Hellcat 1

Tuesday 28th March 2023

 

Medical issues abound from several directions at the moment but not for discussion here. My distraction policy continues with a daily one mile walk from home and my model making.

My latest project is the Hellcat fighter plane  used by the Americans towards the end of WW2 mainly for the war in the Pacific and to a lesser extent by the RAF which this kit caters for. The Hellcat was used extensively from aircraft carriers. I may try to pose my model on the deck of a carrier, but I'm not sure quite how at the moment and it may not be possible to make it look convincing, especially if I want to keep the overall scene to a reasonable size.

My dictionary defines hellcat: A spiteful, violent woman. Not a bad name before those responsible for appending names to aircraft and cars ran out of imagination - see this link for a bit of entertainment:

CLICK HERE

The photos below are mainly for information and I have made no great effort to refine them.

The box-art of most scale models is usually of a high standard. Apart from the reflection I have obtained this lives up to that reputation.

The Hellcat was powered by an 18-cylinder
 Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp
 radial engine

The front end of my Hellcat before the hub for the propeller is added. The body is still in the green plastic of the kit with some overspray in grey from primmer applied (that enables imperfections to be revealed and repaired before proceeding with painting the body colour.)

Now with a full coat of primer. The colour in real life is light grey which the camera has failed to interpret here. The wing,/tail alignment is correct but appears here to be askew because the model is tipped to one side and the whole being foreshortened

The next process is "post-shading." That involves airbrushing the panel lines on the underneath with black which will show through faintly when the final coats of body colour are applied producing a sort of weathered appearance. It is a difficult technique requiring airbrush precision. I have done it once before with only moderate success so I am hoping for improvement this time.

I have high hopes for my "robust" plan "going forward."

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Another little niggle on the subject of sports commentary.

For a few years now it has become commonplace for commentators to refer to a particular player who was part of a winning team  in the past by saying, for example:

"He/she won the world cup in 2001" inferring that it was their  sole effort rather than the player just being part of the team.

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