Grumman Wildcat

[Pilot]

Just release this profile from a Battle of Midway.

[R Leonard]

Squadron? And the shade of blue is a little off.

R

[John Beaman]

If it is from a USN squadron, it might need some weathering and stains after Coral Sea and a very brief turn around before sailing to Midway. I doubt even the proud USN plane captains had much time for "neatining" up their a/c compared to making sure they had as many operational as possible.

[Pilot]

I have a problem with this Blue Grey for a long time. FS said one thing and I get a scan from one friend which state different. There is not wethering on the plane but not extreme. I did not notice stains, there would not be a problem to paint it on

[Pilot]

Here it is color chip which is base for the color on profile. It look like the scan from some book. It is much differ from the FS 35189. Also I have found long time ago that this color is made by mix of Deep Blue and White.

[R Leonard]

Well, I see now that this is supposed to be a representation of plane that Jimmy Thach flew in the morning escort mission. His nominally assigned plane was #1, which he flew in the afternoon. In both cases, you left out the squadron insignia which was present on that six sided access hatch located below and slightly forward of the cockpit. A Felix the Cat on a white circle is appropriate. You can look here to see placement, it is the small circle below the windscreen:
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g60000/g66154.jpg

Another shot of the insignia placement, if you don’t mind upside down; it is right above the edge of the dolly in front of the edge of the windscreen:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/pacificwar/Midway/TomCheek/RingofCoral/Return_Yorktown.html

Also, this plane would not have been particularly weathered. Thach’s VF-3 F4F-4s had been arriving at Kaneohe NAS over the course of late April to mid-May 1942. These planes did not see action at Coral Sea. The Yorktown planes that saw action at Coral Sea were F4F-3’s that belonged to VF-42.

As for the blue, see below on one of those six-sided access panels. This one is from VF-11. The gent who did most of the work on the insignia design told me that he liked the way VF-3 placed it’s insignia on this panel (having had the experience if flying a VF-3 F4F at Midway) and since the VF-11 CO, who had been his CO in VF-42, made it his choice, that’s where he decided the VF-11 insignia would placed. This particular panel, one of a matched pair, is from b/n 11985, side number white F-21. At one time they had an oxidizing white/pale pale pink powder on it, but he cleaned that off when they were finally brought out of storage in the 1980’s. Anyway, this is the USN non-spec blue grey.

And here’s my favorite VF-3 F4F taking off from Yorktown on 4 June 1942, side number white 13; my father’s plane.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g310000/g312016.jpg

Rich

[Pilot]

Dear Leonard,

thank you very much for your time spent on my post. Your reply contain some of valuable data and info and it is very helpful. You have recognized well the pilot of the lane. He was know before the war as the one of the best aerial guner in the Navy and he prove its qualification in Battle of Midway when he shoot down three Zero and one torpedo bomber.

First to say that I make error during the flating of artwork. Unit insignia is set invisible and I that why it is not appeared on the final profile. That's why it miss this insignia. I noted this but very late. From image I could note that it is not centered on the panel but it is some forward. As we both noted Thatch plane was not much wetheared, just a little bit.

Panel presenting Blue Grey as I have imagine that look like before I get above presented chip. But if any have some scan of reproduced chip I would be greatful to see it. Here it is my try to make new color profile, just to present other view on the same color. Subject is the plane 13 if you don't mind. Here it is also a copy of image of panel of you have provided. I have made in Photoshop just automatic level adjustment and result is as you can see. More blue and more darken. Also other color became more intensive.

[aeroeng]

I love the Wildcat. I wish Franklin Mint would make a 1:48 scale die-cast of it.

[fsbofk]

R Leonard - that VF-11 panel looks familiar. I saw one on display in Arlington HobbyCrafters back in the 60s - was that yours?

[R Leonard]

Much better. Did not mean to come across as overly critical and apologies if I did so. I go by those F4F panels several times a day, so the color in your original of #23 jumped out at me as having, perhaps, a little too much green. I really like the VF-3 #11 profile . . . I’ll keep a copy, if you don’t mind.

I like what you did to stabilize the color on the picture of the panel, makes it look a little fresher. The panels I have spent at least six months in active service, including a three-month sojourn on Guadalcanal.

The plane that contributed the panels, b/n 11985, first shows up in my father’s pilot’s logs on 3 Feb 1943, although others from the 119xx series appear as far back as 18 December 1942 with 11942. This was while VF-11 was at Puuene Field, NAS Maui, having arrived there after leaving NAS North Island on 23 October 1942 aboard USS Long Island. Air Group 11, including VF-11, was scheduled to deploy aboard USS Hornet, replacing Air Group 8, but due to that ship sinking on 27 October the Air Group was beached at Puuene Field on 3 November.

So, sometime between 3 November and 3 February, b/n 11985 was assigned to VF-11. I know it does not appear on the list of F4Fs transported from North Island aboard USS Long Island, so it had to have come out later. The squadron left Pearl Harbor, again on USS Long Island, on 18 February 1943 and flew into Nandi, Fiji on 6 March. The next day b/n 11985 became my father’s permanently assigned mount and he flew that plane almost exclusively from then through the end of VF-11’s Guadalcanal deployment.

The Squadron left Nandi on 25 April for a 4-hour hop to Espiritu Santo and, then, the next day, flew another 4-hour hop up to Guadalcanal. On the 27th the squadron flew its first CAP mission for two hours over the Henderson Field area. The squadron operated in the Solomons until 11 July, the last mission being a 3.6-hour routine patrol in the Rendova area. The next day the squadron flew from Fighter I back to Espiritu Santo.
They left their F4Fs there at the Turtle Bay fighter field when they went back stateside at the end of the July. My father went down to the local junk pile and pulled the matching panels off a wrecked F4F and used them to replace the insignia panels on his #11985 which have stayed in his, and now my, possession ever since.

By 14 July, my father and others from VF-11 were already cavorting about the skies over Espiritu Santo in nice new F6Fs (I believe they belonged to VF-33, just entering the theater). He flew five F6F flights before departing for California, including a mock dogfight with a F4U piloted by a fellow named Ken Walsh on 21 July.

Oh, one other thing, wheel covers should be non-spec blue grey, too. Re-check the photo where they’re folding the wing on #1. Blue-grey wheel covers were pretty much the standard factory paint job on F4F-4’s.

Regards,

Rich