The Hellcat was well regarded for carrier service during the War.

Let’s look at an example that flew for the Royal Navy.

I believe as lend-lease types in RN service go, most readers will be more familiar with the Corsair. Certainly the FAA has a significant claim to fame with that type for having worked with Vought and solved the Corsairs problems in carrier service. But the whole reason for that, was the Royal Navy had a lower priority for getting Hellcats than the USN did. Test pilot Eric Brown made the comment that the only reason the Corsair was ever considered acceptable for aircraft carriers was the RN’s inability to get enough Hellcats.

But the British did eventually get Hellcats. Really as early as 1943 they were getting a trickle. It was initially named “Gannet”, but then switched to Hellcat I *think* before they were actually even flying any of them. In FAA service they would be either a Mk I (F6F-3) or Mk II (F6F-5). Ultimately over 1200 served in the Mediterranean, North Atlantic and Pacific/Indian Oceans.

The example seen here was flown by 808 Squadron on the HMS Khedive, summer of 1945. The Khedive was an escort carrier attached to the Eastern Fleet. Surprising for such a large aircraft, a number of Hellcats flew from escort carriers in both the US and British navies. The big Grumman types had a large wing that gave them very good low speed performance and made them suitable even for the smallest of ships. In fact, British escort carriers in the Pacific operated the same types as American escort carriers; either Wildcats or Hellcats for fighters and Avengers for bombers.
Also notice the Eastern Fleet of 1945 is a different entity than the better known British Pacific Fleet. They operated mostly escort carriers, with the occasional larger type working up as it passed through to the Pacific Fleet. The Eastern Fleet spent most of the War protecting shipping lanes from Africa and the Mid-East to India and Ceylon. From late 1944 they started more of a “lean forward” with offensive operations against Japanese positions in Burma, Malaya and Indonesia, oil and shipping being the main targets. 808 Squadron was active in these operations including the re-occupation of Rangoon, Operation Dracula, in April and May of 1945.

This is the Hasegawa kit with Aeromaster Decals.