Eduard

1/48 F6F-5 Hellcat - Weekend Edition

Kit Number: 8434

Reviewed by  Dave Koukol, IPMS# 46287

MSRP: $24.95 Website: Eduard Catalog Background Grumman's iconic F6F Hellcat came in response to the requirement for an aircraft to best the Mitsubishi A6M Zero in the Pacific Theater during WWII. Initiated as an improvement effort of the F4F Wildcat, it quickly became evident to Grumman engineers that an entirely new airframe would be needed. The new Grumman airframe, mated with the 2000 horsepower Pratt & Whitney R2800 radial engine and 6 .50-caliber machine guns, proved to be the dominant player over the waters and islands of the Pacific from 1942 until the war's end, amassing 5,163 kills and a kill ratio of 19-to-1. Following WWII, with the introduction of the F7F Tigercat and F8F Bearcat and the advent of the jet age, U.S. Navy Hellcats were relegated primarily to service in training and Naval Reserve units, into the 1950's. Kit Overview Eduard's offering for this review is their "Weekend Edition" of the F6F-5. The distinction of Eduard's "Weekend Edition" (WE) series is simplicity and lower cost -- achieved by withholding the photoetch, masks, and multi-aircraft decal sheets from their standard offerings. Conceivably, these are kits that could be completed in a weekend. The kit consists of 5 trees of parts with hefty recessed detail, crisply and cleanly molded in soft, light tan plastic. A single tree of crystal-clear parts includes canopies, gunsight, and landing and navigation light lenses. Instructions are clear and concise, calling out Gunze paint color numbers -- not the Federal Standard numbers. Cartograf decals for a single F6F-5 round out the box contents. Control surfaces are molded separately, and canopy options are offered for either open or closed state.

Assembly Having recently built the "Standard Edition" F6F-3, I could hardly wait for the "dash 5 WE" to arrive from the manufacturer, and was not disappointed when it arrived. Little time was wasted after the UPS guy dropped the box on the doorstep. Absence of the photoetch details from the Standard Edition allowed the cockpit and engine subassemblies to be completed in little time, with a convincing amount of detail, only sacrificing ignition wires, seat belts, some sidewall "bling" and a super-sharp instrument panel. Basic cockpit painting techniques and some quick dry brushing of the instrument faces were sufficient. Although instrument faces lack raised detail, the quick dry brushing and a drop of Future for the lens did the trick nicely. Goodbye tweezers and magnifier! It was fun doing a basic "old school" cockpit for a change - with great results. Once the cockpit was done, the fuselage halves went together with minimal filling. The cowling, wings, and horizontal stabilizers followed suit, all with minimal-to-no filling. Although molded as single 3-gun pieces to mount inside the wings, I chose to defer installing my 'Cat's 6 .50-cals until the very end of final assembly. Learned this from experience on the -3 last month…they're a pain to sand or file around when smoothing the wing leading edges. Wings and horizontal stabs fit into recessed pockets in the fuselage, with little gap requiring even less filler. Painting After wiping down the assembled Cat with rubbing alcohol to remove mold release agent and skin oils, masking and tacking windscreen and canopy in place, and dry-fitting main landing struts, it was time to paint. Although not terribly eye-popping, the "dash 5's" typical monochromatic blue scheme should have been a breeze to quickly paint using Model Master Enamel Dark Sea Blue (gloss), FS15042. But no…I had to do it the hard way. This baby was my testbed for a new chipped paint technique using hairspray between an aluminum-colored base coat and the Dark Sea Blue, but I'll spare the reader the boring details. No doubt the truly curious can find it in this web site's Discussion Forums. Tack on a couple more days to the build calendar - but worth the results and the learning experience. Decals Although the supplied Cartograf decals are sharp and in-register…and great by reputation, I chose to deviate at this point and use Twobobs' "goody bag sheet" from this year's IPMS National Convention recently held in Columbus, Ohio. I did, however, use the full set of stencils provided on the kit sheet. The Twobobs' sheet from this years "Nats" included markings for an F6F-5 of VF-695, based in Columbus in the early 1950's. As usual the Two Bobs' decals were exquisitely produced and well researched. They settled right down using the MicroScale system.

Cartograph's stencils, as expected were perfectly printed, logically arranged on the sheet, and also settled right down using the MicroScale system. Final Touches After the decals set, they were sealed with a quick brush application of Future and set aside to dry for a couple hours. Once dry, an acrylic sludge wash of burnt sienna and burnt umber was carefully applied to all recessed detail, allowed to dry, then excess wiped away. Model Master Acryl Flat was lightly applied to the exhaust-streaked areas of the fuselage and top wing root areas, as well as on the foot traffic paths from the wing root to the .50-cal and ammo bays. This was needed to give the weathering pastels a surfaces with some "bite." Recommendation Regardless if you're looking for a low-pressure, but sharp, out-of-box build "just for fun" or something to really pop on a contest table, I highly recommend the Weekend Edition F6F-5 from Eduard. It has all the right ingredients -- accuracy, solid engineering, clear instructions, great decals, and the "cool factor" of the subject. Thanks to Eduard for providing the sample kit for the review…and another fine Grumman 'Cat for my collection!