Camouflage & Markings – Grumman F6F Hellcat
Inspired by Craig's beautiful model F6F, I have gathered together my Hellcat profiles. The camouflage schemes shown are all standard, including the British one in temperate sea scheme of extra dark sea grey, dark slate grey over sky undersides. Most of the profiles show post-war USN aircraft and the unit markings on them show a number of different styles which was the case at the time. The situation was complicated not just once but twice over, in 1946 and 1948, by complete redesignations of Naval air units as can be seen in the captions. There's a pretty good explanation of it for those interested, in Volume 2 of the Squadron/Signal "Navy Air Colors" series, by Thomas E Doll & others, published in 1985.
21 additional images. Click to enlarge.
Simon Whitney said on December 11, 2014
It`s always a pleasure when someone posts help like this up.
Thank you Rick.
Bernd Müller said on December 11, 2014
Very nice profiles ! Lovely schemes, thanks for sharing
Dark Seablue with orange fuselage bands are very colorful.
My fave is the No. 808 squafron FAA bird, are decals for these markings out ?
Editor said on December 11, 2014
Comes very handy as an inspiration to finish off my F6F-5 that has been painted overall Glossy Sea Blue and lying around for a year. I wanted something with a touch of other color to it. The red cowling options are new to me, may go with one of them. Thanks for sharing! /m
Craig Abrahamson said on December 11, 2014
Nice reference plates, Rick...good to have more than one source to look at. Thanks.
Rick Kent said on December 11, 2014
The red cowl rings were the ident colour for the first squadron in the air group as is still the case with air wings.
Rick Kent said on December 11, 2014
Berndt, I don't know of any decals for that 808 Sqn aircraft. I got the markings for it from an issue of Scale Aircraft Modelling quite some years back as you can see from the date on the drawing. The roundels, fin flash and recognition bands are standard size and colour for the British East Indies Fleet and I'm sure are available for other aircraft at least. Maybe Hannants or one of the other big modelling stores might know of some.
Jim Sullivan said on December 11, 2014
A fine selection of Hellcat profiles...some great potential markings for future Hellcat builds...Thanks
Rob Pollock said on December 11, 2014
The Princeton profile stands out for me, and is much like the aircraft on display at Duxford, with the three distinctive colour bands.
Paul van Acker said on December 12, 2014
Love all these profiles you do. Thank you for posting.
Bernard E. Hackett, Jr. said on December 12, 2014
Rick:
Thanks for the eye candy. There's a couple there that are new to me.
I've got a couple of Hellcats, and there's some good ideas for them there.
Rick Kent said on December 12, 2014
Hello again, Bernd. I kept getting a picture in my mind of an Airfix kit of a British Hellcat like my profile you asked about. I've now found it on Google and it was a 1/72 model produced in 1975. AND, better yet, there's one available on ebay right now at 15.50 GBP. It's not the exact same aircraft - the scheme is exactly the same but the codes are C3B.
Bernd Müller said on December 12, 2014
Do you have a link ? There was a RoG Hellcat in 1/72 out
with similar markings, i got the decals, the sqn.letterings are in sky
didn t find a photo of that and came to the conclusion that wrong after seeing your profile
Rick Kent said on December 12, 2014
I don't have a link, but just Google Airfix Hellcat and you'll see it. The ebay advert is top right when you get there with an image of the box to click on.