Sweet 1/144th Wildcat VI By Bruce Simard

With today's love affair with bigger and bigger kits, modelers could be missing out on some outstanding small scale jewels. Several years ago, a small model company from Japan called Sweet started production. From my research, it seems it was started by an ex-Tamiya engineer whose aim was to produce decent kits that could be built in approximately 1 hour! I read several reviews of the early releases, such as the Hurricane and MC-200. These reviews were extremely complimentary. The biggest problem was distribution. (Granted, for a boy stuck in the woods of West Virginia, that doesn't take much.) Finally, I found the web site, and I have to say the customer service is outstanding. The Wildcat (FM-2) had just been released, so starts this saga. The web site is listed at the end of this article for anyone interested.

History

Most folks are quite aware of the history of the Grumman Wildcat/Martlet by now, so I will not rehash all of that. Suffice it to say, between the Grumman and Eastern versions, approximately 1100 examples were sent to the Fleet Air Arm. Within the USN and the advent of the escort carriers, the Wildcat continued to soldier on even after more advanced types were built. The FM-1 and FM-2 were extremely active throughout the latter part of the war in all theaters of operations. Perhaps her greatest moments came with the Atlantic convoys, when teamed with the Grumman/Eastern TBF/TBMs in hunter/killer groups. This was perhaps an unheralded, but important function. For further reading, I highly recommend Wildcat, by Barrett Tillman, and Hunter-Killer by William Y'blood. Both of these books are extremely well written, and put you in the cockpit.

The Model

So, for your $16.00 US, what is it you get? Depending on which kit version you buy, you'll either get 2 complete Wildcat kits, or a Wildcat and a deck section. The Wildcat itself comprises approximately 30 parts, plus a clear canopy. The decals are printed by Cartograf, and are extremely well done. The kits I purchased were #14108 "Ghostfighter", and #14109 "FM-2 and flight deck". The Ghostfighter kit is two FM-2's with restored wildcat markings. I chose to build the Royal Navy version due to the D-Day stripes. (Note: For the historical purists, my research indicates 846 Sqd actually flew FM-1's(Wildcat V) at the time of D-Day.) Other markings included were for a Confederate Air Force version, and a pre-war version, all restored aircraft. Kit #14109 gives you an FM-2, section of flight deck, and markings for 8 USN FM-2's. The schemes given are 4 in the tricolor blue, and 4 in the overall gloss sea blue. The instruction sheet is in Japanese, but the exploded diagrams are more than sufficient. I should mention with the flight deck kit is also included 8 "Cats Crew". These are just that, 8 animated cats! I assume this is to cater for the Japanese love of animation. Cute, though!

The kit itself though is extremely well done. The panel lines are recessed, and quite accurate. Some reviews I've read stated the lines were too deep for this scale. In my opinion, after painting, it looks excellent. There is no interior provided. The canopy is clear and accurately scribed. Also included are the external fuel tanks. The landing gear and braces are extremely well done, and very petite, so beware. So this is what you get to start with.

Being a modeler afflicted with AMS, I just HAD to make some modifications ! The first thing I decided to do was to scratch build a cockpit assembly. Bert Kinsey's Detail and Scale on the F4F was extremely helpful in this endeavor. Included in this book are detail differences between the various marks, including the FM-1 and FM-2. The Wildcat never had floor boards. Two "runners" ran forward to the rudder pedals, these were cut from plastic sheet and attached to cross members. The seat, stick, instrument panel, and various control boxes were added. The shoulder harness was made from aluminum foil and painted. The Gunsight was made with a mini punch and die set from clear plastic and painted. The canopy was vac formed so I could display it in the open position. The one thing I found on this kit that bothered me was the prop hub dome. It seemed way too over scale. This was replaced with a small piece of rod rounded off. But the engine is a little jewel! With careful painting and added washes, this really jumps out, even though very little shows in the finished product.

The paint scheme was standard Royal Navy. This was extra dark sea grey and dark slate grey over sky type "S". The decals were applied without too much difficulty. Several reviews complained of problems with the stripes laying down properly. I used my normal method of coating the entire model with Future, and applying the decals with the assistance of Micro-Sol. In my case, there were no problems with the decals at all. My next step is to spray Polly S flat in preparation for the weathering. Although the Royal Navy took great pains to keep their aircraft in a clean state, around D-Day they were a little occupied with other matters, and the birds were flying sun up to sun down. So I decided to show some weathering from normal carrier operations.

I accomplish this with the use of acrylic gouache and pastels, as explained in the T-26 article. For the "Cat", I used an extremely light black wash first, followed by a raw umber wash. After completion, pastels were used for the engine and gun exhaust stains.

The deck area was painted a medium blue. The elevator markings were painted light ghost grey. Then all were given washes as above. This really brings out the molding details as provided by Sweet, and brings it to life. The figure was a modified DML flight deck crewman from their F-18 kit. His “Mae West”, and harness straps were made from foil and painted. The chocks were part of the flight deck accessories provided by Sweet in the kit. The antenna was made from stretched sprue and the pitot tube on the left wing was made from a piece of photo etched sheet.

Summary

All together, I felt this is a very good kit. It was a fun build and gives me an unusual piece for my collection. While it will never have the appeal of the larger scale models, it can be built up to a decent model.

A word about 1/144th scale. Although there is renewed interest in "Whale Scale" (1/32), don't overlook some of these little ones. This scale will not eat up your display space nor your modeling budget. If one is interested in conversions, this is a great way to go! For one thing, if you mess it up, it is not a crisis situation. The newer kits from companies such as Sweet, Minicraft, Eduard, and Revell are terrific. All we really need is some of the Decal companies to start taking us seriously. There are some aftermarket sets available from folks such as Jbot, Mike Grant, and Blue Rider. Perhaps in time, others will join in. Plus there is a wide open market for PE sets in this scale. This may sound crazy, but remember, if we can get 1/700th scale PE, why not 1/144th? White Ensign Models just released 1/350th scale interiors for the TBF, F4U, etc. So it can be done. I would suggest Minicraft's Catalina would be a great place to start, any takers?

That's it for now, and remember, "Flea Scale" is coming on!

Sweet Models URL = https://www.sweetaviationmodels.com
F4F Wildcat - Detail and Scale#65 by Bert Kinzey