The Original Blue Blanket

Historical Background

Leroy Grumman's fourth fighter design for the US Navy can trace its genesis to the biplane Grumman FF, F2F and F3F. Despite being biplanes, all of the designs feature retractable undercarriage. In 1935, Grumman started work on its next biplane design, known in-house as the G-16. At the time however, the US Navy preferred a monoplane design, ordering Brewster's F2A Buffalo. Despite that, an order was also made for the G-16 (Navy designation XF4F-1) in case of unsatisfactory performance by the F2A. By this time, it was clear that the biplane XF4F-1 would be inferior to the monoplane F2A so Grumman abandoned the XF4F-1 and designed a monoplane XF4F-2 while retaining the hand-cranked, fuselage mounted landing gear. Despite the redesign, the XF4F-2 was still inferior to the Brewster. The F2A was more maneuverable even though the XF4F-2 was marginally faster; the F2A was selected by the US Navy.

The Grumman team did not give up however. After losing out to Brewster, they rebuild the prototype as the XF4F-3 with new wings and tail and was powered by a supercharged Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radial engine. This led to the production version, the F4F-3, the first of which was completed in February 1940. France took interest in the new aircraft and ordered 81, designated G-36 by Grumman, powered by Wright R-1820 Cyclone for the Marine Nationale. However the fall of France in June 1940 caused this order to be diverted to the Royal Navy, who called their aircraft 'Martlet'. The US Navy adopted the F4F-3 in October 1941 and called them Wildcat (starting the famous Grumman 'Cats' family). The F4F-3 was armed with four Browning M2 12.7mm machine guns in the wing. While the guns were very reliable, the poor design installation frequently caused the guns to jam in action. 

The Wildcat saw combat before the United States entered the war and the first kill was made on Christmas Day 1940 when a land-based Martlet shot down a Ju 88 over Scapa Flow. They also helped prove the concept of the escort carrier when six of them were aboard HMS Audacity, the first escort carrier. The Martlets shot down a number of long-range Focke Wulf Fw 200 Condor maritime patrol aircraft, then considered a greater menace than the U-Boats. In the Pacific the Wildcat can hold its own against the formidable Mitsubishi A6M Zeke, thanks to its armour and self-sealing tanks. The Japanese ace, Saburo Sakai commented that, once, he switched off his cannons during a dogfight with a Wildcat, intending to finish it off with just his machine guns. He estimated that he poured some 500 rounds into the Wildcat but the plane just flew on, disengaging. He decided to get closer to his target and to his amazement, he found that the tail and rudder were torn to shreds causing the pilot to break off. He further added that a Zero would be a ball of fire by then. Such strength, coupled with tactics such as the Thach Weave, allowed the Wildcat to face the Zero more or less on equal terms. The Wildcat played a prominent role in the defence of Wake Island when the four surviving Marine Corps Wildcats (out of 12 on 8 December 1941) of VMF-211 managed to shot down eight enemy planes and also sank the destroyer Kisaragi. The Wildcat was the main air defence fighter for the Navy during the battles of Coral Sea and Midway and played a large part during the Guadalcanal campaign.

Other variants of the Wildcat include the F4F-4, with six machine guns and folding wing; the one-off XF4F-3S Wildcatfish floatplane, and General Motors-built FM-1 (similar to F4F-4 but with four guns) and the FM-2 with the more powerful Wright R-1820-56 and taller tail to counteract the torque). Grumman's Wildcat production continued until 1943 when it was replaced by the F6F Hellcat but GM continued to build FM-1s and -2s for service on board escort carriers.

The Kit

The Hobby Boss kit of the late version of the F4F-3 came out in early 2008. Although not explicitly stated anywhere, I believe that this kit is the 1/48 version of Trumpeter's 1/32 F4F-3 (after all Hobby Boss and Trumpeter were subsidiaries, or something like that, of the same parent company). The kit came in four light grey and one clear sprues, with the delicate landing gear parts padded to prevent damage whilst still in the box. The kit feature fine engraving and recessed rivet detail. Whilst the latter look nice, it was actually wrong as the Wildcat had raised rivets - the Tamiya kit was right in this instance. The cowl was a one-piece affair with opened flaps and the engine was nicely detailed. Hobby Boss included underwing stores for the kit, namely a pair of fuel tanks. The tanks were not needed actually as the -3 was never fitted for them. Hobby Boss however had already pre-drilled the holes for them on the wings, which would have to be filled.

