F4F-4 built as FM-1 Wildcat by Landlubber Mike - FINISHED - Tamiya - 1/48

[Landlubber Mike]

With the F3Fs completed, I'm going to build the F4F-4 Wildcat, but as the FM-1 version.  The Wildcat was a carrier based fighter that began with the US Navy in 1940 (and was known as the Martlet with the British Royal Navy).  It was built by Grumman, but Grumman ceased making the plane in 1943 to focus on the newer, and more superior, F6F Hellcat.  General Motors/Eastern Aircraft continued making the Wildcat identical to the F4F-4, but reduced the number of guns to four and added wing racks for two 250lb bombs or six rockets.

 

I'm going to build it using the Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat kit.  From everything I read, the kit goes together very well and easily.  

 

 

 

Of course as per my usual, I'm making things more complex for myself by adding a bunch of aftermarket, including a wing fold set from Wolfpack that allows you to build the kit as the FM-1.   I happened to get very lucky and find this kit on eBay with all the aftermarket shown below, aside from the Wolfpack set, for under $50 with shipping from Greece of all places.  The Aires set alone, which has a ton of resin and PE components, retails for $55 or over, so I figured why not?

 

 

 

For the color scheme, it's fairly simple - a nice change from my past yellow wing builds!  Here is sheet from the Wolfpack set, along with a diagram I found of what the scheme looks like (reminds me of the coloring of Great White sharks):

 

 

Finally, here are pictures of an FM-1 in the Smithsonian collection.  While I live in the DC area, unfortunately it looks like it's not on display at the moment (and I believe the museum is closed due to Covid).  Oh well 😕

 

https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/eastern-division-fm-1-grumman-f4f-4-wildcat/nasm_A19610122000

 

 

 

Should be a fun build!  Thanks for looking in.

[ccoyle]

Nice -- quite the logical follow-up to your F3Fs! I have the Halinski 1/33 scale card version of the F4F. It's an older model that lacks the usual top-notch Halinski weathering, but I'm still reluctant to build it, mainly due to the need for building the nightmarish landing gear assembly essentially from scratch.

[Landlubber Mike]

Probably logical, but I chose it because the box is in terrible shape and I was worried about keeping the contents secure!  I have a Special Hobby 1/32 Buffalo in Finnish markings that probably should have gone next time wise, but it's a pretty nice kit and with a more complicated camo scheme, and I figured I needed a little more experience.  Your card F4F sounds like a great, yet tricky, project!

 

It has been nice building these in somewhat of a chronological order to follow the development of planes during this time.  Amazing how much development there was, even during war time.

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Count me in,     I have seen the RN one at Yeovilton Museum, looking forward to this one.

 

OC.

[lmagna]

4 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Amazing how much development there was, even during war time.

ESPECIALLY during war time!

 

I'm in, I'll go get my blanky. 

[Egilman]

I'm here brother...  I wouldn't miss this one....

[Canute]

I'm in, too.

 

Just finished an ebook on Midway; more like historical fiction. Good quick read. "The Silver Waterfall". Adds some good info on many of the personalities of the participants on both sides. One character featured was Jimmy Thach, the Navy fighter pilot who figured out how to survive and sometimes beat the Zero with the F4F.

[ccoyle]

BTW, for anyone interested specifically in Midway, I found this analysis very engaging.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd8_vO5zrjo&t=2s

 

[Edwardkenway]

I'm in! I like these Pacific campaign  carrier aircraft. 

[Canute]

Another book that goes deep into analysis of Midway is "Shattered Sword" by Parshall and Tully. Debunks some earlier books, like Fuchida's.

[Landlubber Mike]

So I spent some time working through the kit and the aftermarket.  The kit is fairly simple to assemble, with only nine or so steps, and can probably be done in a week out of the box.  Interesting way they approach the cockpit - the kit has you assemble the fuselage first, and then run the cockpit up into the fuselage from under the plane.  At least on the last few planes I've built, the cockpit was built first and the fuselage assembled around it. 

 

 

 

The Aires aftermarket packet is a bit overwhelming.  Lots of resin pieces, along with two small sheets of PE!  The kit details are pretty nice, but in the second picture below, you can see some examples of how the Aires set adds a little bit more detail (for the top item, there's actually additional PE you're supposed to add to the part like the gear chains).  Of course, one won't be able to see most of this detail, but I suppose the fun is knowing it's there.  I also have the Eduard PE set for the kit, and it is mostly focused on the cockpit.  Some of the details like the seatbelts and the dashboard are nicer than the Aires set.  I might try both out, or possibly swap out some of the Aires stuff with Eduard PE if it looks nicer.  

