack

:popcorn
 
Academy 1/35 M-18 Hellcat

She hasn't caught me yet, but she does keep asking about the strange taste on it.... haha

Looks like its time to replace my Purple Power, its taking a lot longer to strip all of the paint. I got most of the parts mostly clean today, enough for me to be good w/ it, but some of the parts aren't wanting to come clean. The interior is painted white, and I have no clue what I painted it with, but it's being real stubborn coming off.

Might get a little bit of work done tonight, but considering both halves of the hull and the turret aren't clean yet, I'll probably wait till tomorrow to start anything.



moon puppy said:
I'm sure your Bride appreciates you using her toothbrush like that :smack

:popcorn
Click to expand...
 
Academy 1/35 M-18 Hellcat

Ok, here's a pic of all the parts finally stripped enough to start over. And I caught the site date/time just to be safe.

Hellcat_005.jpg


And found a folder on my computer w/ a couple pic's of this build from 2007. No idea whether this is the first time i worked on it or not, but its been a long time regardless.

M18_01.jpg


Won't be making any progress at all on this tonight, and probably not tomorrow either, but I'm off work on Thursday, and got approval today to take Friday off, so I'll have 4 days off where I can hopefully begin to make some progress on this.
 
Academy 1/35 M-18 Hellcat

And an update here.

Been working on this on & off over the last couple of weeks, making progress getting everything reassembled and heading toward paint.

This is where I was at on the 4th. I had it pretty much reassembled back to where I stopped years ago before tearing it all apart and starting over. Since then I've gotten everything on the turret. Unfortunately I did discover while reassembling the turret that I have 1 part that has gone missing. I guess it was too much to hope that everything would still be in the box, but its not a huge deal. I can live with it and move on.

Hellcat_008.jpg


Hellcat_009.jpg


Then on Sunday evening, I felt motivated so I pulled out the kit and fired up my airbrush to lay down the white for the interior. Just plain Tamiya Flat White.

Hellcat_010.jpg


Then this evening, I sealed all of it with a couple coats of Future so that I could start weathering. I used Pro-Modeller washes "Dark Dirt" which is a really dark grey. I'd originally planned on going w/ the Black wash I have, but I couldn't find the bottle. And now I think I did better going w/ the grey over the white, instead of the black. Not nearly as stark a contrast.

Wash laid down.

Hellcat_013.jpg


And after cleaning it up. I let it dry for about 20 minutes, and then went over all of it w/ a slightly damp foam makeup applicator.

First time I've used one of those for cleaning up. Usually its a foam sponge, and the applicator worked much better. A lot easier to control, and was able to get it exactly where I wanted.

Hellcat_015.jpg


Hellcat_016.jpg


For now the transmission is just sitting in place, but the 2 floor panels are glued in. Going to let it dry thoroughly tonight, and decide tomorrow evening if it needs another coat of wash, but I think it's going to be good with what it has now.

The next step will be dry brushing highlights, and weathering. I think that this would have been an excellent candidate for salt chipping to simulate worn/exposed metal, but I didn't think about that till I was doing the wash. So now I'll just seal it up w/ a flat coat, and then I'm just going to dry brush over the tread plate w/ some aluminum paint, to simulate the paint worn off the top of the tread pattern, and go from there.

From there, its on to assembling the body and painting the exterior.
 
Academy 1/35 M-18 Hellcat

Looking good Adam. That Promodeler Wash is the best. Been using it for awhile myself. (y) :popcorn
 
Academy 1/35 M-18 Hellcat

Yea, I absolutely love them. I've probably had the 2 bottles I've got for about 5 years, and have used less than 1/4 of each bottle. I think they've changed the name of them now, but don't remember what they are called now.


nerdling said:
Looking good Adam. That Promodeler Wash is the best. Been using it for awhile myself. (y) :popcorn
Click to expand...
 
Academy 1/35 M-18 Hellcat

Adam Baker said:
Yea, I absolutely love them. I've probably had the 2 bottles I've got for about 5 years, and have used less than 1/4 of each bottle. I think they've changed the name of them now, but don't remember what they are called now.


nerdling said:
Looking good Adam. That Promodeler Wash is the best. Been using it for awhile myself. (y) :popcorn
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

They're called Flory Wash now. The name changed about the time that Revell brought the Pro Modeler line back out.
 
Academy 1/35 M-18 Hellcat (Update 1/13)

Thanks Nerdling, I thought that's what it was called now, but I wasn't sure.
 
Academy 1/35 M-18 Hellcat (Update 1/13)

Looking good, Adam. I have that kit too.

Ian.
 
Academy 1/35 M-18 Hellcat (Update 1/13)

Thanks Ian! Overall its a decent kit. Some fitment issues, but nothing major. Biggest issue I've had w/ this thing is the frame that goes around the headlights. I've lost count of the number of times that damn thing has broken and had to be repaired. I'm amazed there's any of it left at this point.


This weekend I hit a major milestone for me, was able to finally start getting paint down. Started off last night by getting all the wheels painted black. Decided to go w/ Tamiya Nato Black, as I'd heard it's a very good color for tires. I'd been trying for months to get some from the Hobby Town here, but they never seemed to have it in stock, and then a couple weeks ago I stopped by, and I bought the 2 bottles they had on the rack, knowing I'd need paint for tires soon.

So that was last night. This morning I started by pulling out a circle template, and figuring out which size was needed for the road wheels and the idlers, and then got it all taped up. Worked out excellent, extremely happy w/ the results. And I'm very happy w/ how the Nato Black looks as well. Always thought that regular pure black was too stark for doing rubber tires, but never really had any other options. This will definitely now be my go-to color for doing tires.

Hellcat_020.jpg


After painting the wheels, I got the rest of the parts painted as well.

Hellcat_017.jpg


Now I'll let this dry for a couple of days, and then hit it w/ some future so that I can put down what few decals there are, and then start doing the washes & such. Then hit it w/ a flat coat so that I can do the oil dot filter.

Also need to work on the tracks, but don't think that will be too bad. The kit includes long solid runs of track for the top & bottom, so I only have to worry about individual links around the drove sprocket & the return roller.

Hope is to have it done by Friday in time for my monthly model club meeting, but I don't want to rush it. If I can get motivated to work on it in the evenings, and don't end up having to put in 12-13 hr days every day this week, I do think it might be possible, but we'll see.
 
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