Grumman Wildcat VI

[Dave Swindell]

Well, my parcel from Poland arrived on Wednesday, it took a wee bit longer than previous parcels from Arma Hobby, but considering the postal situation at the moment it was still reasonably quick, only 12 days. The sturdy card box contained one Expert Set FM-2 Wildcat and 3 sets of Overtrees neatly wrapped in bubble wrap, I've got a few sets of decals for Martlet/Wildcat VI's, so there's a fewe schemes for me to choose from.

Wednesday afternoon the Expert Set was unboxed and had a good fondling whilst I perused a selection of references. Box and contents:-

The overtrees supplied are just the two grey sprues and the clear sprue, nothing else.

The kit comprises of a main sprue for the FM-2 / Wildcat VI release:-

Plus a common sprue for this and the forthcoming F4F-4 release:-

The clear sprue is also common with the F4F-4 release, as it contains the lower fuselage windows and wing landing light cover not used on this FM-2 / Wildcat VI release.

Also shown here are the small etch sheet and the masking sheet for the canopy and wheels which are only included in the Expert Set:-

And here's the decal sheet from the Expert Set which covers 5 US FM-2's, and 3 FAA Wildcat VI's, all of 882 NAS on HMS Searcher, 3 individual code/serials being supplied for the same basic scheme:-

If you want to see photo's better than my phone snaps above, there's more on the Arma Hobby website, unfortunately the links they provide on this page for the instructions don't seem to work for me.

 

Initial impressions? It looks like a top quality product, with pretty much all you'd need to build a well detailed model straight out of the box.

 

[Dave Swindell]

After a good fondling on Wednesday afternoon and perusing various references and decal sheets in the stash in the evening and yesterday morning, a start was made yesterday afternoon and another session this afternoon saw all the required parts cut out and cleaned up:-

Although I've bought a stash of both Hurricane kits I've yet to start one, so this is my first Arma Hobby kit, and I'm very impresssed with it so far. The detail is crisply moulded and fine, and the parts look good for shape and size against my references. I'm particularly impressed with the way some of the parts clip together. The detail and scale size of some of the parts mean good care needs to be taken when cleaning the parts up, especially some of the undercarriage parts, which look like they will also need some care during assembly.

The cleaning up required was primarily just removing the nubs from the parts where attached to the runners and some very fine mould shut lines around the edges of parts, but there was a small amount of flash noticable on some parts, this cleaned off easily. I've onnly noticed one tiny sink mark on one side of the tail wheel fairing, this should be easy to rectify.

The engine push rod tubes around the gear case are about as fine as can be expected from the moulding process, but look a fraction overscale and  a few are a fraction short on this copy, so I think I'll be looking at replacing them with rod. This will no doubt be quicker than trying to remove the shut line down each side of each rod.

There's a few other little improvements I've noted to be addressed in the next session, again all due to the limitations of the mouldihng to reproduce the required detail (for me - kitbashers will be more than happywith the detail provided I'm sure!)

Sticking with the engine, the exhaust pipes are moulded integral with the firewall and have a very fine representation of the edge of the openings, but I'll attempt to drill these out deeper (and if I make a hash of it replace them with tube)

Then if you put the firewall on the front of the fuselage, you can see the top exhaust nicely in their troughs, but the lower ones are partly covered where the trough hasn't been moulded deep enough as this would have prevented the fuselage half releasing from the mould. The plastic looks thick enough for the troughs to be opened up with a file.

And finally, in the cockpit the seat bulkhead frame has the lightening holes marked on it, whilst the drills are out for the exhausts I'll open these up as well.

 

Whilst perusing my references I've come across photo's and notes which differ slightly for the painting scheme Arma offer for the FAA aircraft

Firstly, a short word document I have obtained form somewhere detailing FAA Martlet/Wildcats by @Bruce Archer states all initial Martlet/Wildcat VI's were painted in ANA replacement colours, not the substitute colours used by Grumman which closely matched the required MAP colours. Later Wildcat VI's were supplied in the overall Glossy Sea Blue with non-specular Sea Blue anti-glare panel. So the Temperate Sea Scheme shown in the instructions should be replacement ANA colours, not MAP colours. The cockpit is correctly annotated as being Interior green, but I suspect the interior of the cowling and undercarriage bay except the dished part behind the wheel should be either zinc chromate yellow or green.

