Thanks Matt, yes, the clear coat made the difference, it is actually satin, not gloss as I wanted to portray some wear and fading.

Yeah for a minute there I was thinking you were doing a very early -3, but the end product actually looks better than any I've seen using a dark GSB to begin with.


I take it the gloss coat made most of the difference?

Thanks Gaz!

Colin, that's a great example and I really like your weathering.

Gaz

Thank you!

Great job on the hellcat! She is looking good, especially with that skull and bones decal .

- Jelger -

Congrats on a beautiful Hellcat, Colin

Thanks for sharing-looking forward to seeing your next a/c!

Thanks guys! Calling this done I think, comments and criticisms welcome!






Learned a lot on this build, including some tricks to try on my next one.

Very nice work so far, Colin!
After the coat, the paint really improves and turned out as a reasonable fairly faded and de-glossed "sea blue".

Th mas

For a first stab at an a/c Colin this is turning out mighty fine!

Makes me want the 1/24th kit just announced by Airfix even more

Creeping towards completion, had some decal misadventures, plus some mistakes were made and some lessons were learned. Paint actually darkened up nicely with clearcoat. overall I am pretty happy with how my first wingthing is turning out (just don't lean in for a close inspection! ).

late to the party Colin, but following with interest now

Yeah, I think you're right Terri, more like an intermediate blue. Oh well, I'll work with it, it's my first wingthing so won't be perfect anyway. A good test bed for faded paint lol.

Coming along really well so far Colin . In the photo's the blue looks more like an intermate blue then a gloss sea blue . But then again I know nothing of the hellcat ...

Looking forward on your next up-date . Keep up the excellent work !





Terri

Finished putting things together and got some paint down, using Mission Models paints for the first time, they spray really nice. The sea blue seems a bit light, good for a faded look I guess, should darken up as I weather and clearcoat.

Thanks Gaz, I just pushed them down with my fingernail to conform them to the strut profile and glued with a drop of extra thin CA. Looking at pics on line I couldn't really see any major clips or straps so haven't done any yet.

Those brake lines look good, Colin. What did you wrap them with?

Gaz

Thanks all! Got the sticky-out bits on (wings I think they're called?):

and started working on the landing gear, replaced the molded on brake lines with copper wire:

Cheers

Great work so far. Eduards is still the best Hellcat in any scale hands down. Tamiya are you listening ?

Nice work on the improvements on the tail planes Colin
Your added details are starting to add the right amount of flavor to your build . Looking forward to your next up-date





Terri

Your hinge line looks great!

A little bit more done, have been preoccupied with a tracked thing and a wheeled thing. The kit comes with separate elevator control surfaces, but they come with a locating tab and pin so there is no option for assembling them in anything but the zero position.

I want to build this with some of the 'droop' that is normally seen on parked Hellcats, so time for some minor day surgery...I cut the locating tab and pin off the elevator and cut out the slots for the hinges. New hinges were made and now I can add the proper amount of droop.


More to come...

Thanks, I think the hard bits are done now!

Second this , nice job on the detailing Colin .




Terri

Engine looks nice and busy, now.

Gaz