Another JV368 Wildcat V in 1/48

[Model cobber]

Hello everyone. This is my first post.

A few weeks ago, a post was made on this forum about Wildcat V, JV368, piloted by an Australian in the Fleet Air Arm:

 

Grumman Wildcat JV368 - An Accidental Australian in the FAA

I also have had JV368 on the workbench, having come across the articles in the South Coast Register and read the book (An accidental hero) via my local public library last year.
My model is the Tamiya 1/48 Wildcat, modified to represent a Wildcat V with 4-gun armament.
My model has an IFF antenna underneath and whip antennae as per the photographs in the book and a number of photographs of late war FAA wildcats on the IWM website. These were made from steel guitar strings.
Decals came from the Techmod Grumman Wildcat VI 1/48 set, except the 6B on the nose, which is from the Ventura Eight Inch Serials, White RAF, RAN, Commonwealth Air forces 1/48 set.
I didn’t know about the red cowling bands for Operation Dragoon, referred to in the earlier post. As I had already applied the decals when I read the post, I decide not to try to add the red cowl.
JV368 was undertaking bombing missions at the time, so I have added 250 Ib bombs. These and the universal bomb carrier came from the Airfix Walrus kit in my stash. They were installed as per photos on the IWM website.
The model is painted in Dark Slate Grey, Extra Dark Sea Grey and Sky, which is my interpretation of colour photos of pieces of the actual aircraft in the FAA Museum.
Weathering was kept to a minimum, except for some wear around rivets and from exhausts. The pilot wrote that dive bombing and strafing were a daily feature in the life of pilots during the invasion of France, and so smoke staining from guns was also added.
American escort carriers had flight decks made from Douglas Fir (also known as Oregon or Oregon Pine). Oregon was a very common building and furniture timber in Australia, with much of it imported from America and Canada. The Base is the Eduard US Navy Aircraft Carrier Deck, mounted on a base of recycled 1930s/1940s Oregon, which I routered to size.
In retrospect, I probably should have painted the deck markings in white. Colour photos seem to show both yellow or white but white might have been more appropriate.

Sources:
Sherborne, Guy. (2017). An accidental hero. Longueville media.
Crawford, Robert. (2017, July 12). Fleet air arm museum to be new home of downed World War II plane parts. South Coast Register.
Imperial War Museum website.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[noelh]

Very nice it is too. I've a soft  spot for FAA wildcats. My very first model kit was the Airfix Wildcat with FAA decals, sorry transfers.

Great  back story too.

[SAT69]

Gotta love a well built Wildcat!

[Jeff G]

Nice work, what brand of paints did you use?

[Ed Russell]

That is very nice. Our research seems to have run on parallel lines!

 

One of my colleagues is doing it in 1/32 so there will be a veritable plague of JV368s!

 

 

[Dunny]

Lovely Aussie subject for your first post MC - welcome to the forum! Great build and finish too,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[stevehnz]

That is a truly superb job on this machine. Super build, super story to go with it. in lieu of a copy of the book, I'm resorting to a kindle version. 👍

Steve.

[Model cobber]

Sorry for the late reply, It's been a busy week.
I used GSI Creos Mr Hobby Color Aqueous paints.

Thanks everyone for all the encouraging responses.