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Frank Cronin
80 articles

Year of the Cat

This is an out of the box kit of the -3. This is a very nice kit with the exceptions of the decals. I had a problem with some of them wandering and warping all over the place. I managed to save the significant decals for this particular A/C but the stars came from my stash.

This is an A/C of VF-33, land based on Ondonga in 1943. being land based it had the arial removed and a whip antenna was used in it's place. this particular A/C was flown by Lt Carlos "Ken" Hildebrandt USNR. He is credited with 5 confirmed victories. According to the "American Fighter Aces Album", Hildebrandt was born in San Francisco in 1916. He completed flight training in 1941 and went to various duties then to VF-33 where he gained Ace status. In 1944 he returned to the USA as a Lt Commander and was discharged after VJ day He remained in the USN Reserves at Oakland NAS. He retired from the USN in 1954 as a Lt. Commander.He then went into broadcasting and eventually owned a radio station. C. "Ken" Hildebrandt passed away at the age of 83 in 2000

Reader reactions:
9  Awesome

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12 responses

  1. Beautiful work, Frank...I like this one a lot! One of the better builds I've seen.

  2. Frank, aren't these Eduard kits fun ! A very nice looking Hellcat, I really like the paint work you did with the tri-color scheme, it looks right on to me !

  3. Nice job, Frank. Eduard Hellcats are great kits. Great paint work, btw.

  4. Nice job there.

  5. Beautiful paint scheme, Frank! The Hellcat is a fitting Big Brother to your great Bearcat, and is a real icon of Naval aircraft. I hope to finish MY F6F-3 in the near future. This one and the ones Louis did are inspirational.

    Bravo!

  6. Beautiful job! I've got their 1/72 waiting to be built.

  7. This is a welcome addition to the Year of the Cat GB. Thanks for posting it up ! She's a real beauty.

  8. Profile Photo
    said on March 10, 2018

    Good lookin Hellcat.

  9. And a great Hellcat as well, you've been busy, Frank.

  10. Nice looking Hellcat. Solid, clean build. Well done!

  11. Nice kitty! Looks even better in person!

  12. Great looking A/C

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