HISTORY
One of the more
beautiful airplanes from the Golden Era (early 1930s) was undoubtedly the Boeing
F4B-4, the front line high tech Navy Pursuit Fighter and Bomber of the 1930s.
For an airplane from that time, it was a streamline, purposeful and
rugged design. The look of
this airplane totally exemplifies the look of 1930 America along with Art Deco,
The Rocketeer, and the Empire State Building.
This fighter served in the US Army Air Corp, the Navy, and the Marines.
Gregory (Pappy) Boyington flew the F4B-4 during his service with the
Marines prior to his short stint with the AVG.
In 1928, the
Boeing Airplane Company set out to build the top pursuit aircraft for both the
US Air Corp and Navy/Marine air units. The
result is the F4B-4. It is the
final evolution of several revisions of the Model 83 and Model 89 airplane.
The Model 83
and Model 89 are essentially the same airplanes except for minor differences in
landing gear and that Model 83 has an arresting hook.
By the time the Model 83 was delivered to the Navy and the Model 89 was
delivered to the Air Corp, the aircrafts were redesignated as XF4B-1 by the Navy
and P-12 by the Air Corp. Both
models were well received by the test pilots.
The Establishments ordered full production.
Foreign orders proved the aircraft’s superiority to the world.
The F4B-4 was
the final revision of the X models. It
had larger vertical fin area, an enlarged headrest and faired rollover bar.
The fairing contained a one-man rubber life-raft and emergency supplies.
The engine was a 550 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1340-16 Wasp radial air
cooled engine. A pair of 0.30
caliber machine guns in the cowl trench plus the capability to carry two 125
pound under wing bombs complete the armament for this fighter bomber.
The F4B-4 production totaled 92 aircraft.
The F4B-4
served the Navy from 1932 as their front line fighter until the Grumman F2F/F3F
series replaced them around 1938. While
no longer the front line aircraft, this type continued in the Reserve and
Training units well into the beginnings of WWII.
THE
MODEL
When I was kid,
I built and fly control line and radio control model airplanes.
I used to ride my bike to the library and sign out those hard cover books
on how to build model airplanes. Now
that I look back to those days, those books are pale in comparison to the
Webzines and model magazines of today. But,
one thing that remained with me from those days is the memory of the fantastic
pictures of a control line version of a F4B-4 in Felix markings. I always wanted to build one, but was not able to due to lack
of money and information.
Time moves on.
Then one day when I was in Uncle Bills Hobby Shop and I spotted several
boxes of recently acquired rare model collection.
In there is a Hasegawa F4B-4 in 32nd scale.
Even though I don’t want to buy anymore models but, right there and
then, I know instinctively I must purchase that model to fulfill my child hood
dream.
The F4B-4 has
been represented in 48th scale by Accurate Miniature and in 32nd
scale by Hasegawa. The Hasegawa kit is a kit from the early1980. The
kit exemplifies the standard offering from Hasegawa at that time for their 32nd
scale series. It has raised rivets
and panel line details. Fuselage
panels are actually raised panels that stands out above other panels (a really
nice touch), complete with rivets all around where it belongs. The wings are fabric covered hence there are no panel lines.
The parts are molded in light grey plastic.
The molding is generally clean with very little flash to clean up.
Fit Up and
Construction:
Dry fitting was
performed on the parts prior to assembly to assess the challenge that was to
come. The fuselage halves
fits together perfect, however, the gun trough deck will not fit cleanly atop
the fuselage halves without some trimming and sanding.
Each wings come in two halves; the top half have the bottom wing’s
trailing edge molded in. This is
terrible because this type of joint is very difficult to make seamless; even
more so on a wing surface with raise and dips that represent a fabric covered
surface. The vertical fin/rudder does not fit flush with the
fuselage and it will require much trimming.
Same for the elevator.
Cockpit:
The kit box
says it is a Collector Series model. Yeah,
right. The cockpit has barely any details. The instrument dash is undersized and he instrument dial is
not discernable, thus making it useless.
The side walls come with some raised ribs that represent stringers and
ribs. When compared with
photographs of an actual F4B-4, it is insufficient.
The seat in a real F4B-4 is a silver colored bucket.
It does not have any seat or back cushions. The kit seat is modeled as a thick bucket with some
cushion and lap belt details. The
seat cushion molding detail must be removed.
The side panel controls details are just a thin raised, featureless,
molding to attempt to represent some kind of controls.
