1:48 F6F-3 / Hellcat Mk. I OVERTREES

The cat from the Grumman stable

The F6F came about as the answer to experience from the first months of the war in the Pacific and reached the units in 1943. The R-2800 radial engine gave the machine its power, the widely splayed landing gear retracting into the wing gave it confidence in a deck landing, and the rugged structure took hits after which another type would not have made it home. The Fleet Air Arm operated the same aircraft under the designation Hellcat Mk. I and deployed them from the Norwegian fjords as far as the Indian Ocean. The kill ratio the type was credited with in under two years is among the best of the whole war.

The scope of the offer

This is bare plastic, that is injection-molded sprues without brass, masks and markings. It is a suitable basis for building in a larger series, for example for the deck of an aircraft carrier, where one model stands next to another and the equipment is added in bulk, uniformly and in a single purchase.

Metal, decal or print

The instrument panel shows the limits of photo-etched parts very plainly. Brass offers sharp outlines of the dials and openings, a decal offers colored dial faces with no work with tweezers, and a printed part offers depth and color at once. None of those solutions is the best every time; what decides is how open the cockpit stays and where the viewer looks at the model from. With a closed canopy it often turns out that the simplest route stands up just as well as the costliest. The time saved then goes on the surface finish, which decides the impression of the finished aircraft far more.