Secondly, a couple of photo's in the Wildcat Warpaint show the upper wing roundels to have been C type with the narrow white ring between the red and blue. This may have been a modification of the B type red/blue roundels as supplied in the kit (and by Eurodecal for Wildcat VI's on HMS Queen, which are aslo photographed as C type) during operational use late on in the war, but I've not seen photo's of B type roundels on Wildcat VI's in TSS yet. In the absence of proof I'll  have a ratch though my decal bank for suitable size C type roundels.

[Edge]

Great info on this new release. Looking forward to following your build.

 

Edge

 

[HOUSTON]

comprehensive write up. thank you.

 

look forward to seeing your lovely choice for  a build.

 

 

[Cookenbacher]

Yes, really looking forward to seeing how this goes together.

[Tempestwulf]

Ooohhh. One of my guaranteed purchases as love the FM-2 in all over blue. This will be fun to watch built. They do overtrees too? *Happy modeller noises*

Edited May 30, 2020 by Tempestwulf

[StephenCJ]

Bought myself two last night.  They will possibly take six months to arrive,  Thank you china.

[Dave Swindell]

18 hours ago, Edge said:

Great info on this new release. Looking forward to following your build.

 

Edge

 

Watch this space, I hope I don't disappoint

17 hours ago, HOUSTON said:

comprehensive write up. thank you.

 

look forward to seeing your lovely choice for  a build.

 

 

Final choice of markings for this one still to be decided, it could be one of the 882 NAS ones suplied with the kit or I might go with one of the 853 NAS ones from HMS Queen on the Eurodecals sheets

13 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

Yes, really looking forward to seeing how this goes together.

It's looking good from a quick dry fit

8 hours ago, Tempestwulf said:

Ooohhh. One of my guaranteed purchases as love the FM-2 in all over blue. This will be fun to watch built. They do overtrees too? *Happy modeller noises*

Yes, overtrees still available

6 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

Bought myself two last night.  They will possibly take six months to arrive,  Thank you china.

They may take a while to get to you but I think it will be worth the wait

 

Thanks for the comments and likes guys, please chip in with any extra info on Wildcats in general and MkVI's in particular. This afternoon I'll have a look at doing some of the mods/improvements I've listed so far and report back with a photo or two hopefully...

[Dave Swindell]

Another session at the bench this afternoon, started out with a few simple tasks, wing halves glued together, hub added to prop, cowling halves and front glued together.

 

Then progressed to some more tricky parts, the undercarriage. Detail is excellent, but the parts are correspondingly delicate and extreme care is required in assembly here, take your time and wait for the glue to set up before moving on. Still some cleaning up to do here judging by the photo's...

 

So I then had a look at the cockpit, drilled out the lightning holes in the bulkhead (0.5 & 0.8mm), again a bit more cleaning required, and added the seat. I also had a good look at the 2 instrument panels supplied, one injection and one etch. I normally prefer etch panels as they're usuall much crisper and more detailed, but the quality of the injection panel is so good I think it has the edge on the etched one, which I've decided to omit from this build - I'm sure I'll find a use for it in another Martlet/Wildcat somewhere.

 

Whilst I opted not to use the instrument panel there are quite a few other useful bits on the fret, and those for the cockpit and firewall have been added so that painting can be started in these areas

 

I've also drilled out the ends of the exhaust pipes moulded onto the edge of the engine mount bulkhead. The centre was marked with a needle, if you're slightly off this can generally be persuaded into the correct position, then a pilot hole with a 0.5mm drill was put in each stub, no need to go too deep here, 0.5-1mm is all that's needed, and again check you're centralised. if slightly off the drill can be angled into the direction you want to move as you're drilling, then gradually bring the drill to the vertical as you twist the drill (I use a pin vice and drill by hand for this, you have much more control and it's just as quick). Once you're happy with the pilot holes they can be opened up with larger drills, taking care not to break through the side, I ended up with 0.7mm drilled about 1mm deep, then a light touch with a 0.8mm drill to chamfer the edge of the pipe and thin it out without breaking through the sides. The results can be seen here in one of the top channels in the fuselage.

