Airfix A19004 Grumman F6-F5 Hellcat

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The surface texture is quite rough so a good sanding with Tamiya sanding sponges (or similar) will go a long way - I did not quite sand enough . Paintwise, I followed a plan of painting them Tamiya red/brown then airbrushing with a very dilute solution of black/red brown as well as metallics and a light grey around the pipe ends. The images featured above show some of the development stages Chris went through in producing his scale Double Wasp engine for the Hellcat, including the image at the head of this section, which shows an exploded CAD screenshot view of the engine files and the manufacturers mark included in the tooling.

Oil effects (which don't show too well on the photos) are sprayed on as a mix of black/redbrown mixed with Alclad Aqua Gloss varnish and diluted with IPA. Only after this work has been done, can he consider applying additional detail, embarking on many more months of painstaking computer work. In any case, the thousands of modellers who are eagerly anticipating the arrival of this fantastic model will not have to wait too long now and we can all start to plan how much of this glorious detail we are going to reveal as part of our own Hellcat builds.As we have expressed many times here on the Workbench blog, to us, modelling is another form of art and looking at these two fantastic models produced by Paramjit, he is clearly an extremely talented modelling artist. Detail out of the box is great, the only thing really necessary to add are ignition cables in the engine (for which Airfix provides a really good guide in the instructions) and a radio wire antenna. The cockpit is very well detailed, including some electrical wiring, plumbing, and structural parts. I find I have a lot of time on my hands just now as we/I am house-bound due to the current situation. First a fun one, to show how big this model is with its 21” wingspan and 17” fuselage, which was hard to photograph in its entirety within my fairly big 26” photo booth I only use for final pics.

your execution of a weathered non-specular blue paint job is very very good, one of the best I've seen yet. The trade off is that if i use a 1mm wire inside it to give a nice tight look to the lines then it's going to be harder to shape after the engine is glued in.This next fascinating selection of pictures provide a different view of the fuselage construction, beginning with an early stage fuselage skeleton image, which includes all the plot markings representing where natural construction formers are placed, using the scan data as an accurate shape datum. The completed wing bottoms attach to the center wing section using substantial wing fold hinges that insert inside the hollow forward wing spars.

The fuselage section images we have included show the base component part with very little surface detail initially, just panel lines which correspond to the placement of the construction formers. With no hydraulics and damaged instruments, Brown made a classic curved approach to the carrier and came down hard, but at least he was safe. A bit of a beast, but it actually went together fairly straightforwardly - well most plastic kits do compared to wooden model ship in my experience! Looking at the built up model as well as close ups of the sprues, i too noticed something odd with the main wheels.We feel sure that this Hellcat development issue of Workbench will leave many modellers hoping to add this new kit to their 2019 build schedule, but for one lucky reader, they will definitely be ahead of the Hellcat game. Now, the challenge for the rest of us modelling mortals is to try and emulate this standard, when we finally get our hands on an Airfix Hellcat. The center wing section was assembled next and consisted of inboard wing spars, structural items of the main undercarriage bays, and wing fold assembly.