Elite Forces 1/18 F6F Hellcat Part 19 - Prelude to Painting

By Rodney Williams

I live in the extreme southwestern part of the state of Colorado at 7,500´ elevation. Its 6:07 a.m. and I just went outside with our dog. The snow "crunched" under our feet so I looked at the outside temperature gauge and it read 17 degrees above "zero." I think we are going to have a long cold winter just like last year.

NOW FOR MODEL TALK

I am enclosing 16 photos from my WW-II scrapbook, including some Hellcat model photos from the recent National contest in Phoenix, Arizona U.S.A. You may ask why I am doing this and here is my answer.

I have been a judge since 1984 at the local, regional and National IPMS/USA shows. We do judge the colors that are applied to the models. You can access our club´s web site @ (www.svsm.org). Scroll down to the bottom of our "home" page and click on page three (3) then scroll down on page 3 to August 9, 2010. Our club posted two segments, one of which is named: "IPMS USA 2010 National Album", and the other one is called: "2010 National Awards Presentation". It is stated that there were about 1,700+ models entered in the show.

To my recollection I did not see any models on the table this year that looked like my enclosed photos. We modelers tend to paint up our models "more-or-less" to a "factory fresh" paint job with some weathering, (me included).

My scrapbook photos are at least 65 years old. Has the color faded? Was these photos printed properly during the war with color correction, etc? My photos were not exposed to room and/or sun light for extended lengths of time. To me, they look as good as the day I cut them out of the magazines and put them in my scrapbook. My computer scans match the original photos by at least 97% perfection.

There was a beautiful 1:32 scale #19~F6F-3 entered in this years contest. The model was weathered slightly however it did not look anything like these Hellcats in my scrapbook. (photo attached).

What are we modelers doing to our models when it comes to painting? Our models certainly do not represent the real thing, especially when we have lots of "kill" marks applied to them.

I would "love" the opportunity to paint this 1:18th scale "CAT" to match any of the Hellcats that are on these aircraft carriers. If the majority of these Navy planes were painted with the standard "Gloss Sea Blue," then the paint sure has faded drastically. How long have these airplanes been at sea and how long does it take for the paint to fade like this? I have enclosed a photo of my 1:32 scale #19 F6F-3 model and it sure looks "factory-fresh" to me.

In 2005 I was 74 years old and I had cataract surgery on my right eye which turned out A-OK. I was informed by the eye surgeon to engage in the following experiment: Close my left eye and look at the clouds and sky. The clouds looked "snow-white" and the sky was a beautiful blue. Then I closed the right eye and looked at the same area with my old worn out left eye. To my surprise the clouds look like they were a light tan color and the blue sky was kind of dirty looking.

I just had the same surgery in my left eye last month at 79 years of age and performed the same experiment. Again the clouds were snow white using my left eye, and dirty looking using my right eye. I ask the eye doctor about this problem. He stated that I have lost lots of true color quality over the last five years and there is nothing I can do about it. He stated that after you hit 30 years old, you start to loose color quality and by the time you are 50+ you just do not see true colors.

The moral of the story is: If you build models and you are over 30 years of age then "FORGET" about trying to match a color chip from your "Federal Standard 595a" book as you are not seeing the true colors.

Long ago at a National IPMS/USA judges meeting we were told to judge the colors on a model as to "HOW WELL IT WAS APPLIED ~ AND NOT WHAT COLOR IS ON THE MODEL."

I still hear the same old crap at model contest about the wrong "fs" color on the models, including comments on modeling web sites like Hyperscales Plane Talk.

Am I going to paint the right "fs" colors on this model? We shall see the outcome in my painting story that will be here soon.

A couple of years ago I scanned in all 1,107 airplane photos from my scrapbook and put them on a "master" CD. If you would like to buy a copy of said scrapbook here is the data: I´m asking for USD$25.00 which includes postage, insurance and a return receipt to any where in the USA. I was set up on "Pay-Pal" but I lost all of this information last month when my p.c. crashed.

My postal address is:

Rodney J. Williams
P.O. Box 338
Dolores, Colorado 81323
U.S.A.

So for now a postal money order is the way to go. For additional details please email me at: ( fox17439@gmail.com ). For foreign deliveries, I will check my local post office and see how much more $$$ they want to send the CD to your country.

Remember this: "How well is your paint applied to your model?"

Elite Forces 1/18 F6F Hellcat Part 19 - Prelude to Painting

By Rodney Williams

NOW FOR MODEL TALK

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