1/32 What If Hellcat "Kitty"
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In 1946, an American offer was received for the supply of aircraft for the Polish naval aviation. It included F6F Hellcat fighters and torpedo bombers TBM-3 Avenger bombers and torpedoes. At the same time, the first demonstration aircraft arrived at the former German airport in Dziwnów - two F6F-5 fighter Hellcats and one F6F-5P reconnaissance aircraft.
The Polish side ultimately did not accept the offer, which was determined by the unit price (Barracudas, although inferior in performance to the Avengers, were almost two times cheaper), and in the case of fighters also lower performance than the Mustangs just received from the USA. Also it was considered that for one planned fighter squadron ( 5th "Privateer" Squadron) there was no reason to put new type of fighter into service.
However, the Hellcats remained in Poland and served in 2nd Women Squadron.
Depicted Hellcat, named "Kiciuś" ("Kitty" in english) was used mainly for combat training and CAP over Baltic Sea.
Model is a old kit from Hasegawa with AM gun barrels, exhausts from brass tubes and seatbelts made of aluminium foil. Pilot is from ICM US WASP set.
