This is the third in a trilogy of Hellcat decal sheets from Superscale. This one is for the night fighting version, the F6F-5N. Most night fighting Hellcat squadrons were shore based and their job was to intercept Japanese planes who used the cover of darkness to either do night intruder missions or just fly around in the dark dropping light bombs and keeping the troops awake;  you know, harassment missions.

Since these units were generally not in place until after most Japanese airpower in the region was already heavily decimated, it is not unusual for squadrons to go through an entire deployment without getting a single kill. Not exactly the glory of war, but a job that had to be done. Since the units were shore based, it was natural that the Marine Corps should be the ones entrusted with this mission. To my knowledge, these squadrons were the only Marine Hellcat units formed during the war.

Anyway, you have a nice selection of aircraft on this sheet. All are -5 Hellcats, but two of them are early versions with the small quarter window more common on the F6F-3.

The first aircraft is in the tricolor scheme and was with VMF(N)-534 on Guam in 1944 after the island was taken back from the Japanese.

Next is an overall sea blue Hellcat from VMF(N)-541 at Ulithi Atol. This was a major staging area for the Pacific fleet so really needed night protection. The plane in question has what every male modeler likes on his WWII aircraft; cheesy nose art!

Finally, another overall sea blue F6F-5N from VMF(N)-542 based on Okinawa. Unlike the others on this sheet, this one has kill markings on it. Okinawa was a hot-spot of the war and close enough to mainland Japan to get a lot of attention from night intruders.

If you have a Hasegawa 1/48 F6F-5N and need alternate decals, this would be the perfect sheet.

Review copy courtesy of . Thanks for your support.
This and other new sheets are currently available at your local hobby shop.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly by a site that averages thousands of visits a day, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.