 

Whilst the lower ones are half hidden due to moulding limitations of the fuselage halves

 

There's plenty of plastic in the fuselage side here to allow the channel to be filed out to the correct profile if you so desire, I've marked it roughly in pencil if you look carefully in this shot

 

I'll have a go at this and report back tomorrow.

 

[Cookenbacher]

Off to a great start Dave!

[Grey Beema]

This looks like a great kit, pity they don’t do it in the remedial scale.  I’m going to sit just over here and watch if I may..

 

Another colour to consider for the inside of the cowling would be Grumman Grey.  Not sure if it was still in use at this time.  

I also understand that Grumman’s DuPont colours were a very close match to MAP colours but I’m not an expert in any way, shape or form...

[Dave Swindell]

9 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

Off to a great start Dave!

My builds are always off to a great start Cookie, they usually have a good solid middle, but unfortunately they sometimes drift off to a poor ending, if indeed the end is ever reached... I'll try my best on this one I promise!

 

45 minutes ago, Grey Beema said:

 I’m going to sit just over here and watch if I may..

By all means, you're more than welcome

 

46 minutes ago, Grey Beema said:

Another colour to consider for the inside of the cowling would be Grumman Grey.  Not sure if it was still in use at this time.  

I also understand that Grumman’s DuPont colours were a very close match to MAP colours but I’m not an expert in any way, shape or form...

According to my references, you're correct on both counts here, but the key word in your post above is Grumman.

I'm guilty here of the British habit of referring to aircraft in general, and this build in particular, by the design company name, and not the US habit of referring to the manufacturing company irrespective of the design origin.

In this case, all Wildcat VI's were built as FM-2's by General Motors Eastern Aircraft division (as were Wildcat V's / FM-1's)

Grumman Martlets/Wildcats built for British contracts (as opposed to those taken over from French & Greek contracts) were painted in US paints which matched MAP colours very closely, and had bronze green cockpits and grumman grey interiors. The first few Martlet V/FM-1's were also finished in US matches for MAP paints before the switch to ANA colours. Interiors were Interior Green/Zinc Chromate.

 

The best concise guide to FAA Martlet/Wildcats is Bruce Archers here - http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/wildcatfaaba_1.htm

 

After adding the seat harness yesterday I'm wondering if it should be a Sutton harness instead of the kit supplied US version. Early wildcats built to british contracts had the sutton harnes fitted, not sure whether the lend/lease aircraft were so fitted or not, or even if all the Wildcat VI's were lend/lease. Lend/lease aircraft were generally painted to US spec, but most Wildcat VI's were painted in the TSS scheme although later ones were finished in overall Gloss Sea Blue. After the war ended most Wildcats were SOC in pretty short order, typical of lend/lease, but this included British purchased ones as well so this could be just because they were now surplus to requirements.

 

As well as the seat harness, other changes for British operated aircraft were the radio fit (almost certainly done, but most of this is hidden in the rear fuselage so only minor cockpit changes) and the gunsight (unsure on this one)

[Dave Swindell]

Not the best of photo's, but you shoukd be able to make out the reprofiled lower fuselage channel for the exhausts on the left compared with the as moulded channel on the right. This has also been filed out nnow and both sides polished up.

[Dave Swindell]

Time for a break after a rather frustrating time assembling the main undercarriage. The parts are well detailed and moulded and detailed, and therefore fine and delicate, but a couple of the parts (A11 and A12, the double V upper struts) have very little in the way of positive location if assembled according to the instructions, which I'd followed and was committed to before I worked out a better method for future models.

