Cat In The Night

Historical Background

Grumman's F6F Hellcat was conceived to replace it's earlier F4F Wildcat in US Navy service. Despite the myth that mentioned that the Hellcat was specifically designed to beat the Japanese A6M Zero, Grumman actually had been working on the Wildcat successor since 1938 and the contract for the prototype XF6F-1 was signed in June 1941. From early 1942 however, Leroy Grumman worked with US Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics and combat-experienced Wildcat pilots to refine the new aircraft so that it can counter the Zero and gain air superiority over the Pacific. Improvements include replacing the original Wright R-2600 radial engine (1,700hp) with Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp (2,000hp) with corresponding airframe strengthening; increased cockpit height and sloping down the forward fuselage for better forward visibility. Protection was in the shape of bullet-resistant windshield, 96kg of armour for the cockpit and further armour around the oil tank and oil cooler. Fuel tanks are of self-sealing type. Standard armament consisted of six 12.7mm M2 heavy machine guns. Later aircraft can carry bombs on the central (also plumbed for external fuel tank) and two wing hardponts. Six 5-inch HVARs could also be carried on three zero-length launchers underneath each wing.

The first production variant, F6F-3, first flew in October 1942 and the first squadron, VF-9 was operational in February 1943 aboard USS Essex. From April 1944, the US Navy later took delivery of improved F6F-5 which featured redesigned engine cowling, new windshield structure, new ailerons and strengthened tailplane and more powerful engine. The Hellcat also featured night fighter variants: F6F-3E with AN/APS-4 radar in a rack-mounted pod underneath the right wing, F6F-3N fitted with AN/APS-6 radar mounted in the fuselage with its aerial inside a bulbous fairing mounted on the leading edge of the starboard wing and finally F6F-5N, with the same radar arrangement as on the F6F-3N. Fixed armament was the same with day-fighter variants except that a number of F6F-5Ns have their innermost machine guns replaced with 20mm M2 cannon.

Navy and Marine Corps F6F pilots claimed 5,163 kills (56% of the total Navy/Marine kill claims of World War 2) and lost 270 of their number to enemy planes : a kill-to-loss ratio of 19:1.

The Kit

Hobby Boss, from China, was a relative newcomer to the industry. There have been mixed reviews on their kits - praises were heaped on some kits and damnation unto others. There is however a curious relationship between Hobby Boss and Trumpeter - many of the former's kits were previously released (usually in a larger scale) by the latter. The problem is, if Trumpeter got it right, then the Hobby Boss kit will be OK, or otherwise. From online reviews and my own observation, it was the latter in this case. The original 1/32 Trumpeter kit suffered from inaccurate fuselage cross-section (i.e bulbous compared to the actual thing). This in turn affected the cockpit dimension and the shape of the canopy. Having said that, the rest of the kit is good with crisp panel lines and once the building starts, good fit. There is also wing-fold option not seen in other Hellcat kits. Yes, there are redeeming factors but you just can't get your eyes off that fuselage.....

So why did I bought this kit? First the price - at RM59.50 it's a bargain! Plus the more accurate Eduard kit is harder to find locally and I'm not that prepared to use my credit card...again (it's a budgetary consideration). The kit was spread among seven sprues (two clear) plus a separate one-piece cowling. Sprue 'G' contains -5N specific items namely 20mm cannon barrels, instrument panel and radar pod (and also the engine firewall). Decals were the same with the Trumpeter kit - 'White 7-15' from VF(N)-107  and 'White F(N)59' from VMF(N)-541.

Construction

As usual the cockpit gets the first attention. As I have mentioned above, the wrong cross section of the fuselage resulted in a wider cockpit. Details inside the cockpit were good though. I used Tamiya's recipe for US Interior Green, XF-64 Red Brown for brown parts, Gunze 8 for silver parts and XF-69 NATO Black for black parts. Relevant parts were then given a drybrush with Gunze 8 silver and the decal was applied to the instrument panel. The kit also include details for the compartment between the engine and cockpit, but since area would be invisible, I just added the parts which contributed toward the structural strength. The engine parts were painted Mr. Color 28 Steel and dry-brushed with Mr. Color 8 Silver. In Step 2 of the instruction sheet, I skipped the landing gears and just assemble the fixed part of the wings. I then glued the fuselage halves together after making sure that I have put the tailwheel and the arrestor hook in place, as they won't be accessible once the fuselage halves had been mated together. The tailplanes were then glued, as also the cockpit transparencies, after I have masked them. I goofed up though - I forgot to add the armored glass part, which I only realised after I have finished building the kit! I had decided earlier on that I'm going to finish this kit as the VMF(N)-541 machine. From looking at internet references, I found that this particular aircraft had the rear-view windows, as it was an early-build F6F-5. However, although Hobby Boss included those parts, I decided not to add them, as it meant drilling out recesses for them.

