Elite Forces 1/18 F6F Hellcat Part 2 - The Kit's Propeller

By Rodney Williams

Let us not forget that we are trying to replicate a WWII aircraft in its original configuration and not a "RESTORED" aircraft.

With years of research experience, two things come to mind:

I can not trust anyone´s "art-drawings" 100%
I can not trust a restored aircraft 100% to match the original WWII fighter etc.

My very first photo shows a restored F6F. You will note that there is a data block on the propeller blades. This aircraft displays a British-like "roundel" on its wing and fuselage. Therefore we may say that the Brits used data blocks on their props. I notice a red hub cap on the tire rim.

We are replicating a F6F-3 (40467) flown by Lt(jg) Alex Vraciu while he was stationed on board the USS Intrepid during the month of February, 1944.

I only have three photos of Alex´s with his F6F-3 and they do not show the propeller, so what´s a model builder to do when it comes to applying data blocks on the prop? My client says that there were no data blocks on the F6F Hellcats.

To solve the problem I accessed my WWII scrapbook "CD" which has 1,107 photos on it.

My second photo in this prop story comes from my WWII scrapbook and shows some sailors turning the prop on a Hellcat fighter. There are no "data" blocks on the prop nor are the axle hub caps painted red. Problem solved.

My third photo in this story shows Alex´s F6F-3 in 1:32 scale that I built for my client in 2000. There are no data blocks on the prop blades.

Now for a real look-see, here are some photos of the kits prop before I started to fix the manufactures problems. First off, the yellow tips on the prop had to be sanded off and reapplied as the separation line between the yellow and the black were kinda wavy.

Of course, I had to remove the data blocks.

Then to my amazement, I have never heard of a "look-a-like" Hamilton Standard logo with a name of "AIRSCREW - MADE IN USA." The logos just had to go.

There was a little bit of flashing on the blades and on the hub which was easy to remove. Once I took a good look at the prop and it passed my "quality-control" inspection it was painting time.

I used Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black for my base coat and after misting on several light coats I let it dry for a bit then rubbed the paint down with a clean cotton ball. This procedure removes some of the flat finish and the blades become somewhat semi-gloss looking. This is an old application that I dreamed up about 20 years ago. It works so good that at times I just apply my decals on top of this rubbed down finish and then over coat the decals with some Future Floor Wax.

I mask off the area for the yellow tip using my old time standard Scotch 3M Fine Line masking tape. I applied my 1986 pre-mixed special Insignia Yellow paint. This paint color matched my Federal Standard 595a Chip Color. I mixed some Tamiya XF-7 red with my Tamiya XF-3 Yellow. This color was mixed outside in the sunlight and not under any inside incandescent light source. Note that the paint is a bit over 25 years old.

Now it´s Hamilton-Standard, (HS-Logo as I call it) decaling time. My client sent me some excellent HS-Logos. I use a measuring ruler, so that I know that they are in the same place on each prop blade. Well now, they could be out of alignment by maybe .001 of an inch. So if you got real good eyes maybe you can see the difference of "one thousands" of an inch.

The original kit prop hub was painted with a silver-like color so I used some of Alclad´s polished aluminum.

And here is the rest of the story. I took photos of the finished prop and sent it to my client. He liked the end result however a few days ago I discovered that I painted the prop hub on his 1:32 scale model a blue color. Since we have no photo of the prop on Alex´s F6F, what color was the hub? I´ll certainly have to email my client and ash him what color he wants on the hub.

I took another look at my WWII Hellcat photo #13 above, and I would say that the prop hub is either bare metal and/or painted a sliver-like color.

For "What It´s Worth Department" please take another look at my WWII scrapbook photo above of the Hellcat #13. Did the painter´s paint that aircraft with the Navy´s Standard Gloss Sea Blue on top including the other proper Navy colors?

I lived on the Island of Tutuila, American Samoa from 1971 to 1977. In a matter of weeks, paint faded drastically on new automobiles in American and Western Samoa including the islands of Tonga, Nuie and over in Tahiti. Other sojourns to the North West Pacific Islands of Kwajalein, Truk Lagoon, Guam, Tinian and Saipan gave off the same results.

I have been to several hundred model contests in California and across America to 12 IPMS/USA National Conventions over the past 27 years and I really can not recall of seeing any Hellcats weathered like what is in my scrapbook.

I´ll draft up a little story and send several of these faded looking WWII aircraft to LSP from my scrapbook then you modelers can have fun trying to weather your model just like the photos.

Real soon I´ll send you my story on the revised drop tank, so until then have fun building your model and go paint it any color you want.