Well, I finally managed to finish
another model. This time it is the F6F-3 Hellcat from VF-16 aboard USS
Lexington that was assigned to Lt. Frank Fleming.
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The kit had some nice external detail and the fit
of the major parts was really good. The one place that the kit fails is in
the cockpit and the fictitious detail in the wheel wells. I used the
Squadron vac formed canopy instead of the kit part. For the cockpit I
managed to squeeze in the True Detail resin cockpit that is designed for the
Hasegawa Hellcat. In the wheel wells I sanded off the kit detail and
scratch built the detail with Evergreen strips. I also made some brake
lines from copper wire. For the gun barrels I used tubing from hypodermic
syringes. I used the kit's decals and the paints were a mixture of Tamiya
and the left over stock of Gunze.
This model fought me during every
stage of the build. It was difficult to fit the resin cockpit so that it
would sit properly in the fuselage it took quite a few session of trimming and
dry fitting. I also found it difficult to properly sand off the detail in
the wheel wells. But the biggest disaster came with the decals when I used
Mr. Mark Softer to try to settle down the decals the solution seemed to totally
destroy the carrier film. I managed to save the situation by grafting on
pieces from the leftover decals on the sheet.
Thanks for looking
Tim Cvetic
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