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Black Box
48027 F6F-5 Hellcat
1/48 Hasegawa F6F-5 Hellcat
Photos and scans by Steve Bamford (ARC Staff)
Here is the set for the ever popular 1/48 Hellcat. This particular set comprises of 11 crisply molded pieces. The masters for this set were created by "ACME". I found the parts on this set to be bubble free and almost perfectly cast. One slight flaw was the vertical arms connecting to the rudder pedals are stretched on one side. I'm not sure if this delicate part was stretched while being pulled from the mold before it was fully hardened or possibly the masters were not quite perfect. But I doubt this tiny rudder pedal inaccuracy will be noticed when the parts are all fitted into the plane. The instrument panel is well done with ever so slight detail inside all the bezels for instruments faces. I'm not sure if dry brushing will bring out these details or some other method will need to be used. The seat is very well done and will paint up easily and look excellent when done. The cockpit side panels are perfectly thin, so minimum grinding if any of the kit's sidewalls will be required. And you must have a close look at the crisp detail on the sidewalls....they will look excellent after a proper paint job and drybrushing. One highlight of this kit is the panel behind the pilots seat (resin part #3)....this resin piece has plenty of complicated wires and such all beautifully done. All in all, a nicely molded set that looks like it will be easy to install.
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| resin seat.....very natural looking seatbelts |
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Part behind pilots set....resin part #3 |
(click on pictures below to bring up full screen pictures)
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| Instrument panel | left sidewall | right sidewall |
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| various parts | cockpit floor |
