Ok here we go !
Yesterday afternoon some good progress was made. Most of the time was spent on the rockets.
The underwing pitot tube was painted Red and glued in position too.
The rocket parts were carefully cleaned up of the attachment points, assembled and painted. The decals were added next, and I purposefully left some of the decals out of alignment. These are the ordnance lot numbers and such. There is a decal on the actual warhead as well.
I wanted to have this Wildcat look as if it was headed out on a ground support mission, as I wanted a full load of rockets under the wings. So because of this I decided to install both drop tanks. I know that Tom Cleaver has stated they normally carried one while flying a CAP mission. This is true.
However having time to loiter on target would be desirable in ground support missions, so both tanks were likely carried on a ground support mission. These drop tanks were rated to where they could be retained while doing minor aerobatics and things like aileron rolls. I think it was something like a 5G rating going from memory here.
You can see they are both installed here. I have found some pictures showing these planes operating with two drop tanks. In many pictures, the tanks look as if they were painted in a Non Specular White, or possibly a Light Gray color.
I believe this was a carry over from the earlier three tone camouflage, and necessary for the Atlantic ASW scheme as well. It is possible the plane was carrying both drop tanks when it had the landing accident on the USS Nehenta Bay on August 5th, 1945. One is visible on the Port side, and there is something present on the Starboard side, but it's very hard to know for sure about the second one.
The propeller was installed, now it's really looking the part ! Sharp eyed viewers will also note the wing mounted MG barrels have also bee installed at this point. The outer weapon has a barrel that is slightly recessed into the wing, while on the inner MG, the barrel protrudes slightly. The best way to get the distance close, is to use the empty brass casing ejector port as a guide. You can get it close enough if you look at the spacing here. This is very nicely molded under the wing.
I also took the liberty to paint these empty chutes using a Flat Black today. This makes it look more authentic I think.
-
1. Paint in this corner with Light Gray
The clear parts were added. A word of interest here, is the inner lowest corner of the sliding part of the canopy was painted using "Grumman Gray". This is a small triangular section, only present on the inside of the glass. Eduard got this right here ! This kit has been very well and properly detailed.
It is the very best FM-2 Wildcat kit... ever !
-
1. PE mirror
2. Gun sight
The gun sight was painted and installed. I decided to paint the crash pad using a brown color. It could also be painted using a Black. I thought it would stand out more using the Brown, so that's why I did it this way. Either way is correct.
The pilot's wind screen was also added. You can see how Eduard has included a PE rear view mirror. I used some Molotow chrome to make it look like it was actually a mirror. The fit of the clear parts has been perfect. I used "Future" to secure the glass parts in place.
There is still a little bit more work left to be done at this point... which I completed this morning.
Here is a picture showing how things looked late last night.
There is one more installment coming right up. Please stay tuned... Thanks !
