Nick Somerville

As I am still awaiting my paint and catalyst order I have been ticking off lots or fiddly jobs. The top surfaces of the wings have had rivets burnt on and the wingtip nav lights added. Mick Reeves canopy rails have been fitted and some further scale additions made to the canopy frame. The forward fixed part is currently pegged up having glued it to the vac formed canopy with ‘canopy glue”. It will probably need several days to fully cure such is the way with that stuff. Although frustrating it’s the safest option to avoid messing. The rear windows have also been added along with the canopy cable routes. Pitot is removable and held in place with magnets as is the main antenna. Pilots head rest and harness attachment bar fitted and seat loose fitted for now. I am awaiting my pilot (a replica of ace David McCampbell who flew Minsi 3) who is on order feom Best Pilots in the states; so will save fitting the floor and seat till he arrives. The cowl chin and inter fins have been added and faired in and the many countersunk machine screws are being added. I purchased 100 from ebay but am at least 60 short so now awaiting another delivery. I have a weeks holiday coming up so hopefully I can refresh enough to face marking out and applying the rivets to the lower wing surfaces.

Bored of rivet burning I have turned to the canopy frame. My acrylic vac moulding came with an additional thin ABS moulding which had no thickness to be workable as a frame. Using pieces of two layers of G10 glued together the bars were added to the ABS. The forward area where it is fixed I built up with some thicker ABS. The rear hoop needed to have more strength and in any case the compound curve and blend to the fus negated this technique, so I used carbon tows soaked in cyano. Once sanded back it looks ok. Next I shall add some canopy rails to the fuselage from Mick Reeves Models. I am awaiting Fighteraces to get a delivery of Klasskote in my chosen colour. When it does arrive I can separate the front from the rear and paint the frames before gluing them to the acrylic moulding. Btw this is the F6F - 5 canopy style. Minsi 3 was an F6F-3 with some F6f-5 modifications; the canopy being one of them along with blisters at the rear of the cowl being deleted.

Glue dropper used for the flush rivets. Note you need to experiment with the glue mix. Too thick and they dry back like perky ‘nip’. Too thin and they flatten during drying. I found 2 parts Evo stilk / Blue bottle wood glue with some aliphatic I had (wetter) worked best.

Richard, I gave a description in the build thread for my Bates 1/5.3 Hellcat. It will be a recent entry as I only did them a week or so ago.

The domed rivets here are pva from squeezed from a small dropper bottle. The model is near enough 1/5th and the sizing is pretty good. If your model is smaller you would need a very fine nozzle/needle to make the dots. Beware of creating oversized rivets on a smaller scale model as it can end up looking like a section of the Titanic!

The comment about 00 wire wool meant to say “without knocking back the detail”. Really should proof read before pressing send!

Access panels & hatches have been added and panel lines marked out with thin tape. In the past I have used Chart tape but it’s pricey and hard to get at the correct thickness. I have simply laid out a run of insulation tape on a large cutting board and cut thin strips with a long straight edge. Probably a little too thick but the colour coat should reduce the line. Next a final coat of primer. Too thick adds weight and too thin makes burning flush rivets difficult. I erred on thin spraying a well diluted coat. Tape is removed as soon as possible after spraying. And the final step is the penciling on of the rivet lines and the tedious task of burning the little devils into the surface using a soldering iron. A brass ferule is held in place at 90 degrees with some jiggery pokery to make it a little easier to spot the spacing and placement along the guide lines. Probably 3 hours to do one side of a wing. Three sides to go on the wings and some required on the inner flaps, tailplane and fin. I may be a while! The last step before spraying the colour coat is to rub everything back with 00 wire wool. This gives a lovely smooth finish with knocking off the detail, as wet and dry paper readily does.

With almost all of the surface detailing completed on the fuselage I have sprayed a final light coat of primer. All the preparation work to create the overlapping panel lines have worked out well. The rivets are a little inconsistent in some areas as a result of a glue change part way though, but hopefully once the final gloss blue is sprayed there will be a some softening of the details. Wings are next in line for detailing.

Missed a lot! All the longitudinal ones to mark out next. It’s actually a much quicker task compared to flush rivets.

Here the cellulose putty has been spread on the forward side of the tapes. After rubbing the putty back and removing the tape the domed rivets have been added. They look a bit big as you apply them with a small glue dropper, but once dried they shrink back by at least 50%.

from the forward area of the cockpit to the rear the fuselage structure is clad with overlapping panels. These are fixed with domed /raised rivets; rather a lot in some of the mid section. Two lengths of insulation tape laid on top of each other and then cut with a metre rule provides a reasonable step to build up some 3m cellulose putty. After drying this is feathered back with wet & dry before removing the tape. The marking out was more challenging than I had anticipated, particularly where the line runs around the underside. In the end I used a length of masking tape marked with the panel widths, and then repeatedly lifted and moved it around to give myself enough reference points to lay the electrical tape against. Note the fuselage has been rubbed back after the first primer coat. Once the details have been added I can spray again ready for flush rivets and colour. While the putty was drying back the belly pan had some details added using thin metal sheet cut from a drinks can. Its not as nice to work with as litho plate but I have no supply of that at the moment.

Operation of the forward gear door now sorted. A small appendage on the inside of the door is pushed by the forward moving centre cover part. To close the door a length of shirring elastic attached to it has been routed down and around the leg pivot and fastened to the rear of the gear chassis. The shape of the appendage came from trial and error. It has a rather small space to drop into and I lost count of how many versions I tried before achieving a satisfactory operation.

the moulded leg covers have been separated into the three parts. The forward parts have been hinged to open down/forwards, the middle part has been glued to the non rotating upper part of the strut and the main lower part attached to the rotating lower strut. The collars are a simple brass strap and shaped Chemiwood spacer glued and screwed. The cover is screwed to the spacer block with rubber servo grommets in between to allow small adjustment to achieve a perfect fit and to provide some shock absorption. I added a strip of 1/8th sheet balsa to stiffen the lower cover. Still working on the best way to open and close the forward door part.