Next, the wings. Hobby Boss, by using Trumpeter's mold, allows one to build the Hellcat with its wings folded. I did not want this option so I build the wings in the normal position. The design of the parts allowed the wing joints to have good strength to stay in their position. Before attaching the upper and lower wing halves, I drilled a hole in the starboard wing to accommodate the AN/APS-6 radar and closed up all the other holes for the rocket launchers. The outer wings were then mated to the inner parts. Fit is OK although I somehow can't get the starboard wing to fit properly, leaving a small gap, which I left it as it was. Next, the fixed weaponry: there was confusion whether this plane was armed with 20mm cannons or not. After googling, I found that the aircraft was armed with six 12.7mm machine guns rather than the mixed armament. Therefore, I did not use the 20mm cannon barrel and substituted them with plastic rod. Measurements were made from modified 1/72 plans in Scale Aviation Modeler International. The cowling was fitted last which was then masked off for painting. The landing gears, aerials, ordnance and propeller were to be fitted after painting.

Painting and Decalling

Painting a late-war US Navy/Marine aircraft was simplicity itself - overall gloss sea blue. The instructions showed that the radome was to be painted white, but the same googling showed that the radome was painted gloss sea blue. I used Tamiya Spray Paint AS-8 Navy Blue for this colour. Some people loathe single-colour subjects, some love it - and I loved it! (no masking, no marking demarcation lines). Coupled with boring carrier/squadron markings however, it gets monotonous. That was why I chose VMF(N)-541's markings as it got, uh, a naked lady on the cowling. The 'Bat Eye Squadron' were active in The Philippines from December 1944 to January 1945. They were then rotated back to Peleliu and finally to Ulithi Atoll in May 1945, providing night fighter defence for the US Navy anchorage. While other Marine squadrons were scoring against the Japanese in Okinawa, the squadron suffered a dip in morale defending an essentially secure location, far from the fighting. To counter this, VMF(N)-514 officially sanctioned the painting of nose art on its aircraft, becoming the only Marine unit in World War 2 to do so. 

Next, the decaling stage. Hobby Boss provided the decals in two sheets. A larger one contains markings for both options and also stencils for one aircraft. A smaller sheet contains the nose art, in a manner similar to the earlier Trumpeter offering. The decals were OK although a bit translucent. A few placement markings were questionable - for example, Hellcats were equipped with one gun camera inside the leading edge of the port wing only but the sheet instructed the modeller to place 'gun camera' decals on BOTH wings. The decal for the Hamilton Standard logos on the propeller blades were also oversized. The decals were then subjected to Mr Mark Decal Softer treatment.

Finishing

Finally it was time to attach the main landing gears, aerial, bombs and the guns. Once secure, I sprayed Tamiya spray Flat Clear in a rather haphazard manner to simulate weathering upon the original semi-gloss paint. Lastly I used Tamiya Weathering Master to create exhaust stains on the fuselage.

Conclusion
Using another company's mould might be good for your accounts, but using a basically bad one causes grief to your buyers. But honestly, it was an easy kit to build. I had to live with that misshapen fuselage however and given the chance (and money), I'd rather buy the Eduard Hellcat.  

Jaws Rhino

Historical Background

In 1953, McDonnell Aircraft began to redesign the F3H Demon to improve its capabilities. In September of the same year, the company approached the US Navy with their proposal for a 'Super Demon'. The Navy was interested but they felt that two other competing designs, Grumman's F11F Tiger and Vought's F8U Crusader already satisfied their need for supersonic fighters. McDonnell then reworked their design into a fighter bomber under the designation YAH-1. However, in 1955, the Navy came with a new set of requirements : the YAH-1 was to be a fleet defense interceptor, armed with Sparrow missiles and were now redesignated XF4H-1. The F4H-1 were originally to be named 'Satan' or 'Mithras' but eventually, the name 'Phantom' with suffix II was selected (Phantom I was McDonnell's earlier jet fighter, the FH-1). As interceptor, the Phantom was armed with four AAM-N-6 (later AIM-7) Sparrow SARH missile and backed with four AIM-9 Sidewinder IR-homing missiles. No gun were ever fitted to Navy Phantoms (not even in podded form). In 1960, VF-121 'Pacemakers' became the first Phantom operator when it received F4H-1Fs and the first deployable unit was VF-74 'Be-devillers' when it received F4H-1 in 1961.

