The Hellcat comes out to be a nice looking plane. I built one and my friend loved it. We traded later. Anyway the P-51 flys much better and turns alot better. The Hellcat is no match but depends on what you want. I belive the P-51 is now kitted and will have better wood. The Hellcat would be cool a profile Carrier plane.
Dan

I built it with the outlines but for the wing I used a thicker airfoil. A close copy of the remains of a Evil EMU Creations combat plane pulled from a trash can.  Scaled for the shape of a Hellcat outline.  I'll look up the Gotcha wing and see what it looks like.  I know that it will be sacrificed to the game so I wasn't too caught up in details.  I'm using a hot rod ST .35 for motivation. Should be fun.
David

Here's a few more details on the Hellcat. Use the stock Sterling fuse and tail outlines. Use Gotcha 460 wing cores. Cut 3 1/2" off the tip of each panel, and use simple 1/2" balsa wing tips. Locate the wing leading edge 5 3/4" from the nose. Mount the controls externally on top of the wing. A few pic's are attached. The Zero is similar in size and construction and makes a great companion to the Hellcat. Ultra Hobbies sells plans.

Good luck, and have fun!

Bill,
Those planes good real good. WW2 combat planes in circle will look great.
Dan

The thing about WW-II combat, at least for me, is getting a good balance between a plane that really looks like the full size one.  That means it has to have key features, like high or low or mid wing, dihedral, and the general balance between the nose length, the tail length, and the bulk of the fuselage.  For example, a P-51 has a relatively long nose and the whole stabilizer has to be in front of the rudder post, or it looks weird.  The other thing is almost all the WW-II planes had pretty steep wing tapers(tip ~50% of the root) and small wings.  The Hellcat is a bit of an exception.  It had about 30% more wing area than the Corsair, which used the same engine.

The usual procedure is to figure the wing area you want.  Scale the wing at ~1.3-1/4 in./ft.  Do the same for the tail.  Scale the fuselage at 1 in./ft.  It's all relative.  Then play around with the wing placement, the cockpit placement, an the length of the tail to make it look right.