1/48 Hasegawa F6F Hellcat

Gallery Article by Chip Berseth on June 25 2009

 

A while ago I completed Hasegawa's offering of the F6F Hellcat.  Intrigued by the bloodied cat mouth motifs of USS Princeton’s famed VF-27, I had to do it.

Once again I found myself staring at my stash trying to make up my mind. Finally I settled on the F6F-5 Hellcat manufactured by Hasegawa. While going through this kit I was a little put off by the decal options. One being a test plane and the other I can’t even remember, with this I set out to find a Hellcat that really stood apart from the others. After a little research I found a picture of a VF-27 machine, and was instantly attracted. Upon completion of hunting down some aftermarket decals production commenced. 

Assembly was fairly straight forward and relatively simple. No major problems were found on my part. Although I have read places that there are certain inaccuracies with this kit, I took no time to correct them. As always I find with Hasegawa kits, the directions were easy to follow. After the assembly was complete and the seams had been mended it was time to paint.

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In choosing the decal option I also took into account the paint scheme. I have always had a fondness for the three tone naval scheme from World War Two, but have never been able to totally nail it right on. So after acquiring my chosen colors, all of them from Model Master Enamel range, painting got underway. Using my Aztek airbrush I laid the paint down with no problems and was thoroughly pleased with how the paint job turned out. After letting the pigments dry for a couple days it was time to get decaled (my favorite part, although sometimes not)!

 After coating the aircraft in Future and letting that dry for a day or two I went ahead with the decal stage. Using markings from the Aeromaster sheet that I scrounged up at a local hobby shop it was time to put imagination to plastic. The decals went on without a hitch and reacted well to applications of my favorites Micro Sol and Micro Set.

Once the decals were done, I coated the entire thing in Testors 1260 Dullcote. Weathering was done using aluminum paint, and pastels. With the Dullcote drying, all clear parts were washed, dipped in Future and put aside to dry. After those were dry, they were painted and recoated in Future and set aside to dry once again. After the clear parts and numerous other small parts were installed it was antenna time. Using stretched sprue, superglue and a permanent marker this was accomplished in no time at all.

 

This completed the Hellcat that I had imagined. With blood dripping and .50 caliber guns armed, this F6F is ready for another sortie to annihilate what’s left of the Imperial Japanese Naval and Army Air Forces.

The base (although not realistic) was accomplished by painting a piece of paneling slate gray. After this was dry, lines were masked off and then it was painted flat white. This gives the simple impression of a carrier deck and also makes a cheap base to place this and other naval aircraft on. Famed Lake Wissota must be credited with the backdrop for the pictures.

After all was said and done, I believe that I had accomplished what I set out to do. I built an awe inspiring machine that not only sports a colorful scheme but also a colorful history.

As always, model on dudes and dudettes!

Chip Berseth

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Photos and text © by Chip Berseth