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Best 1/48 Hellcat kit?


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Most people will probaby say Eduard, and it's a nice kit but I'm still partial to the Hasegawa offering overall.  To me it looks just as good, and is a bit less fiddly to build.  Eduard is probably easier to find right now, though.

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Having built both the Eduard and Hasegawa kits (and currently working on another Eduard), I'd probably go with the Eduard primarily because the Hasegawa engineering of the wing-to-fuselage installation results in two seams around the bottom of the fuselage that have to be eradicated; I remember struggling with that. I also think Eduard's rendition has a better "grin," although the fit of the front cowl section to the rear halves leaves a small step on one side -- seems to be a molding issue because it crops up with any of the three cowl options. The Eduard Profipack will yield a pretty good looking cockpit without further aftermarket, although, as always, the PE is something of a pain IMHO.

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Overall, Hasegawa got more correct than Eduard did. Hasegawa's cockpit is much more detailed and accurate out of the box. The wheel wells are also deeper on the Hasegawa kit. Eduard's parts breakdown is more complex with no added benefit. The centerline droptank is an example of awful fit and engineering. The flange around the center is missing, the forward sway braces are molded along with part of the top of the tank and the overall fit is sloppy. Worse yet, the support straps are half-molded onto the tank. The other half are photo etch parts which (somehow) are supposed to be blended with the molded half to get a one piece effect. Hasegawa's tank is a straightforward assemble and use affair. For the F6F-5, Eduard's rockets are molded onto the stubs which are too small. Hasegawa's are separate parts, so you can choose whether to mount rockets or not. The fairings under the wingroots are separate parts in the Hasegawa kits. Eduard has them molded in place on all of their kits- incorrect for the F6F-3. Eduard's surface detailing is much more refined than Hasegawa's and they did get the forward cowling correct. Overall, in terms of engineering, ease of construction, and detail, I would recommend a Hasegawa kit with a corrected cowling such as one from Quickboost.

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The Otaki kit is still a worthwhile build. The shapes and outline are excellent and it has nicely done recessed panel lines. The cockpit is a bit basic and underdetailed though. Medallion Models did some upgrades for this kit (including a cockpit and separate flaps) and they are currently available from Starfighter Decals. The Otaki model with a little t.l.c. will still build into a nice 1/48 Hellcat model.

 

As an aside, the only recent 1/48 Hellcat that I WOULDN'T recommend is the Hobby Boss series.

Edited by Chriss7607
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On 11/13/2021 at 11:31 PM, Chriss7607 said:

Overall, Hasegawa got more correct than Eduard did. Hasegawa's cockpit is much more detailed and accurate out of the box. The wheel wells are also deeper on the Hasegawa kit. Eduard's parts breakdown is more complex with no added benefit. The centerline droptank is an example of awful fit and engineering. The flange around the center is missing, the forward sway braces are molded along with part of the top of the tank and the overall fit is sloppy. Worse yet, the support straps are half-molded onto the tank. The other half are photo etch parts which (somehow) are supposed to be blended with the molded half to get a one piece effect. Hasegawa's tank is a straightforward assemble and use affair. For the F6F-5, Eduard's rockets are molded onto the stubs which are too small. Hasegawa's are separate parts, so you can choose whether to mount rockets or not. The fairings under the wingroots are separate parts in the Hasegawa kits. Eduard has them molded in place on all of their kits- incorrect for the F6F-3. Eduard's surface detailing is much more refined than Hasegawa's and they did get the forward cowling correct. Overall, in terms of engineering, ease of construction, and detail, I would recommend a Hasegawa kit with a corrected cowling such as one from Quickboost.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think the Eduard cockpit (Profipack) is more than satisfactory; I agree that the drop tank is poorly engineered. As I said above, having built both kits, the worst single build element I encountered was Hasegawa's wing-to-fuselage assembly.

 

Can you explain further the under-wing root fairings? I've got the Eduard kit on my bench, but can't find anything that matches your description (of course I don't know what I'm looking for).

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I built the Hasegawa and Eduard kits for a group build here some years ago (and the Monogram kit for a different build) so I got to compare them head-to-head. The Hasegawa kit got the Obsecuro cowl, the Eduard kit is OOB. Both are Yorktown birds with #30 being the Eduard kit and 21 Hasegawa:

F6-F-012-1.jpg

 

F6-F-011-2.jpg

 

F6-F-010-3.jpg

 

 I liked the Hasegawa kit better. Not that it was the better kit but because the build experience was better-Eduard relies on photo etch for cockpit details and it was fiddly and time consuming. The cowl and maybe an aftermarket cockpit dresses up the Hasegawa kit just fine.

 

 

 

 

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On 11/14/2021 at 11:16 PM, seawinder said:

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think the Eduard cockpit (Profipack) is more than satisfactory; I agree that the drop tank is poorly engineered. As I said above, having built both kits, the worst single build element I encountered was Hasegawa's wing-to-fuselage assembly.

 

Can you explain further the under-wing root fairings? I've got the Eduard kit on my bench, but can't find anything that matches your description (of course I don't know what I'm looking for).

My apologies for the delay in replying. On the F6F-5, Grumman added small fairings above the intercooler flaps to help better blend the cowling in with the fuselage. I'll see if I can post some pics later to show you. I didn't know what people were referring to either until I found exactly what I should be looking for.

