F6F-5 Hellcat

Eduard's F6F-5 Hellcat photo etched set is destined to their own kit which was issued in a "Weekend Edition" boxing some times ago (kit n° 8434). The purpose of this range of kits is to propose a simplier build without any additional parts other than the injected plastic ones to reduce costs. In case you have purchased this kit and regret not to have these additional metal detail parts, Eduard have released a complete reference which consists of two PE frets of which one is pre-painted.

Fret n°1 comprises about 62 parts of which some are very small. You get an instrument panel, consoles, boxes, levers and switches, seat belts, etc…

Fret n°2 is much bigger and comprises about 133 parts. Here as well there are tiny parts and appropriate tools and glue will be necessary to use them properly on the model. A lot of parts are destined to the cockpit interior (new seat, rear bulkhead, new rudder pedals, canopy rails, rear view mirror, etc…) but other items are provided as well for the exterior of the aircraft (exhaust grill, new tailwheel cover, new ailerons actuators, new engine cowling flaps including actuators to display them in the opened position, details parts for the fuel tank including straps, etc…)

As you would expect from Eduard, the quality of these photo etched frets is very good. The pre-painted parts are excellent. Unfortunately, the Frontal air intake grill is missing in this set. I would have tried to include it in any case as I think it improves the look of the model a lot.

The black & white instructions are printed on an A4 sheet and an A5 size paper so to constitute a small 5 pages booklet. They are nicely done and easy to follow. Some plastic will need to be removed from some parts to be replaced by the PE parts and this is well explained in the instructions.

conclusion

This is a nice PE set for Eduard's own Weekend F6F-5 Hellcat kits. However, to be honest, I can only recommend this set to people who have already purchased their Weekend kits and who really regret, afterwards, not to have the photo etched parts. For the others, it is probably better to buy the Profipack version as it is in the end cheaper, though it provides less PE parts than this reference which in return costs more than the Weekend kit it is destined to!

Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on AEROSCALE.