Hello Glenn, I haven’t really given this to much thought yet. The only part that seemed heavy was the elevator, which isn’t ideal of course. The fuselage and wings feel a little lighter than my FW190 so I am guessing she will be around 17kg ready to fly. I will weigh the component parts soon and report back.

After a bit more fettling the first coat of primer has been sprayed. I like this stage, so long as the surface imperfections aren’t too excessive, as it heralds the start of the detailing. First most of the primer will be rubbed back with 400grit and then panel lines access hatches etc. added along with rather a lot of raised rivets. Next more primer along the panel line areas and then flush rivets burnt in. Apologies for the mug shot spoiling the lines my Hellcat, but it does give perspective to the size. Definitely a chubs, but soo much wing area.

So this is the radiator outlet that I have been working on as part of the removable belly pan. The pan has now been glassed and a radiator deflector part made up from .5mm aluminium sheet. As the magnets won’t keep the pan in place following the bump on landing I have made up a linkage from the deflector to a locking pin. It’s spring loaded so the deflector stays in the semi lowered position and when pulled down a little the pin is withdrawn.

Belly pan sheeted and hot air duct fabricated. The rear screw is temporary to pull it away from the magnets. They are quite strong, though there will be a hidden catch to stop it dropping off when landing heavily (not uncommon for me). The forward portion of the duct has a hinged cover yet to be made. Looking down the duct. The hot air duct from the inside. So that’s it for the balsa bashing on my Hellcat. Summer has finally arrived here so its flying time for my other models!

Wings and fuselage now glassed. Still needs a good rub back and a second coat of resin but have found that this is best done several days after the initial application, so the resin is fully cured. 45grm cloth (sourced cheaply from ebay) and Easy Composites resin. As it continues to rain and blow in these parts I am pressing on with the last of building for my Hellcat. As I have constructed a two piece wing the belly pan needs to be removable; a benefit being it will hide the wing fixing bolts. The formers have been temporarily double sided taped to the wing and at the rear two pairs of neodymium magnets set on the wings and rear former will hold the pan in place. The front former has a rectangular aperture, matching the hot air exit duct from the cowl. A further duct inside the belly pan when added will exit at the oil cooler flap.

Thanks for the heads up on pricing Ron. Got my order in for 5 gallons which should keep me sweet for a while.

After measuring dozens of times to ensure correct alignment the front locating dowels have been fitted along with the rear hold down bolts. With that milestone completed I just had to pop the retracts in place and get her on her wheels for some photos.

Thanks Ron. Can’t take credit for the design. Fine scale modellers Simon Lawson and Steve Rickett both demonstrated this method on their Bates and Zirolli Hellcat builds. It does work well and is so much neater than the four screws employed on the servo hatch covers on my other models.

Wings now almost completed ready for glassing. Inboard flaps fabricated, LE and tips added and shaped. Just need to make the final fettling for the wing to fuselage mating and addition of locating dowels and securing bolts. the six servo hatches were cut out with a fresh blade, skinned with 0.6mm G10 for durability and lightly sanded on the inner surface for a flush fit. A neodymium magnet and tongue holds them firmly in place. A piece of thin wire is inserted into a tiny hole for removal. Hopefully barely noticeable after painting.

The first set of covers had to be binned as I had made the blister mould forms actual size and by the time the carbon cloth had formed around them, they ended up about 3mm too big all round. Also there was some lifting from the flatter wing surface parts during curing. I re sanded the balsa forms until they were 2-3mm smaller all round and after laying up the cloth as before I covered with a further layer of ‘Peel Ply’ and then weighted everything down with freezer bags filled with sand. The trimmed parts are strong but have sufficient flex to absorb knocks and weigh just 25grms each. Pretty pleased with the result that conform to the wing profile perfectly.

Hello Mike I will try to outline the key costs, but bear in mind the choice of engine and radio gear has a huge impact. In my case the Saito FG90 is twice the cost of say a Zenoa 80gt twin. Plans, laser cut parts and additional wood for the Hellcat was about £500-£600. Retracts and wheels plus pneumatic components £700. Glue, paint, resin other parts £150. So realistically it’s around £1500 without the radio and engine. It’s likely to be a 20 month project so £75 a month for the airframe. I consider it great value as I enjoy all the hours of building. My previous build (Vailly 1/4.5 FW190) was cheaper as I bought plans, wood and retracts from someone who had decided not to build the model. Also my next build will be a 1/5 Bates Bearcat, for which I have bought everything needed at half price; again from someone who decided not to build it. So if you are put off by the cost but really want to have a go at a large model, there are some great bargains to look out for. Regards staying power: my advice is only ever build one model at a time and always finish it. I always have maintenance and repairs to carry out to keep my other models airworthy in any case and have a small workshop too.

With the lower wing skinned I haveshaped up a pair of leg cover blisters from some 1/2” soft balsa. In this photo one has been covered in heat shrink fabric (don’t have any film). The leg area of the wing had some waxed paper taped over and the blister double sided taped in position. With the whole area lightly smeared with some car wax 2 layers of carbon cloth and a layer of 48grm glass cloth were layered over and wetted out with Easy Composites resin. A vacuum bag would have really helped keep everything flat and compacted but as I don’t have this equipment it was a matter of keep checking as it cured and some pins where there was some lifting.