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.