***Finished and RFI Posted*** VF-34; Who They Were and What They Did. The White Backed Hellcats of Green Island

[mark.au]

On 2/3/2021 at 3:29 AM, VT Red Sox Fan said:

Simply stunning--what color grey did you use for the engine crankcase (sorry if I missed it)--actually the color run down would be great for the engine--you are hitting this one out of the park!  Thanks for sharing--will use your info for my Hellcat build... best, Erwin

Hi Erwin, thanks.  The engine was first painted with regular flat black, then dry-brushed with Vallejo Aluminum.  The crank case was apinted with a generic medium grey, I am afraid I didn't take note of which one.  Study of countless photos has proved to me at least that the grey used on the engine gearbox casing was varying shades of a medium grey, not one distinct shade.

 

When I had everything in it's colour, I then went over the entire engine with a very light dry-brush of a light grey; this pops out some more detail.  Lastly, I sprayed a diluted solution of Tamiya Smoke to give the engine a machine-like oily sheen as well as effectively applying a wash.

 

Cheers;

Mark.

[Jackson Duvalier]

On 2/1/2021 at 3:36 AM, mark.au said:

But then, there's this...   At first blush this also appears to be a VF-38 aircraft with its white cowl ring and the second pic showing the number painted on the fin.

 

 

 

 

...but pictured from the other side it looks like a very different situation.  The ground in particular looks like coral again, and the palms behind.  The palms though are only on the fringe, there's thicker forest behind.  It's also interesting that the VF-38 Guadalcanal aircraft are numbered in the single digits and the VF-34 aircraft are numbered on the 100 and up.  The mystery aircraft #100 above could be a VF-34 aircraft later in its tour when markings were applied differently; it could be a VF-38 aircraft parked in a different part of the airfield; it could be something else entirely!  

 

My guess is it's the VF-38 CAG bird, which typically have numbers ending in double oughts and are a bit more flamboyantly marked, as befitting a Commander's personal mount.  This is just a guess though; I'm a 'tard on the internet who likes model airpwanes, not any sort of expert.

 

Also to express a small concern-- you mention glossing your model with Future and also making a wash using Windex.  Products with ammonia (Windex) can absolutely destroy acrylic (Future, Vallejo, etc.).  I often use Windex to remove Future poorly applied to transparencies, for example.  You haven't mentioned watching your lovely paintwork dissolve into runny goo, so I suppose you're in the clear.  Sometimes the dose make the poison, but do be careful!  I'd suggest using a liquid washing-up detergent to reduce surface tension for acrylic washes.

 

Where do you find all these amazing photographs?

 

[mark.au]

2 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

 

My guess is it's the VF-38 CAG bird, which typically have numbers ending in double oughts and are a bit more flamboyantly marked, as befitting a Commander's personal mount.

 

Excellent suggestion Jackson, I reckon you’re right on that, especially as there’s other pics of this particular aircraft - makes sense they’d feature the boss’ Hellcat.

 

2 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

 

Also to express a small concern-- you mention glossing your model with Future and also making a wash using Windex.  Products with ammonia (Windex) can absolutely destroy acrylic (Future, Vallejo, etc.).

 

Indeed!  In a teaspoon of water it only needs one drop of Windex to cut through the surface tension so no real danger to the paint.  Ask me how I arrived at that ratio though... 🤦‍♂️  I’ve never been able to get along with using detergent, it always seems to leave the wash a little sludgy.  Probably using too much...

As for the pics, I spend hours trawling the internet looking for them, particularly IWM, AWM and US Archives.  However, these particular shots were close to the surface at a site called Azbiz.  It’s a strange site, but has a section with a lot of collected images, even if some of the captions are clearly wrong.  Here’s the link to the VF-34 and 38 Hellcats https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Hellcat/VF38.html. One place I’ve learned to look for images is the war gaming discussion boards; those guys are just as concerned with accurate representations as we are and post a lot pics on their boards.

 

Cheers.

Edited February 4, 2021 by mark.au

[mark.au]

I’ve been working my way through the bits and pieces, as well as the first stages of weathering.  Undercarriage, propeller and exhausts completed (save painting the exhausts, that is).

