World War II: USA
Aircraft of the United States in WWII.
Hosted by Rowan Baylis
1/48 Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat (Eduard)
Venko555
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 03:31 PM UTC
Which primer is applied on the outer surfaces-fuselage and wings? Interior green, ZCY, or bare aluminium?
I'm asking this, because I want to do a very small amount of chipping, and not sure of the color.

Thanks!
Joel_W
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 10:45 PM UTC
Grumman actually used their standard Grumman Gray as a primer on the F4F Wildcats and approx. the 1st 100 or so F6F-3 Hellcats. Once they used up what stocks of Grumman Gray they had, the switch was made to YZC as a primer coat.

Joel
Venko555
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Posted: Saturday, December 24, 2016 - 02:19 PM UTC
Merry Christmas!

Had some time for spraying the camo freehand
I will enhance some areas a bit, but later







Best wishes,
Venelin

Joel_W
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Posted: Saturday, December 24, 2016 - 08:22 PM UTC
Venelin.
Your free hand camo paint scheme really came out quite well.

One suggestion for your next paint scheme, try the black basing technique. Using light coats of paint you'll be surprised at how well it weathers those color coats without having to do anything for the basics. Then you tweak it to where you want it to be.

Joel
Venko555
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Posted: Saturday, December 24, 2016 - 09:10 PM UTC
Joel, thank you for the tip!

I will have to spray one or two light coats more to blend some areas. And I broke the Pitot tube, so have to make new one

Nice improvements with your Wildcat too, very nice, can't wait for the painting

Regards,
V
Joel_W
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Posted: Sunday, December 25, 2016 - 12:55 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Joel, thank you for the tip!

I will have to spray one or two light coats more to blend some areas. And I broke the Pitot tube, so have to make new one

Nice improvements with your Wildcat too, very nice, can't wait for the painting

Regards,
V



Venelin
Thanks for taking a look at my F4F-3. It's certainly a challenge.

Don't feel to bad about breaking the pitot tube. I broke the stick column removing it from the sprue tree yesterday. No glue seemed to actually glue it back together. Just made a new column out of rod stock and added two small bends.

Joel
Venko555
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Posted: Sunday, December 25, 2016 - 01:12 PM UTC
A warning!

Do NOT use the glossy paints from Gunze, they seem to dry forever. The Insignia white (H-316) has to be polished and resprayed at some places, because I found several fingerprints here and there. I will add a drop of AK Ultra matt next time, just in case.
The blue colors are perfect though.

Cheers!
Venko555
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Posted: Sunday, December 25, 2016 - 05:43 PM UTC
Well, that is with the painting, next gloss coat and decals:









Propeller is aluminum, because I will do some chipping later:



Regards,




Joel_W
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Posted: Sunday, December 25, 2016 - 08:02 PM UTC
Venelin
I was really puzzled why you painted the prop Silver till I read your explanation. Sometimes a picture isn't worth a 1,000 words on it's own.
Joel
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Posted: Monday, December 26, 2016 - 12:03 AM UTC
Hi Venelin

This is looking really nice! The hint of shading through the camo is just right for my taste. Thanks for the heads-up on the gloss Mr Color paints. I didn't hit a problem with drying time, but I did find their gloss white overly translucent when I tried it (normally I rate their paints as among my all-time favourites).

All the best

Rowan
Venko555
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Posted: Monday, December 26, 2016 - 12:27 AM UTC
Hi, Rowan

I wanted a subtle shading, so not overdoing it much.
Also I overreacted a bit about the gloss acrylic maybe, but think I've found a solution-to thin it with Mr. Color thinner instead of the regular acrylic thinner. The other paints are superb though. Maybe the issue is only with that particular gloss white paint or it's my "user error" .
I heard that Mr.Color (the lacquers) are faster drying than the acrylic line. Would try them in the future for sure.
Gunze paints are favorite of mine, also.

Regards!
Venelin
Merlin
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Posted: Monday, December 26, 2016 - 12:52 AM UTC
Hi again Venelin

I normally use cellulose thinners with Gunze Sangyo paints (Note: airbrushing only - it would be a recipe for disaster applied with a paint brush because it would "eat" the plastic !). The "hotter" thinners is maybe why I didn't hit a drying problem?

