Martin's Stripy 'Cat *** DNF ***

[SteveC]

That's coming along very well. A nice finish with all the PE as well.

Regards,

Steve

[Martin R]

Got some painting, washing and dry-brushing done on the 'pit and then got it assembled. Flash and Macro setting don't do it any favours, but it'll look OK when the one piece canopy is on:





regards,

Martin

[PaulBradley]

Nice work on the 'pit, Martin.

[Gadfly]

Ah thats looking very nice so far.. I like the quick boost Exhaust pipes and the Resin R2800 looks very nice..

Was the Pit British cockpit green rather than US Interior green??

[Purplethistle]

Nice work on that 'pit.
I have that 'cat, but the one piece canopy has put me off building it so far.

[Martin R]

Ah thats looking very nice so far.. I like the quick boost Exhaust pipes and the Resin R2800 looks very nice..

Was the Pit British cockpit green rather than US Interior green??

Thanks, GF. Re interior colour, it was neither one thing or another by the time I'd finished washing it . As this was lend-lease, it would presumably be US interior green of one sort or another. However, Airfix said H78 and I had some in stock, so that's the way it'll be staying.

regards,

Martin

[Martin R]

Nice work on that 'pit.
I have that 'cat, but the one piece canopy has put me off building it so far.

Hopefully, the kit canopy'll hide a multitude of sins . However, there's a number of vacform canopies out there for the Hellcat, if you don't fancy it.

regards,

Martin

[Martin R]

Got the fuselage halves together tonight. I had welded the cockpit into one fuselage half last night and I'm glad I gave it time to dry. Pics tomorrow but, long story short, the fuse halves were warped in two dimensions. The fin and rudder were glued together square first and none of the rest of the join matched up. Anyway, patience, taking the task section by section, lots of tape and using a number of different glues (Tamiya extra thin, plastic weld and superglue (with accelerator)) has hopefully got it looking OK. I'll know more tomorrow once it's dry!

[Martin R]

As promised, some pics of progress to date. The first shows the scene after securely gluing fin / rudder halves together. As I think you can see, the rest of the fuselage was quite far out:



Then after gluing the upper fuselage spine behind the cockpit. You can see there's still a mismatch in front of the cockpit:



However, that was relatively easily dealt with. I did the underside in sections, mostly with superglue and accelerator, resulting in this (sorry about the blur):



And that was then left to set up overnight.

[Martin R]

. . . and this is what greeted me this morning, after I removed the tape and gave a gentle tidy up with a coarse sanding stick:





I reckon that was as good as I was going to get it, so relatively happy. Clearly, filling and sanding will be required, both top and bottom, followed by rescribing, but I can't complain.

[Martin R]

Moving on to this evening, now, I did a bit more sanding to both top and bottom, then added the tailplanes. This then cracked the top fuselage seam (done with plastic weld; clearly it hadn't penetrated the full depth of the joint). Having dealt with this (Tamiya Extra Thin and more tape), I then added the wings. I had to fettle the joints here a bit as the panel gaps between flap section and wing were inconsistent at the wing / fuselage joints. I also filled in the gaps intended for the bomb racks, as these were not fitted to the machine I'm modelling. Some pictures to go with the above ramble:



The topside shows a pretty tight seam along the wing joint. Hopefully won't need any filler here.



The bottom is less good, but still not too bad. A fairly minor and straightforward filling job required here.

Finally, I added some fine metal mesh to the intake ducts below the engine opening. Don't know whether this is particularly accurate, but should prevent / reduce any see-through effect in future:



Tomorrow, I hope to do some more filling and sanding, and begin on the engine. I was thinking of trying to replicate engine ignition leads with thin lead wire if I could be bothered, as the resin engine has small recesses already in place at either end. Anyone think this is worthwhile, or is it more likely to be an exercise in frustration for little gain?

regards,

Martin

[Gadfly]

I'd say the ignition harness is worth it.

I scratched one on a Build of the Academy F-6F5 I did earlier this year..

Here is the R2800 with the scratched ignition harness in place.



Its just thin wire which I broke down from some household flex.

Here is the engine out of the Old Airfix Fiat G50 that I gave a bit of a work over to...



Hope this helps you decide..

[Martin R]

I'd say the ignition harness is worth it.

I scratched one on a Build of the Academy F-6F5 I did earlier this year..

Here is the R2800 with the scratched ignition harness in place.



Its just thin wire which I broke down from some household flex.

Here is the engine out of the Old Airfix Fiat G50 that I gave a bit of a work over to...



Hope this helps you decide..

Thanks, I'm leaning towards trying that!

[TobyC]

Some very nice work here Martin especially the cockpit.

[Martin R]

Some very nice work here Martin especially the cockpit.

Thanks, Toby!