Hi all I just scored a 1/48 F6F-3 Hellcat USS Essex by Hasegawa. What are your opinions of this kit?
It’s one of Hasegawas older kits, but still builds up into a nice model. There are some fit problems, especially with the wing/fuselage join & the tail planes will come out drooped if care isn’t taken with the fit. There are some profile accuracy issues, especiallly with the cowl. The kit can benefit greatly from AM help, but if you aren’t too finicky about accuracy & detail, it will look like a Hellcat when done, even as an OOB build. The only viable alternative is the even older ARII/Otaki kit, which is more accurate in some ways but is even more lacking in detail & features a bottle glass canopy. However, Eduard is about to release an all new tooled 1/48 series of Hellcats & based on their recent FW-190 & Bf-110 releases, those will make the Hasegawa kit very obsolete.
Regards, Rick