All the best

Rowan
Venko555
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Posted: Monday, December 26, 2016 - 01:06 PM UTC
It looks that Mr.Color thinner/Leveling is the "cure" for most problems with the paint.

Continuing with the propeller. Alclad aluminum is fully dry now, so I sprayed the colors. As the paint is still fresh, I rubbed it with wet stiff old brush or toothpick, at the edges mainly. Paint chips very nice, without the need of chipping fluids, hairsprays etc.



Cheers!
Venko555
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Posted: Monday, December 26, 2016 - 05:27 PM UTC
Well, there's some paintwork for finishing and I want to use the shiny weather here

The lower part of the Hellcat mouth, inside the cowling, has to be painted, so there is the result (with some chipping)



Regards,
V

Joel_W
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Posted: Monday, December 26, 2016 - 10:49 PM UTC
Venelin,
Nicely done paint and chipping on the prop. Has that look of used but certainly not abused to it. The Red for the mouth from what I can see is really well done. Did you airbrush it or hand paint it? And if you Air brushed it, the masking had to be quite taxing.

Joel
Venko555
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Posted: Monday, December 26, 2016 - 11:04 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Venelin,
Nicely done paint and chipping on the prop. Has that look of used but certainly not abused to it. The Red for the mouth from what I can see is really well done. Did you airbrush it or hand paint it? And if you Air brushed it, the masking had to be quite taxing.

Joel



Hi, Joel
I airbrushed it, masking was a bit tedious, but not an impossible job. Red is Gunze H-13.

Regards,
Venko555
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Posted: Friday, January 20, 2017 - 12:17 PM UTC
I decided also to modify the tail wheel, which I didn't like much (should do that at the construction process, but better late than never ) . Also I've cut between the wheel itself and the strut, because it looked solid, now it's more realistic.




Venko555
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Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2017 - 01:53 PM UTC
I had to strip the paint, because of the Insignia white gloss not drying properly and the decals are not so good (I will make masks for the Insignia).
So priming anew, this time I sprayed a flat white randomly over the black Surfacer, then one-two thin coats of the gloss insignia white. All thinned with the Leveling thinner. Now the paint dried for minutes and the coat is smoother.



Regards,
Venelin
lespauljames
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Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2017 - 03:51 PM UTC
Very nice build so far , and good recovery with the white. It's a right pain using gloss colours.
Venko555
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Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2017 - 04:27 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Very nice build so far , and good recovery with the white. It's a right pain using gloss colours.



Yep, especially the gloss white.

Resin wheels painted, very nice detail



Joel_W
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Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2017 - 09:31 PM UTC
Venelin,
I've been rather leery about moving on from my trusted Tamiya acrylics just because of the type of paint issues that you've experienced. But you worked your way through them especially the White. Looking forward to seeing those home made masks, which is another technique I shied away from even trying.

the tail wheel assembly does indeed look better with the separation cut.

Joel
Venko555
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Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2017 - 10:44 PM UTC
Hi Joel,

I wondered to buy MrColor lacquer instead of the acrylic, for the H-316, now I'm regretting .

However, it works if you put a flat white under the gloss Insignia white. I don't know why, but the finish is much better.

As for the masks, I will use the decals as template.

Venelin
Venko555
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Posted: Monday, January 30, 2017 - 08:35 PM UTC
Proceeding with the nose art, as I said the decals are not very good, so I decided to cut homemade masks. Luckily I had scanned and made several copies of the decal sheet. Starting with the nose art-cutting the shape and placing the masks.
There was some bleeding under the masks here and there, but this will be corrected. The red looks paler, but this is because of the light on the photos.
When I have time, I will make the necessary corrections and proceed with the insignia














Cheers!


Bigrip74
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Posted: Monday, January 30, 2017 - 10:58 PM UTC
Venelin, nice job on the painting of the mouth.

Thanks for the tips I will store them away for the Eduard F6F that I have in my stash.

Bob
BlackWidow
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Posted: Monday, January 30, 2017 - 11:58 PM UTC
Venelin, fantastic paint job on that "cat teeth"! This nose art was the reason for me to avoid this option and go for "White 13", flown by Ken Hildebrandt, years ago, when I built Eduard's Profi Pack Hellcat. Still have some Edu and Hase Hellcats in my stash. Looking at yours makes me want to build one ....

Torsten