Jasmine Model 1/48 F6F-5 Hellcat Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Jasmine Model produces an interesting series of photo-etched skeleton kits which build into breathtaking models. Here is their latest release which is the Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat skeleton. The kit is 1/48 scale (a first in this scale for Jasmine Model) and goes together with some simple cutting, folding, and a touch of cyano here and there. The kit has a nicely illustrated instruction book printed in color to show where to cut, where to fold, and which piece slips into which slot along the airframe assembly.

The kit comes on three frets of photo-etched parts plus four sets of gray-molded plastic parts representing the engine, firewall and air handler, cowling face and propeller, and landing gear. According to the specs, this kit consists of 321 parts which will require patience and careful bending and folding to build-up the airframe. As complex as this kit looks, when you take a step at a time using the well-illustrated instructions, the project is really rather straightforward.

The instructions are well illustrated and you can preview these on their website. The website says that the elevators, rudder, ailerons, and flaps are movable, though I don't see hinges in the assemblies. I believe they meant to say that the flight controls are positionable (attach them at the angles you prefer and leave them there). You can also see in their examples that the wings are also positionable though the illustrations don't really show how to attach them to the inboard wing center section.

Jasmine Model did a really nice job of creating a photo-etched airframe that requires just a little more folding than assembly and should be a relatively quick build. This will make into a very nice display model for your desk or display case. It will definitely get curious looks sitting on your desk or on your shelf.

My sincere thanks to Jasmine Model for this review sample!