F6F-5 Hellcat-Naval Ordnance Test Station, 1952 XAAM-N-7 Sidewinder Trials-DONE

[Old Wombat]

Scheme's looking top-notch!

[AeroplaneDriver]

Update for the night...
This one is barely a WHIF...the Naval Ordnance Test Station was the first Navy test facility at China Lake after WW2.  They used a lot of Hellcats, but mostly as target drones.  I thought one deserved a little better. 

I hope that it didn't ever get mistaken for one that *was* a target drone...

The drones were all painted red.  I went with white because I thought it was a good enough contrast even for the Marine pilots to notice.   

[AeroplaneDriver]

That looks SPLENDID!

You've probably seen this page which has a couple of teaser photos of the first armed test Sidewinder under a Skyraider's wing. 

https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/naws-china-lake/

That was September 1953, just slightly too late for a Korean War Sidewinder WHIF.

That is exactly the picture I used as a reference to build my Sidewinder prototype.  It's not exact, but hey, it's a WHIF! 

[AeroplaneDriver]

Here she is finished.  Fun little build.  Friday-Tuesday build.  Kit is the  1/48 Hasegawa F6F-5, paints were Tamiya Primer rattle can for the white, Hataka USN Orange.  The missile is a 1/48 Matra Magic with some trimming of the fins and styrene tube on the back to extend it.  Design is based on the actual XAAM-N-7 Sidewinder prototype.  The centerline tank was modified as an instrumentation tank with some steel rod antennas added, and a few other instrumentation antennas added.


Grumman F6F-5 Naval Ordnance Test Station China Lake, 1952

This Hellcat was part of the development fleet for the XAAM-N-7 Sidewinder in the early 60s.  Most Hellcats involved in the program were used as target drones, but a single Hellcat joined the Skyraiders that were used as test launch aircraft.  The aircraft is depicted prior to a test mission were it became one of the few Hellcats to shoot down another Hellcat during a successful test launch against a F6F-5K drone

This aircraft was later scheduled to be used as a target drone during a 1956 Sidewinder test firing, but a mechanical issue with the aircraft's starter led to an alternate drone being used.  This airframe luckily escaped the fate of its sisters and after decades in desert storage was restored to it's 1952 test configuration and is currently on display at the US Naval Museum or Armament and Technology at China Lake. 

[TheChronicOne]

I'm blown away, it looks great! I love these colors and markings....   Always been a fan of the Hellcat so the combination is right up my alley.   

[Old Wombat]

Almost perfect!

My one little niggle: The fuselage exhaust stains should curve up & over the front of the wings, then back down onto the trailing edge of the wing (did lots of looking at photo's of that for my RAM F6F-3 to get it right).







Obviously too late to fix it now & it's not that big a deal - I just noticed because of my study of the subject.

[AeroplaneDriver]

This was my first attempt at airbrushing exhaust stains in about 6 years.  I spent all morning on it and was having airbrush issues so said F it.    I may revisit it to make it match the airflow more. 

[AeroplaneDriver]

Plus it's a test aircraft, not a carrier based combat bird.   It gets cleaned a lot more often so tge stains dont accumulate.   

[Old Wombat]

Like I said, no biggie. I've just spent fa-ar too long studying F6F exhaust stains.

[NARSES2]

Fantastic build mate 

[loupgarou]

Beautiful! 

[Doug K]

Fantastic colours and great story

[sandiego89]

Wow looks great.  Really love that scheme! 

As for the exhaust stains, I vote leave it as is.  Trying to airbrush stains over a great paint job is wrought with tension and could lead to disaster.  Why, yes, I do speak from experience....

[zenrat]

Very good.