Kit Features: 16/20
As a typical Eduard Profipack kit, Eduard has well furnished this kit. It includes quite a lot of bang for your buck, coming with two frets of photo-etched parts, resin wheels and a complete mask set for the model. The resin wheels Are greatly appreciated and are often a very useful improvement over the stock wheels. The kit includes some armament options in the form of rockets or bombs as well should the builder choose to include them. Overall the kit is well stocked compared to older releases but it should be kept in mind that you are paying for these extras in the overall higher list price of the kit.
Quality of Molding: 24/50
Eduard’s Hellcat offers basic panel-lining and riveting, as expected from the manufacturer. It should be stated however that the detail present in the molding does leave some to be desired. I was surprised by the lack of crispness in the molding details. looking further, the build does lack the extensive riveting found in newer tool Eduard kits. I could be wrong, but when tracing back this kit’s tooling on Scalemates.com, it indicated that this is a re-box from 2008 originally. This isn’t especially surprising to be honest, Eduard frequently re-boxes and re-releases kits but it’s not always clear when buying kits when the molding was first produced. I compared the molding on this kit to 2017’s Tamiya’s Bf-109G-6 (of which a review should be up soon) and it’s clear that the Tamiya kit’s lines superior in every way. The one aspect of the molding that goes in the Hellcat’s favour is the inclusion of the “layered” skin on the fuselage. The vertical panneling is molded so that ever so slightly the panels overlap as seen in the real fighter. All of these issues together paint a unfortunate picture and the fact that this kit is priced as if it is a new tool build while not including the level of detail found in Eduard’s new tool kits.
Instructions: 18/20
Eduard claws back some points in this section as their instructions have always been excellent. In colour and clearly printed they offer more than the bare necessities. Eduard instructions have always been well done and this is no exception. As a matter of personal preference, I prefer instructions in the form of a booklet (stapled together) rather than the type that just fold out (like Tamiya’s). One high point of Eduard’s instructions are the full colour profiles and the details provided about the markings. I for one like knowing the details about the aircraft I’m building and Eduard goes so much further in giving us those details than other manufacturers, they’ve clearly done their research! I love reading about the bird I’m building and the story of the person who flew it. Eduard gets a monster score in this regard, and well deserved.
Miscellaneous: 7/10
Included in the kit are 6 different marking options. I do like the variety of options included, however I feel that they could have gone a bit further in the width of what was offered. I don’t mean that they need to have offered even more options, however more colourful options would have been appreciated. They do offer a French variant which helps to increase the score, and the fact that late war Hellcats were pretty universally dark blue also mitigates it. They do loose points on the quality of the decals however, as Eduard has struggled to print vibrant colours on thier decals, with the reds on this sheet being a particular example.
Total: 65/100
Eduard’s Profipack Hellcat is in an interesting space. Nearly everything about it is excellent, save for the molding. for 62$ CAD it’s not an inexpensive build. As a lover of naval aviation subjects I’m biased but it’s an undeniable fact that the molding is disappointing. My honest recommendation? If you’re planning to build a late Hellcat either OOB or super detailed stick to the weekend edition of this kit. It’s a third cheaper and offers more flexibility for adding aftermarket parts (like a resin cockpit or engine). If you’re going to buying a kit with below average molding you may as well buy the cheap option.
Nomad Models 