Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat, Eduard 1/72
My first Hellcat!
ENS Gordon Arthur Stanley, VF-27, USS Princeton (CVL-23),
October 1944
I couldn't resist and I did the cat mouth camo.
Gordon Arthur Stanley, born on July 13th, 1921, in Seattle, Washington state, shot down 8 enemy airplanes in the course of World War Two, all achieved flying with VF-27. This unit became famous thanks to its unique marking - cat mouth and eyes, painted by Robert Burnell on all noses of the Hellcats belonging to this unit. Some* of the Hellcats sporting the cat mouth with eyes were destroyed on October 24th, 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The aircrafts ended up on the ocean bottom together with Light Aircraft Carrier Princeton sunk by the single bomb launched from the D4Y Suisei (Judy) dive-bomber. Afterwards VF-27 operated from the board of CVL-22 Independence, however without the cat-mouth and eyes markings.
- I've corrected the above text after the great contribution in the comment section by Tom Cleaver who has provided me the following information in regards to the Cat mouth planes:
"Actually, most of the VF-27 Hellcats were airborne on October 24, and landed aboard USS Essex, where that night they were “shanghaied” back into the Navy and press-ganged into VF-15, with the cat mouths painted out per the orders of Admiral Fred Sherman, who had been out to get those cat mouths since Princeton had arrived in the task group that summer."
Thank you Tom!
Wow! that is a beatiful work of art.
Hi George, thank you very much for your kind words!
Actually, most of the VF-27 Hellcats were airborne on October 24, and landed aboard USS Essex, where that night they were "shanghaied" back into the Navy and press-ganged into VF-15, with the cat mouths painted out per the orders of Admiral Fred Sherman, who had been out to get those cat mouths since Princeton had arrived in the task group that summer.
Very nice work on this - as with many Eduard 1/72 kits, it would be easy to mistake the model for 1/48.
Hi Tom, I had no idea. Thank you for the info and I'm happy you liked it.
'ell of a Hellcat, Jorge. Looks great!
Thank you ?
Great Hellcat, Jorge (@jark). The weathering is particularly well-done.
Thank you George! Happy you liked the weathering, I certainly had fan doing it!
Great Hellcat, Jorge and very interesting intro story.
I love seeing good 1/72 kits so well built.
Well done!
Thank you Spiros! Lately I’ve been building many 1/72nd kits and I have to confess I’ve been enjoining the process even more than 1/48th ...There’s something about the smaller scale that fascinates me. They are easier to handle, easier to display, they occupy less space but they still allow for lots of detail if you want. The only downside is the fact that the offer of good kits and subjects is more limited than of 1/48th scale...
I totally agree, Jorge @jark! 1/72 is, I believe, the scale we all started from, then proceeded to other scales.
I build all aircraft scales (haven't built 1/24 yet...) and every scale has its merits, depending on the subject, of course.
Having said that, after the "God's scale" 1/48 fever passed over me, I have to admit that (and this is personal) there's something magic in 1/72...
Hi Spiros, funny...I actually started in 1/48th and I've moved to 1/72nd as my preferred one, although any now and then I build in different scales (144,48,32) ...Also as far as I know, the "God's scale" is actually 1/72nd not 1/48th, but I could be wrong about that?...
You are probably right, Jorge @jark!
Then, 1/48 might be the "one and true scale"? Or have I lost myself in definitions?
Cheers!
Another beauty from your hands, Jorge.
Especially since all the details while it's just a 1/72 kit.
Thank you so much John! I’m glad you like my work ?
Stuning job. Always thought the Hellcat looks really good, and you did great on it.
Thank you Daniel. I must confess I was never really into the Hellcat but I can say after building one that now I like it a lot!
You know, I looked at this without reading the title, and I was very sure that it was the airfix 1/24 one. Well done with that detail!
Wow! No, never done a 1/24 aircraft. Thank you ?
Hello Jorge,
Amazing good weathering on this rather small scale aircraft.
The way you present it,, it could go for every (larger) scale.
Regards, Dirk / The Netherlands.
Hi Dirk, thank you for your kind words!. I had a lot of fun weathering the aircraft. I reckon one day I'll do a bigger scale. Cheers
Jorge
Beautiful piece of work!