1:48 General Motors FM-2 Wildcat

A lighter cat for small decks

This lighter and nimbler descendant of the famous naval fighter came about so that it could take off from and land on the short decks of escort carriers. Production moved to an automotive corporation, the airframe lost weight, was given a taller vertical tail and, under the cowling, a single-row radial engine that added to its temperament.

The sheet holds four options and all of them belong to the so-called composite squadrons, which on escort carriers combined fighter and attack duties in one unit. Three of them come from the deck of the Hoggatt Bay: two from October 1944 with the white codes D9 and D6 of squadron VC-14 and one from July 1945 with a white 18 of squadron VC-99. The fourth choice is the machine with a black 4 of squadron VC-13 from the Tripoli in March 1944.

Details worth checking

Compared with the earlier machines, the shape and height of the vertical tail changed, the exhaust system looks different and the shape of the cowling also differs. When building, it therefore pays to compare the kit you have chosen with references, so that the model really matches this later version.

The color scheme of 1944 and 1945 follows the three-tone naval finish with a dark upper surface and a white underside. Small white numbers and letters show up well on it, and the sheet also holds the markings of the ships and the units.

Escort carriers were small, slow and crowded, and yet a substantial part of the everyday combat work was done from them. Models of their aircraft therefore look different from the machines off the big decks: they carry less showy markings and more traces of ordinary service, which the restrained numbers on this sheet capture well.