 

 

Photos of the VF-38 Hellcats (and I assume therefore the VF-34 Hellcats too) show that the props developed a fine leading edge of bare metal which I’ve replicated with simple dry brushing.  The wheels got a buff coloured wash to pop out the tread pattern.  The exhausts probably can’t even be seen once I put the cowling on but I drilled them anyway.  The main gear got dirtied up and is almost ready to go.

 

Hellcats were notorious for getting dirty as can be seen in these two images...

 

 

...and I’ve begun to replicate this.  My Hellcat won’t be as grubby as those shown above because it was land-based and newer than these two.  Nonetheless it will certainly have gotten somewhat stained as its missions were frequent and were more or less always straffing attacks on ground targets, of which there were plenty.  The guns would have seen plenty of use.

 

 

I applied this initial staining of a very diluted flat NATO Black with the airbrush.  However, the contemporary photos show the staining also has a liquid quality to it which I’m going to replicate with chalks wiped in the direction of airflow with a very slightly damp cloth.  This will fit it a streaky appearance which I think will match the photos well.

 

The exhaust staining was accomplished the same way, but with a light grey and a tan overlay which doesn’t show up well un these photos.

 

I think I’ll be literally assembling finished components on the weekend for a finish by Sunday evening.

[bigbadbadge]

Looks fantastic Mark, some lovely effects there. You've done this very quickly,  or was it because I was late???

Great work fella 

Chris

[opus999]

Beautiful!  It sure did seem to go together quickly -- but maybe I've been distracted.

 

Those stains on the bottom are curious -- especially the gunsmoke streaks that look (like you said) liquid.  It sounds like you've got a solid plan for replicating those, but I'm curious how that staining occurs in the first place (spoken like a modeler who's done 2 WWII navy birds in his life!)

 

Also, what steps did you take on the tires.  They look dirty -- is that just an artifact of paint and lighting, or did you apply some sort of dirt product?  I struggle to make my tires look dirty, mainly because I insist on dull coating them at the end which wipes out the look of pigments.  Dry brushing tires for effect has given me mixed results.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

1 hour ago, opus999 said:

I struggle to make my tires look dirty, mainly because I insist on dull coating them at the end which wipes out the look of pigments.  Dry brushing tires for effect has given me mixed results.

I usually add a drop or two of brown/tan paint to the dull coat to simulate dust/grime when spraying the tires and undersides of my builds. I also use pastel powders brushed on both wet and dry. To give dirt and mud streaks.  

[VT Red Sox Fan]

Mark—this build is coming along strong—I appreciate your perspectives on Windex/acrylics—best, Erwin 

[mark.au]

Thanks for the comments gents.  Some questions...

 

On 2/6/2021 at 3:49 AM, bigbadbadge said:

You've done this very quickly,  or was it because I was late???

 

11 hours ago, opus999 said:

It sure did seem to go together quickly -- but maybe I've been distracted.

 

I've had a chance to focus on it for the past week or so; for the second half of January I was distracted with some real-world stuff that took me away from the bench.

 

11 hours ago, opus999 said:

It sounds like you've got a solid plan for replicating those, but I'm curious how that staining occurs in the first place (spoken like a modeler who's done 2 WWII navy birds in his life!)

 

I believe that the streaking is possibly a result of the gun oil being ejected with the gas as the guns were fired.  In these harsh environments, the guns would need a lot of car and maintenance which would include gun oil.  

 

Here's the finished wings.  The streaking looks very stark in this image, more than in red life (to my less than perfect eyes, I must admit) but it is the effect I was going for.  On the upper wing I added some distress around the gun and ammo covers as these areas would have seen a lot of traffic, even in a short tour such as VF-34's.  I also scuffed up the wing walk areas but not down to the metal as I'm not convinced that would have occurred in such as short period as I'm depicting this aircraft's service life.  Not seen in this pic is some minor paint chipping on the leading edge towards the wing root.

 

 

All that's left now to complete the wings is to paint the guns - I'm amazed that I haven't knocked them off during the entire build - and attach the nav lights and the light on the port wing leading edge.

 

11 hours ago, opus999 said:

Also, what steps did you take on the tires.  They look dirty -- is that just an artifact of paint and lighting, or did you apply some sort of dirt product?

