Badcat has production Hellcat, does review of plane.

GooglyDoogly · Post by **GooglyDoogly** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 5:27 pm

Teamski wrote:I'm surprised you guys don't see it. The Hellcat has the same problem the P-47 and P-40 had. The canopy and windshield have the wrong shape. It screams at me every time I look at it.... Its way too big.

I fixed the P-47 I have years ago. I won't be able to do the same for the Hellcat unfortunately.....

-Ski

So THAT's why the cockpit area seemed "chubby" to me. I know it looks off, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

But like Aferg said, they might have done it because of pilot issue. Because it's quite odd that they got that overall look of the Hellcat, except the cockpit area.

But it's still a winner in my book.

STUKA · Post by **STUKA** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:10 pm

they could have made deeper cockpit - but then we would scream the cockpit was too deep.

FieroDude · Post by **FieroDude** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:42 pm

From what I can tell from the photos, another concern/reason may be that if the cockpit and canopy were 100% exact true to the real thing, you would probably never get a pilot figure into the cockpit without taking off the arms and legs. Human bodies are pretty flexible. Plastic figures are not, unless everyone wants Gumby for a pilot. I seem to recall people not being too thrilled with the M16 because most figures won't fit in the gun "turret" unless you make the figure look like a land mine victim.

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:48 pm

And I thought I was picky,,,,but since I know I hope it does not bug me,,,but I know it will,,,,anywho I will still get one.

The way I see it, If Bbi did not add the removable engine cowl and gun lockers then they should have paid attention to the detail in the cockpit, landing gear, wing fold mechanism. The detail looks good but it not all on the spot at least from the pics I can see.

The front landing gear doors are supposed to rectangular not trapezoid

Tires are way to thin, the detail of the wing should have been exposed like in the real one,,,I thought Mike said back in October that the hellcat was going to have lots of detail like a model.

Question are there hard point the sling some bombs under the hard points near the fuselage? Or is the upgrade ordinance kit going to have just rockets and a centerline bomb?

And when will see the ordinance kit?

Jackson · Post by **Jackson** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:44 pm

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 10:17 pm

aferguson wrote:too big canopies are a way of life with 1/18. It's to ease putting in the pilot figures. It's that or undersize figures again, i'm afraid.

How about no pilots are one that has very little articulation but goobs of detail like dragon figs. they would be used only for display next to the aircraft, Sine I don’t play with my stuff, I would not be bothered by this, if it meant more accurate in detail.

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 10:36 pm

OF course maybe Bbi should send us all a free Hellcat “the one with the fixed windscreen” so we my evaluate it…Pictures just don’t do it justice

* Bbi would only have to send a free hellcat to all of those that have participated in this thread since this post.

Website · Post by **Teamski** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 3:33 am

aferguson wrote:too big canopies are a way of life with 1/18. It's to ease putting in the pilot figures. It's that or undersize figures again, i'm afraid.

You know, I'd agree with you Andrew, but it's not the case here. Let's pull out the bbi Zero and 21st 109G. Both have tight cockpits with VERY well done canopies with fitting figures. The Hellcat is definately less cramped than the 109! I take this as a rush job, personally. My feeling is that bbi settled for the final design instead of a retooling....

-Ski

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 3:49 am

Teamski wrote: The Hellcat is definately less cramped than the 109! I take this as a rush job, personally. My feeling is that bbi settled for the final design instead of a retooling....

-Ski

I agree with that statement, Thats why we did not see all those extra features.

Post by **aferguson** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 5:50 am

The Zero has a large canopy by design, so BBI didn't have to englarge it. The Hellcat's is much smaller so they felt they had too......just as 21c used to enlarge their canopies, but don't anymore.

Perhaps after this thread BBI will re-think that strategy or perhaps they will feel that adding to the play value (by making it easier to put the pilot in and take it out) is more important than a small concession to accuracy.

In this hobby (1/18 scale) i've gotten pretty tolerant of small errors and inaccuracies, as virtually every piece has them and all of the customs i've made certainly do. It's the overall look and the 'wow' factor of the large size that i like.

