Elite Forces 1/18 F6F Hellcat Part 6 - The Outer Wing

By Rodney Williams

There are several revisions and additions to the two, (2) outer wing sections, which contains over 30 in-progress photos. I have chosen to make the story in two different segments.

The buyer of this pre-built kit may select the option of assembling the model with the wings in their flight and/or storage positions. However, when the kit wings are folded back, they do not represent the real thing.

I was going to revise one folding wing section with accurate looking parts until I saw all the kit mistakes. This would have been a major overhaul to say the least.

My first image shows a line drawing of the F6F's bottom wing. I looked at other wing drawings and they match up pretty good.

My second image shows what a mess this kit really is so my client and I choose not to make either wing fold back.

I discovered early on that when you attach the outer wing panels to the center wing section, the latch snaps into place and you can not get it unlatched. The latch "tab" had to be removed.

That problem was solved so I moved on to filling some gaps, including the rocket holes.

This kit was designed and built as a F6F-5 but I am making it into a (-3). I was informed by a very reliable source that the (-3) did not have the use of rockets.

The gun barrels were OK for the F6F-5, but they were very different on the (-3) version. Even if I were making it a (-5) I would have had to sand off the mold marks and drill out the ends of the barrels, which could have been accomplished by the company.

Yes! Long ago I lost a gun barrel inside of a model and since then I have always inserted a "Backing Plate."

These photos show how I make my scribing templates for many items on my airplanes, including cars, subs, and any other type of model.

The kits trailing edge wing tips were a bit short so I added some styrene to make it right.

I hope you enjoy this pile of plastic that I am working on.