Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat

[Brizio]

I was kid when was last time when I built an airplane. And in my model career, I built 3 airplanes in 1/72 scale. Last one when I was 12yo. After, I build different kits, mostly cars, trucks and motorcycles.

Well after some years, I decided to build another airplane, a F6F-5 Hellcat in 1/48 scale. 
The kit as you can see is all phot etched, and the airplane is "naked" except few resin parts, engine landing gears and other small pieces.

Instructions booklet.

the resin parts

The photoetched parts, pretty much the whole kit.

 

[Brizio]

Start to work on the cockpit, everything fit perfectly! A very pleasure to build this kit. 
The only thing challenging is the instruction bookelt, maybe too small, and sometime is difficult to see where to bend the photo etch.

Jasmodel has the instruction on teir website, that make it esy to see where to bend the photo etch.

Here the first part of the cockpit.

[ksnow]

That looks amazing.

[Codi]

Certainly not for the faint of heart Fabrizio........but with the first pic and post of your progress, I'm confident this will turn out fantastic.  You have my attention and will certainly follow along.    Have you done these before btw?   Cheers, tim

[Brizio]

9 hours ago, ksnow said:

That looks amazing.

Thank you Kyle! It is a pretty good kit! 

8 hours ago, Codi said:

Certainly not for the faint of heart Fabrizio........but with the first pic and post of your progress, I'm confident this will turn out fantastic.  You have my attention and will certainly follow along.    Have you done these before btw?   Cheers, tim

True, but also is always good out personal limit. I Have also a photo etch bender, that I though I was going to use a lot for this kit. I use it to bend few photo etch here and there. But is not neccessary because the the photo etch metal is sturdy, I wonder if is steel. But the part where you need to end it is very thin, and a plier works fine. I have some parallel jaw pliers. Anyways, I'm very pleased and impressed with the quality of this kit. The kit I have is from 2016, and I noticed that they updated some pieces. I email Jasmodel, and they ask me the address and said that they were going to send me the parts for free! 
No, this is my first airplane of this kind. 
 

[Brizio]

More progress on the F6F. 

 

[mustang1989]

I've seen these kinds of kits before (I think it was the A6M2 Mitsubishi Zero) and that one turned out to be a real treat to watch come together. This one will be a thing of beauty I have no doubt. Looking forward to seeing more of this one. 

[Tyreman]

Above my pay grade! but i appreciate you sharing and looks wonderful.

[Brizio]

6 hours ago, mustang1989 said:

I've seen these kinds of kits before (I think it was the A6M2 Mitsubishi Zero) and that one turned out to be a real treat to watch come together. This one will be a thing of beauty I have no doubt. Looking forward to seeing more of this one. 

They are pretty cool and funto build. I would not mind to build another one after this. Maybe a smaller one, so can be done in a weekend. 

13 minutes ago, Tyreman said:

Above my pay grade! but i appreciate you sharing and looks wonderful.

Thanks Tony. 

[mustang1989]

6 hours ago, Brizio said:

They are pretty cool and funto build. I would not mind to build another one after this. Maybe a smaller one, so can be done in a weekend. 

Right??!! It'd have to be a pretty small and simple kit to be completed in that short amount of time. 

[Brizio]

16 hours ago, mustang1989 said:

Right??!! It'd have to be a pretty small and simple kit to be completed in that short amount of time. 

Or maybe a fast builder...

[Brizio]

More progress on this F6F-5 Hellcat. Finally is taking shape! 
Very pleased on how fit on this plane. 
 

It looks like an airplane!!! Still need to add some rails on the fuselage. 

 

[Brizio]

Last month I contacted Jasmodel, asking about the update parts that they have for this kit. Thay added a detailed engine with photo etch cage, landing gear etc... I contacted them asking if they sell only the updated parts, shortly I got an email asking my address, and they send me the parts for free!
In all my years of model builder, I contacted a lot of companies that produce kits. Mostly of the time because the parts in the kit are damaged. Few times because I bought the kit used and was missing something. Some companies are great ad some not eve close to good... 😄 Will be worth doing a list of these experiences...

Anyway Jasmode customer service, is fenomenal!
Here the parts I got, note the packaging. 

Edited June 21 by Brizio

[mustang1989]

The amazing work continues and that is one heckuva good deal on them sending you the updated parts for free. This is going to be a dang "modern art masterpiece" when you get all done with it bud. 

[Brizio]

17 hours ago, mustang1989 said:

The amazing work continues and that is one heckuva good deal on them sending you the updated parts for free. This is going to be a dang "modern art masterpiece" when you get all done with it bud. 

I was very impressed about the parts, also because they didn't send out only the engine, like I thought. But they update more parts. Recently I got few books about the Grumman F6F, because I was thinking to add some details, since the kit allow you to see trough. I haven't look a the books yet, but I will post photo a soon I'll do. Thanks for the confidence, you will judge when it is done! 

[Brizio]

Some progress on this build. Slowly slowly is moving forward. 

This part probably the most difficult of the buid so far. I'm saying this because this part is the center part of the airplane, that goes under the cockpit, and will hold the landing gear. It needs to be perfectly alligned, so the rest of the fuselage can be fit on it, also wings and engine. One of the tricky parts was to bend the parts for the frame on the wings, because the wings are not straight at least on the rear part. The flaps are in place too, and thy are movable. 

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:40 AM by Brizio

[mustang1989]

I can't imagine taking something like this on Fabrizio. Mind blowing stuff man. 

[Brizio]

38 minutes ago, mustang1989 said:

I can't imagine taking something like this on Fabrizio. Mind blowing stuff man. 

Thank you! But I think you should try, maybe one in 1/72 that has less parts. It is fun!