I just finished the build of this vintage Monogram OS2U-3 Kingfisher this morning. I built this kit when it was first release way back when. This time I built the kit to depict something it’s not. If you all have seen the movie “They Were Expendable” with Robert Montgomery and John Wayne, there is a scene where Wayne’s boat gets strafed by Japanese float planes. The stand ins for the Japanese A6M2N “Rufe” were two OS2U Kingfishers. That scene inspired this build.
I took some artistic license with this build to make the airplane look more “Japanese”. Along with the red Hinomaru, I added a tail number, a black cowling. The bottoms of the floats are also tire black. The kit provided two small bombs painted brown. The interior is typical U.S. Navy with pilot and gunner. The exterior is J.N. Gray. Hinomaru is Mr Color Russet. I still need to finish the base though.
The B&W photo is a still from the movie.
