The Grumman F6F Hellcat was an American designed carrier borne fighter. Its design began as a development of the F4F Wildcat powered by the R-2600 engine, but soon evolved into a much larger and more capable aircraft, with the R-2800 engine. The Hellcat was designed and put into service in a very short period in order to counteract the A6M 'Zero' from the second half of 1943 onwards, and soon became the main shipboard fighter of the US Navy for the last two years of the Pacific War. The Hellcat was the most sucessful allied fighter in WWII with over 5,000 aerial victories, and credited with 76% of all aircraft destroyed by USN carrier fighters.
On 30 June, 1941 the US Navy ordered the prototypes XF6F-1 and XF6F-2, rugged aircraft that lacked aesthetic appeal. In order to keep the take-off and landing speeds at a reasonable level, Grumman made the wings proportionally larger than most aircraft (including the Thunderbolt) to reduce wing loading. In fact, the Hellcat had the largest wing area of any single engine fighter of WWII at 334 square feet (102 square meters). They were to have the Pratt-Whitney Double Wasp 2600-10 with a two-stage supercharger installed delivering 1,700 hp (1,269 kW) for take-off. Immediately after the first flight of the XF6F1 on 26, June, 1942, the craft was redesignated the "XF6F-3".
In 1942, the design of the prototype was adapted to take into account the analysis of the first ever captured and undamaged Japanese Zero, found by a US Navy PBY Catalina making a routine patrol over Akutan Island in the Pacific. The Zero was dismantled and shipped directly to the Grumman Aircraft factory in California where it was reassembled and flown. The information from the test flight of the Zero aided in the final design development of the Hellcat. It was found the XF6F-1 was marginally slower than the Zero, thus the change from the Pratt-Whitney Double Wasp R-2600 to the R-2800. This engine boosted the Hellcat's top speed to 375 mph, 29 mph faster than the Zero. No other unfavourable differences between the two planes could be found and the Hellcat was deemed ready for production. The finalized version of the XF6F-3 was almost identical to the production F6F-3 and Grumman shifted the assembly line into high gear.
Hellcat production started in 1943 and a quick and effective distribution was subsequently organised. Well over 2,500 Hellcat were delivered during the first year, making it possible to re-equip Hellcat squadrons rapidly with this more potent fighter, and it remained in frontline service with the FAA and US Navy for the remainder of World War II.
The Hellcat was used extensively as a search aircraft and fighter-bomber, playing a major and increasing part in strikes on Japanese warships and mercantile shipping in 1944 and 1945. In this role, and for ground attack, it could carry up to 2,000 lb of bombs, or be armed with six 5-inch rockets on underwing pylons.
By the time Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat production ended in mid-1944, a total of 4,423 Hellcats had been built. Their numbers included 18 F6F-3E night fighters with APS-4 radar mounted in a pod beneath the starboard wing, and 205 generally similar F6F-3N night fighters with APS-6 radar. Postwar some were converted into unmanned flying bombs, used in Korea.
The kit I will build is part of an Eduard Dual Combo. The box contains two 1/48th scale Hellcats (Mk I & Mk II)
I'll be building the mark two in a nice blue scheme.
One of both kits have been build hence the pictures look like it isn't an unstarted kit. But it is an unstarted kit.
I wasn't planing on doing an FAA build as the Harrier I was initially wanted to make ended up not being an FAA one. But then my good friend Tim Hedworth (aka joesdad and better known as TED by some of us) saved the day by sending me the box. Thank you very much Ted.
Below you can see some shots of the box, some sprues, PE, resin, decals and the paintscheme I'll be doing.
I will use Mrhobby Aquaous, Revell Aqua, Ultimate primer and my trusted Ultimate Apex airbrush to get the paint on the plastic.
- fun to build. No issues at all that couldn't be fioxed or kill the 'mojo' . I've added some PE ofcourse, but some jumped from my desk and got eaten by either the carpet monster or my cat 
to 50th....coming up this year for me as well 