The Instructions have you assemble the main landing gear outside the fuselage as a separate assembly (which I was attempting) after assembling the complete fuselage ( which I'd fortunately not yet started)

 

For future models my plan for the assembly of the undercarriage unit is as follows:-

 

1) prepare fuselage halves and firewall A20 and dry fit, my copy clipped together nicely without glue or tape ( the firewall on the Wildcat is the undercarriage bay aft bulkhead, not the engine mounting bulkhead B11)

2) don't fit the etch parts to the firewall if you're building the expert set, they'll likely get bent or knocked off whilst you're using this as a jig, likewise don't fit the fuselage internal bracing frames A16 & A17, they'll get in the way, and leave off the engine mounting bulkhead B11 as you'll need access into the bay to locate and hold the top of the legs

3) glue the lower struts A18 to the keel frame A19 and allow to set, ensure the strut end slots are opened up enough to slide over the lower end of the vertical undercarriage legs.

4) slide the lower struts & keel into position in the lower fuselage/firewall slot, this was another good fit on my copy

5) bend the lower struts down as per the insturctions, and offer up the vertical legs to get the angle about right, then glue the lower leg in position ensuring the lower strut is engaged in the notch in the lower leg. DO NOT GLUE the upper end of the legs, just locate and hold in position whilst the glue grabs on the lower joint.

6) measure/fit the forward upper double V strut A11 then glue into position ensuring the open ends of the V's engage in the notches provided in the vertical legs. Allow this assembly to set up fully

7) gently remove the assembly from the fuselage "jig" and add the rear upper double V strut after measuring/fitting, then re-insert into "jig" to ensure alignment is retained whilst the glue sets up

8 ) remove main undercarriage assembly and add remaining parts.

 

Once asssembled the undercarriage unit is suprisingly sturdy and should be OK to be painted separately and added towards the end of assembly, but trying to assemble it outsdie of the fuselage and maintain alignment as per the instructions proved virtually impossible.

Airfix provide the vertical legs moulded together with the forward double V upper struts, which automatically sets the correct geometry, a much better solution but we're stuck with the parts Arma provide so be warned and take care with this part of the assembly.

 

Undercarriage assembly setting up in fuselage "jig" note front engine mounting bulkhead not fitted to enable access to locate and hold the top of the vertical legs

 

Undercarriage assembly from side setting up in the fuselage "jig"

 

Undercarriage assembly viewed from below

 

Main undercarriage assembly removed from the fuselage "jig"

[Terry1954]

An FAA Wildcat, what's not to like, and the new Arma Hobby release too. I'll tag along on this one Dave as I have a couple of Airfix and a couple of AZ offerings in the stash, and no doubt, before the end of this thread, I will have acquired at least one of the new Arma Hobby examples as well!

 

A great start indeed.

 

Terry

[Edge]

Thanks for doing the hard work & sharing the info on the landing gear. Your method has been bookmarked for use when my kira arrive!

 

Edge

 

[Dave Swindell]

3 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

I'll tag along on this one Dave as I have a couple of Airfix and a couple of AZ offerings in the stash

Your stash sounds a bit like mine @Terry1954 , I'll add Sword (which is where the AZ mouldings came from), Hasegawa and Dragon (which is the Hasegawa kit with a new folding wing sprue). If we're comparing them to Goldilocks porridge, Hasegawa is really nicely moulded but lacking in internal detail and a little bit on the thin side, Airfix is a little bit portly and a little heavy on the details, Sword looks about right with some niice resin but is short run and a bit vague in places, and Arma is just right (except for the fiddly undercarriage assembly)

2 hours ago, Edge said:

Your method has been bookmarked for use

Hic Cave @Edge, I make no warranties

 

Sorry ther was no update yesterday, didn't get any time at the bench unfortunately, but a bit of progress has been made today. First off the last of the boring bits, drilled some lightening holes in the undercarriage door brackets and thinned out the edges of the doors a bit, and also drilled out the hinge brackets for the elevator which have been nicely moulded on the aft edge of the tailplane. I've also added a flap cover from alu foil to what I think is a map pouch on the port cockpit wall, and the etch intakes for the oil coolers and carburettors have been added to the engine front. With the fine detail moulding that Arma have achieved elsewhere on the kit it seems a pity an attempt at moulding this detail integral on the engine wasn't made instead of the flat moulding provided, it looks like etch pieces for the sake of it and the standard kits will miss out here. The engine gearbox and valve pushrod tube part is just resting in position here to show the fidelity of the part before I chop the pushrod tubes off. Checking the overtrees I have i'ts just this one that has a slightly short moulded pushrod, cleaning them all up and trimming to length will I think be more tedious than replacing them with some more in scale Albion nickel rod I have. The kit tubes are 0.5mm but scaling off photographs (I know!) 0.35 rod should fit the bill.

