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Paul E. Owens
7 articles

Eduard 1/48 F6F-3

February 27, 2020 · in Aviation · 19 · 2.1K

In march 1945 the U.S. Navy had to rein in production of the Hellcat at Grumman's busy New York facility as production numbers reached a staggering 600 per month. All together a total of 12,275 Hellcats were produced in just over two years! This impressive workhorse quickly gained air superiority in the pacific, defending the fleet and achieving a kill ratio of 19 to 1 !

The kit is was a random draw award for January 2019, completed this past November. Assembly went well as painting was made easy because the wings and horizontal stabilizers can be left off and painted separately. All paints were Tamiya and Gunze acrylics.

Two separate canopys are included (open and closed) as you can see from the photos, i used both. i also included one pic without the drop tank.

Reader reactions:
9  Awesome

8 additional images. Click to enlarge.


19 responses

  1. Well done. I noticed no more draws or maybe I just missed the winners

  2. Very nice work. I like this a lot.

    Not a critique, but if you should want to do the one thing that physically separates the early production Hellcats from the others (other than the paint job), the wing guns have fairings over the barrels. these are easily done with some Evergreen strip, then glued in place of the barrels. There are photos of the early planes you can find with the google that will demonstrate things exactly.

  3. Nicely done, Paul.

  4. That's a nice looking cat Paul. Well done.

  5. 🙂 … Greetings … 🙂 :
    Very good modeling Paul, the fun you had in this building can bee seen, slight but very well weathering. Hope too see more of your work.

  6. Nice to see a Hellcat in the early scheme.

  7. Good looking Hellcat! Don't see them in the early lighter blue scheme very often - nice to see the different take.

  8. thank you Greg!

  9. The "Grumman Wave" turned out beautifully!

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