Built in large numbers (7,815) and flown by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in the dark days of the Pacific War, the Grumman F4F Wildcat was almost not built at all.  It was the loser of a 1936 U.S. Navy fighter competition to the Brewster F-2 Buffalo, and the XF4F-1 was ordered as a backup in case the Buffalo did not meet expectations.  Through further development the Wildcat finally entered British and U.S. Navy service as the Martlet Mk I and the F4F-3 respectively, and rapidly overtook the Buffalo in service after that types disastrous combat debut.  Based on combat experience with the type Grumman produced the upgraded F4F-4.  This version introduced armor, self sealing fuel tanks, an extra pair of guns, and folding wings.  The Wildcat would serve on for the rest of the war in various upgraded versions.  Its greatest fame, though, would always be associated with those early F4F-3 and F4F-4 versions which served during the initial campaigns in the Pacific, helping to turn the tide of the war against the Japanese.  One of the individuals who contributed to that fame was Marine pilot, and Medal of Honor winner, Joe Foss.  Arriving on Guadalcanal on 9 October, 1942, Foss made ace within 9 days.  By the 23 of October he had scored 11 kills, but had also dead sticked 4 badly shot up planes into Henderson Field.  By the time he left Guadalcanal on 26 January, 1943, wracked by malaria, he had become the first American fighter pilot to equal Eddie Rickenbacker's record of 26 kills.  On a sad note, Foss recently passed away on January 1, 2003.  The aircraft I elected to build shows an F4F-4 as it was marked on 23 October, 1942: the day Foss recorded four kills.  Given the situation at Guadalcanal pilots flew aircraft as they were available (in other words flyable condition), so just about any aircraft could have been associated with any pilot during this time, and in the Osprey book Wildcat Aces of World War 2 there are at least a couple profiles of aircraft that Foss is identified with.

THE KIT

   The best starting point in 1/72 scale is the Hasegawa version.  It has finely recessed panel lines, simple construction, good accuracy, and a very clear canopy.  The primary drawbacks are the minimal, and incorrect, cockpit detail along with the bare wheel wells.  These two problems are easily fixed using the excellent (and cheap) True Details resin set that covers both of these areas.  The cockpit is a drop in affair, and I painted it according to the instructions that come with the resin set and based on photos in the Detail and Scale book.  The only "gotcha" with the cockpit is you have to remember to cut out the holes for the fuselage windows. These windows were glued in carefully using Tenax before anything else was done to the fuselage.  CA glue was applied to the outside of the windows to fill the seams, then they were sanded, polished back to their original clarity, and panel lines were rescribed. The same ease of assembly is true for the wheel well, which also had some strip styrene added as fuselage stringers and lightening holes drilled out on the main landing gear brace.  In addition the resin insert fills the gap at the rear of the wheel well, preventing that ugly "see through" look.   Once done this assembly was painted light gull gray with the landing gear legs in black.  After the fuselage was glued together, though, most of the cockpit work became invisible!  The wings, tail planes, canopy and small bits were added, a small amount of filler was required to blend in the windscreen, and the model was ready for painting.

PAINTING AND DECALING

   First the canopy and fuselage windows were masked using Tamiya tape, then the painting began.  Gunze Sangyo H315 (FS#36440/light gull gray) was used for the undersurfaces, while Polly Scale 505088 (US Navy blue gray ) was applied to the upper surfaces.  Once this had dried Future was applied as a gloss coat and allowed to dry for 24 hours.  The decals came primarily from Super scale sheet #72-287.  They show Foss' aircraft as it was marked on 23 October 1942 and were cross checked against the Osprey publication previously mentioned.  The decals went on with no major problems, Solvaset being used to make them conform.  Once these were dry the model was cleaned off to get rid of any setting solution, and another coat of Future was applied to seal the decals.  Weathering was then applied using artists oils along the control surfaces and wing folds.  Thinking about it now, given the environment these aircraft operated in, I should have weathered the model more.  A couple of coats of Polly S were used to get the proper degree of matte, masking was removed, then the gunpowder stains were added using artists charcoal.  Antenna wires (from stretched sprue) and the wheels were the only things left to glue, navigation and formation lights were painted, and another model hit the shelves.  For those of you looking for a quick and accurate build I highly recommend this kit.  The True Details set is a great addition, much more for the highly visible wheel well detail than for the almost invisible cockpit.

Murph