Navy Phantoms were in the thick of Vietnam War with 13 deployable squadrons at the time of the Tonkin Gulf incident. From 1964 to 1973, they participated in 84 combat tours, losing 73 in combat (7 to MiGs, 13 to SAMs and 53 to flak) and managed to 'kill' 40 enemy planes. Among the Phantom operators was VF-111 'Sundowners' which deployed its F-4Bs on board USS Coral Sea from 1971 to 1975 (the squadron previously deployed to Vietnam flying F-8 Crusaders on board USS Intrepid). Sundowners managed to down two VNAF MiGs during the war.

The Kit

The F-4 is one of the staple kits from Hasegawa, virtually all of the Phantom variants have been kitted by them. This particular kit (No. 00365) is a 2002 re-boxing of their 1/72 F-4B/N moulds. The panel lines however remain crisp and there were no flash whatsoever. The cockpit is fairly basic but good enough for 1/72. Nose parts were separate from the rest of the fuselage (so that Hasegawa can use the fuselage mould for all its Phantom kits). Kit decals were printed by Cartograf for two aircraft, both serving with VF-111 : a F-4N from USS Franklin D. Roosevelt and a F-4B from USS Coral Sea. Curiously the instruction sheet still show the decal placement instructions for a VF-161 machine....

As usual with Hasegawa kits, there were no weapons included in the kit and I have to rely on my dwindling Hasegawa weapons set in stash....

Construction

It invariably started with the cockpit! I painted the cockpit parts in FS36231 (Gunze Sangyo H317) before assembly. The relevant decals were then placed on their respective places and afterwards the parts were glued together. The seats were good enough in 1/72 but they sure could use PE seatbelts. I just made them from Tamiya masking tape and painted XF49 Khaki The cockpit is then fitted between the forward fuselage halves which in turn glued to the main fuselage. The interior of the intakes were painted Flat White before assembly and luckily, the seams were not that obvious.

Before assembling the wings, I drilled holes at the prescribed places on the lower wing, less holes underneath the bottom fuselage as I decided to add wing tanks instead of the fuselage tank. I the deviated from the instructions by not fixing the exhausts at this stage. Horizontal stabilisers and small, more fragile parts were left off until later.

Painting and Decaling

US Navy aircraft from the later half of the 1950s until the early 1980s were painted Light Gull Grey and White. I used Gunze H51 for Light Gull Grey and Tamiya TS-27 Flat White. The metallic part underneath the tail and relevant parts on the horizontal stabilizer were painted Gunze 28 Steel mixed with some Gunze 8 Silver. The exhausts were painted Gunze 61 Burnt Iron whilst the inner half of the horizontal stabiliser were painted Gunze 8 Silver. Next, the decaling stage. I wanted to do a Vietnam era Rhino, so I chose the USS Coral Sea option. The decals were printed by Cartograf so the quality is assured. Nevertheless it was a chore to fix all those stencils! The model was then subjected to a watercolour sludge wash.

Finishing

I decided to reflect the Phantom's versatility by loading my model with a mix of AAMs and bombs - four AIM-7s, 4 AIM-9D and six Mk.82 Snakeyes. All the ordnance came from Hasegawa's US Aircraft Weapons Sets. Earlier on, I decided to fit two external tanks on the outboard pylons - with hindsight it was the 'wrong' choice - Navy Phantoms were usually equipped with the centerline, rather than wing tanks. The bombs were loaded on the inboard pylons using TER (triple ejector rack), also from Hasegawa's weapon set. The canopies were then installed and finally I sprayed a layer of Tamiya Flat Clear.

Conclusion
There were literally hundreds of Phantom kits out there but I guess Hasegawa's is the best. They are fairly easy to assemble and has good detail - they just need some basic weapons load included though! The Cartograf decals included in this boxing is top class too. Anyway, what I REALLY want is F-4J 'Showtime 100' - Randy Cunningham and Willie Driscoll's mount when they became the only Navy aces during the Vietnam war. I had one when I was a kid but that old Hasegawa offering was covered with overscale rivets!