Decals were provided for two aircraft - one for Lt. 'Edward H.' ('Butch' O'Hare's first and middle name), VF-3 USS Lexington and the other for Major R.E. Galer, 1942. One interesting note here is that the victory markings for Major Galer's plane has been blacked out on the instruction sheet. I think that was caused by modern research which showed that many pilots used 'hangar queen' aircraft, rather than their own, for publicity /propaganda photos. The substitute plane was marked with such markings whilst the real ones were often bare of such marks. In my boxing at least, not only the victory flags in the instruction sheet, but even the ones on the actual decal sheet was blacked out using marker pen! I wish Hobby Boss had left them alone as they could be useful some other day. 

Construction

The cockpit, as usual, was assembled first. The parts were painted whilst still on their parts tree and were touched up later. Hobby Boss suggested US Interior Green, no surprise there. However, while I was browsing the internet looking for the inspiration to build this kit, I found out that Grumman used Bronze Green to paint its aircraft interiors. To replicate the colour, I used Tamiya XF-5 Flat Green. The black-painted areas of the cockpit were painted Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black with details picked in silver (the rudder pedals) and red, yellow and white (various knobs and switches). The dashboard panel was a bit of a disappointment though. The dial faces were just empty, shallow recesses in the plastic with no raised detail whatsoever, and there is no decals to represent them. I simply paint them Tamiya X-18 Semi-Gloss Black. Then came the first of the rather delicate parts of the build - the landing gear bay which consisted of the engine mount, intercoolers and the upper landing gear assembly. Again, internet resources tell you that these parts were not painted silver, but 'Grumman Grey'. I used Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey as suggested.

The completed cockpit and bay assemblies were then dry-fitted, not to the lower front fuselage as in the instructions, but the right fuselage half. While the landing gear bay fit nicely, I had to trim a bit of the rear cockpit bulkhead. Once happy with the fit, I glued them into place. The tailwheel and the arrester hook were also glued into their places at the right side of the fuselage. The fuselage halves were then mated together, with no fuss. Some online builds mention fit problems here but I guess, having made the necessary trimming beforehand, the fuselage halves went together easily. The bottom part of the forward fuselage were then glued onto the fuselage assembly after the relevant parts were painted Sky Grey and US Interior Green. Fit is good although there was a gap on the after part, which was puttied over. The engine was then painted and attached to the fuselage and was followed by the one-piece cowl.

The flying surfaces were next. I started off at the rear fuselage, attaching the horizontal tailplanes and the separate rudder. I started the wing assembly by first puttying over the holes for the drop tank.  The machine guns were glued to their posts. While trying to place the upper wings, I found that the arrangement made it hard for me to slip the gun muzzle openings for the outer guns. I ended up rising the guns a bit (the cement hadn't set fully yet), slip on the upper wings and push the guns back into place before cementing the upper and lower wing halves. The wings were then glued to the fuselage. Unlike the Tamiya kit of the F4F-4, which has the lower wings moulded together with the lower fuselage, HB have theirs separate (some modelers observed that this might be their effort to avoid copyright infringement - so similar was their F4F-3 kit engineering with Tamiya's F4F-4). This might cause wrong wing dihedral angle. The wings were test-fitted and photos were consulted to determine the proper angle (more-or-less) and only after that they were glued permanently. The fragile looking landing gear were assembled, with some nervousness on my part when cutting them off the sprue. It wasn't fully assembled however as I left off the wheels and the lower gear doors (Parts F24 and F25). The semi-completed gear was then dry-fitted to the fuselage. Part F18 was the key to good fit and I have to enlarge the slots in the fuselage to enable that part to fit snugly. Once satisfied, the landing gear assembly was put aside and the model was off to the 'paint shop'.

Painting and Decaling

Both marking options of the kit feature the same colour scheme; Blue Grey for the upper fuselage, wing and horizontal stabilizers and Light Grey for the bottom areas. The Light Grey is virtually similar, if not actually of the same tone as FS 36440 Light Gull Grey. So I decided to use my  stock of Tamiya Spray Paint for Aircraft. In my infinite wisdom, I got my USN Greys mixed up. While I did have a can of AS-16 (which had run out long ago), which can be used for Light Grey, I used AS-26 Light GHOST Grey! Good thing I realised the wrong colour after just one layer. I eventually used Tamiya's recipe of two parts XF-19 Sky Grey and one part XF-2 Flat White. The Blue Grey was mixed, also from the Tamiya recipe, from three parts XF-18 Medium Blue and one part XF-2 Flat White.

