Greetings,
I was curious if anyone had any good resources for climate and environmental factors for Guadalcanal in 1943. I am working on an F4F-4 Wildcat (Tamiya), and want to model it after one of the planes in the “Cactus Air Force.”
Thanks in advance.
If you do an image search for “wildcat Guadalcanal” you will get lots of photos to show you the real deal.
Obviously there the climate was harsh with tropical sun and downpours. Some aircraft lasted longer than others, so they could be well weathered, or fairly new. Especially during the periods of the heaviest fighting. But your weathering can include mud on the wheel areas, sun fading, dust streaking from the rains, worn areas from maintenance and rearming, fueling, etc.
Naval artillery shrapnel damage.
Cool. Thanks for the input, guys. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of a simple image search! absentmindedness suppose.
Lots of tropical sunshine led to considerable UV bleaching of the paint. Topside should show considerable lightening on paint. Also, lots of scuffing and chipping from dirty runways compared to aircraft maintained just on carriers.
Henderson Field was pretty much just an open dirt field, no all weather runway surface. At least in the early phases. The second strip built on Guadalcanal had Marsden Matting over the dirt for an all weather surface. But the areas were not like many of the later crushed coral strips with their abrasive sand that would be kicked up by the prop wash.
Great pics, stickpusher. The middle one is, to me, the iconic shot of Cactus in that period.
Henderson Field, the original strip, was just used for bombers by September 1942 when Fighter 1 (“the cow pasture”), a rolled grass strip, came online. Fighter 2 was finished in February '43, about when F4Fs were rotating out for F4Us, and had two strips, one with Marston Matting and one with crushed coral.
In depicting a Wildcat at Guadalcanal, the most likely scenario would be at Henderson Field in August, or Fighter 1 from September through early 43, and so dirt and fading, along with general wear and tear, is appropriate, but not the heavy chipping on the leading edges like you often see with land based Corsairs.
Best
-J
This is just the kind of tips and advice I was hoping for, thanks to everyone, I do appreciate it. I have a pretty good sense of how I want it to look now. Whether or not I can actually achieve this remains to be seen, but I am going to have some fun playing around and trying out some different techniques.
Thanks again to all.
That’s the fun part… bringing your vision into reality. Sometimes it comes out better than you thought, sometimes it does not. But you learn along the way and apply it on the next one. And there is almost always more than one way to get to where you’re going. Enjoy and good luck.
Have a look here. Stumbled across this thread about a month ago. Read it and bokmarked it. The Wildcat is the subject…
http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/177367.aspx
I am still pretty new to all of this, but am really enjoying learning and trying out these new techniques. I appreciate all the assistance thus far.
this.is.amazing! I had seen some photos of this build online somewhere at somepoint ( likely google ), but was unable to find them again or the original post. Thank you!