Eduard 1/48 F6F-3 Hellcat

Grumman’s F6F Hellcat is widely known for its contributions in the Pacific Theatre of Operations and needs little introduction. Replacing the Grumman F4F Wildcat on carrier decks, it racked up an 18 to 1 kill ratio against the Japanese, and many aces flew the type. Hellcats were credited with 5,223 kills during WW2.

I wanted to do an early aircraft in Blue Gray over Gray just to be a little different. I chose BuNo. 4872 in May of 1943 aboard U.S.S. Yorktown. It was flown by Commander James H. Flatley who was the Commander Air Group on the Yorktown at the time.

The F6F has been kitted by many companies include Hasegawa and Otaki among others. The Eduard kit is very simple and straightforward in contrast with their other kits. It has photo etch parts in the cockpit, but they are mostly hidden under the closed canopy.

The wheels and propellor are weak points but there are several aftermarket options to remedy these. I chose my go-to, Ultracast, to replace them. This kit was as close to out-of-the-box as I get.

The kit basically falls together if you follow the instructions. The major deviations from the instruction manual on the very early F6F were colors. The first Hellcat cockpits were bronze green instead of interior green and other interior areas were light gray.

Aside from replacing the wheels and prop, I added fairings crafted from white plastic around the machine guns and added a swept forward radio mast like the F4F Wildcat had. Both features were phased out quickly in service so check your references.

The model was painted with a combination of Tamiya Acrylic paints. The Blue Gray and Light Gray I already had mixed and on hand from previous U.S. Navy builds, so the whole process painting and masking the camouflage was simple and done in a day. After touching up, I let everything dry for 24 hours. Then I applied a Tamiya Gloss coat and added the decals. They were spares from the decal dungeon and went on without issue. Afterwards I sealed decals with Tamiya Flat.

As the real airplane was brand new in the photos, I kept weathering to a minimum. I used pastel chalks and pencils to simulate exhaust stains and soot around the guns. Afterwards it was sealed with another coat of Tamiya Flat.

The Eduard Hellcat is a nice simple ‘therapy build’ between other more complex kits and can be completed in a weekend. The kit is well engineered and simple enough for beginners as well. It went together without any real issues and really captures the look of the Hellcat. Highly recommended.

There are lots of Hellcat books out there but the primary ones I used for this model are:

F6F Hellcat in Action by Jim Sullivan

F6F Hellcat in Detail & Scale by Bert Kinzey

Happy Modeling!