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On 11/19/2021 at 6:30 AM, Chriss7607 said:

My apologies for the delay in replying. On the F6F-5, Grumman added small fairings above the intercooler flaps to help better blend the cowling in with the fuselage. I'll see if I can post some pics later to show you. I didn't know what people were referring to either until I found exactly what I should be looking for.

Hi Chriss. Any chance you can post a pic or two? I'm at that point in the Eduard build and would really like to understand what you're referring to.

Thanks! Pip

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  • 2 weeks later...
3 hours ago, Robertson said:

The Eduard is inaccurate in tapering the fuselage within the wing chord. The best is probably the old Otaki/Airfix from what I saw, if with a few extras.

Every online drawing I can find shows the fuselage tapering within the wing chord. FWIW I have no intention of trashing the Eduard -3 I'm currently working on.

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On 12/2/2021 at 2:10 PM, seawinder said:

Every online drawing I can find shows the fuselage tapering within the wing chord. FWIW I have no intention of trashing the Eduard -3 I'm currently working on.

 

On 12/2/2021 at 2:10 PM, seawinder said:

Every online drawing I can find shows the fuselage tapering within the wing chord. FWIW I have no intention of trashing the Eduard -3 I'm currently working on.

 

 

  Don't rely on drawings, especially factory General Arrangement drawings, which are the cause of most problems in other drawings... The best drawings are done by Youyuso (Juan Temma) of the "Wings of Pegasus" site, who makes accurate models, while producing the most accurate drawings in the world (with full cross-section breakdown analysis) as he cuts plastic...

 

  The Hellcat page: http://soyuyo.main.jp/f6f/f6f-1.html

 

  He chose the Hasegawa kit because of the fuselage tapering issue, yet even with all this (enormous) work I feel his final Hellcat is NOT accurate...: You can see that his heavily re-worked canopy stands too tall compared to the real thing, which "bites deeper" into the fuselage, in a more "profile blended" way... Perhaps the Otaki kit would have been a better start? The Otaki kit has a too skinny "smile", but not too bad, so at least the modified cowling or AM cowlings are needed, and I don't even know if the Otaki fuselage taper is correct or can be fixed.

 

  If Yoyuso cannot fix all the problems on his models, it means there is no accurate Hellcat in 1/48, and my advice is this: Eduard has just come out with the first genuinely accurate A6M Zero ever, with the correct tail length and fin leading edge angle (everybody else got it completely wrong, including all the new-tool Tamiyas since 1999, which are, in addition, over 5 inches too long between canopy and rudder hinge (should be 137 inches)... Wait for Eduard to revise their Hellcat, they are already at the Wildcat: It's a matter of only a few years. In the meantime, you have their entire Spitfire range, and their P-51Ds, Zeroes and Wildcats to work on... The only recent Eduard kits that are anything less than definitive are their late Me-109s, surpassed by Tamiya for the G-6, and their new-tool FW-190As which have an inaccurate cowl ring. That is about it. Maybe the Airfix 1/24 Hellcat can help Hellcat fans with the wait?

 

  

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Regarding the fuselage profile, there is nothing in Youyuso's red and blue lines that would remotely affect my decision to build one kit or another, certainly including the Eduard. I'm sorry I got sucked into what I consider your fanatical obsession with minutia. It just isn't why I build models. Cheers.

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On 11/15/2021 at 12:16 AM, seawinder said:

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think the Eduard cockpit (Profipack) is more than satisfactory; I agree that the drop tank is poorly engineered. As I said above, having built both kits, the worst single build element I encountered was Hasegawa's wing-to-fuselage assembly.

 

Can you explain further the under-wing root fairings? I've got the Eduard kit on my bench, but can't find anything that matches your description (of course I don't know what I'm looking for).

I have the Eduard kit, and it fits all my wants excellently. Have never seen the Hasegawa kit in the box, but knowing them; I'll say it's plenty good enough. I'd also prefer the Wildcat over the Hellcat. 

gary

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Well, so much for my DMold Modelworks resin cowl correction set, as Mr Yoyuso has stated himself above. I've been checking the resin correction bit against Mr Yoyuso corrected grin on the link, and the resin bit doesn't grin enough. The shape is much the same as that in the kit.

Fishing my husband's 1/48 Cutting Edge B-29 cowl correction set out of his stash, as they look almost as Mr Yoyuso's correction on his F6F kit cowl. Could it be?

I remember having seen that grin before; well, shape, grin and tilted front on the B-29 cowl bits by CE.

Fetch the ladder.

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If I absolutely had to build one, I would start with the Otaki, maybe with a vacu form canopy, and definitely a good resin correction cowl (probably easy to find one on Ebay), as the Otaki kit looks right, maybe even down to the propeller hub. Otaki engraving is outstanding for the 1970s, and looked comparable to Eduard or Hasegawa.

 

The Eduard is just one of their old bad kits, with gangly gear legs that look way too tall, and the prop hub dome way too small, as well as the entire hub mechanism if I recall. Even the cockpit was underwhelming. The only really good thing on that kit was the decals. Maybe its clear parts will look good on the Otaki, but even these had issue... The windscreen was either too tall or too sloped back, again going from decade old (bad) memories. The Otaki cowl needed heavy work (like Eduard) but was the only bad memory on that kit (I vaguely remember the Otaki front cowl face as somewhat undersized). Several resin cowls exist, and some did fix most of the issues, but they were almost all intended for the Hasegawa kit, which is why I never attempted the match with the Otaki.

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