Hi all, I'm in the very early stages of building one of the kits from my Hellcat Dual Combo and have a question about the pre-painted seat harnesses supplied. They are beautiful (as usual), but they seem to be US-style belts - certainly they match the photos in USN Hellcats in my Detail & Scale book, and seem to be identical to the ones Eduard provided in its USN F6F-3 release. Does anyone know if Royal Navy Hellcats were used with US-style belts, or if these were changed to UK Sutton or Q-Type harnesses? I can't find any decent ref pics to confirm this one way or the other - help!

Also, a general question about Eduard's Hellcat Mk.I/II boxing. I was looking forward to this release quite a lot, but - for the very first time with an Eduard product - I was a bit disappointed with what came in the box. Not in terms of the concept, which is as ambitious as always for Eduard, but with the execution, which seemed a bit rushed in terms of quality control. For example - the wings of both kits were packaged in the same cello bag, but in such a way that they had scratched each other quite badly in transit, and will take a bit of sanding/polishing to fix. No biggy, but frustrating. So are the warped fuselage halves of the Mk.II - again, nothing that can't be fixed, but unusual. But the biggest disappointment is the decal sheet, which in my kit is pretty much unusable - the wax sheet that is supposed to protect the decals was for some reason packed by Eduard underneath the decal sheet, not on top of it, the result of which was that the decals had more or less bonded to the back of the instruction booklet and now have lots of tiny bits of white paper fused all over them. Rats!! I have written to Eduard explaining the situation, but so far no reply...Let's see what happens! I didn't mean to have a rant - as I said all of my experiences with Eduard products until now have been great - but I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar problem, or if I had a one-off problem? Grateful any thoughts/comments! cheers Brad

Hi Brad

Detail & Scale don't mention any change to the harness on British aircraft...

There's no scratching between sprues evident on our Review sample (I've just checked) and yes, you definitely got a "dud" on the decals. If you don't get a satisfactory response to your request for replacement decals, let me know and I'll try the Aeroscale "hot-line".

All the best

Rowan

I too just got this kit.

I had the exact same packing anomaly with the decals as you - the wax paper had been put on the bottom of the decal sheet instead of the top. In my case, though, there was no damage to the decals themselves - but I still thought it very odd.

Agree with you on the packaging - two sprues jammed on top of one another in each poly bag is not great for protecting the plastic. I guess they just wanted to keep the size of the box as compact as possible to keep shipping costs to a minimum.

Good morning

Well, my Hellcat wings are also scratched had no problem with the decal sheet though (might be the paper was underneath the decal but I have no damage.

Brad, as long as there is only paper on the decals these should come of when soaked in water .. would be worse when decals patches stuck to the instruction. But Eduard is known for a pretty good customer service, I think you will get a replacement.

My major complaint is the simplicity of the wheel bays ... this could have been made batter, even without etched parts ... here is an article by Scott Murphy rebuilding his 1/32 Hasegawa Hellcat. Do not get me wrong I know this is top end of detailing in a larger scale ... but a little more than present would have been possible but of course they want to sell their super complicate etch wheel bay set.



all the best

Steffen

Thanks for the feedback guys - glad I'm not the only one in the boat re the scratched wings and unusually packed decal sheet!

Steffen - I'm hoping you're right about the paper coming off (it sounds sensible!) - I will test a sample of the decal sheet on an old kit to see what happens. In the meantime, I'll hold out for Eduard to get back to me - it's been five weeks so far and nothing, but I've heard they can take a while, so I'm not too worried yet. However, if they don't come to the party, Rowan, I will take you up on your offer of the Aeroscale "hot-line"! I'm keen to do the Pacific Mk.I scheme, and of course those decals are the worst affected....

Interesting comment re the wheel bays Steffen. I agree with you re their simplicity - but if you want them to look complicated, just compare them with those on the old Otaki kit! I have the Airfix boxing of this kit, and while I understand it is pretty accurate in terms of overall shape, its details leave a lot to be desired (except for the prop, which is heaps better than Eduard's). I've bought the Aires cockpit and wheel well set to tart it up (the basic kit cost me less than A$10, and I got the Aires stuff on special) - while designed for the Hasegawa kit, I think I can cobble it into the Otaki one as well - I have had some promising results with a wheel bay I'm testing. And the detail on the Aires wheel well is just gorgeous - very reminiscent of the photo above Steffen; it matches the pics in Detail and Scale very well, and leaves the Eduard wells for dead!!

cheers Brad

Hi Brad

I just read in a German modelling mag (someone built a 1/32 Mk.II from the Trumpeter kit) that a Q-Type harness was used .. what ever that means .. I think I will stick to what is in the box.

cheers

Steffen

Steffen

Very interesting and thanks! If that's true about the Q-Type harness then it confirms my suspicion that these were retrofitted into UK machines (or possibly just fitted into the UK-destined machines when these were on the line in the States), rather than the US-style belts that are supplied in the kit. The Q-Type harness was the harness fitted to British-made fighters (not sure about bombers) from about mid-war, so I might need to raid one of my late-model Spitfire kits for a replacement...

On another positive note, Eduard came good with replacement decals for me - these were waiting in the mail for me yesterday when I came home from work. So that was nearly took two months for them to come through from when I originally asked, but hey at the rate I build that's nothing - full marks to Eduard!

cheers Brad