 

 

Nearly time to break out the airbrush, just those pushrods to sort out and the canopy to mask up I think.

[Dave Fleming]

Following with interest, my package arrived today (I also got the Techmod decal sheet, so 2xTSS equivalent and 2xGSB FAA Wildcat VIs are in my future!)

 

So good to see an FM-2 that finally gets the cowl lengths right! (Side by side comparison with the Sword Hasegawa clone shows this!)

Edited June 3, 2020 by Dave Fleming

[Dave Fleming]

Regarding interior colours, I have this saved from Paul Fontenoy's posts on the old FAA SIG pages

 

EASTERN Eastern, a Grumman licensee, finished interior surfaces in Interior Green, with wheel wells, etc. finished to match exterior colors (and FM’s again using black enamel on u/c legs).

[Dave Swindell]

5 hours ago, Dave Fleming said:

So good to see an FM-2 that finally gets the cowl lengths right! (Side by side comparison with the Sword Hasegawa clone shows this!)

The cowl lengths on the Sword and Arma FM-2 kits are the same, it's the forward fuselage on the Sword kit that's wrong. The Sword kit as you say bears a close resemblance to the Hasegawa kits, which have the twin row Pratt & Whitney engine which has a longer chord cowl and shorter forward fuselage between firewall and engine mount bulkheads. The single row Wright engined Wildcats had a shorter cowl and longer fuselage section between firewall and engine mounts. Both engine types had the same length firewall to front of cowl. Sword (and Airfix initially, until it was pointed out to them, whereupon they did a retool) give you the shorter forward fuselage and short cowling, resulting in a fuselage that's too short overall. This is the case for the AZ FM-2 as well, as it's the same mould, but the AZ G-36A kit is a different tool and appears to get this right. The wing looks a bit too far forward on the Sword kit, and possibly on the Hasegawa kit as well.

5 hours ago, Dave Fleming said:

EASTERN Eastern, a Grumman licensee, finished interior surfaces in Interior Green, with wheel wells, etc. finished to match exterior colors (and FM’s again using black enamel on u/c legs).

That's what I'd read as well, but it rather depends on how you define wheel well with the Wildcat. Hellcats and Avengers are pretty straightforward with the wheel wells in the wings, but what is fuselage interior and what is wheel well on the Wildcat, and when would it be painted? I would have expected the fuselage interior to be painted Interior Green (or Grumman Grey for Grumman built Wildcats/Martlets) during construction prior to most fitting out, and the exterior colour to be applied at a late stage in construction shortly before roll out. If this was the case I can't see the paint shop respraying the whole of the fuselage bay in the underside colour, just the recessed wheel dishes on the firewall bulkhead, from my reading of Bruce Archer's summary of FAA Wildcat/Martlets this would appear to be his interpretation as well. There are however sextant Wildcats which have the most if not all of the fuselage interior in way of the wheelwell in the undersurface colour (or GSB at least), how original this is I don't know, and thumbing through period photo's has been inconclusive, there's not many good closeups of the area and it's largely in shade when photographed form further back.

[Dave Fleming]

55 minutes ago, Dave Swindell said:

The cowl lengths on the Sword and Arma FM-2 kits are the same, it's the forward fuselage on the Sword kit that's wrong. The Sword kit as you say bears a close resemblance to the Hasegawa kits, which have the twin row Pratt & Whitney engine which has a longer chord cowl and shorter forward fuselage between firewall and engine mount bulkheads. The single row Wright engined Wildcats had a shorter cowl and longer fuselage section between firewall and engine mounts. Both engine types had the same length firewall to front of cowl. Sword (and Airfix initially, until it was pointed out to them, whereupon they did a retool) give you the shorter forward fuselage and short cowling, resulting in a fuselage that's too short overall. This is the case for the AZ FM-2 as well, as it's the same mould, but the AZ G-36A kit is a different tool and appears to get this right. The wing looks a bit too far forward on the Sword kit, and possibly on the Hasegawa kit as well.

