Grumman wildcat question.

[stevej60]

Hi folk's I was sorting through some old model magazines  and out popped the 1/32 decal sheet  of Revell's ancient wildcat re-boxed a few years ago

which  including a D-Day striped FAA machine I seem to remember the kit was so bad I lost the will to live and binned it,I,m in a large

scale building mood right now and wondered if any of Trumpeter's Wildcats equates to the mark that wore this scheme?

 

[Troy Smith]

Hi Steve 

 

the only D-Day striped Wildcat I can think of of a Mk.V, which is an FM-1

 

the Trumpeter Wildcat is a F4F-4

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/wildcatfaaba_1.htm

Quote

Wildcat Mark V 

The Wildcat V was the first Wildcat produced by Eastern Aircraft for the FAA. All were delivered under Lend-Lease. These were FM-1s, a F4F-4 with 4 wing guns. All were powered by a Pratt and Whitney R-1830-86 Twin Wasp with a two-speed, two-stage supercharger and had a Curtiss Electric cuffed propeller with a stepped hub. The cowl was the longer Pratt and Whitney style, with both the carburetor and intercooler scoops. There were 4 small cowl flaps per side. Wings were folding but the Mk.V/FM-1 reverted to 4 wing guns with 430 rounds per gun. The pitot was the F4F-4 style. Serials ranged from JV325-JV636.

Wildcat V JV578 “F” of 852 Sqn in June or July 1944. Though the quality of image is not as good as in previous images, it is still useful. The aircraft is very similar to a F4F-4, but with 4 gun wings, the outer guns being deleted. Note the vertical radio mast, not canted as in previous versions. JV578 has the long chord Pratt and Whitney cowl with the intercooler scoops, carburetor intake and 4 cowl flaps per side. It appears the ring and bead sights had been deleted. A Curtiss Electric prop with a stepped hub was fitted. Though early FM-1s (Wildcat V) were painted as were the Grumman built aircraft, this aircraft is most likely in the US “equivalent” scheme of Olive Drab and Sea (US) Grey with Light Grey (USN Non-Specular Light Grey) undersides. This was the first version of the Wildcat built by Eastern Aircraft for the FAA. Copyright is Unknown.

 

 

 

so... not really, unless you want to make the 4 gun wing.

 

I remember building the revell Wildcat as a child,  I think I  even got the wings to fold, and still have the remains somewhere. admittedly it was when i just used to slap them together, but it seemd OK.    what did you find so bad about it?

 

[pacificmustang]

Trumpeter's F4F-4 is what you need, kit number02223

 

You will need to fill fill in the outer gun bays and respective spent shell chutes underneath the wings too

Regards

 

Bruce

[stevej60]

Many thank's Bruce and Troy(great photo) thought it a good project for the Radial'sRock GB later in the year,I had an old Smithsonian

boxing of the Revell kit in my hand's at the show yesterday for a silly nine quid but couldn't  persuade myself to buy the thing it was all

those rivet's and raised detail sadly modern kit's with the detailing we now come to expect have put me off all the extra work involved

in these older kit's this morning I could kick myself for not having a go!

Edited June 5, 2017 by stevej60

[Bruce Archer]

7 hours ago, stevej60 said:

Many thank's Bruce and Troy(great photo) thought it a good project for the Radial'sRock GB later in the year,I had an old Smithsonian

boxing of the Revell kit in my hand's at the show yesterday for a silly nine quid but couldn't  persuade myself to buy the thing it was all

those rivet's and raised detail sadly modern kit's with the detailing we now come to expect have put me off all the extra work involved

in these older kit's this morning I could kick myself for not having a go!

Hi!

  For more information on Martlets/Wildcats go to :http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/wildcatfaaba_1.htm

It will answer most of your questions.

 

Bruce

[stevej60]

Many thank's Bruce,very informative!

[tempestfan]

The FM-1/2 also have appreciably larger ammo bins/Access Panels on the wing undersides. Most references mention the higher shot per gun, but the accompanying drawings often ignore this.

BTW, as the Revell kit is a -4, the Wildcat V decals would't have matched the plastic without some minor alterations, either.

[Junchan]

Here's a photo of full invasion striped Wildcats from No. 846 Squadron aboard HMS Trumpeter (D09).

 

Jun in Tokyo

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/horaburo/albums

[MDriskill]

On June 6, 2017 at 3:59 AM, tempestfan said:

The FM-1/2 also have appreciably larger ammo bins/Access Panels on the wing undersides. Most references mention the higher shot per gun, but the accompanying drawings often ignore this.

BTW, as the Revell kit is a -4, the Wildcat V decals would't have matched the plastic without some minor alterations, either.

 

I would add that just about every Wildcat kit, and published drawing, in existence, renders the underside ammo access doors incorrectly. Typically you see a separate narrow access panel for each ammo bin, but in fact both inboard bins were covered by a single panel. The double panels here were, I suspect, originally a misinterpretation of the simplified drawings in the F4F's O&M manuals, but the single panel is obvious in any underside photo of these aircraft (which unfortunately seem quite hard to find).

 

This is true both for the two inboard guns on the 6-gun folding wing (F4F-4, Marlet II and IV), and for the guns on the later 4-gun wing (FM-1, FM-2, Martlet V and VI). As tempestfan mentioned, the latter design had the bay and access panel extended for the larger ammo bins.

Edited June 15, 2017 by MDriskill

[tempestfan]

Those by Jumpei-san also have separate Panels for the six-gun wings, but the 4-gun layout Panels are much larger and single Units. BTW, I may have mentioned (a Million times) his drawings are the only ones I know of that correctly Feature the small Blisters in front of the outboard Shell ejectors. No, I am not obsessed...

[MDriskill]

I too am a big fan of Jumpei-san's work! His eye for complex three-dimensional forms is unmatched, and IMHO these are the best F4F drawings currently available.

 

But I do quibble with his access doors on the 6-gun wing. These two illustrations from Dana Bell's excellent recent book make the point, I think. First the diagram so often mis-interpreted--an upper surface view, the dashed lines only showing the ammo box locations, not their access panels:

 

 

But this photo of an F4F-4 shows clearly that both inboard guns were covered by a single access panel. Note also that both inner and outer panels slightly overlap the wing openings, and have angled corners:

 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2017 by MDriskill