 

Very similar to @Corsairfoxfouruncle's technique.  I painted with Nato Black, then a very diluted Tamiya Buff all around on the running surface, then a wash of light beige in the treads themselves and finally a dusting of pastel chalks.  There was a bit of back and forth in these steps to both build up layers and also correct errors where I went too far with one or other steps, but I eventually I reached a point where it looked right to me.

 

Once I've finished the wings I think I'm also about an hour's bench time away from finishing the fuselage.  Then all I have to do is attach the main landing gear - which is also finished - and then fix the wings and stabilisers to the fuselage and it'll be practically finished.  I probably won't get that all done today, but things are shaping up for a Monday completion.

 

Cheers.

 

 

[Jackson Duvalier]

You've inspired me to dig out the 1/72 Weekend Edition Lolly I put away (in an advanced state of incompletion) before the move two years ago now.  I forget which particular error moved me to back-burner it but there are plenty of oopsies evident.  Time has dimmed the emotional involvement and it doesn't look all that bad, think I'll try to bash it on out.  FIDO and so forth.

 

Off to airbrush some soot stains and lead deposits!  The photos you've shared will be invaluable, cheers. 

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Mark

The streaking looks fantastic and I particularly like the subtle distressing around the gun access bays it is often overlooked and you have captured this well. Great work fella. I have to say I do like your almost forensic approach to interpretation of photos.

Chris

[opus999]

Wow, I'd say you nailed the streaking!  Like @bigbadbadge I noticed the wear around the gun access bays... very effective and just right for this period of the aircraft's life.

[mark.au]

Evening all.  It's 21.20 here in Sydney on Monday night and here's a sneak peak at where I'm at with "Lolly"...

 

 

It isn't quite finished but I've only got two small tasks remaining, those being the pitot tube and the wing-tip nav lights (which have given me fits today, actually).

 

I'll write one more post on this WIP with a run down of the final assembly and actions, along with an answer to the question posed right at the start of the build; who were VF-34, and what they did.

 

 

Edited February 8, 2021 by mark.au
...because I don't proof-read very well, apparently.

[heloman1]

Wow, looking good...

 

Colin

[bigbadbadge]

Oh boy Lolly's looking lovely Mark  you have done a cracking job  fella.

Chris

[mark.au]

In the end, the final assembly was a bit of an anticlimax.  All of the prep work I'd done paid dividends and I really only glued all the various bits on the fuselage and the model was complete.  I didn't attach the fuel tank because the reference photo showed all visible aircraft without them, though I know from reading the War Diary that they did use the fuel tanks, sometimes even as weapons.  I used some fine wire for the whip antenna, there was no wire on these aircraft.  

 

For final weathering I simply dusted on a little more buff/coral coloured chalks and enhanced the exhaust staining with a little more Buff on top of the black/dark grey that was already there.  For all of the lights, wing tip as well as on the upper and lower fuselage I used Crystal Clear with Tamiya clear colours as appropriate.  I simply couldn't get the kit parts to work anywhere without risk to the paintwork.  I think it turned out better anyway.

 

I'll post some glamour shots in an RFI later; I still have the article to write and my first attempt at proper photos was, well, rubbish.  So, the pic a couple of posts above, and the two below will have to suffice until the RFI goes up.  I'd get it done sooner but I'm on a road trip for the next three days, so it will have to wait.

 

 

Thanks for following along.  Lastly, I leave you with the question I started with;

 

VF-34, Who They Were, and What They Did.

 

It's hard to imagine that in early 1944, when the United States was entering its third full year of war in the Pacific and had won battles at Midway, the Coral Sea, and Tawara; had virtually completed the victory in the Gilbert and Marshalls campaign as well as at Guadalcanal, that the Navy would, in only four weeks assemble a fighter squadron without attachment to an Air Group, and then ship it for immediate action in the latter stage of Operation Cartwheel. And yet, that's exactly what was asked of Fighting Squadron 34.  

 

VF-34 comprised 45 pilots of whom just one had seen any combat; two were Class A pilots; none of the eighteen full Lieutenants nor the two Junior Grade Lieutenants were combat trained. Of the Ensigns, while twenty were operationally trained, only ten of those were in F6F Hellcats, the remainder in F4F Wildcats or SBD Dauntless dive bombers. None of the pilots had completed their pre-deployment Fighter Training Syllabus and only six of the forty-five had flown any night hours at all during the pre-deployment period.

