[Serpiko]

Hi people. Here's another 1/72 bird ready for the shelf. 8)

This kit allows you to build either an F6F-3 or an F6F-5, the only real differences being the alternative canopies and different exhausts. However, the decal sheet only provides decals for one plane.
Panel lines are engraved, and the overall detail level appears to be good. Optional external loads are the centerline droptank, two small bombs (apparently 250 lbs) and six AP rockets (of the type with the "bulbous" warhead).



BUILDING

Nothing particular about the cockpit, except for the presence of two panels which have to be glued on the two sides. There is a decal for the gauges, and a transparent gunsight.
Fuselage and wings assembly goes pretty straight. I ended up with a slightly offset joint between the ventral piece and the rear fuselage, but that could just be my fault. The nose cowling also needs some care to fit properly onto the fuselage.

Surprisingly, the propeller is supposed to simply be glued onto a pin which protrudes from the engine piece, thus sticking in a fixed position. This is unacceptable! :evil: Luckily, little effort is needed to overcome this problem. Just cut off the pin, pierce the engine piece in that point and pass a small nail through the hole, cutting it at the correct lenght. Then glue the propeller on the nail, "and yet it moves"! Voilà! :mrgreen:

The gear is meant to be built extended. To build it raised, you'll need to sand the main wheels thinner (so that they fit inside their bays) and cut the rear wheel off its cowling. The tail hook has to be shortened in order to build it retracted.

If you choose to build the F6F-3 version, you will have to cut open the side holes behind the canopy, before glueing there the transparent windows.



PAINTING AND DECALS

Sadly, while the construction was pleasant, I've been very disappointed with the decals.

As I said, there are decals for one plane only, whose identity is not specified. This plane is supposed to be entirely painted with dark blue, so decals for the US insignas are white only, with no background. If you want to make a different paintscheme, you will need alternative insignas. (I had none, so I just painted the blue background).
But, besides the lack of choice, I found decals to be very fragile. They were extremely thin and broke easily in several fragments, forcing me repeatedly to a puzzle job. There are several maintenance decals, but they are so small that they only show white lines instead of words. Moreover, all decals looked not very "sticky" to me.
In the end I got frustrated, so I only applied essential decals. (As you can see in the pics, the squadron insignas on the tail are hand-painted and those on the upper wings are missing, because they just crumbled when I tried to put them on.)



CONCLUSIONS

Overall I think this is a very good kit, well detailed and quite easy to build (despite the fixed prop). But the decals don't keep up the same good level.

See you to the next model!