MightyMustang · Post by **MightyMustang** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 11:13 am

Wow there seems to be alot of gripes about the new F6F canapy which dont seem to be a big deal to me at all. All you have to do to fix that problem is tape the front section off and paint it on yourself, thats what I'll do anyway. I love the photos of it and it looks to be another home run hit by BBI. They gave us an excellent P-51, Corsair, Zero and now the mighty Hellcat. The cockpit detail is just amazing as is the whole plane itself. The Hellcat in 1/18th is a dream come true for me and I cant wait to have it in my grubby hands.

Thank you BBI.

CW4USARMY · Post by **CW4USARMY** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 12:22 pm

MightyMustang wrote:Wow there seems to be alot of gripes about the new F6F canapy which dont seem to be a big deal to me at all. All you have to do to fix that problem is tape the front section off and paint it on yourself, thats what I'll do anyway. I love the photos of it and it looks to be another home run hit by BBI. They gave us an excellent P-51, Corsair, Zero and now the mighty Hellcat. The cockpit detail is just amazing as is the whole plane itself. The Hellcat in 1/18th is a dream come true for me and I cant wait to have it in my grubby hands.

Thank you BBI.

AMEN!!!

MightyMustang · Post by **MightyMustang** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:35 am

They have some new photos of the BBI Hellcat up on Bad Cats website and I'm now a little worried by what I see. The first thing I notice is that the wings droop like the Avengers does

. I feared this would happen with the folding wing feature on the Hellcat. Second. I noticed that the wings sit up to high where the real Hellcats wings sat lower and snug when the wings were folded. From what I see in the photos this is wrong. Now granted these are only photos mind you but this does concern me because this is THE WW 2 fighter that I have been waiting for for a long damn time time to see and have in 1/18th scale. I might be forced to fix the problem by removing the folding wing feature and super glue them in the extended position.

Otherwise the F6F looks pretty damn good to me. The Avenger suffered the same problem with sagging wings and now it looks as if the Hellcat may have the same problem but all things can be fixed and rest assured I will fix them.

Post by **aferguson** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 8:05 am

the wings not sitting right when folded does not surprise me. Neither of the Corsairs', nor the Avenger's wings fold exactly like the real thing; they're all a little out of whack looking when folded. They have to simplify the wing fold mechanism on the toys in order to keep costs down and make it durable and functional.

The wing sag would be a surprise, as the Hellcat's wings shouldn't be all that heavy. It may not be a wing sag....it may be like the Avenger in that they designed the wings to be flat, rather than have the proper dihedral, again so that the wing folding mechanism could be simpler and stronger. The lack of dihedral makes the wings appear to be sagging.

The simplest solution is to buy 2, glue one set of wings extended and glue the other set folded (after relocating to the proper position). I don't really have a lot of faith in wing folding mechanisms to hold up over time anyway, so that's what i've done with all my folding wing planes.

jeffrowse · Post by **jeffrowse** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:12 am

Coupla' thoughts - rather than paint directly onto the plastic and risk a mess, why not paint a strip of masking tape and then cut it to width before sticking it on the plastic?

Alternately, you can get vinyl tape for use on flying models in various widths and colours - for those of us who don't have a local model shop, you can always look for one online and email them.

Secondly, I take it that either none of you have the BBI Apache or (if you do) you don't know what the real thing looks like since there are enough "mistakes" on there to keep a fixer happy for a long time, and here you're hassling over a (comparatively) small error in the shape and detail on a canopy...

toyktdlgh · Post by **toyktdlgh** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:16 am

Is anyone actually happy there making this plane? Maybe I’m out of line here on this but it seems a lot of us are forgetting that these are toys (models). They are not perfect and never will be. This is a fantastic aircraft and I for one am completely siked there making it. Even if it has a few imperfections.

FieroDude · Post by **FieroDude** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:27 am

toyktdlgh wrote:Is anyone actually happy there making this plane? Maybe I’m out of line here on this but it seems a lot of us are forgetting that these are toys (models). They are not perfect and never will be. This is a fantastic aircraft and I for one am completely siked there making it. Even if it has a few imperfections.