 

 

 

 

I'll just have to take a deep breath and figure things out.  Some of the parts are on fairly thick plugs, so it's going to take a lot of work to remove them.   And the instructions are pretty much pictures.  They are fairly well done, but sparse is probably a good way to describe them.  Fingers crossed this goes smoothly...

[Landlubber Mike]

Anyone know what part RP52 is supposed to represent?  It's on the spine of the aircraft behind the cockpit.  Is it supposed to be the parachute?  It looks like it has the shape and texture of something like cloth:

 

 

[Roger Pellett]

An interesting progression of the Grumman short, fat design philosophy from your previous mid 1930’s Grumman biplanes.  I’ll look forward to watching this.  This was the fighter that held out against the Japanese first string pilots during the interesting part of the Pacific Campaign, the big carrier battles and Guadalcanal.

 

Could RP52 be a inflatable life raft?

 

BTW, what do use to glue resin parts together?

 

Roger

[Landlubber Mike]

Hey Roger, agree about the progression.  Interesting stuff.  Apparently the Wildcats were slower than the Zeros but built sturdier and ended the war with a great kill/loss ratio of 6.9 : 1 according to Wikipedia.

 

Actually, a raft sounds a lot more likely.  One would think the parachute would be with the pilot in the cockpit!

 

For resin, you have to use CA and not the typical plastic cement.  I don't know if the white glues work, but had some resin parts in my F4B-4 and P-6E builds that I attached using CA without problem.

[Egilman]

3 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Anyone know what part RP52 is supposed to represent?  It's on the spine of the aircraft behind the cockpit.  Is it supposed to be the parachute?  It looks like it has the shape and texture of something like cloth:

 

 

3 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

An interesting progression of the Grumman short, fat design philosophy from your previous mid 1930’s Grumman biplanes.  I’ll look forward to watching this.  This was the fighter that held out against the Japanese first string pilots during the interesting part of the Pacific Campaign, the big carrier battles and Guadalcanal.

 

Could RP52 be a inflatable life raft?

 

 

Yep it's the life raft...

A quick demonstration was performed for the trainees, November '42...... So it will probably be bright yellow... {chuckle}

 

Superglue medium set to give a bit of time for repositioning....

 

That is a REAL detailed resin set there.....

 

Nice....

[Egilman]

4 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Apparently the Wildcats were slower than the Zeros but built sturdier and ended the war with a great kill/loss ratio of 6.9 : 1 according to Wikipedia.

The main problem with the wildcat was it was underpowered. The versions flown by the navy early in the war had 1,000 hp engines same as the Zero with twice the weight.... In the hands of an experienced pilot they could turn with a zero and out dive a zero, but they couldn't outclimb or outpower it... They learned to fly it to it's limits and do amazing things with it as long as they stayed away from the vertical fight. Some of the pilots became aces in one mission in it, I believe the record was nine victories in one mission, (in a corsair) 7 victories on one mission was done several times but only once in an F4F..... Most of the top aces had a large score mission like that..... Luftwaffe pilots were doing it on many occasions, But that is an entirely different story with the way they granted credit for kills.... Our pilots had to have witnesses or gun camera footage of the victory to get the credit... In the hands of a good pilot, the Wildcat was a deadly aircraft...

 

The US navy soon got the F6F Hellcat which had a 2,000 hp engine and was only 20% heavier, then they could wipe out the zero...

 

But they still flew the FM-1 off the small escort carriers that couldn't carry the Hellcat but they then had a 1,500 hp engine by that time and were on better more equal terms against the Zero. The British pilots loved it they couldn't get enough of them, the German pilots hated it..... (too hard to hit)

[Canute]

Commander Jimmy Thach developed the "Thach Weave" to combat the Zero. Effectively drag a Zero out in front of another Wildcat and the shooter brought his guns to bear on an aircraft having no armor plate over any part of the airframe.  No protection for the fuel tanks and cockpit. Made the Zero very nimble and fast, but it did have a serious Achilles heel to get there.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks for that info guys.  I read Ian Toll’s first two books on the Pacific War which I highly recommend.  Just saw that third and final book in series is out now - hooray!

