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Tom Bebout
142 articles

Hasegawa 1/48 F6F-3 Hellcat

December 3, 2016 · in Aviation · · 17 · 2.2K

My first since I started building models again..Lots of little flaws on her and they were all self inflicted. Fit overall was very good and the only issue I have are the kit decals, the white portion appears mostly cream in tone and not really white. It's very apparent on the underside. I screwed up the decals for the landing gear so the small 17's are missing, guess I'll be buying some number decals shortly.

The only mods I did was an Ultracast seat and I cut out the Nav lights and replaced them with some clear sprue. Paints were a combination of Model Master blues and TS-26 pure white from a rattle can. Have heard the Edward Cat is the best one on the market so I may have to give that one a try as well.

Reader reactions:
4  Awesome

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17 responses

  1. Tom, Frank Cronin has a saying (hope I get this right) "I know where the mistakes are, and I'm not telling you." You can also hum "Everything is beautiful".

    That is a good looking Hellcat.

    I'm having second thoughts on Hasegawas off white decals. Insignias get discolored, if the plane survives long enough. There is also some indication that when Enterprises air group went to night operations, they toned down their insignia, supposedly by overpainting them gray.

    A combat veteran with shiny insignia? Maybe.

    Interestingly, the Eduard Hellcat I have (initial profipack -3) has a greyed out upper wing insignia. I haven't seen any discussion about that. The fuselage insignia are "normal". Anomaly? Local decision? Pilots idea? BUAER idea lost n the mists of time? Eduards interpretation of a photo?

  2. It would be interesting to see a clutch of Hellcats- Otaki/Arii, Hasegawa, Eduard, maybe even Monogram- next to one another. A history of the aircraft in model form. Shame my Lindberg Hellcat (my first) went to the landfill long ago.
    Snake - he posts on the FORUM THAT MUST NOT BE NAMED- had
    a site of his own and had his Corsair Circus, along those lines. It was fun seeing which was which. Kinda impressive and nostalgic, too.

  3. That's a good job, Tom...no need to apologize for any "nuances" in the build.

  4. Excellent Grumman, hope I can get my Eduard 1/72 to look half as good as this.

  5. Ya wanna laugh...the vaunted Eduard Hellcat is a very nice one in most respects, especially skin/surface detail. But it has a bunch of cons. The wing gun barrels are too small and wrong. The propeller is molded "soft" meaning lack of sharp detail. So too the cockpit sidewalls. The tires were untreaded, I saw no refs like this they all had diamond tread. I had a True Details cockpit set, but guess where I got a proper prop and tires. Yep the poor disparaged Hasegawa. I have since replaced the stolen parts with resin stuff, someday I'll get to the old Hase.

    As has been said, yours looks quite the cat, and I damn sure never tell anybody where the booger-ups are! 🙂

  6. Tom I think that you did a great job on your Hellcat. It looks really good. I have several of the same kits as yours still in the box. Shoot me a PM and I can send you some decals if you want... I also have experienced the "yellowing" effect with some of Hasegawa's decals.

    I have built several Hasegawa F6F's. They are a joy to build, but on occasion you can hit a speed bump. On my last posting of Vraciu's plane #19, I used a true details resin cockpit, cutting edge corrected cowl and prop, and the Danger Boy wing fold. I'm really happy with how it turned out, but I also have a OOB version that I built as one of Dave McCampbell's "Minsi III".
    The difference between the two planes is noticeable, but you really have to look close to notice what is different between the two.

    Once again, great job my friend !

  7. Hasegawa was notoious for "off-white/cream" color white decals. They have finally started charging enough for their kits that they can afford to contract for decals where the white is actually white.

    Nice work on the kit. If you're interested in a largely fault-free Hellcat kit, take a look at Eduard.

    • Koppos may be corfrect about those matters, but so far in building six Eduard's I haven't complained, and since I don't go chasing chrome plated plastic pots with my plastic toys, nobody else does either. 🙂

  8. Lovely Hellcat, Tom.

  9. The cat looks great to me! Nicely done.

  10. I loves me a Hellcat, and yours looks great Tom. Bravo sir!

  11. Looks pretty good from here!

  12. Great work on your Hellcat, Tom!

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