Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat by ccoyle - FINISHED - GPM - 1/33 - CARD

[ccoyle]

Finished the sub-structure for the empennage. There was quite a bit of confusion with this bit, because first of all I don't read Polish, which meant it took me awhile to catch on to there being different laser-cut parts for the options described back in post #28. I ended up using the wrong main profile former, which subsequently required some minor fixes. Also, the parts numbering system is unlike anything I've seen in any other publisher's kits, which again is very confusing for non-Polish speakers. But who doesn't like a challenge, right? 🙄😆

 

 

There's an inner skin that wraps around the tail wheel well, which I have added but didn't get a picture of -- cuz it's not all that interesting.

 

Cheers!

[Dion Dunn]

Chris - do you use Google Translate?  I was reading through my latest Halinksi kits over the weekend using my phone to translate the polish text real time through my camera.  It was pretty awesome and allowed me to go through and make notes and annotations on everything that may be confusing.  I'm sure I'll get tripped up a couple of times, but it sure is helpful.

[ccoyle]

Sub-structure for horizontal stabilizers finished and skins cut out. I won't glue these together until I have the fuselage finished and can then better judge the spatial relationship between frames & skin.

 

 

And first fuselage skin attached. Fit looks good so far.

 

 

Dion, I'll have to look into your suggestion.

[AJohnson]

Looking good and very neat, can appreciate that now after dabbling in this 'Dark Art' a little!  👏

 

I have used Google translate on a recent Polish purchase and it is good enough for small chunks of text that would do for kit instructions I think. post #3332

 

 

[ccoyle]

BTW, if anyone is still thinking about trying a card model, this estate sale over at Paper Modelers still has a lot of models left to choose from. Personally, I'm trying very hard not to make a third purchase from this sale, because I already have enough kits to last me a lifetime. 😬

[Dion Dunn]

25 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

BTW, if anyone is still thinking about trying a card model, this estate sale over at Paper Modelers still has a lot of models left to choose from. Personally, I'm trying very hard not to make a third purchase from this sale, because I already have enough kits to last me a lifetime. 😬

I just bought 2 Halinski airplane kits off of him, and trying my hardest to not look at the ships and keep my focus on the upcoming Arizona build.

[mtaylor]

4 hours ago, ccoyle said:

BTW, if anyone is still thinking about trying a card model, this estate sale over at Paper Modelers still has a lot of models left to choose from. Personally, I'm trying very hard not to make a third purchase from this sale, because I already have enough kits to last me a lifetime. 😬

I realize that resistance is futile but I hope you can come to some solution that makes you happy.

[ccoyle]

7 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

I hope you can come to some solution that makes you happy

 

Hey, Mark, loan me your PayPal credentials, if you'd be so kind. 😆

[lmagna]

That's one solution! Possibly a "Go fund me?" Seems to be what people do these days.

[ccoyle]

Several things to take note of in this photo:

1. I decided not to glaze the windows behind the cockpit. There's nothing of interest to see in the compartment, and cutting out the printed "glass" panels would leave a very narrow and weak strip right next to where the sharpest bend in the exterior skin is -- that's a potentially deadly combination. Plus, the skin fit is very tight, and adding the glazing would make the fit worse.
2. There's a slight alignment error, which you can spot at the place where the wing's trailing edge will eventually meet the fuselage. There was little to nothing I could do about this -- the dorsal and ventral alignment tick marks matched perfectly. The opposite side matches perfectly, too, so correcting this side would only throw off the other side. Oh, well.
3. Worse than the slight alignment error is the fact that the colors on the next fuselage section, cut from a different parts sheet, don't match those on the previous section. You can see the difference in the photo -- it's not a trick of the lighting, and it's more apparent in real life. The blue on the forward section has a definite greenish tint, while the aft section is a truer blue. Since some of the fuselage skins are printed on one sheet, while the rest are on the second sheet, this mismatch will be seen elsewhere on the fuselage. It's kind of a bummer, and it's a printing error, so there's really nothing to be done about it.

 

Cheers!

[Egilman]

3 hours ago, ccoyle said:

1. it's not a trick of the lighting, and it's more apparent in real life. The blue on the forward section has a definite greenish tint, while the aft section is a truer blue. Since some of the fuselage skins are printed on one sheet, while the rest are on the second sheet, this mismatch will be seen elsewhere on the fuselage. It's kind of a bummer, and it's a printing error, so there's really nothing to be done about it.

