Airfix 1/24 Hellcat Build

sorry there has been a bit between updates but i had my back give out on me for a couple days and didn't get much work done on it in that time.

first off lets look at what is left after using the milliput on the bottom of the fuselage to fill the gap i had created.

the coat of primer shows me how close i am with having the part ready for paint.
it does need a touch of spot putty in a few small areas but that is easy enough as long as the majority of the gap has disappeared
out comes the spot putty

now i will work on something else while the putty dries, last steps for that will be using a med/fine sanding stick and smoothing it out for paint.
that means its time to start building up the wings themselves

using the same steps i did on the floor of the fuselage, i put the pieces from the sprue, sand their edges flush and use tamiya extra thin to hold everything together

for the wings i have some photo etch to add to them.

the red indicates what needs to be cut/filed off the original kit part to fit the photo etch replacement

some of these parts are a bit fiddly for a guy with ape hands lol

replacement part is glued in place with super glue

and those structural beams are added to the wing assemblies and clamped in place so nothing can move as it is glued

when the glue dries i am left with this

now its time to get to play with the bang bangs

i have replacement brass barrels for the guns, i have never done this kind of mod before but it looks fairly straight forward

these are the kit parts

used a razor saw to cut the stock barrels off the gun bodies

while i am at it i might as well do the other side

first order of business is to make a small hole where each barrel's location pin can be inserted. i grab a pin vise and load it up with a micro drill that is very close to the same size as the locator pins

i use a sharpened awl to mark the location i want to drill on each gun, it is easier to do this than it is to have the drill bit try to wander off center while you are drilling the holes

hole centered and drilled down about 1/8 inch

the quick test fit of each one as i go

i send them to the prime and paint shop , all parts except the inner barrels will be painted

once primed i hit the bodies of the guns with some vallejo gunmetal thinned and shot through the airbrush as normal

while the paint is drying on the guns,

i might as well build up some ammo boxes heh


but i will put them in the next post as i am learning the forums i am using allow 5 posts per page, if i cut down the actual size of posts and break them up a bit they will not be so image intensive and take so long to load because they will spread across more pages.

cya in a min

a ammo boxes are basic 2 part pieces that just need to be glued together and sanded before paint

while the glue is setting up on those for a few minutes i will use the time to build up the other wing assembly

same as the other side i just knock through it and add the photo etch to it as well

making sure to clamp everything in place so nothing can shift creating fitment problems later

ammo boxes out of paint

with the basics built up its time to hit a coat of primer and a base coat of zinc chromate to the interior of the wings

i use super glue to set the barrels in place on the guns

i left the inner barrel shiny brass so it contrasts with the perforated outer tube, you will see pics of that shortly
first i want to detail paint the ammo boxes a bit

i use some vallejo brass for the shells themselves

then i follow that up with a bit of a black wash to pull the details out

i glued the guns in place followed by the ammo boxes and there were a couple spots that looked a bit bare to me.
i will fill this with a bit of extra detail , adding some lines from beading wire

bent to shape and glued in place with superglue

followed by some hoses made from electronics wiring

and once again glued in place with the superglue


thats gonna be enough of an update for today, more on the cards in a day or so.
cya then