Hellcat pilots build log. Part: The Third

The smudgy snaps below show more progress with the Fleet Air Arm pilot. I have worked on his shirt and refined some of the detail on the shorts. As with the shorts, his shirt is made of cotton so some liberal creasing was added. I was fairly pleased with the progress, but my smugness was soon shattered (if you can shatter smugness) when I realised most of this work will be invisible once his life preserver is added!

I have also included some snaps of progress for the US Navy pilot. He has legs. As will be seen in the next couple of instalments, they may not stay as they are depicted here however.

All sculpting is still using Bees Putty, with only the head of the FAA pilot baked so far. This means changes are relatively easy to make if proportions or equipment look wrong. As an experienced sculptor this never happens....or perhaps it does...often.

Looks great !

Coming along nicely Robert.
Reminds me of “the happy New Zealander” - Kiwi ‘Jack’ Haberfield.
He was shot down, captured & beheaded by Japanese after the war had ended.
A rare & special tribute to these Fleet Air Arm crew.
Neat to see you inspired to tackle this project.
-MjB

Lovely job, so far, Rob - how about the life preserver as a separate part, to add or not.....?!

Coming along a treat.

Looking very nice look forward to seeing this when finished...

Thank you all for the feedback. He will be carrying his harness and parachute, but I wanted him wearing his life preserver for some colour contrast.

Perhaps sculpt the life preserver untied/opened at the front to show at least some of the folds? An excellent job thus far!

Matt,
You'll see in instalment 4, coming later this week, that that is what I chose to do.

Nice work Rob, really like what you have done so far.

All the best
Steve