FR-1 Fireball "VF-41"

This is a Czech Model short-run kit I got on sale from Squadron. It was my first short-run kit and from what I can tell, Czech Model was kind to me. The fit of the parts was good, aside from the engine nacelle.

The assembly of the resin cockpit and engine was pretty straight forward with no real problems. After getting the fuselage together along with the wings, I had decided that the rear cockpit bulkhead/headrest is slightly too far forward, so I remedied this by sliding the canopy back. The most trouble I had was getting enough weight in the nose. All of that area in front of the cockpit is filled with lead fishing weights.

After completing the main assembly, I decided that I was not going to stick with the kit decals; good thing I didn't, the backing film on the decal sheet was completely out of register with the color decals and they would have fallen apart before I got them in place. I would like to point out that Squadron/Czech Model was great to provide a mini "In-Action" booklet and from this I decided to do the scheme of VF-41 "Firebirds" instead of VF-66 or VF-1E. I particularly liked the double yellow stripe going through the national insignia and the asymmetrical wing tips from the top and bottom view. I painted the ID numbers, stripes, and the white "stars-and-bars". I was luckily able to use the Firebirds squadron insignia provided on the kit decal sheet (oddly enough VF-41 was the only FR-1 Squadron to carry the insignia) and the stenciling and black 17 on the tail were cut-and-reposition leftovers from my Eduard Hellcat decal sheet. The only thing I wasn't able to work out was the pilot's rank and name under the canopy.

All in all, a good kit and with all the out-of-the-box kits I've been building, a good exercise in honing my modelling skills. Pros to this kit were the relatively good fitting parts and a unique and arguably very historically important subject. Cons were lack of room for weight in the nose, poorly fitting engine nacelle, and inaccurate placement of the headrest and rear cockpit bulkhead.

F6F-3 Hellcat "VF-6"

When Eduard released the Hellcat in 1/48 scale, I had to get one. The Hellcat is one of my favorite WWII fighters and I had been waiting for for a decent kit for a while. I chose to get the -3 version because I like the 3-tone scheme much more than the 1-tone dark sea blue.

Everything is out of the box. The cockpit side consoles are not as good as some of the other Eduard offerings, but I couldn't justify spending money for something frivolous that I could update myself. The rest of the cockpit is very good, especially the seat. Everything fit perfectly and I only had to use a little filler at the wing joints, but I think this was probably due to my lack of proper test fitting before committing with glue. One of the easiest kits to build; I got the fuselage, wings, and empinage together in one afternoon. The "grin" of the chin intakes look very accurate and I especially liked the way that Eduard did the tie-down straps on the drop tank. I sanded away the seam on the drop tank before I noticed that this seem was very pronounced on the real thing, oops.

Of course I picked the markings of Lt. Alex Vraciu's aircraft after the "Great Mariana's Turkey Shoot"; who wouldn't with the options available in this kit. One note on the photos: the blue of the national insignias do not show as much contast against the sea blue paint in real life as they do in the photos; I attribute this phenomena to the camera flash. I decided to put a 250 lb. anti-personnel fragmentation bomb, but only one as the -3 carried ordnance under the starboard wing only. I figured this load out to be possible as the Hellcat often performed strafing duties on its missions.

I highly recommend this kit to all fans of easy, accurate, and detailed models. Hellcat fans rejoice.