1/72 Eduard F6F-3 Hellcat

The Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat was an improvement on its predecessor, the F4F-4 Wildcat, in every way.  Powered by the enormous Pratt and Whitney Wasp engine, the Hellcat was more than a match for the formidable Japanese Zero.  This kit from Eduard is terrific in all respects.  Great fit, easy to understand instructions, it was simply a joy to put together.    

As you can see from the sprues here, Eduard does something I’ve rarely seen, they make the landing gear wheels in two parts, the hub and the tire.  What a great idea — painting wheels is one of the most frustrating things.  I also noticed that they use the same sprues for different kits — there were parts on the sprues that the instructions said were not to be used, for example, there is a radar dome for the night-fighting Hellcat, rockets, and different engine cowlings.

Here you can see the cockpit coming together.  I highlighted some of the instrumentation with a silver pencil crayon and would do the same with a white one for the instrument panel.  

Here we can see things going together smoothly, just a little putty on the bottom of the fuselage.  I also re-scribed the panel lines where the putty was.

Ready for some color!  

Here is the engine, propeller and canopy masking.  I put some tape on the canopy and shaded in where I wanted to make the cuts with a pencil.  It worked out pretty well.

Here we can see the flat white on the underside and the sea blue on the top.  Under the masking tape is the medium blue, creating that two tone blue effect.  

Color came out very nicely.  

Added the canopy and did a coat of Future in preparation for decals.

There were LOTS of decals for such a small kit.  Did my best to apply them and then used Microsol to get them to conform. 

Came out quite nicely!  I melted some sprue to make the antennas.  It was a bit tricky to glue them on using super glue.  

I did a bit of “weathering” on the guns and ammo discharge areas as well as the engine exhaust.  I really can’t say enough about how good this kit is.  I will definitely keep an eye out for more Eduard kits in the future.

Paints

Tamiya Acrylic

XF-1 Flat Black
XF-2 Flat White
XF-3 Flat Yellow
XF-4 Yellow Green
XF-6 Copper
XF-17 Sea Blue
XF-18 Medium Blue
XF-20 Medium Grey
XF-64 Red Brown
X-10 Gun Metal
X-11 Chrome Silver