F6F-3 Hellcat

Published on
November 20, 2012
Review Author(s)
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$34.95
Product / Stock #
5060
Company: Cyber-Hobby - Website: Visit Site
Provided by: Dragon Models USA - Website: Visit Site
Box Art

Cyber-Hobby has recently entered the model aircraft community, and their latest offering is that of a 1/72 scale F6F-3 Hellcat. The kit builds up reasonably well, with good fit for most of the parts, and options such as extended or retracted landing gear, open or closed canopy, and extended or retracted wings. Cyber-Hobby also does a nice job of including the markings for six different squadrons, and in the case of VF-27, there are markings for three different planes with the legendary “cat mouth” motif. The kit itself contains 124 light gray parts spread across seven sprues, as well as 5 clear parts on a single sprue and 4 photoetch pieces on a single fret. The directions are on eight pages (a single sheet of paper with three folds), and are printed in black and blue. The kit will make a great addition to the collection of any modeler who is interested in the venerable Hellcat in this scale.

The F6F-3 has the distinction of being the most successful fighter ever produced by the United States, and the plane destroyed over 5200 enemy aircraft during the Second World War. The Hellcat design was started by Grumman as an improvement to their F4F Wildcat, and was sometimes referred to as “the Wildcat’s big brother”. Grumman powered the Hellcat with the 2000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 that was also utilized in the Corsair. Just over 4400 of the dash three variant were built before production was changed over to the dash five models.

For my markings, I made the early decision to go with one of the “cat mouth” fighters of VF-27 as they appeared when serving aboard the USS Princeton in 1944. The squadron only existed for a few years as it originated in Norfolk, Virginia in 1942, and was then disbanded following World War II. The “cat mouth” design is credited to three pilots (Carl Brown, Richard Stambrook, and Robert Burnell) who were members of the squadron during training in Hawaii in early 1944. All of the aircraft in the squadron would eventually receive the unique markings, and these would last until 29 May 1944 when the USS Princeton was lost at the battle of Leyte Gulf. When the planes landed aboard other carriers in the Task Force, their commanders found little humor in the markings and ordered them removed.

Having built a Wildcat in this scale several years ago with its wings folded, it was an easy choice in how I wanted to represent my Hellcat. As a former carrier sailor, I know from experience that, aboard ship, carrier aircraft keep their wings folded from shortly after landing until just prior to takeoff, and I greatly appreciate having the option to do this. Although I do not typically display my aircraft in flight, it is nice that the option is available to show the landing gear raised, if that is what a builder wants.

As I mentioned, the kit builds up relatively well, but there are some items to overcome with the directions. In step three, the windows behind the cockpit are not labeled on their sprue, but they should be W5 and W6, and they do need to be installed on the inside of the fuselage, so they will need to be in place before joining the fuselage halves. I will also mention that, in this step, I found it useful not to glue the engine to the fuselage but left it loose during the painting of the exterior to allow for touch-ups. In step four, parts C3 and C4 need to be swapped on the drop tank (C4 needs to be the forward brace); in addition, C13 and C14 are swapped, which will be apparent when adding the gear door and hydraulic lines. I also found my parts B23 and B24 damaged as they are small to begin with, but have a depression for adding parts B25 and B26 to them, and my damage was at this indent. Step five I felt had rather inadequate drawings to represent the installation of parts D29 and D30 for the wing folds. In short, the shorter forks on the pieces need to be attached to the outer wings as the longer forks will attach to the wing roots. Finally, in step six, parts B27 and B28 are swapped, and before you go crazy trying to find B5 and B6 shown in this step, know that they are in reality B7 and B8 on the sprue.

I used Model Master Acryl Interior Green, Green Zinc Chromate, Semi-Gloss White, Gloss Black, Insignia Yellow, Engine Gray, Aircraft Interior Black, and Dark Sea Blue as well as Model Master Metalizer Aluminum and Burnt Iron. I also utilized Model Master Enamel Intermediate Blue, and Vallejo Dark Rubber, Olive Green (for the seat), Oily Steel, and Natural Steel. I sealed the paint with Alclad Gloss Coat before and after adding the decals.

As far as my hits of this kit are concerned, the fit and finish are very good, and the level of detail is excellent for this scale. The panel lines and rivets are well represented, and this is the first Hellcat kit that I have seen with the shields installed around the longer gun barrels, as was done on early production planes. I like the representation of the Pratt & Whitney engine, as I thought that it looked great assembled and painted, and I decided not to attach the cowling permanently so that I can show it off in the future. The options incorporated were appreciated by me, and should be a hit with most modelers.

As far as my misses are concerned, I was a little disappointed with the number of errors in the directions for this kit, especially for the folded wings option. It took a fair amount of research on my part to figure out how parts B9 and 10 attached to parts B7 and 8, and then how to attach them to the wing root area. This is a very delicate assembly when installed, so be cautious working around it during painting and final assembly. My one bad fit issue during construction was the wheels, as their openings are much too large for their attachment pegs on the landing gear. I also do not think that the separate canopy sets properly on the fuselage, but I think that the two-piece assembly looks better than the single-piece.

Overall, I would highly recommend this kit to anyone wanting to add an F6F-3 Hellcat to their collection of 1/72 scale aircraft. The kit is not that difficult to build, but the folded wing option will require some additional skills to tackle. Aside from that, any modeler with some experience in handing small and delicate parts will be able to assemble a nice looking Hellcat with this offering.

I would like to thank the folks at Dragon Models USA for providing this kit to the IPMS for review, to Steve Collins, who runs the review corps, for selecting me to do the build, and to you for taking the time to read my comments.

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