 

I was all jazzed up late night to start building, but instead i spent time fixing some of the parts that had broken, washed them to get the residue off, and organized the parts in a plastic box rather than stuff them back into a plastic bag.  Also spent time organizing my thoughts on how to proceed by matching up the instructions for the kit with the Aires and Eduard aftermarket sets.  
 

The kit doesn’t have many parts, but my guess is that the Aires set is going to triple the build time with al the intricate details.  The engine Itself has probably 2-3 dozen parts when all is said and done.

 

The Aires set has replacement panels so you can show off things like the engine, the gun bays, etc.  I’ll see how things go, but I might do a diorama of the plane getting maintenance on a carrier deck to be able to show things off and keep the panels.

[Landlubber Mike]

Here’s a question - some of the resin parts are on fairly big plugs that are bigger than a quarter in size and a good 5-10mm in depth.  Any recommendations on how to remove the plug?  I bought a micro razor saw and was thinking of using it to cut as much as I can off, and using a rotary tool and/or sanding blocks to remove the rest.  I read that resin dust is harmful (but really, what dust isn’t?), So just want to do things as easily and safely as possible.

[Roger Pellett]

From what I’ve read, a major factor in the air war was the difference in pilot training doctrine between the Americans and Japanese.

 

When the war began the pilots of the Imperial Japanese Navy were products of years of intensive training and were highly skilled- second to none.  Combat and other losses drastically reduced their ranks during 1942.  Unfortunately for the Japanese experienced combat pilots were not rotated home to train new fliers and the Japanese training system could not be adapted to train high quality pilots quickly.

 

A major success for the Americans was their ability to quickly turn huge numbers of depression youth into capable pilots, many previously educated at the excellent US network of public universities. Their training was enhanced by experienced combat pilots rotated home to training duty from the fleet.  

 

Therefore, while pilots flying the Hellcat were flying a better plane than the Wildcat, they were often no longer competing against the elite Japanese pilots encountered earlier in the war.  

 

If the US Navy required several years to train combat pilots from a supply limited to Annapolis graduates, results might have been entirely different.

 

Roger

 

 

[Canute]

Roger, I'll second that on the training. The Allies figured out how to shorten pilot training without skimping on what the newbies really needed to know. Plus being able to rotate aircrew out of combat roles and into training jobs where they could pass along lessons learned.

 

Mike, yes, you can saw the resin blocks off with a micro saw. I noticed you have a JLC one on your bench; I have one and it's an excellent saw. Wear a mask when you sand resin parts, the dust is annoying. I'd get a piece of coarse sandpaper to start, attach it to a dead flat surface and start gently sanding the part in a figure 8 pattern. Check the part frequently to ensure you're not sanding it at an angle. One very good reason to use that pattern. Go to finer grits as you get closer to finishing the part, if the side you're sanding will be visible.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Ken, really appreciate the tips.  I did just pick up that JLC one from UMM along with the mini miter box.  They look great, and I think will help a lot with the resin.  Can never have too many tools  

[popeye the sailor]

I'm look'in too Mike     ......just a bit late to the party.  gonna be a neat bit of surgery on the wings to get them to fold.   nice find!   even the B 17 had life rafts on board  

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Popeye!  

 

I'll post pictures when I get to the stage, but the wingfold set makes things fairly easy.  The kit has the bottom of the fuselage and the lower half of the wings as one set.  You first cut the wings off that part.  Then, the kit provides you with replacement wings that are in two pieces - the base stub that fits against the fuselage (and doesn't fold), and then the remaining part of the wing that's folded.  So, probably a little less surgery than otherwise would be necessary if you were planning to use the kit parts to make the wing fold.  

[lmagna]

Even though I have been checking in when the brain is working halfway properly, it  appears I am playing catchup from days ago. 

 

The inflatable life raft has been answered as has the underrated status of the F4F compared to the Zero in history books, a fate shared by other aircraft like the P-40 that in reality did quite well when properly used by the right pilots.

 

The same was true about the American pilot training vs the Japanese training. The Japanese stayed locked into their recruiting standards and training practices for pilots throughout the war, even after the loss of over 600 aircraft and three more carriers at the battle of the Philippine Sea in 1944, which is widely considered the death stroke to the Japanese ability to conduct air warfare in the Pacific.

 

From looking at what you have to work with and knowing your skill level, this is going to be a build to follow Mike. Looking forward to seeing it evolve. 

