1/32 Hasegawa F6F-3 Hellcat but it's what if :)

[artoor_k]

Because I'm stuck with what-if Ju-87 (gunpods problem) then I'll start another one...

Because last week I became an owner of Hasegawa Hellcat then today I unboxed it and imediatelly it landed on my bench. I'll use Master gun barrels and seatbelts made of yoghurt foil.

And here is my victim:

 

And here are first glued and painted parts. I've decided to leave cockpit as it is with only minor upgrades.

 

[ulvdemon]

I believe I have a later boxing of this kit.  Looking forward to this build.

[artoor_k]

Cockpit is ready so I put it into fuselage:

 

As usual, seatbelts from aluminium foil:

 

I didn't decided yet if I'll leave one of gunbays open so I glued and painted both of them.

 

[BradG]

Yeh mate that looks pretty nice.

[themongoose]

Nice work on those seatbelts. Looks like you’re turning this old kit into an eye turner!

[artoor_k]

On 8/1/2023 at 1:02 AM, themongoose said:

Nice work on those seatbelts. Looks like you’re turning this old kit into an eye turner!

 

Thanks

 

On 7/31/2023 at 3:38 PM, BradG said:

Yeh mate that looks pretty nice.

 

 

Thank you

 

I send styrene exhausts for a reconaissance mission to trash bin and used brass tubes instead

 

 

New barrels from Master are definitely better than kit's ones.

 

 

[artoor_k]

Almost there...I've used every blue shade that I have

 

Some chipping on left wing...

 

 

 

[artoor_k]

 

 

Need to finish pilot figure, base and hvars...

 

 

 

 

[artoor_k]

...and that's it

 

In 1946, an American offer was received for the supply of aircraft for the Polish naval aviation. It included F6F Hellcat fighters and torpedo bombers TBM-3 Avenger bombers and torpedoes. At the same time, the first demonstration aircraft arrived at the former German airport in Dziwnów - two F6F-5 fighter Hellcats and one F6F-5P reconnaissance aircraft.
The Polish side ultimately did not accept the offer, which was determined by the unit price (Barracudas, although inferior in performance to the Avengers, were almost two times cheaper), and in the case of fighters also lower performance than the Mustangs just received from the USA. Also it was considered that for one planned fighter squadron ( 5th "Privateer" Squadron) there was no reason to put new type of fighter into service.
However, the Hellcats remained in Poland and served in 2nd Women Squadron.

Depicted Hellcat, named "Kiciuś" ("Kitty" in english) was used mainly for combat training and CAP over Baltic Sea.

 

[MikeMaben]

Nice Artoor, quite unique  

[themongoose]

Cool finish, name and really thought the background story was. Great!!

[BradG]

That's great mate, I love it.

[petrov27]

Really fantastic build and diorama of this old kit - great result!

 

Always loved the old Hase F6F - feels like they could just retool those old moulds to have a little better surface details and it would hold up to modern releases pretty well....