Thank you for joining with comments!

I assumed the artwork in the nose resembles a shark mouth in the beginning (because of the teeth maybe), but now it's seems more logical that it is indeed a cat mouth, as some of you pointed out-from the nickname "Hellcat" .

But in the end it's not so important for me, as long as it looks menacing and cool

venelin the kit is excelent. one of the kits i most enjoyed building. and i also have known the cowl to be a cat's mouth but either way it is a sharp addition to the plane.

joe

Regards,

I believe Darren is actually correct here.

VF-27 came up with the "Hell Cat" art while at Hawaii in the Spring of '44 as a means of improving morale among the pilots. Non-academy pilots were typically assigned to escort carriers while the big fleet carrier squadrons typically were home to the naval academy pilots who viewed themselves as better aviators. Princeton's VF-27 actually had the best kill ratio of all escort carrier squadrons, however when the ship was sunk off of the Philippines the surviving planes were absorbed into the fleet carriers and promptly lost their unauthorized nose art.

Early examples feature the bloodshot eyes, later ones typically lack it. There are a few later examples of it on all over GSB aircraft, such as the famous shot of Paper Doll.

Joel, thank you for the info!
The paint I used is close enough to FS 36440 for me

Regards,
Venelin