The Hellcat s history is well known to most modelers so I will get right to the review.

Scott previewed the kit <A HREF= http://modelingmadness.com/scotts/allies/previews/hobbyboss/80339.htm >here. At first glance the kit looks great: nice clean molding, restrained but still prominent engraved detail, and well detailed landing gear. I had read on other forums about the cockpit being far too wide on this model, but decided to wait until I built the model to draw any conclusions.

I decided to go totally stock with this model and not add anything extra. After painting the interior parts, I started with the cockpit. Hobby Boss (HB) has everything lock together using interdigitating tabs, which I found to be more nuisance than help, so I cut many of them away, and that made assembly much easier. I used the instrument panel decal, which fit over the raised bezels perfectly and settled down nicely with setting solution.

HB also has the modeler build the area behind the aft cockpit bulkhead and behind the engine firewall, neither of which can be seen after assembly. Since I m a confirmed apostate from the Church of Modeling For God, I omitted these steps and consigned the parts to my spares box.

The engine and propeller were painted, but left off the model until final assembly.

Component fit of the major parts was very good to excellent, and I used no putty at all on my model, though I did need a bit of CA glue to smooth the wing-to-fuselage joint at the forward end. For the tail wheel strut, I cut the pins off the sides and left it off until final assembly; there is a nice shelf in the aft wheel well that provided a positive join.

Glossy Sea Blue is the ultimate lazy modeler s paint scheme, because every outside surface on a USN aircraft was painted in it! For my model I used Floquil ATSF Blue, which is pretty close; remember these aircraft were at sea and the blue tones would change with time, so there probably isn t a true GSB shade out there. After letting the blue dry 24 hours, I followed with a coat of Future.

I chose Minsi III because I had read an interview by CDR McCambell and, among other things, he talked about what external stores he carried on missions. The decals went on perfectly with no silvering whatsoever using the Micro Scale decaling system.

I added the landing gear, landing gear doors, engine, cowling, prop, and antenna.

In the interview, CDR McCambell said that since his duties as CAG were to direct the missions, and also because he was usually the first to launch, he flew off the carrier lightly loaded with just two HVARs and one bomb. Accordingly, I cut the mounting stubs from four of the kit s HVARs and mounted the stubs to the wings outboard of the two HVARs that were carried. My one deviation from box stock was to substitute the HB bombs with a smaller item from Accurate Miniatures.

Once the stores were on, I slid the outer wing panels in place.

Viewed strictly from a construction standpoint, this kit is really good. It goes together easily; the folding wing option is a very positive fit; the decals are well printed and perform very nicely. If that was the sole criteria for judging this model, I would say it has a lot to offer.