Airfix 1/72 Grumman Martlet

[ElCapitan]

I wasn't 100% sure whether I could commit to another build at the moment, but resistance was futile!

After looking on Ebay for a few days to see if there was anything I fancied, I decided to just nip to my LHS to see what they have. Saw this little Martlet and it somehow ended up leaving the shop with me



Should be fun! I've never seen the new style Airfix instructions. They look pretty interesting.




Moulding and details look really good, as is to be expected from the modern Airfix tooling.





I'll do some research on the aircraft for my next post.

[ElCapitan]

Here's the history lesson I promised with information taken from multiple sources.

During the early part of 1940, Britain and France were scrambling to acquire sources of modern fighting aircraft from wherever they could. At that time there were serious fears that German bombing could virtually destroy the two countries’ aircraft industries and render them all but unable to fight in the air. Even if these dire predictions proved over pessimistic, those industries might not be able to meet the needs of the two countries’ air arms by themselves. When France fell in the summer of 1940, Britain’s position was dire. Even though France had been prepared to take a number of aircraft that Britain felt were unsuitable or obsolescent, France’s capitulation meant Britain willingly took over these orders.

One area where the US was arguably ahead of Britain in 1940 was in fighters for aircraft carrier use. Britain had persisted with developing two-seat multi-role fighters, believing that they would never have to contend with modern land-based fighters, and that carrier aircraft would necessarily have inferior performance. When these views started to change around 1940, there was little that could be done to quickly acquire suitable single-seat fighters. The Grumman F4F naval fighter had been ordered by France as the G-36A in early 1940. The type had had an inauspicious start in life, losing out to the unimpressive Brewster F2A ‘Buffalo’ in the competition for US Navy orders. Grumman completely redesigned the aircraft, however, and the result was superior to the Brewster in speed and agility. The G-36A was just what Britain needed to supplement, and in some cases replace, its two-seat Blackburn Skuas and Fairey Fulmars.

The aircraft was christened the Martlet (after a fictional bird used in heraldry) and proved perfect for the Royal Navy’s new escort carrier HMS Audacity.

The Martlet Mk IV started out as the Wildcat F4F-4 variant. The Royal Navy purchased 220 F4F-4s adapted to British requirements. The main difference was the use of a Wright R-1820-40B Cyclone in a distinctly more rounded and compact cowling, with a single double-wide flap on each side of the rear and no lip intake. Boscombe Down testing of the Martlet IV at 7350 lb weight showed a maximum speed of 278 mph at 3400 ft and 298 mph at 14,600 ft, a maximum climb rate of 1580 fpm at 6200 ft at 7740 lb weight, and a time to climb to 20,000 ft of 14.6 minutes. The service ceiling at 7740 lb was 30,100 ft

[ElCapitan]

And now the real fun begins. I have so far painted the cockpit parts, of which there are 5, and the bulkhead which sits in front of it.

Using bfrd's super awesome colour converter I got a fairly close match to the Humbrol callout - Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab for the interior green. It looks really good to me!



The instruments are decals, and have only just been applied in the photo, so will need to be treated with some Daco Setting Solution to bed them into the raised details.

I will likely fashion some seatbelts out of masking tape as the seat looks a bit bare. There is a pilot included with the kit, but I won't bother using him.

[Tomcat64]

Great to see you along for the SiG Rob

That's another nice looking kit from the Airfix new tools as well - looking forward to seeing it come together.

[ElCapitan]

I made a small amount of progress over the weekend.

First of all I drybrushed the cockpit a bit, and made some seatbelts out of micropore tape (simply because it's a bit more fabric-y than masking tape). My first time trying this and I reckon they look ok. I dirtied them up a bit using Ultimate dark dirt wash, and also gave them a bit of colour using Vallejo Model Color "Buff".



I then put together the landing gear legs. Here is where I encountered my first problems with this kit - there are far too many parts that make up the landing gear, meaning there are far too many potential mistakes. With no way of test fitting the entire sub assembly, the slightest error on the first piece can create a large fit issue when it's all together! I found that the parts didn't exactly fit together very well in the first place.

When I came to put them into the fuselage I quickly realised that it was not going to happen without some adjustment of the opening. I had to cut a slight notch in the front of the opening to fit the legs through without them pinging off, and there is still a gap being caused by some part of it which I will try to find the cause of before I glue it. Surely there must be a better way of doing this, Airfix!

Hopefully this will be the only real hiccup on this build. Here are some photos of where I am at:





You will notice there are 2 holes for windows in the underside - there are clear parts for these, but I am considering using Krystal Klear glue instead.

[ElCapitan]

Fuselage is now closed up. I managed to do a bit of shaving down of some part to make it fit better, and now there are next to no gaps to fill I've sanded the join to the point where I can no longer feel a ridge with my fingernail, but only priming will tell whether it's good enough.



Followed that up by attaching the wing roots - I'll be building this with the wings folded. There will be some filling required on these, but I still feel like I'm getting somewhere.

[Tomcat64]

Nice progress Rob!

The cockpit looks really nicely done; it's a shame Airfix's engineering is letting this down a little but you've overcome their challenges well and this is starting to look the part.

[ElCapitan]

Nice progress Rob!

The cockpit looks really nicely done; it's a shame Airfix's engineering is letting this down a little but you've overcome their challenges well and this is starting to look the part.

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with it. I hope to make a bit more progress tonight when I will finally have a chance to get my airbrush out. I'll paint the engine and that will allow me to crack on with the build.

Also hope to finish the base colour on my F-14, as it's been neglected for far too long!

[pourquoi61]

I can not wait to see this little bird with some paint on.

[ElCapitan]

I can not wait to see this little bird with some paint on.

Thanks, me neither! Soon I hope!

[ElCapitan]

This has been neglected of late. I promise to get going with it again soon! I'm actually at the stage where I can mask the cockpit and then prime it, so that should be something I can do fairly quickly.

[Tomcat64]

Great to see you've not forgotten it Rob - that was the whole idea of this Sig to drop in and out through other projects.

But we are into the last month now strewth where did that year go?!?!?!

Looking forward to seeing you finish it off though

[ElCapitan]

Remember this?

It's been partially painted for a while now - the underside to be exact. I just haven't remembered to post a photo. I will finish it one day. I've actually started masking the camo with white-tac, so that's something.

[ElCapitan]

Finally painted the first camo colour. I used Tamiya XF-73 for the Dark Slate Grey. I just love spraying Tamiya acrylics. Nothing else that I've tried even comes close.

[ElCapitan]

And now with the camo finished and a coat of Aqua Gloss.

[aur0ra145]

That plane looks so weird with camo. I like it!

[digger303]

Well done getting the shelf queens out and finishing them off. Been meaning to that myself as as soon as I get the current kit off the bench. Looks good too.

[ElCapitan]

Today has been decal day - I love this bit! No problems with the kit decals and some daco solution (I would use nothing else)



I still need to cut the canopy so it can be posed open, mask it and paint it, then I can attach the wheels, folded wings and prop. I'll probably do a bit of weathering too.

[ElCapitan]

All done! Final reveal is in the main forum - I didn't feel it would make sense to put it in the GB reveals section, as it's over a year late!

Reveal is here: viewtopic.php?f=45&t=28382

[digger303]

All done! Final reveal is in the main forum - I didn't feel it would make sense to put it in the GB reveals section, as it's over a year late!

Reveal is here: viewtopic.php?f=45&t=28382

Where ever it is still a great build