Hasegawa 1/72 F6F-3/5 Hellcat

HASEGAWA 1:72 GRUMMAN F6F-3/5 HELLCAT

Reviewer: Mark B (SMAKR Webmaster) (smakr1@optusnet.com.au)
Kit Built + Review Submitted: 20 February 2003

Kit Details:

Hasegawa B11 - (00241) 1:72 F6F-3/5 Hellcat

Aircraft History:

The F6F Hellcat was designed and built as a an all-purpose Zero killer. In that role it achieved what it was built for with a 2000 hp engine and was successor to the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The F6F-3 was the definitive version, or main production version while the F6F-5 was one which incorporated a few new improvements such as upgraded ailerons. It first appeared in numbers in late 1943 and remained in service with the USAAF right through til the end of the war serving in the Pacific theatre. It shot down more aircraft in the Pacific theatre than any other plane and of the total of just under 6,500 aircraft shot down by US Navy pilots since the US entered the war, just under 5,000 of those were by F6F Hellcats, which underlies just how much of an important aircraft the Hellcat really was.

The Kit:

Three sprues of light grey parts plus one clear are bagged together with the decals, inside the renowned white box style of Hasegawan packaging. This is a reasonably old kit dating from at least the mid-80's if not longer, with good solid detail in the form of raised panel lines and surface detail.

Hasegawa have also released another boxing of this kit with a different set of decals, so this review can pretty much go for that kit too.

Instructions:

This is the form of a fold out sheet which is about the length of A3 and height of A5 with multi-lingual brief overview and a black and white picture of the model on the front. Next to that, forming the reverse side of the fold out sheet is a sprue diagram and the five-view diagrams (top, sides, bottom and front) of principally the three versions in the kit, although two versions share the same sketches for top, front and bottom. On the mainside of the instruction sheet are the construction steps totalling four in number which are easy to follow, and large "version numbers" are provided where you are painting or attaching a part particular for one of the three examples on the back. A close up inset diagram is provided for decal placement in the cockpit and painting information from the Gunze Sangyo & Mr Color ranges are also provided.

Construction:

I won't go into too much depth on construction because it is for the main part straight forward and pretty simple, as most Hasegawa kits are. The cockpit is made up of a base unit rudder pedals and side panels onto which go simplistic bucket seat, instrument panel, joystick and rear bulkhead with headrest. No instrumentation detail is provided anywhere, although decals are supplied for main and side panels as well as fuselage sides. I used a small piece of stretched sprue to include a starboard mounted fire extinguisher but otherwise pretty much left the cockpit as is.

The instructions tell you to cut out the openings for the rear windows although one might wish to consult references (especially if you are choosing an aftermarket version to reproduce) as some Hellcats had rear windows, and others were painted over. I carved the area out with a hobby knife and then file the edges and test fitted the rear window before putting them in. From the photos I have, I don't think they are quite fully correct in shape, needing a slight slant on the bottom, although you can simply use paint to fix this. You have to keep in mind that the canopy has to sit flush against the rear cockpit and window so I found it necessary for a quick little sand on the front of those rear windows accordingly. When you install the cockpit in the fuselage half, the bulkhead sits flush at the front of the rear windows, which means you have all this open area inside the aircraft you can see by peering through those rear windows. A large Water tank (for fuel injection I presume) was placed inside the aircraft which can block out the area behind the rear windows. You'll need to scratchbuild this by adding in some plasticard, putty or whatever you use for this type of scenario.

The fit of the fuselage halves is good but rubber bands and masking tape were definitely required to keep some areas from prizing apart. Be wary of the small antenna on the tailfin as it is easy to knock off. Some filler was needed and the seam lines were cleaned up. The main wings and tailplanes are then added, the former coming in one underwing piece and two upper halves. I found that the fit of the underwing section to the fuselage quite poor, and some sanding and filing of both of the mating areas needed to be done to ensure a decent fit. In fact a fair bit of filler was needed on this kit, more in number of areas which required a little bit than in one quantity in one area, if you know what I mean. Two one-piece canopies are provided depending on the version you are depicting along with the a choice of upper fuselage masts - I left both these off until everything else had been assembled.

Next is the engine assembly which is where I didn't look quite correctly at the instruction sheet and.... well stuffed up, although I will live with it. Those who read my Hasegawa Ki-44 Tojo review and the engine assembly there will understand why I skimmed this phase of the instruction sheet, and well got caught out! If you look at the instructions properly, it effectively mounts the engine bulkhead and cylinder block inside the cowling with the propeller assembly affixed at the front, which I should point out means a non-moveable prop too in this kit. I didn't look at this step too carefully and simply affixed the bulkhead to the front of the fuselage nose, the cylinder block on this and then the cowling over the top. Then later when I went to affix the propeller..... it wouldn't reach the shaft bit! No problem in one way, a small bit of stretched sprue affixed to the back of the propeller ensured it would now reach the shaft, and at the end of the day, the engine sits about two millimetres further inside the cowling than it should. One of those things you really won't take a great deal noticing unless you know what you are looking for! That was a lesson learned.... again.

