Here is the Eduard F6F-3 Hellcat under a coat of primer. The main assembly required no filler at all, just a light sanding to smooth the seams. I did use a little Perfect Plastic putty around the canopy joint. Since the wheelwells and landing gear were all painted white like the rest of the underside I have already attached the gear legs, opting for a strong glue joint at the expense of requiring a bit more care in handling later.Here the white underside paint has been layered on and masked off. White can take some time to build up enough to cover completely.Both of these Hellcat builds will wear the mid-war “three color” scheme. This one, however, features several anomalies which are non-standard, and may even indicate a re-painting at the depot level. The motivation for building this particular aircraft were the several unique features visible in photographs.This Hellcat wears a more typical paint demarcation with the exception of where a previous side number has been painted out. The upper surface color is darker than in the previous example, this one is a more standard example of the scheme.This is a crop from a larger photo showing the Hellcat with the unusual scheme. The pilot is CDR James Flatley, Commander Air Group 5 and an ace credited with six victories. The 00 (double nuts) markings were reserved for the CAG. This photo was taken a few weeks after the time I will represent with my model, in this photo the red surround to the national insignia has been overpainted with blue.LF Models has a decal sheet with just the markings I needed for this project. Unfortunately, a close examination reveals they have completely botched both their design and production, the first of a series of bad decal sheets I have had the misfortune of purchasing lately. First the national insignia on Flatley’s Hellcat were much smaller than usual, meaning the LF insignia are much too large. They have also made the white fuselage 00 markings too big, and all the whites are weak which allows even the blue backing paper to show through. I doubt the oversized insignia and the oversized numbers would even fit on the fuselage properly. Lastly, Flatley’s Hellcat had the 00 markings repeated on the folding sections of the upper wings, something which LF missed entirely.The solution was an emergency order to Hannants which included two examples of each of these Techmod sheets, generic numbers in black and white. Techmod produces excellent decals, I have never had an issue with one of their sheets. I already had a set of their red-bordered national insignia so when the numbers arrived I was able to get the project back on track.Here is Flatley’s Hellcat with the improvised Techmod markings, which now match the photos of his aircraft. Photos show several other USS Yorktown (CV-10) Hellcats with small fuselage insignia and modified camo while others appear standard.As Commander Air Group 5 Flatley functioned as the strike leader for the raids against Marcus Island. Photos from the strike showed an unusual modification to his Hellcat, one which is unique in my experience. Hellcats often carried a bomb rack mounted close to the fuselage under the starboard wing. Flatley’s Hellcat mounted a rack under both wings on the Marcus Raids which allowed the fitting of two 58 gallon drop tanks in addition to the usual 150 gallon fuselage tank. The extra fuel allowed him to remain over the target area longer and coordinate the strikes. The Eduard kit provided the racks, the extra drop tanks are from the spares box.Both finished Hellcats together. “White 32” is the mount of 19-victory ace LT Alex Vraciu, markings for this model came from the Eduard kit and performed flawlessly. Despite the decal debacle with Flatley’s mount, I am very pleased with the way both models came out. The Eduard Hellcat is one of the better kits in 1/72 scale, if you’ve never built one do yourself a favor and pick one up, you won’t be disappointed!
WHENEVER ANY FORM OF GOVERNMENT BECOMES DESTRUCTIVE OF THESE ENDS (LIFE,LIBERTY,AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS) IT IS THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR ABOLISH IT, AND TO INSTITUTE A NEW GOVERNMENT― Thomas Jefferson
Inch High Guy 