These details are useless. The
cockpit floor is plainly molded without any details. The floor does not fit well between the fuse lug and it
leaves a large visible gap.
Scratch
Built Cockpit:
The cockpit in
a bi-plane, and especially in 32nd scale, is highly visible.
Hence, a whole new scratch built cockpit must be built in order for this
model to make it as a “Collector Model”.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
I started by
adding filler strips to the kit floor panel until it fits between the fuselage
halves without any gap. Using
the photos of a F4B-4 found in the Walk Around section of ARC web site, I built
the throttles and controls according to those photos and the Squadron/Signal
book. The throttle quadrant was
built up by using several layers of styrene sheets glued together and then
sanded to shape. Raised nuts on the throttle quadrant were built by using nuts
and bolts end parts from HO scale train parts.
They look perfect for 32nd scale.
The radio boxes
were made from left over resin stubs.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
The instrument
panel was built by laying out the panel details on a styrene sheet and built up
in 4 layers. The instruments are acetate dials with a thick layer of white
painted painted on the back to make details show up.
The rudder
peddles have connector rods and bars coming up from under the floor.
Hence, I cut open the cockpit floor around the rudder peddles to prepare
the way for some rudder connectors. Connector
rods are cut from styrene sheets and glued to the original kit peddles. The peddles are sanded to an arc shape that is evident on the
real rudder peddle.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
The most
challenging part of improving this cockpit is to sand off all that crummy seat
cushion details from the kit seat. I
started by sanding down the seat thin so that it looks like a sheet metal seat.
Then, I used chisels and chiseled away the cushions and lap belt.
I finished off by wet sanding away the remaining details until everything
is smooth and flush. That took
about 2 hours to do! It was
painful. A lap belt was added by making it out of tin foil sheet
from wine bottle. The belt links
was made from thin brass wires.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
General
Construction:
Generally the
fit of the parts are poor and must require extensive dry fitting, trimming,
sanding, and even addition of shims to minimize any gaps during joining.
For a bi-plane
the challenge is to do the rigging. I
made sure I pre-drill all the holes at locations where rigging would go and
pre-install all the riggings into the fuselage before I glue the fuselage
together. I set them in place
with Cyno glue. Riggings used were
15 lbs fishing lines. When you make riggings, make sure you cut a very long piece
because nothing could be worst and frustrating than a short rigging.
The bottom
wings were glued onto the fuselage. However,
the top wing is left unattached to the wing struts to enable easier painting and
decaling steps.
Painting:
The model was
painted using Gunze paint. The
silver colored wings were painted using Testor Metalizer’s Aluminum paint.
The yellow on top of the wing was painted using Gunze’s Orange Yellow.
I select a multi color (red and white) scheme from VF-6 aboard the USS
Saratoga as shown on the photo in page 42 of the Squadron/ Signal book on the
F4B In Action.
Decals:
As far as I
know, there are no after market decals for a 32nd scale F4B-4.
Hence I have to use the kit decals.
The decal sheet comes with markings for about 6 aircraft
for the Navy and Marines. I
was worried that the kit decals would fail me.
I am happy that I was wrong, for the kit decals went on very nicely with
Gunze’s Mr. Mark Softer.
The aircraft I
chose to model is an aircraft from VF-6, Felix the Cat, shown in the Squadron/
Signal book.
The white on
the decal was very old and was really off-white in tone.
Hence, I masked and painted the white “- F - “ and the chevron bar on
top of the wing. The
aircraft’s serial number was pieced together using a numeral decal sheet to
represent the aircraft shown on my reference book.
Final
assembly:
After
completion of painting and decaling, I finally glue the top wing to the struts.
At this time the remaining rigging can be inserted into the openings
under the top wing and glued into place.
The gun sight
used was a ring and bead type. Hence,
I enhanced the kit part by adding a build up ring and bead for the gun sight.
The bead was made from a grain of catalyst from a water conditioner
cartridge glued atop a styrene rod.
There is no
weather for this kind of aircraft since they kept them very clean during their
service. However, as a model, some
high lighting is still required to bring out the details.
I mixed a mixture of dark grey and white enamel wash and washed around
some selected panel and rivets.
Final
Remark:
This is the
only game in town for a 32nd scale F4B-4.
Although it was a challenge to build and the fit was less than
exemplarily, any modeler with some basic skills can turn this into a good
looking and accurate model of a beautiful Golden Era aircraft.
Wayne
|