Reviews : HobbyBoss F6F-3 Hellcat Late Version

After having built several F6F kits from various manufacturers such as Revell and Hasegawa I must say how impressed I am with this kit and the other F6F kits from Hobby Boss. Even the paper that the instructions are printed on has a different, superior feel to it. The detail is exquisite especially the cockpit, and the wing interiors seen from the landing gear bay and the folded wings if that option is built. No overcast on the sprues and parts can be removed cleanly with little if any clean-up. The build is enjoyable and very smooth with no fit issues to deal with. All in all these kits are amzing quality for the low price and build into a very life like replica with detail that one can be proud of. Oh, and did I mention the canopies? The are much finer and the clear plastic thin enough that squadron Crystal Clear canopies can be done without if your budget is limited. Top marks to Hobby Boss for producing such an amazing kit.

This is my first Hobby Boss model and now I'm debating ever getting another. If you build this do it as the title suggests because wings down has some fit issues hence the low rating. Luckily for me the fit issues are most visible on the underside and I mount my birds on a base so the bottom of the aircraft is out of sight. Also the plastic is very soft and does quite a bit of melting with Tamiya Extra Thin cement,(not the strong version either). The details are nice and may be a completely different build experience if done wings folded.

This was a fun one to build. Directions were not great but, pretty easy to assemble looking at the pictures. Part connections to sprue are quite thick. takes a little effort to cut with scissors. I found fingernail clippers to be invaluable to cut refuse off parts.

Overall a good build. Kit has some very good details and was fairly easy to assemble. The wings in the down version fit are to loose, had to fix with 40mm styrene strips for reinforcement. The kit also does not come with machine guns which I had to add.