Recently purchased a BBI Hellcat from another member. In route to its new aircraft carrier, the Hellcat was jumped by some Zeroes and took some damage along the way. Certainly not the fault of the member here as the plane was packed well. The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier mechanics were hard at work and have returned the Hellcat to active service.
The pitot tube tab had broken off during shipping and I glued this back into place. I have a spare pitot tube so if it ever breaks and gets lost I can drill the hole out and replace it with a new example.
On this side the gun barrels had broken off but fortunately were found in the box and were carefully glued back into the proper place. The bottom antenna was broken off and had gone missing in the box. After four searches I could not find it in the contents. I found a spare radio mast for a Hobby Master 1/32 Dauntless was about the right size and shape and installed that, though it is a bit thinner than the actual version. The color matches the lighter blue and looks decent.
Last but not least the Navy mechanics raided the ammo depot of boardmember BLACKSNAKES and armed the Hellcat with six rockets for its next mission. Thanks to BLACKSNAKES for generously supplying the rockets to me for the model, it changes the look of this plane in a positive way.
Simple fixes to repair some broken parts and a 1/18 Hellcat is alive and well in a collection.
Regards
Corey