 

 

Hasegawa in grey, Sword in a blue. The Sword cowl and Hasegawa are the same length. From memory there was no real difference in the cowl front sizes either, it was basically an F4F/FM1 with a tall tail.  Makes me ponder if Hasegawa’s F4F/FM-1 is too short, as the Arma is going to be longer than either.
 

 

I’ll let you get back to building the kit now!

Edited June 3, 2020 by Dave Fleming

[Dave Swindell]

47 minutes ago, Dave Fleming said:

The Sword cowl and Hasegawa are the same length. From memory there was no real difference in the cowl front sizes either,

Sword cowl nose ring 2.5mm, Hasegawa 4mm, giving a longer cowl on the Hasegawa kit. Airfix cowl lengths match the appropriate single row Sword cowl and double row Hasegawa to within 0.5mm, so I don't think there's any significant error in any of the cowl lengths, it's the distance from firewall to engine mount that throws the Sword kit out.

[Seahawk]

21 hours ago, Dave Fleming said:

I also got the Techmod decal sheet, so 2xTSS equivalent and 2xGSB FAA Wildcat VIs are in my future!

Bit of a curate's egg, that sheet.

 

2nd option, JV784 S-M.  Unless presented with clear evidence to the contrary, I believe the enlarged red centre on the fuselage roundel to result from no more than Techmod's faithfully following some shoddy artwork in SAM or SAMI around the 1990s/2000s.  The code presentation should of course be big S, little M on both sides.

4th option, JV815, J3V.  Codes almost certainly yellow for a second-line squadron.  There are photographs around; see what you think.  Other manufacturers (Xtradecal, Freightdog) also offer this subject (with yellow codes).

5th option, JV884 B1C.  The most interesting option on the sheet but the transfers are based on some artwork which first appeared in Airfix Magazine in the 1960s and has been slavishly copied by the world ever since.  Unfortunately some of the scheme is inaccurate (perhaps drawn from an oral description?) and  more information has come to light in the intervening 50 years, notably a sequence of photos in the FAA collection of this aircraft crashing on Searcher and a photo on Airliner.net of sister aircraft JV836 B1S being ditched off Cochin in 1946 (captioned as a Martlet).  These show several errors, notably in the size and style of the codes.  The good news is that Arma themselves plan to issue their Wildcat in those markings and, mirabile dictu, they seem to have taken on board latest research.

 

But the stencils will come in useful for those of us with overtrees - if they stick!  (I have two sets.)

 

[Dave Fleming]

6 hours ago, Seahawk said:

 a photo on Airliner.net of sister aircraft JV836 B1S being ditched off Cochin in 1946 (captioned as a Martlet).  These show several errors, notably in the size and style of the codes.  The good news is that Arma themselves plan to issue their Wildcat in those markings and, mirabile dictu, they seem to have taken on board latest research.

 

 

 

 Thanks for your comments. interestingly, I wonder if the outer ring on the fuselage roundel is yellow? Airliners.net photo ( https://www.airliners.net/photo/UK-Navy/Grumman-Martlet-G-36/1309253)

 

[Seahawk]

7 hours ago, Dave Fleming said:

 interestingly, I wonder if the outer ring on the fuselage roundel is yellow? Airliners.net photo ( https://www.airliners.net/photo/UK-Navy/Grumman-Martlet-G-36/1309253)

I'm not going to say it isn't, because there does seem to be a slight tonal difference between the outer ring of the roundel and both the roundel centre and the outer ring of the underwing roundel.   But I would have to ask why it would be.  In the EIF and BPF national markings were routinely outlined in white against Sea Blue Gloss (think Hellcat and Corsair).  The application of the markings on B1S looks very smart so I think we can rule out its being a relic of an earlier 36" C1 roundel (and it's the wrong size anyway for that).   So we would be talking the introduction of yellow, not a colour prescribed in any Fleet Order that I'm aware of, onto a fresh or freshly-repainted airframe.  It doesn't seem likely to me.

Edited June 4, 2020 by Seahawk