The wheel bays contains some diagonal structure lines for detail but are immensely shallow. If you want to do wheels up, then you will have to find some spare wheels which are split into halves, and use one half in the bay, snapped off where it is exposed - and even then it will still need severe thinning down. The gear doors fit okay, but you will need a bit of filler to plug up some small gaps. The tail wheel is not meant to be retracted in this kit, the door is molded integrally with the tailwheel itself - but nothing a bit of careful puttying won't fix up.

For stores, the kit supplies only a long range drop tank to affix under the fuselage and this was quite simple to assemble. Since it was going to be painted the same colour as the underside of the aircraft, it was best to add it onto the aircraft unpainted for maximum strength as far as hobby glue is concerned. So overall construction was pretty much straight forward stuff.

Colour Schemes:

Three examples can be built from the kit. The first an F6F-5 in overall Gloss Sea Blue flown by Cmdr McCampbell CVG-15 USS Essex Oct 1944. The other two examples are F6F-3 Hellcats with upper fuselage and wing surfaces in Navy Blue, Intermediate Blue fuselage sides and white undersurfaces. One is flown by the same pilot above, in Sept 1944, obviously prior to his move to the -5. The other was flown by Lt Cmdr Vraciu VF-6 USS Intrepid, Feb 1944.

Just as a sidenote, Airfix released an F6F(-5) Hellcat kit in 1989 (reissued older mold though I believe) which was part of its classic aces series and featured McCampbell - a review of this kit was done by Steve Papworth, who also included a spiel about the pilot and an image of him - see links at bottom of page.

I almost got tricked again by the instructions, because at first glance the demarcation lines are completely straight. I spotted the error when I thumbed through a few photos but on second glance of the instruction sheet I realised that the lines are in fact uneven as they should be, albeit almost straight - looks like some one had drawn a straight line in free hand, and did it quite well, if you know what I mean! I used a combination of Middle Blue and Midnight Blue for the upper surfaces (I simply mixed it til it looked right!) and intermediate blue and white for the other areas from the Humbrol range. The model was finished in a Matt Varnish which helped soften the glossy Midnight Blue colour.

Decals:

The decal sheet is about medium sized and contains a bit of stencilling as well as both styles of insignia which are just white star and bars version and the blue bordered/surrounded version. On the version I chose the instructions say to put the blue surrounded decals on upper wing surfaces as well as the fuselage and under wing areas, but a large artist profile of an F6F-3 in the same paint scheme clearly has the no-blue bordered white bar and stars on the upper wing surface. Most of the photos in this supposed colour scheme I had were grainy but in the main concurred with Hasegawa instructions although a couple appeared to have no blue in the insignia on the upper wing surface, so further research might need to be undertaken for the stickler for accuracy. Also, some F6F-3 Hellcats at least wore red bordered insignia during 1943 so this might be a choice for someone who wants to check out some aftermarket decals.

Accuracy:

Apart from some queries raised with painting instructions, I think the model overall captures the look and feel of the F6F Hellcat quite well, although the cockpit area, particularly the shape of the rear windows and the way the headrest is depicted (without any detail in the rear) is not right, the wheel wells are far too shallow, the underside cooler outlet and fairing are not quite correctly shaped, the triangle style attachment points for the auxiliary tank are missing (they only have two lots of sling attachments) and I think the propeller blades are also a bit on the simplistic side. I don't have a set of scale plans to compare the model against, and most F6F-5 photos I have do not have rear windows, although one of the upgrades between the F6F-3 and -5 were the ailerons which are not discussed in this kit. The real aircraft of -3 & -5 versions has a span of 13.08 m and length 10.23 m according to aircraft of WW2, Airplane and USAAF fighters of WW2 (which obviously includes Navy fighters) although the instructions say 13.056 m and 10.227 m respectively. In 1/72 these two scale down to span 18.17 cm (books) or 18.13 cm (instructions) and Length 14.21 cm pretty much for both source areas. The model measures respectively 18.17 cm and 14.15 cm which is almost perfect and the length might be better since my propeller appears too close to the cowling given my notes in construction above.

Overall Recommendation:

The kit has been out for a while now and there are probably better kits on the market but for a simple and pretty much basically accurate kit of the Hellcat I can't see much wrong with this one and would have no hesitation in recommending it to Hellcat buffs. From what I have read though, the Academy and/or Italeri kits may be better.

Taken from Hasegawa publicity shots

Related Reviews:-

Related INBOX Reviews:-

Italeri 1/72 F6F-3 & Revell 1/72 F6F-5 Grumman Hellcats

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