 

The squadron's task was a simple search and destroy mission. While the final landings of Operation Cartwheel at the Admiralty Islands (February 1944) and Emirau Island (March 1944) went ahead with relatively little opposition, Japanese forces were still active and dangerous throughout the region and in particular on New Ireland; VF-34's job was to find the enemy and attack them everywhere they could.

 

Having shipped out from San Diego in early February, their tour officially began on 7th March flying from Piva Yoke on Bougainville.  However, the next day the Japanese shelled the airfield and the squadron was forced to move south to Barakoma airfield on Vella Lavella Island. For the next few days operations flown from Barakoma were staged through Torokina airfield on Bougainville but this arrangement proved logistically unsatisfactory so the squadron moved a final time to Green Island (now Nissan Island) and made it their permanent base.

 

The squadron hunted for targets of opportunity almost every day, the tally of destroyed enemy assets included ammunition dumps, barges, coastal craft and canoes, tractors, motorcycles and trucks, a sawmill, small watercraft and suspected gunboats, cranes and docking machinery, buildings and infrastructure, and enemy soldiers. Almost all of these attacks were delivered by strafing though in a few cases the pilots preceded their strafing runs by dropping their fuel tanks on the target first. One might imagine that may have been almost fun, and maybe it was, except for the Japanese returning fire. In the squadron records almost all of these sorties were recorded with notation of the damage sustained as well as damage inflicted; indeed, on the 10th April Lt. Lochridge's Hellcat "Lolly", my subject aircraft, was damaged by small arms fire while attacking a pair of 20m barges.

 

In the course of their eight-week tour the squadron flew 1,165 sorties and and in doing so lost seven out of the thirty aircraft they started with.  Four of the forty-five original pilots were killed; two to enemy action, one to accident, and one - tragically - to friendly fire.  

 

So, what happened to the pilots of the original VF-34 afterwards? Without extensive digging it's hard to know. A unit that was seemingly thrown together, was certainly ill trained and unprepared for their task, they nonetheless developed their own localised tactics to achieve the results required of them. On the face of it, a minor unit in a minor part of the war perhaps, but the work they did advanced the conclusion of Operation Cartwheel, and in so doing advanced the end of the war.  Final victory depended on the sum of those local successes scored by the countless anonymous units like the first iteration of Fighting Squadron 34.

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by mark.au

[2996 Victor]

Superb, Mark, and the historical research you've done as a background to the model both makes fascinating reading and serves to set the model against an historical perspective. Looking forward to seeing the RFI photos when you're back from your trip.

 

Kind regards,

 

Mark

[bigbadbadge]

Outstanding work Mark, you have created a cracking model.  The backround information is fascinating and personalises the build. Also I am fascinated by your approach with the reference photos which is like a forensi  approach and is equally fascinating. 

Great job fella 

Enjoy your road trip

Chris

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Well done on your Grumman. 

[HOUSTON]

Super research and IMPRESSIVE  build.

Your model and build has turned out FANTASTIC. 

 

 

[Jackson Duvalier]

I've lately gotten away from in-depth contextual research in favour of building more and faster; seeing your "forensic" (as mentioned above) approach has chastened me somewhat.  This is a good thing.  😎

 

The F6F is a really attractive aircraft.  As a history counterfactual, I wonder how things would've gone in Europe had the USAAF settled on the Hellcat circa 1942 rather than investing in the P-47 and P-51.

[mark.au]

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

 

7 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

F6F is a really attractive aircraft.  As a history counterfactual, I wonder how things would've gone in Europe had the USAAF settled on the Hellcat circa 1942 rather than investing in the P-47 and P-51.

I love those what-ifs...  imagine a Hellcat taking on a 109....

[Jackson Duvalier]

1 hour ago, mark.au said:

imagine a Hellcat taking on a 109....

 

 

Funny you should mention that.  

 

I'm sure there's better information out there, but this turned up easily enough.

[alt-92]

2 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

 

 

Funny you should mention that.  

 

I'm sure there's better information out there, but this turned up easily enough.

 

By sheer coincidence...

[BuNo02100]

My kind of modeling, good historical research to produce a good model of an obscure part of the war.  

 

BW