F6F-5N Hellcat Night fighter

[woody37]

F6F-5N Hellcat Night fighter

1:72 Eduard ProfiPACK

With the success of the F6F-3 already in service, the F6F-5 was the natural evolution based on combat experience. Key improvements in the F6F-5 were a more powerful engine utilising a water injection system, revised windscreen that had a single armoured windscreen and spring loaded aileron tabs. The night fighter version came into service in the fall of 1944 was designated the F6F-5N and this was easily identified by the wing mounted AN/APS-6 Radar protruding forwards from the starboard leading edge. The British designated the Night fighter version as the Hellcat NF II. My respect goes out to these pilots. Flying a single engined aircraft over the sea at night must be quite an intimidating experience, let alone the prospect of combat mixed in.

The kit

The box is a sturdy and the artwork is well presented. Upon opening the box you're greeted with the familiar olive brown frets. There are three coloured frets and one clear. The ProfiPACK also contains coloured photo-etch parts and paint masks which I'll come to later. If you've built or seen Eduard's kits before, you'll know how well the parts are moulded. Panel lines are represented by beautifully restrained recessed lines, representing the scale very well in my opinion. The fuselage is made up in the traditional way of two halves with the cockpit section sandwiched inside. With the fuselage together, the engine is then assembled and fitted to the front before fitting the cowling over the top, a logical and straight forwards assembly process. The cowling nose ring is moulded as one piece meaning that there's no join marks to battle with in such a prominent area. The wheel hubs are moulded separately, so this give the benefit of prepainting them rather than masking or careful paintwork which is a pleasant idea. Whilst the kit is quite simple by the nature of the aircrafts design, Eduard certainly haven't held back on any injection moulded details. Theres plenty of intricate parts to make the build interesting for the more experienced modeller, whilst also being a kit that a novice builder can get good results from too, even if not using the photo etch parts. The kit comes with 6 rockets and 2 bombs which I presume are the result of standardising the moulds, so theres some great little goodies to add to the spares box too !

Close up to show the fine recessed panel lines

The instruction booklet is professionally done using glossy paper and colour print. Step by step diagrams utilise colour to assist in identifying locations for gluing, painting and masking which is a nice little touch. The decal and paint guides are full colour illustrations of each aircraft that markings are provided for.

The Transparencies

Again, the crispness and quality of moulding is represented in the transparencies. Two options are included for the rear ward windows (either with or without) and the windscreen and sliding hood are separate parts, which with all that glorious detail inside gives you the chance to show it off ! Commonality of parts is present here again with the canopy for the F6F-3 included on the fret, always worth having spares !

The Photo-etch parts

Two etch frets are included, one for the cockpit interior, the other for the engine. The cockpit fret provides coloured instrument panels, seat belts and various switches and knobs which will truly bring the cockpit alive As you can see from the images below, the detail in these is fantastic. The fret for the engine provides the spark leads and a great carburettor intake filter to really finish off the business end.

The Decals

No less than 4 aircraft are catered for in this kit, 3 F5F-5n's of the US Marines and one Hellcat NF.II of 892 Naval Air Squadron. This aircraft is believed to of had 20mm cannon, so this option is provided in the kit. All the night fighter variants of the Hellcat were painted in an overall gloss blue, so inevitably, this limits choices of scheme somewhat. If fitting the etch isn't your choice, a set of instrument panel decals is also included. Register of the decals is excellent.

Conclusion

This is another fine version of the Hellcat and great to see Eduard covering the Hellcat series so well. The thought into the design of the kit is impressive as you can choose to build this into quite an impressive model even without the etch. This means that novice and advanced builders alike can get reward from the kit. I can't really find any faults from a kit review perspective, the shape looks good, there's all the aids to build a detailed kit and there's a good choice of markings out of the box.

Review sample courtesy of