 

It's an issue I've seen on several GPM kits, the only resolution I've seen done is a complete re-color/draw of the skins in one of the illustrator programs... Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape....

 

Not an easy task...

 

Sad....

[Dave_E]

Chris, where did you get those tweezers? 

[ccoyle]

2 hours ago, Dave_E said:

Chris, where did you get those tweezers? 

 

I've had them for so long, I've quite forgotten where I got them from. They are nothing special -- just a cheap pair of lockable, angled-tip tweezers, probably made in India. You can find them at practically any hobby store, e.g. Hobby Lobby.

[GrandpaPhil]

If you clear-coat the model, it will cover the color variation pretty well.  

It worked well with my Solferino.

[Canute]

Tamiya sells a tweezers similar to Chris's. Been happy with mine, although it doesn't lock.

[ccoyle]

Well, there has been more than the usual amount of excitement in our household this weekend on the non-modeling front. Saturday, the wife hopped into her car to go shopping only to discover that all her car's systems were dead, dead, dead. Happily, the cause turned out to be merely a defective battery, which was still under warranty, so I got a new one at no cost -- easy-peasy. Today, though, I got a call informing me that my daughter had been in an accident. Happily, again, no one was hurt and the damage to both vehicles was minor, but she suffered a flat tire and a damaged rim. Of course, being Memorial Day today, no shops were open, so I can't get her a new rim and tire until at least tomorrow. 😬  Just another of life's speed bumps. 🙄

 

Okay, back to the 'Cat. In this first image, I have used my talent for 'judicious camera angles' to hide some of the more hideous seams I have made in a long time. I'll lay part of the blame on the kit's design, but part of the blame is on me.

 

 

Deciding that I needed a break from fuselage work, I put one of the wing structures together. The tabbed construction goes a long way toward making sure that everything aligns correctly; it also make the construction sequence a little iffy to figure out at times, but in the end it all came together, so I'll call that a success.

 

 

Now on to the other wing -- and hopefully no more car issues!!

[ccoyle]

Both wing structures done now. Here they are sitting together with the fuselage --nothing glued together yet, only to give an idea of the size. My cutting mat is about 11" wide, so yeah, compared to what I usually build, it's big!

 

[Old Collingwood]

Looking so nice  Chris  - looks like if you was building a wood framed r/c  plane.

 

OC.

[ccoyle]

Small bit o' progress. Commensurate with the overall size of this beast, each wing is itself a large structure. But because it is bent, the wing sheathing is in three parts. Here we can see the inboard sheath already attached. When sealing up the trailing edge, it is easy to get too much glue along the seam; really, only the very edge itself should be glued. To avoid a potential problem, I use a folded joiner strip cut from scrap paper. The strip is attached about a half-millimeter in from the lower trailing edge. When glue is applied to the top side of the strip and the top half of the sheath is folded over onto it, the strip enures that only the aft-most half-millimeter of each surface gets bonded together. It makes a very nice seam.

 

 

By using the edge of a ruler to press the seam together, I managed to avoid having to use my fingers and risk creating the dreaded 'starving cow' look.

 

 

Ventral side.

 

 

I'm pleased with this result so far. Still have the wing tip and then the other wing to do.

[Old Collingwood]

Is that rivet detail raised  so you can feel it  Chris?

 

OC.

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, Old Collingwood said:

Is that rivet detail raised  so you can feel it  Chris?

 

No, that would require some kind of embossing and would make the kit more expensive.

[Old Collingwood]

2 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

 

No, that would require some kind of embossing and would make the kit more expensive.

Thats some clever printing as they really stand out  - hence why I asked.

 

OC.

[amateur]

Not only the printing is clever. The glueing trick also deserves to be remembered

 

Jan

Edited June 4, 2022 by amateur

[Javlin]

Looking Good Chris!

[GrandpaPhil]

Nicely done!  I, too, will have to remember that trick!

[ccoyle]

Finished the starboard wing. The 'Cat-beast keeps getting bigger!

 

[Egilman]

Yep, nice work Chris... that 1/33rd scale does get a bit "Beastly" much like 1/32 scale does in plastic...

 

Could you imagine doing that without laser cut formers?

[ccoyle]

Made quite a bit of progress today -- fuselage and horizontal stabilizers skinned. Here's another shot of everything test-fitted.

 

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent work Chris.

 

OC.

[Dion Dunn]

Looking good.  I really like the trailing edge glue technique