A US Hellcat

The construction has begun. The usual start with the cockpit. Everything fits nicely. 

Testing the fit of the RB seatbelts 

One of the smallest parts I've ever used on a 1/24 model: the buckles of the seatbelts. Unfortunately I took me three buckles to discover that the the pin that goes inside the buckle, needed to be bent to fix them. But you won't notice it once inside the plane. 

One piece of the belts, made of paper. It is tiny! 

The lapbelts. If only the locking clasp would be move-able, the seatbelts would have functioned as if they were real. 

A last picture of the cockpit bulkhead, without the seat. 

The parachute really looks nice. The decals are made to look as if part of it is covered by the parachute harness, 

One of he instrument panels, with very tiny decals. One of them is missing. I lost it somewhere in the process, but it was so small, I couldn't find it anymore. 

The seat with seatbelts in place. 

 

The front bulkhead in place 

Some shots from the cockpit 

Cockit showing the seatbelts 

Close-up of the seat. 

The cockpit glued to the fuselage. The fit is perfect! 

In the rear fuselage there is a lot of detail, most of it will not be visible. 🙁 

The fuselage halves went together well. Only a very tiny gap forward of the hatch on the underside, no problem at all. 

I decided to use the original decals for the instruments and the look nice! Even the map isn't forgotten 

And then I made a serious mistake: I glued one of the bulkheads upside down. I was trying to add the tripod shape and it didn't fit. 

After turning the bulkhead, the tripod easily slipped in place! 

The result of a day's work. I'm very satisfied with it. Everytime, I'm surprised by the perfect fit of all the pieces. Sometimes you wonder how pieces will go together and suddenly they fall in place! 

The gun bay assembled 

The wings put together 

Wings mated with the fuselage. Again I discovered I had a small misalignment in an earlier stage and this meant a bit more work to get them together. 

Top view of the kit, I already used some primer. 

Rudder and elevator. even the trim tab is movable 

The parts of the engine. They fit together perfectly without glue. Only added a little glue to make sure they stay in place. 

The engine with ignition cables made of copperwire. 

The engine with ignition harness 

Some extra parts added to the engine. 

The intakes and the first of the exhaust in place. It is not easy to get everything in place. The ignition wires sometimes prevent the proper fit of the intakes and exhausts. But by trial and error, they slip in place 

Fitting some more parts, testing if the exhausts fit. 

All exhausts in place. It is a tight fit, so the paint got damaged and needs touching up. 

All parts fitted to the rear of the engine, including the intake ducts. 

A rear view of the engine. 

Front view of the engine with all the ignition wires 

Test fitting the engine 

The other side of the engine. 

It's beginning to look like a real plane. 

And this is all there will be visible of the engine, once the plane is finished. This plane will be fully closed up, hiding most of the engine. But my second cat will be fully opened up, with wings folded so I used this first engine to find out what would likely cause problems in the build, and it was helpful! 

Starting to close the panels and hiding away the beautiful engine! But the second one will be better with more details and all possible panels opened up. 

These panels fit nicely. 

The impressive mouth needs a bit more attention 

And then suddenly there was a problem. For some reason the air-intake doesn't fit as it should, leaving a gap between the panels. It's only at the underside of the aircraft and if necessary, I can always remove the intake, as it won't be visible anymore. 

A last glimpse of the engine of this cat. Since I want to build two different cats, this one will be almost fully covered up, while the British one will show everything. But it was nice to build this as complete as possible in order to learn from the mistakes I made 

Engine covers in place. I had to remove some parts of the air-intake to make the covers fit. Again proof that the new Airfix models don't tolerate mistakes 

Inside flaps installed 

All flaps ready 

She is beginning to look good! 

First time on her legs. I didn't glue them yet, since I think it's easier to fit them in the end 

First decals applied. Makes her really look great. I discovered I made a stupid mistake. For the first time I used masks for the inside and the outside of the canopy. After painting, I removed the inside masks and yesterday I wanted to remove the outside masks, only to find out I never used them! Fortunately a bit of alcohol removed the paint and this time I made sure I used both sets of masks! 

And she's ready for take-off!
(An airbrush provides the necessary headwind)  

View from starboard. One gunbay opened 

Top view 

Close-up of the canopy 

gunbay 

Pilot's domain 

Cockpit inside