The Hellcat is the project that has seen the most progress recently out of the current ongoing builds. I am in the final stages of this model with all of the main building, painting, decals and weathering done. There has been a couple of mishaps that include breaking two of the gun barrels off the wings, snapping the pitot and messing up the paint on the undercarriage doors. But these are things that can be sorted out and are in the process of being done at this minute.
So onto what has been done to the Hellcat. After I added all of the decals to the fuselage, I noticed that the pre-shading on the panel lines were not showing through on the two shades of blue used. Also the insignia decals were too clean for an in service aircraft, so more shading of the panel lines was needed. First I tried using very thin Tamiya and Revell paints for this, but they kept clogging the airbrush due to the low pressure I was using. Then I experimented using some oil paint thinned down to a wash through the airbrush. This was a success and with minimal clogging too. The paint also dried to a matt finish, not gloss as I first feared it might.
Other weathering has been done using "soot" coloured paint from Mr Hobby paints and Carrs weathering powders around the exhausts, guns and undercarriage. This is done by using the same method as using chalk pastels, but without the need to create the powder on sandpaper.
Now most of the final assembly has been done leaving just a few things left to do. The propeller needs to be finished before fitting and the pylons and undercarriage doors need painting. Once these are done, then they can all be fitted along with the navigation lights, arrestor hook and aerials. Then a final blow over with my dirt mix to finish off the weathering and then she'll be completed.
So here is a few photos I took earlier tonight of the progress.
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