Eduard Hellcat 2024

[moon puppy]

Way back when I did a Eduard Hellcat that was a fun build but I forgot to paint the inside of the cowl.

Hellcat for Hell in the Pacific

Yep, a Eduard outing here. Going OOB, box is packed though and I'm going for the tricolor with the red bordered US Insignia just cause I really like that insignia and haven't had the chance to use it yet. Will start soon..

modelersalliance.org

Reading back over the thread I saw this post from me.

Been looking at some pictures of the Hellcat in action and found this one



I do believe that is the look i'm going after, not so much chipped up but faded, especially around the US Insignia on the side. You can tell the accessory bay panels were painted on another aircraft as the color demarcation does not line up with the panels to the aft. That would have been a very cool effect if I had seen this picture before, would have tried it.

What's got me wondering, the underside of the wing, what's going on there, chipping, dirt, grime?? I don't know.

I've got most of the cockpit done but i'm not going to get crazy inside. The PE in the kit is missing the seat belts, I don't know if I got this second hand and someone had scavenged or if I did it.

Look at this aircraft, See the difference in the cowl and forward panels and the panels just before the cockpit? Almost like the nose has been replaced. I'm going to replicate this.

What's confusing to me is after reading "Fleet at Flood Tide" by James D. Hornfischer. There was a line in passing that caught my attention. He said that Hellcats were so plentiful that if they had one on deck that didn't crank up instead of working to get it back in the hanger deck they would just push if off the flight deck and bring up another. So if they were so plentiful why would they have to cobble two together?

 

[Rhino]

Way back when I did a Eduard Hellcat that was a fun build but I forgot to paint the inside of the cowl.

Hellcat for Hell in the Pacific

Yep, a Eduard outing here. Going OOB, box is packed though and I'm going for the tricolor with the red bordered US Insignia just cause I really like that insignia and haven't had the chance to use it yet. Will start soon..

modelersalliance.org

Reading back over the thread I saw this post from me.


I've got most of the cockpit done but i'm not going to get crazy inside. The PE in the kit is missing the seat belts, I don't know if I got this second hand and someone had scavenged or if I did it.

Look at this aircraft, See the difference in the cowl and forward panels and the panels just before the cockpit? Almost like the nose has been replaced. I'm going to replicate this.

What's confusing to me is after reading "Fleet at Flood Tide" by James D. Hornfischer. There was a line in passing that caught my attention. He said that Hellcats were so plentiful that if they had one on deck that didn't crank up instead of working to get it back in the hanger deck they would just push if off the flight deck and bring up another. So if they were so plentiful why would they have to cobble two together?

Hornfischer's books are EXCELLENT! "Tell the taxpayers to get me another one!" The servron task groups carried replacement aircraft and pilots a-plenty late in the Pacific war. Such was not the case in 1943 when the F6F-3 Hellcat made her debut.

 

[moon puppy]

Great point, that book covered 1945. A lot happened in 2 years. Like a lot of aircraft!

I got a photo of the cockpit but it's not worth sharing. Not very detailed even with the itsybitsy pe pull handles and levers. I'm sure their $50 3d printed upgrade is much better but you're not going to see it here.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

With American aircraft, I don't think the paint chipped so much as wore off. The P-38 in the Udvar Hazy museum the paint was faded and very worn. There was Olive Drab, Rd Primer, and aluminum with thin layers of paint around it. The only plane I remember having chipped paint was the P-61 Black Widow and it was scratched and chipped.
Kind of like the white paint on Chevy vans and vehicles these days.

 

[Rhino]

It's complicated.
I would be disappointed if Saul didn't contribute a VF-27 Hellcat pretty soon. Well, it isn't really a sharkmouth.

 

[moon puppy]

Kind of like the white paint on Chevy vans and vehicles these days.

I'm thinking that GM Silver that was so thin, that's what I remember. You're right about that P38, it's soo cool looking. Would love to get back up there to see if Flak Bait is on display. Now that was a chipped up monster.

We had an impromptu roadtrip to Augusta Hobbytown to get stocked up, lucky for me they had all the colors I waslooking for in Mission Models paints. I was denied my normal discount even thought she said yeh..but what everl Got loaded up on some good seafood with Eric.

And Wow! Did Augusta get hit from Helene! We could see clear paths of where tornados went through the wooded areas around. Many houses hit.

 

[Sharkmouth]

I would be disappointed if Saul didn't contribute a VF-27 Hellcat pretty soon. Well, it isn't really a sharkmouth.

Indeed, a cat mouth...

 

[Sharkmouth]

For some reason, the Brits painted teeth on the canvas weather covers on Ceylon for their Martlets (F4F Wildcats) and there is one actual sharkmouth on an American Wildcat but nothing other than a cat mouth on the Hellcat.

Fugly cats!

I sent these photos (above and below) to Arma Hobby but I doubt they will release an STL file for the canvas covers but this one may come to fruition:

 

[moon puppy]

https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nara-series/80-g/80-G-40000/80-G-44605.html

Link to the original photo, can't find a BU number for this aircraft so who's to say? If you pull up the high res version you can see a lot of patch work painting going on. I'm going for this!

 

[Skinny_Mike]

I love me a good Hellcat!