
My attempt to make headway on my stash of unbuilt kits settled on a second 1/72 Academy F6F this week. In 2021 I built this kit as Alex Vraciu’s F6F-3. This time I would build the kit as a F6F-5 in overall Glossy Sea Blue.

I tried Doogs Models’ recommendation to thin my paint down, and at a 1:1 ratio the paint went down as smoothly as an I’ve ever applied. I had a lot of decal options, having picked up 2 1/2 more sets of Hellcat decals in Austin last month, and finally decided on Lt. Leo B. McCuddin’s “71” of VF-20 on the USS Enterprise (CV-6) in October of 1944. I included a white drop tank – photos showed both white and Sea Blue at the time – and a pair of bombs.

The last photo against the F6F-3 shows just how bad my airbrushing could be in 2021. The paint wasn’t good, but the matt topcoat was atrocious. It still spattered on the F6F-5, but not as much.
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