A close-up view of the original prototype
painted in the colors of an F6F-3 operating with USS Essex' air group
in August of 1943. The fuse is covered with fiberglass, and the
flying surfaces are covered with silkspan and nitrate dope. The
airframe was painted with Floquil Military paints. This model was
donated to the Academy of Model
Aeronautics Museum collection.
My friend Gordon Tarling's version is finished as a Royal Navy Hellcat Mk.I that operated in the Mediterranean in the summer of 1944. The model is covered with tissue and dope and painted with enamel paints.
My current Hellcat is finished in the colors of the F6F-3 that was the personal aircraft of CDR Jimmy Flatley, CAG of Air Group 5 when the Hellcat was undergoing CARQUALS in the spring of 1943. As usual for my models, the airframe is covered with fiberglass, and the paints are Floquil enamels.
