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Tower Hobbies F6F Hellcat


The painted machine gun housings (above left) are a nice touch, located in the leading edge of the wing, and appear to be a harder plastic shells glued in place. The 1000 Kv motor (above right) is already mounted in its ply motor


ble from the outside of the model, and the single wing bolt can be accessed by simply removing the canopy hatch. In all, it’s a very neat and tidy arrangement.


The final steps in the assembly process be-


gin with mounting your chosen receiver to the inside of the fuselage using the double- sided foam tape strip provided for that pur- pose. I mounted my Futaba R2006GS 6- channel S-FHSS receiver on the fuselage wall opposite the ESC and out of the way of installation and removal of the battery. After connecting all of the servo leads to the receiver, I slid the 3S 2200 mAh battery as far forward as I could get it, which turned out to be touching the rear of the motor fire- wall. The instruction manual makes a point of doing just that to achieve the recom- mended balance point, and once I deter- mined the battery would fit in its assigned space, I applied about a 11⁄2-inch strip of the “hook” portion of the provided “hook and loop” material to the bottom of the fuselage. Since the clearance space is limited for re- moval of the battery, I used only about an inch square piece of “loop” material on the


mount and has more than ample power for the plane. Note the battery casing showing through the openings in the motor mount as it rests against the back of the firewall.


aft portion of the bottom of the battery so it would stay in place, but could still be pried up from the rear in order to change batter- ies. A full strip of “hook and loop” on both the bottom of the fuselage and the battery would make it almost impossible to install the battery as far forward as it needs to be and even more difficult to remove, given the confines of the opening in the front of the fuselage.


I should note that I did replace the connec- tors on the ESC to accept Deans plugs, which I tend to use exclusively. For those who have Deans plugs on their batteries and don’t want to mess with soldering connec- tors to the provided ESC, you may obtain SuperTigre’s adapter (SUPMOO40) which has a male Deans plug for the battery and a female SuperTigre connector that fits the ESC to convert it to a Deans receptacle with no soldering.


Once the receiver is hooked up and the battery installed, the next step is to check the controls to make sure they’re responding in the correct direction according to trans- mitter inputs. The Hellcat uses easily-ad-


justed screw-lock connectors at the control horns so it’s easy to center all of the controls and then check the amount of control move- ment. While the control rates seem rather minimal for both high and low rates, the control surfaces are surprisingly effective at either rate. For radios without dual rates, the instruction manual recommends setting the throws halfway between the two rates. While the Hellcat will never be accused of being a 3D airplane in disguise, it is a sprightly sport flyer and can go far beyond what are normally considered scale maneu- vers for WWII fighters.


The instruction manual also deals exten- sively with checking the balance point of the model, going so far as to use a full one and one half pages to detail the process and the required results. I found that my model, even with the battery as far forward as pos- sible was still slightly tail heavy. The manu- al deals with that by saying, “The Hellcat should pretty much balance on the recom- mended c.g. location with a 3S 2100 mAh battery positioned as far forward as it will go. It will still balance within the recom-


The hollow foam cowl is held nicely in place with four embedded magnets (above left). Also shown is the 3⁄4-ounce stick-on weight covered with clear silicone to keep it in place. Added weight will be necessary if using the 1800 mAh Li-Po. While the placement of the wing insignia may be a bit off, the “kill”


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markings (above right) under the cockpit add to the air of realism of an essentially simple foam plane. The canopy, pilot, and instrument panel are nice touches that fair into the battery hatch in a realistic manner. The smaller decals add to the scale effect, too.


MAY 2013


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