It is my understanding that HVARs were not routinely used until the advent of the F6F-5. Although I cannot absolutely rule out that LTjg Vraciu never flew with HVARs on his plane,I personally would not add them. He is famous as a fighter ace, and that means that he and the pilots who flew with him were specialists in shooting down enemy aircraft with guns. HVARs are strafing tools, and that is not the type of fighting that Vraciu is famous for!!!!! Putting them on the model says nothing about the pilot that made that aircraft famous.

Another thing that you might want to think about is the bottom surface of the flaps on that airplane. F6F-3s had cloth covered flaps. It was not until the advent of the
"-5" model that these were covered with metal. That was done to protect the flaps from the heat caused by launching HVARs. If a "-3" had metal bottom faced flaps, either the flap or the entire wing was a replacement. Maintenance priorities in a combat environment did not include painting replacement parts to match the original color scheme of the aircraft. That means that, if used, the flaps or wings would have been Gloss Sea Blue both top and bottom.

This is a personal preference, but I generally do not add anything to a model that I cannot document with primary evidence such as a photograph of the prototype being depicted by a model, or a maintenance log for that airframe.

Best regards,
W1ndfall