F6F-5N

Subject:
Grumman
F6F-5N Hellcat
Kit Used: Hasegawa 1/48

Review & model by:
C.J. Blachford
Pictures: R. Forys

2004
Junior
Model of the Year

A big, tough, Grumman built Navy fighter with nose art, my perfect kit! My original plans were to use a Black Box cockpit set on this kit, but as the BB set is for the day fighter! I did not want to mess up perfectly good resin when the kit cockpit was adequately detailed. The only extra detailing I did to the cockpit was add Future "glass" to the panel and masking tape seat belts. As the Hasegawa canopy is too small to be correctly positioned in the open position, I plan on switching it for a Squadron canopy soon.

Unfortunately Hasegawa's cowling is misshapen, as anyone who is familiar with a Hellcat would notice the undersized "mouth" on the bottom of the cowl. Rather than order a replacement cowl from Cutting Edge, I dug through my spare parts box until I came across my Monogram Classic F6F-5 kit (Another victim of my cat). Luckily the cowl ring from the Monogram kit is perfectly proportioned and by my initial measurements, the same diameter as the Hasegawa kit. After I assembled the Hasegawa fuselage, I cut of the nose of the kit on the cowl ring panel line, and then attached the Monogram piece. The diameters were only slightly different, and just a little squadron putty was required. The rest of the construction went very well with excellent parts fit, not something I was used to. I will leave construction details at that.

Thank God for Navy color schemes, all I had to do to paint the Hellcat was put tissue in the cockpit and spray paint the whole model gloss sea blue. After that dried, I spent a day decaling the Hellcat. These Hasegawa decals are great. I had no problems, even with the stencils. The last decals I added were the nose art, which with a bit of Solva-set, went down without a problem on the convex nose.

Once the decals had dried, I gave the model a good black sludge wash on the panel lines and in the gear wells. After removing the excess, I used a silver color pencil to add paint chipping along the major panel lines and access points. I went through a lot of trouble to add exhaust and gun residue to the kit with pastels. I used several different mixtures for the exhaust, which continue back to the tail across the national insignia. After spraying a matt clear coat, I added all the little bits and weapons.

One dilemma I encountered was with the gun armament. The instructions state that all of this Hellcat's guns should be standard .50's, but several sources say that all F6F-5N's had 2x 20mm cannons and 4x .50's. After much investigation, I discovered that many of VMF(N)-514's planes had 6x .50, but with the inner two barrels being extended. Luckily Hasegawa included these barrels on the spruces for the 3E/N and 5E/N Hellcat. After hollowing out the end of the barrels I attached them to the wing, and then placed two small strips of white decal tape in an "X" patter over the gun ports. This was a rather enjoyable build, and I would recommend the Hasegawa 1/48 F6F to anyone who has built a kit before.