[el cid]

For your reading list, if you haven’t already:
 

https://www.amazon.com/First-Team-Pacific-Combat-Harbor/dp/159114471X

 

Encyclopedic yet engaging coverage of the aircraft, tactics, and personalities.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Lou for the support and the info.  

I’ve actually put in a few hours into the model over the past couple of days, but not much to show for it. 😑  The instructions for the Aires detail set would be a lot better if the diagrams more clearly shower where the parts are supposed to intersect.  I think I’ve somewhat figured out how the cockpit goes together but it’s been a lot of test fitting.  I’ve also had the added complication of figuring out whether (and how) to add the Eduard PE.  It’s one of their color sets, which have a ton of detail, so I spent some time today scraping off some details on the Aires resin for the crisper Eduard PE.
 

Good news is that the Aires set fits very well.  I came across a build log for a Wildcat that used a KMC resin cockpit and the builder was frustrated with how fragile the resin was.  Not the case with the Aires set.  Interestingly, I saw that Aires has what looks like a plastic detail set for both the cockpit and engine (like their Quickboost line).  Maybe Aires moved on from resin to plastic?  I saw on Aires’ site that the resin set seems to no longer be offered.

[Landlubber Mike]

Been slowly making progress on the Wildcat.  I'd probably be halfway done with the build by now with the time I've spent if I was building this out of the box, but the Aires resin set is adding a ton of time.  A bunch of time was spent taking the parts off the plugs (and some of the plugs are fairly thick and hard) and repairing some of the parts that had cracked.  I'm not exactly sure why, but sometimes the CA grabs immediately, and other times, it just doesn't want to bond resin together at all.  Also, the instructions are pretty sparse, and being not all that familiar with things like the engine, engine mounts, firewalls, etc., I've been spending more time looking online to figure out how things are supposed to work.  But, it's been a fun learning experience.

 

Cockpit

 

The cockpit is going together ok so far.  I painted the interior using Vallejo US Light Green, which is supposed to match "Interior Green" (ANA611).  Apparently there were all types of greens and other colors used during this period.  If you're interested in three pages of well-done research on the topic of interior colors of WWII US aircraft, here is a good place to go:

 

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/01/stuff_eng_interior_colours_us.htm

 

 

 

 

I added some of the cockpit PE details from the Eduard set - the nice thing about the PE set is that it is colored.  I need to touch up and add a little highlighting and shading, but so far is looking ok color wise.

 

Where I'm having issues is with the fit, however.  The tub fits nicely, but the rest of the cockpit definitely is not plug and play!  The seat, for example, seems a little too big so I might try seeing if the Eduard PE seat is a better match.  The bigger issue is getting the side panels to fit properly inside the interior.  They keep pushing up above the canopy line, so I might need to do a little surgery.  Others seem to have the same issue so it's good to know it's not user error.

 

Firewall

 

The firewall is a lot more detailed than the kit plastic, but is 2mm wider at the horizontal line where those tabs are sticking out along the sides (well, one of the tabs snapped off).  Not exactly sure what was intended with them, but I'll probably have to cut them off to get the firewall to fit properly.  

 

 

Next to it you can see the kit part.  I ended up assembling the framing to it because I couldn't for the life of me figure out from the instructions how the resin framing and other components were supposed to fit.  If anyone is building a Wildcat, I highly recommend this build log - the modeler put together a fantastic step by step tutorial on what he did, including the research he collected, when building the 1/32 Trumpeter kit:

 

https://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/article.php?aid=774

 

From his log, you can see how the firewall, framing, and engine all fit together.  Good example of how a picture is worth 1000 words!

 

 

Engine

 

Been slowly working on the engine too.  There's probably 50+ parts when all is said and done.  I stopped here because I couldn't figure out from the kit instructions which way the cylinders (think that's what they are) are supposed to face.

 

 

Life Raft

 

The Aires detail set has a lot of open panels to show off things like the engine, interior framing, and the life raft.  This went in fairly easily.  Had to cut the section out of the fuselage, then it was a matter of cutting and sanding back the base of the resin part so that it could slide up into area.  A bit of CA and filler, and everything is looking good.

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent work  going one  - lots of nice details.

 

OC.

[jwvolz]

Nice work so far Mike. I've thrown that one together basically in a week with no aftermarket. Tamiya will spoil you very quickly with their excellent fit.