Grumman F6F Hellcat — Handmade Metal Model Airplane

The fighter built specifically to beat the Zero — and the most successful naval fighter of the war by a wide margin.

Handcrafted on an iron frame, hand-painted with decal insignia, metal propeller and rolling landing wheels, with the Hellcat's broad wing and heavy, purposeful fuselage.

Details

• 100% iron frame
• Metal propeller
• Landing wheels that roll
• Hand-painted with decal insignia
• Canopy, wing and tail detail
• Ready to display

The aircraft

Grumman designed the Hellcat around what the Navy had learned fighting the Zero: it could not out-turn one, so it would out-climb, out-dive and out-armour it instead. Heavy construction, self-sealing tanks, armour behind the pilot, six .50 calibre guns and a 2,000 horsepower engine.

Hellcats destroyed 5,223 enemy aircraft, more than any other Allied naval fighter, for a claimed ratio of roughly 19 to 1. Grumman's factory earned the nickname the Iron Works, and pilots called their aircraft the Grumman Ironworks Life Insurance Policy.