I'm with you on this one. Significantly over or underscale, or putting the wing 30% farther back than it should be is one thing. But the little details? Either live with them or customize away. But I am just happy to have a very good representation of favorite planes and vehicles at a very reasonable price. If I wanted absolute perfection, I would spend $15,000 on a museum piece, and live out of my car. Or I would dedicate 4 hours every night for the next 9 years to researching and scratch-building it. But for $40-60, or even the $100 for the F/A-18 and F-16 I have no complaints. Beats the hell out of not getting them at all, which is the likely alternative.

Black Lion VF-213 · Post by **Black Lion VF-213** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:33 am

I love this Hellcat too. Yadda yadda so the cockpit and the landing gears' front doors are trapezoid instead of square but damn this plane looks good!! I'm not ordering one, I'm waiting till they show up at our Toys R Us. I know our store will get several because for everything BBI releases our store receives boat loads of them. Hence there will be plenty to scower over and compare. If the sample Bad Cat has on their website is really the production model, then I'd say this Hellcat is by far the most accurately detailed and highest quality painted 1:18 plane out there.

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:51 am

jeffrowse wrote:
Secondly, I take it that either none of you have the BBI Apache or (if you do) you don't know what the real thing looks like since there are enough "mistakes" on there to keep a fixer happy for a long time, and here you're hassling over a (comparatively) small error in the shape and detail on a canopy...

That is why I will not buy the BBI Apache.

tkjaer21 · Post by **tkjaer21** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:58 am

I am just glad that they attempted the Apache. It is a nice display model even with it's errors IMHO.

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 11:14 am

I gave in after several years and got the Apache a few months ago. The cockpit doors opening on the left side is a gross error, as are the inverted pushrods on the main rotor. The pushrods can be easily fixed however, and greatly imporve the look of the helicopter. I can live with the cockpit doors as they still work like they should. The BBI Apache still captures the look of the actual aircraft and is huge

Post by **aferguson** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 11:39 am

that's funny you should mention the push rods. I didnt notice until after i hung it up and decided i'd fix it 'one day' and then forgot about it.

I guess next time i have to take it down to heat and rebend the rotor blades i''ll fix the push rods. Until then, i'll just forget about it again.

The overall look is great, despite the little flaws and as stated above....it's a lot better than the other 1/18 apaches on the market, of which there arent' any.

You want perfection, build model kits. You want big, beautiful and easy...1/18 is the way to go. These things are getting better all the time.

STUKA · Post by **STUKA** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 11:52 am

Black Lion VF-213 wrote:I love this Hellcat too. Yadda yadda so the cockpit and the landing gears' front doors are trapezoid instead of square but damn this plane looks good!! I'm not ordering one, I'm waiting till they show up at our Toys R Us. I know our store will get several because for everything BBI releases our store receives boat loads of them. Hence there will be plenty to scower over and compare. If the sample Bad Cat has on their website is really the production model, then I'd say this Hellcat is by far the most accurately detailed and highest quality painted 1:18 plane out there.

Same here - only problem is the TRUs around me wil have to sell off the boatload of mustanges and corsairs still sitting. One store keeps adding and adding and it does not look like they sold one plane after I bought my Corsair.

USCGSARdog · Post by **USCGSARdog** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 1:30 pm

toyktdlgh wrote:Is anyone actually happy there making this plane? Maybe I’m out of line here on this but it seems a lot of us are forgetting that these are toys (models). They are not perfect and never will be. This is a fantastic aircraft and I for one am completely siked there making it. Even if it has a few imperfections.

I couldn't agree more. I am thankful another of my favorite planes is going to see the light of day, in 1/18 scale.

-Rob

Birddog · Post by **Birddog** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:36 pm

I think we should all be happy just to have the Hellcat made as many have mentioned. The imperfections are minor and well, I'd be glad if my favorite aircraft would just be made in 1/18.....