Revell Fighting Deuces
Back in the Summer of 1970 I was lucky enough to have some pocket money and purchased the double kit from Revell of the Zero and Wildcat. Great box art for a 10 year old looking for something to soar above his Arizona kit, which was floating in my Grandfather’s pond. I decided to revisit these kits as part of a theme focused on revisiting the past. I was not disappointed.
The Subjects
Neither of these kits contain accurate decals, but the Wildcat is supposed to be a representative F4F-4 from 1942 flying with VF-5 on Yorktown. The Zero is an A6M5 with markings appropriate for late 1944 or early 1945. I chose to stick with the kit decals only because there were so many other errors that reflected the kits’ ages, from the early 1960’s, that they wouldn’t look right with accurate markings.
These “Deuces” in the series were effectively a jumble of Allied plus Axis aircraft that served in the same theater, but unlikely at the same time. Revell used the kits they had on hand, not tooling new variants. But then again back then most manufacturers had only one variant on offer for each aircraft, unlike today’s plethora of over engineered offerings that cater to every variant. There is something to be said for simplicity…
The Models
First to finish was the Zero, first released in 1962 but my kit is a recent “blue box” release from 1995. This is a very simple kit, very few parts and they all go together easily. The first time I made these kits there was only one way to complete them: gear up, manned and ready to pl…er, fight. This time around I followed my current preference for being on their feet.
I did correct a couple of obvious flaws – first the antenna mast should be coming through the rear canopy, not stick out of the rear fuselage spine. This was an easy fix using spare rod sanded to shape. The next thing I fixed was the cannon. There should be two per wing protruding and while the kit does have something akin to a barrel sticking out of the leading edge they were the wrong size and in the wrong location. I trimmed them off, redrilled the holes and stuck plastic rod cut to length. Next I boxed in the landing gear wells, just open to the sparse cockpit, which got some masking tape seat belts. Lastly the gun troughs on the cowling were either mis-molded or something, so I sanded accurate troughs.
Based on the markings this appears to be a Nakajima manufactured A6M5c of the Tsukuba Naval Air Corps in 1945 so I chose paints close to the Nakajima colors. The topside green is Tamiya XF-11 Japanese Navy Green, the underside is Model Master Acrylic 1763 Light Gull Gray, the cowl is Mr Color 71 Midnight Blue, as is the cockpit decking, with the cockpit interior being a green I have labelled FS 34097. The wheel wells are aluminum with a very light spray of Tamiya X-13 Metallic Blue. For completeness, the prop is aluminum with the rear faces painted Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown.
After a coat of Future I put the decals on, using Daco soft decal setting solution. The decals were very fragile, slightly out of register for the red on white, but conformed to the heavy raised detail well.
I had to touch up the leading edge yellow decal, which turned out to be a perfect match to Tamiya XF-3 Yellow.
While I started the Wildcat at the same time, just like the first time around, it had some short-shot plastic. This kit was originally released in 1965, but my kit this time around was a 1983 repop I picked up at a show for $2. The cowling required a significant rebuilding and the canopy actually had holes in it. This one had lots of filler along all the seams, and I endeavored to keep as much raised detail as possible.
I added a small piece of sheet under the cowling lip to accurately create the scoop, and had to fettle the engine a bit to get it centered inside the cowl. The hole in the canopy was filled using acrylic white glue, which dries clear. I then fitted the canopy with the same glue, adjusting it and filling the seam to ensure a smooth fit. I was pleasantly surprised how well it looked once it dried.
Paint is Tamiya Sky Grey XF-19 underneath and Humbrol Authentics 16 Intermediate Blue for the upper surface. The decals were more delicate than the Zero decals, but I was able to carefully get them on. While the roundels are oversized for this scale, I used them to keep it OOB. The other markings are not for a -4, but for either a -3 (LCDR Thach) or FM-1 or 2 (ASW scheme on USS Block Island in Atlantic).
Both models were final coated with a satin to tone down the sheen.
Summary
I had fun with these, knowing they were not accurate nor detailed, but building just for fun. I did use them as a canvas for color, using what my references tell me may be close equivalents for each of them. I think the Zero could use a better color for the underside Amiero, it’s not quite right. The non-specular Blue-Gray on the Wildcat could be both lighter and greener.
I have that old Arizona kit in my stash as well; but that’s a future project.
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