Dave Cowell of DPCModels reproduces this exact kit, and I own one of these copies...NFI, but I have several of his repops. Each one is reverse engineered to take out some of the big manufacturer's.concessions to expediant mass-production.... I can say the P-40 Red Tiger is a joy to assemble. I expect my copy of the Hellcat and Zero will be too! If I could find any of the others (Zipper, Hurricane, Shoestring) I'd send them his way to fill out the series.
Jim, I have Dave's F6F Hellcat kit. I mentioned in Hip Pocket Aeronautics that I built one back in 1965 as an adolescent. He then PM'd me if I'd like to be the first to receive a copy of his kit, his price was reasonable and I couldn't resist, many kudos to him. I started it, have an NOS OK Cub .06 reed valve as a generous gift from Dane Martin (thanks Dane!) to power it. Still need to finish it.
Dave did his best to mimic the original construction to include the well detailed clear plastic turtle deck. He also did his best on the 2 piece plastic cowling. However, as I remember it, the one on my Hellcat was mated to a very round firewall. I think Dave used a similar one but of thinner profile on one of Walt's other hollow log radial engine based kits. Then recently I found a photo of Walt's profile F4F Wildcat with built up wing, with a round cowl. I think Walt borrowed the non-scale radial cowl from his Wildcat kit. Bingo!
A modification I am making is using a vitamin supplement bottle of the correct diameter to replace the 2 piece and a new round diameter firewall to place over the kit one. I did such a cowl on my Baby Gee Bee Z Ringmaster variant to cover the Gilbert .074 Thunderhead, and it worked out well.