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Captured F4F Wildcat, September 1942

Started by nönöbär, August 25, 2019, 02:04:22 AM

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nönöbär

Captured F4F Wildcat, September 1942

The aircraft:

The Grumman F4F Wildcat was the primary US carrier fighter in the early years of WW2. Therefore, it was the main opponent of Japanese Zero fighters in this time of the war. Obviously, Japan wanted to have some of those aircraft to evaluate the right tactics against it.

The chance for this came up during the campaign on the Solomon Islands in August 1942. After the American attack on Guadalcanal in this month, heavy sea and air fights took part between and over the islands.
On this occasion one F4F Wildcat, flown by Lt. Jeb Kerbalski was hit by Japanese anti aircraft fire, disrupting the fuel flow. Kerbalski was able to ditch the plane near the beaches of Vangunu Island. While he could escape the plane and hide on the island (from where he was rescued 2 weeks later), his plane rested more or less intact at the beached of the island.
There it was spotted by an returning Japanese ships to Rabaul and in the night of August 27, a Japanese engineering team was able to salvage the plane and transport it to Rabaul. From there, it was brought to the main land and evaluated at Mitsubishi Jukogyo K.K in Nagoya.

After the required repairs, the freshly painted F4F was first flown by Japanese pilot Yuta Yamakawa on September 29 of the same year. In the following weeks and months the plane was use for test flights and simulated combat against various Japanese fighter planes. However, with the introduction of the F6F Hellcat in early 1943, a new opponent for the Japanese Navy had arrived and tests with the captured Wildcat stopped. The last recorded flight was in March 20, 1943.
The plane was then stored at the Mitisubishi factory, its final fate is unknown.

The model shows the captured F4F Wildcat just before its first flight in Japan.
 









The model:

This is a 1/72 scale HobbyBoss kit of the easy series, build OOB. Painted with Revell Aqua Colour, it uses some of the original decals and some from the spare part box.
 
Daily updates from my engineer: https://twitter.com/Scratchbr1

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German Naval History               : www.german-navy.de
Bärenreisen                             : www.barenurlaub.de

Old Wombat

Has a life outside of What-If & wishes it would stop interfering!

"The purpose of all War is Peace" - St. Augustine

veritas ad mortus veritas est

PR19_Kit

OH yes, that's superbly done!  :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

If Wombie hadn't already done it I'd have nominated for a Whiffie for sure.
Kit's Rule 1 ) Any aircraft can be improved by fitting longer wings, and/or a longer fuselage
Kit's Rule 2) The backstory can always be changed to suit the model

...and I'm not a closeted 'Take That' fan, I'm a REAL fan! :)

Regards
Kit

zenrat

Fred

- Can't be bothered to do the proper research and get it right.

Another ill conceived, lazily thought out, crudely executed and badly painted piece of half arsed what-if modelling muppetry from zenrat industries.

zenrat industries:  We're everywhere...for your convenience..

NARSES2

Do not condemn the judgement of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong.