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hi,

i am thinking of a collection of wwII navy planes in 1/48 after doing mostly british.

i think about

brewster buffalo (tamiya)

hellcat

wildcat

bearcat

dauntless

avenger (italerie)

corsair (tamiya)

first question: what do you think is missing?

second: i have no idea what is at the moment the best kit on the market?

i am speaking about the three cats and the dauntless.

thank´s for every tip.

tom

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Hellcat - Hasegawa, but the cowl is wrong. The Otaki/Arii/Airfix kit is externally very accurate, including the cowl, however you will want a new engine and cockpit at least. There are aftermarket cowls for the Hasegawa kit that fix the problem with that kit's cowl.

Wildcat - Tamiya, as long as you want an F4F-4. If you want any other variant, aside from the FM-2 which Sword offers, you will need to convert. BTW, Tamiya's kit is superior to the Sword kit, aside from the variant issue.

Bearcat - Academy/Hobbycraft. The only other option is Testors/Hawk, which should best be avoided if you can get the Academy kit. The Academy cowl is wrong in cross section, being way too blunt on the front end, but aftermarket replacements are made or you can just sand the LE radius into shape.

Dauntless - Accurate Miniatures is generally considered the best in 48th, but Hasegawa is also a good option.

What's missing, well my son, you have commited the cardinal sin of leaving out the most attractive radial-engined Navy plane of all time, the F7F. I believe the British received two for evaluation. AMT makes a very nice kit of the type, just replace the kit vinyl tires and get new propellors. You should also include a Swordfish, Tamiya makes an outstanding kit and I think if you made a collection of British Naval planes and left that one out, you would be forced to hang up your airbrush. :cheers:

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My long-term plan is to build a 1/48 model of at least one variant of every aircraft that operated in combat (or was first line operational) from a ship in WW II and the years 1939-1945. Here's my list:

US: F3F, BT-1, SBC, TBD, F2A, SB2U, J2F, F4F, SBD, TBF/TBM, SB2C, F6F, F4U, F8F, OS2U, SOC, SO3C, SC, B-25, L-4, P-40, P-47, L-5. All but the L-5 are available, but some are resin (SC) and a few are vac (BT-1 and SOC.) I understand that Classic Airframes may be doing an SOC in the near future.

FAA: Sea Gladiator, Seafox, Walrus, Skua, Fulmar, Swordfish, Albacore, Seafire, Sea Hurricane, Martlet, Corsair, Firefly, Barracuda, Hellcat, Tarpon/Avenger. About half of these are available, the rest have been announced as future releases, except for the Seafox.

IJN: A5M, A6M, B5N, D3A, B6N, D4Y, F1M, E13A, M6A are all available. But that still leaves E11A, E14Y, E15N, E7K, E8N and E9W. Don't know if we'll ever see those in 1/48, except maybe in resin; then again, who ever thought there would be a kit of the M6A?

I'd also throw in the German Ar-196 and the Italian Ro-43. The first is available; the second has been announced as a future release by someone.

Most of these are in "the stash" at present. In a few years, once I've retired, I'll start building with a vengeance, provided SWMBO doesn't over load the "honey do" list! :thumbsup:

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Not to say that they didn't use P40's and P47's but I have never seen reference to either in use by the US Navy during WWII. I would be interested in your resource, could be a really neat and different paint job. Please don't take this wrong, seriously interested. Joe

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P-40's were launched from carriers for the invasion of No Africa (Operation Torch).

P-47's were launched from escort carriers for the invasion of Saipan. In neither case did the Army fighters return to their launching place, but landed and operated from strips on shore. brgds, Hal :thumbsup: :unsure: :cop:

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P-40's were launched from carriers for the invasion of No Africa (Operation Torch).

P-47's were launched from escort carriers for the invasion of Saipan. In neither case did the Army fighters return to their launching place, but landed and operated from strips on shore. brgds, Hal :thumbsup: :unsure: :cop:

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Hal, a BT-1 is nothing like the BT-13 "Vibrator" from Vultee. (BTW, the Vengeance was the A-31 and A-35 in USAAF designation; totally different aircraft.) The BT-1 was from Northrop, and was the immediate predecessor to the SBD. You're right about the P-40 and P-47 operating from carriers (launch only). Now, can any of the denizens here figure out why I'd include an L-4 and an L-5? :wacko:

HEY, I just picked up on your pun! :o It being Friday, I was letting my brain cells rest, to prepare a few of them for their impending death this weekend! :cop:

Edited by Rich Mathsen
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Yes-the Navy used them for observation planes.

Ken

Actually, it was the Army which flew L-4's off RANGER during Operation TORCH, the North Africa landings, and off LST's (Fitted with a narrow runway, no recovery back aboard) during the invasion of Sicily. Army flew L-5's off LST's during invasion of Southern France, and they were recovered back aboard using the "Brody System", which employed a top mounted hook on the plane catching a wire suspended over the side of the ship by two booms. As I understand it, USMC used same system with L-5's at Iwo Jima. There is a photo of an Operation TORCH L-4 aboard RANGER in the Squadron/Signal book, "Flight Deck". I've only seen one photo of an L-5 being recovered with the Brody system; that was in Norman Polmar's book "Aircraft Carriers" published back in 1972, and which will be issued in a new edition soon.

Cheers!

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You also want to add the N3N, the F3F, and the SNJ to your list these were all the trainers used to get people up to speed for combat. Also the USCG used aircraft such as the JRF Goose and the P2Y to do patrols in the early part of the war. They fall under the Navy Department during any war

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The US Navy bought the L-4 and L-5 (sorry don't remember the designations) and the Marines used them. In addition the SNJ was used quite a bit in the rear areas of combat zones as laison aircraft.

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P-40's were launched from carriers for the invasion of No Africa (Operation Torch).

P-47's were launched from escort carriers for the invasion of Saipan. In neither case did the Army fighters return to their launching place, but landed and operated from strips on shore. brgds, Hal ;) ;) ;)

The Wasp made a couple of trips to deliver Spitfires to Malta. In one case a Spitfire had a bad fuel tank switch and had to land back aboard the Wasp because he didn't have enough fuel to make it to Malta.

The crew of the Wasp were horrified to see a Spitfire coming in to land. The LSO was trying like mad to wave him off, but the Spitfire landed anyway. He took up the entire deck to stop, but he landed safely.

They were able to fix the fuel tank problem and the Spitfire flew on to Malta without further incident.

I forget where I read the story now, but I think it was in a book about aircraft carriers.

Bill

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am not sure if this fits in with your theme of aircraft carrier based USN planes or not, but any collection of USN WWII aircraft, in my opinion, must include the PBY Catalina :woot.gif: . I mean what didn't she do! Monogram/Revell makes/made the two major versions of the 'Cat' in 1/48 and they are beautiful kits...large...but fantastic from start to finish! They can still be found in well stocked hobby stores and there is always some on Ebay.

Regards,

Don :)

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The Wasp made a couple of trips to deliver Spitfires to Malta. In one case a Spitfire had a bad fuel tank switch and had to land back aboard the Wasp because he didn't have enough fuel to make it to Malta.

The crew of the Wasp were horrified to see a Spitfire coming in to land. The LSO was trying like mad to wave him off, but the Spitfire landed anyway. He took up the entire deck to stop, but he landed safely.

They were able to fix the fuel tank problem and the Spitfire flew on to Malta without further incident.

I forget where I read the story now, but I think it was in a book about aircraft carriers.

Bill

The Spitfire pilot was a Canadian Pilot Officer J.A. Smith who found out that he couldn't transfer fuel from his drop tank. According to the write up by Barrett Tillman in his article in the Hook Magizine about the LSO and later in a great book called "Carrier Air War in Original WWII Color", the crew of the Wasp was amazed to see this Spitfire enter the landing pattern after everyone had taken off. The LSO, was one Lt. David McCampbell, rushed up there with his paddles an after waving him off for being too high on the second pass gave him the cut signal about 10 feet before the round down and the Spitfire landed with out a problem with only 6ft to spare at the end of the of the flight deck. Later that night McCampbell gave Smith a pair of his old Naval Aviator Wings and they had a little ceremony. PO Smith later disappeared while engaged with Enemy aircraft on the 10th of August of 1942

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I may have missed it, but I believe you didn't include Classic Airframes' SBC Helldiver. Used by USN, USMC and RN (or was it RAF?). The version of the kit I've got has the Blue-Gray over Light Gray finish for a USMC a/c. You can also get one with the Yellow Wings scheme.

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