For markings, I chose LCDR Edward H. 'Butch' O'Hare's 'White F-15'. The particular aircraft was used by the-then Lt. O'Hare during USS Lexington's attempt to attack Japanese naval base at Rabaul in February 1942. On the 20th, just one day before the scheduled attack, Lexington and its Task Force (Task Force 11) was spotted by the Japanese off Bougainville. At 10.15 am, whilst still 390 nautical miles away from Rabaul, Lexington's radar picked up an unknown aircraft 35 miles from her. A flight led by LT John Thach (of the 'Thach Weave' fame) intercepted the bogey which turned out to be a Kawanishi H6K 'Mavis' flying boat. A second flight led by LT Don Lovelace shot another 'Mavis'. A third bandit was detected but it reversed course and flew away. The Task Force has now been discovered and Vice Admiral Shigeyoshi Inouye ordered a strike against the enemy. 17 Mitsubishi G4M1 'Betty' bombers of the 4th Kokutai were launched, heading towards TF 11in two groups of 9 and 8 respectively. The 8-plane group was detected by TF 11 at 1625. LCDR Lovelace's division, despite their low fuel status, attacked this formation. Also intercepting the Bettys was a division under LT Noel Gaylor. Two of the Wildcats were shot down by the Bettys' defensive fire and Thach was launched again, together with O'Hare and four others. While the rest of the CAP went after the still incoming Bettys, O'Hare and his wingman, LT (jg) Marion Dufilho were ordered to stay behind and orbit over the Lexington. by this time, 16  out 18 of Lexington's Wildcats has been launched.

At 1649, Lexington's radar picked the second formation, just 12 miles out on the disengaged side. O'Hare and Dufilho, the last unengaged CAP were ordered to intercept. Pushing the rather sluggish Wildcat, they arrived 1,500 feet above the incoming bombers at a distance of just 9 miles.While both of them lined up their targets, Dufilho peeled away with jammed guns (not an uncommon problem for early Wildcats as a result of the faulty gun feed) leaving just O'Hare to handle the Bettys. He made four diving passes and believed that he had shot down five of the Bettys. In actually managed to down three with two others damaged. The rest of the bombers managed to drop their bombs but all missed their targets. Despite the defensive fire, and also overzealous gunners on board the Lexington, White F-15 was only hit by a single bullet, which damaged the airspeed indicator. It was believed that O'Hare's action saved the Lexington from heavy damage or even from being sunk.

As a result of his action, he was awarded the Medal Of Honor. O'Hare did not fly on combat missions until early 1943, during he which he was involved in a hero's welcome stateside and also as instructor - a practice that reap benefits later on as veteran pilots share combat experience with the rookies. O'Hare went missing in action on 26 November 1943 after a night combat with Betty bombers attempting to attack USS Enterprise. He was either a victim of the Bettys' defensive fire or friendly fire from the Avenger radar plane. As for White F-15 (BuAer 4031), after Lexington returned to Pearl Harbor following the aborted attack on rabaul, VF-3 transferred its aircraft to USS Yorktown, including F-15. It was later crashed by its pilot after an unsuccessful take-off. The pilot was saved but the aircraft sank.

The kit decals depicted White F-15 during the 20 February mission. All the decals have good color density and register. They however are quite resistant to Mr Mark Softer. As a side note, if one wants to build Maj. Robert E. Galer's plane, you have to forgo the victory flags as they have been blacked out on the decal sheet. Also the BuAer No. on the fin was not correct as it was for White F-15 (number '4031' and also having 'Navy' rather than 'Marine' title).

Finishing

Final assembly started with the landing gear. As I have already test fitted the parts, I simply slot them into place without much problem, although I still have to guide the stalks into their recesses inside the bay. This was followed by the pitot tube and the aerials both on top and under the fuselage. The canopy and the windscreen were then glued onto their respective places. In some online builds, another major complaint about this kit is about the mismatch between canopy and windscreen - the canopy is lower than the windscreen. However, the canopy in my kit looked okay, with a barely noticeable height difference. The lower windows were also added at this time. The panel lines were then highlighted with 2B pencil and some soot effect were added using Tamiya Weathering Master. Finally a spray of Tamiya TS-80 Flat Clear finished off the build. And in afterhought, I have two models of planes flying from USS Lexington : this Wildcat and the SBD Dauntless.

Conclusion

Not a bad kit at all, and I think the kit only needs a seat belt. Preferably, the rivet detail should be of the raised kind but the existing recessed ones were OK. It's not a Tamiya but Hobby Boss' Wildcats (F4F-3 early and late, FM-1 and FM-2) complete the Wildcat family in 1/48 scale.