TAMIYA 1:48 F4F-4/FM-1

[Wurger]

Oh... sorry, got it wrong. You meant the white ring there didn't you? It's a light trick. The same one you may find on the #2. The #8 and #5 have them too but less visible because the two Wildcats are much closer to the camera.

 

[fubar57]

Play of light it is. I'll stick with my original choice of #4 as well.

 

[Airframes]

Nice one Geo.
Oh, wait ... it's a ............. ARRGH !!

 

[fubar57]

M....ARRGH....TLET might be easier to say Terry. The butchery begins. Still a bit of clean-up required and not 100% accurate but not a lot will be noticed once every thing is together. Note I over-cooked the bottom left side but the seat will cover this. I'll add some plastic strip just to ensure everything stays lined up.

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The wings need to be altered slightly. All but the early FM-1s carried two MGs in each wing so the outer gun hatches need to be filled (A) and the respective gun (2) removed. Their hell casing ejection ports and wing drop tank attachment holes will also need to be filled.

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As always, Wojtek is in the background prodding me in the right direction and as always, greatly appreciated

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far George!

 

[CATCH 22]

Geo, as you probably remember there were 2 Atlantic schemes: ASW 1 and ASW 2. IMHO the a/cs on the colour photo are in ASW 1:

The insignia white of the stars and bars differs from the side (Light Gull Grey) tone and this is not a light trick or bad photo or anything else. In a discussion about the 2 schemes I was told once that the insignias on this photo are newly painted and brighter than the rest of the camo. Partially that's true: one can clearly see that the border of the nat.insignia is darker - IMHO this is a new blue paint over old red border. Even this is a good point for me, because the red bordered nat. insignia time line matches the use of ASW-1 (July 1943 AFAIK).
These 2 schemes have been discussed here previously:
USN WWII Atlantic Camo Scheme
Tommy Thomason in his Tailhook topics wrote about the 2 schemes a few yars ago:
Tailhook Topics: World War II ASW Schemes versus the Norfolk Scheme
I haven't seen a F4F-model in scheme 1 so far. You might try it.

The 3 tones are well visible on a TBF below:

I think I have a b/w photo of a F4F (or FM) with the same appearance, but I must find it first.
P.S. Here it is:

 

[fubar57]

Very interesting Yves. I'll have to find some dates. I do have red bordered stars/bars but I'm not sure about my red-boarder-painting-out capabilities. 28 June 1943 to 14 August 1943 is the red border time period

 

[SANCER]

This will be a very interesting thread to continue learning. I like muchgo the scheme with Insignia White.
I'll be paying attention for those Geo modifications.
Good start.

Saludos

 

[CATCH 22]

Very interesting Yves. I'll have to find some dates. I do have red bordered stars/bars but I'm not sure about my red-boarder-painting-out capabilities. 28 June 1943 to 14 August 1943 is the red border time period

That's why I wrote that this period matches the first use of ASW-1 (July 1943). But you don't need to have only red-bordered insignia with an older camo-scheme. Usually they were changing the insignia colours, not the camo-schemes. BTW there are US insignia with darker (dark blue) borders as aftermarket or some other models offer them as OOB-decals. It's a nice touch when depicting airplanes used for longer periods during the WWII. My point was to use the 3-colour (ASW-1) scheme rather than the more popular ASW-2 one.

 

[fubar57]

Not much to show so far. I was going to use stretched sprue to fill in the redundant wing gun panels for the first time but Tamiya threw in a curve ball....the panels are slightly raised. I've taped off the area around the panel and slowly sanding it off. This will minimize the amount of riveting and panel scribing. In between thoughts of throwing the wings across the room, I started painting the engine and drilled out some holes in the bulkhead behind the seat.

 

[fubar57]

Okay............I've got the right thread this time. One wing half is done, just need to scribe three panel lines and add rivets. Engine is completed. I used Citadel Runefang Steel for the cylinders and POLLY Scale for the front. Not sure which colour it is as it is so old, everything has faded off the label. I used Citadel India Ink for the wash on the cylinders. This stuff goes a long ways. I barely touched the ink surface with a 2/0 brush and was able to wash three cylinders. Citadel Mud was used for the cover.

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I've made my choice...finally for the innards colour...POLLY Scale RAAF Foliage Green (FS.34092). I have the actual colour as a bit darker than this but we'll call this scale effect.

 

[Wurger]

 

[fubar57]

Greeness.....

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Painted a few boxes and I.P. Nato Black after I took this photo. When that's dry I'll add some detail colours and then glue it all together

 

[parsifal]

engine plug looks very nice geo. Not overdone, which I think makes it a better result

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far George!

 

[fubar57]

Thanks all. Innards done with some mild weathering. For some reason, I am struggling with Tamiya Clear Flat. I've got 3 (maybe 4-5...don't ask) bottles, purchased over quite a time span, and all seem to be more satin than flat. In the end I used MicroMark Flat.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Looking good Geo.