[Shawn 507]

I see on e-bay there is a pre-war Wildcat out. Or did I miss this earlier?

[1250ships]

Just once could someone do a different pre-war Wildcat?

[Shawn 507]

Yeah well its metal this time, not plastic. So what can you say? But your right, a new scheme of a pre-war bird would be nice.

[HotTrap429]

Originally Posted by Shawn 507

Yeah well its metal this time, not plastic. So what can you say?

Yes it's metal, but I have the original IXO Wildcat and it's a real dog! I had to do an extensive customization project just to make it look somewhat presentable. Sorry, but the plastic EasyModel version beats this one hands down - metal or not.

Originally Posted by Shawn 507

But your right, a new scheme of a pre-war bird would be nice.

I must agree also - surely there were more than one air group so there had to be other colors used on the tails. How about the pre-war light blue-gray with the red dotted star insignia?

[1250ships]

Originally Posted by HotTrap429

I must agree also - surely there were more than one air group so there had to be other colors used on the tails. How about the pre-war light blue-gray with the red dotted star insignia?

Each pre-war carrier had its own tail color. Ranger as we all know used willow green (using the FS 595 color chips it is approximately FS 14187). The other pre-war carriers from March 1937 used:

• Lexington- lemon yellow (FS 13655- look at the upcoming Hobby Master Buffalos)
• Saratoga- white (FS 17875- see the Hobby Master Saratoga Buffalo)
• Yorktown- insignia red (FS 11136)
• Enterprise- true blue (FS 15102)
• Wasp- black (FS 17038)

Beyond the tails the top of the wings were orange-yellow with silver or light gray fuselages. Fabric surfaces used a silver doping color and wings featured colored chevrons. The engine cowlings also were painted in various colors to designate sections. These schemes lasted into early 1941. The aircraft then went to light grey color as demonstrated in the Hobby Master USS Long Island Buffalo.

I can only assume that like many diecast schemes there is a good reference for the Ranger Wildcat which is why everyone does the same damn one. No one wants to take the time to do the research needed to do anything else. I'd think that doing an array of pre-war aircraft would be interesting to collectors. Of course the other Wildcats might be earlier models making the mould incorrect.

[Biggie]

This ones got a green tail???

Biggie

Originally Posted by 1250ships

Each pre-war carrier had its own tail color. Ranger as we all know used willow green (using the FS 595 color chips it is approximately FS 14187). The other pre-war carriers from March 1937 used:

• Lexington- lemon yellow (FS 13655- look at the upcoming Hobby Master Buffalos)
• Saratoga- white (FS 17875- see the Hobby Master Saratoga Buffalo)
• Yorktown- insignia red (FS 11136)
• Enterprise- true blue (FS 15102)
• Wasp- black (FS 17038)

Beyond the tails the top of the wings were orange-yellow with silver or light gray fuselages. Fabric surfaces used a silver doping color and wings featured colored chevrons. The engine cowlings also were painted in various colors to designate sections. These schemes lasted into early 1941. The aircraft then went to light grey color as demonstrated in the Hobby Master USS Long Island Buffalo.

[Epapazian]

After reading some of the bad reports about IXO's F4F, I bought one just to see how bad it was. Answer: it was terrible---even by IXO standards----and now resides in my attic "bin", sans it's prop, which I adapted for a repaint of an IXO F2A. The Easy Model version is much, much, much better ----and much, much cheaper.

[Cruver Collecter]

I found a chart that breaks down tail color markings by carrier.

USS Lexington CV-2 Lemon Yellow (FS13655)
USS Saratoga CV-3 White (FS17875)
USS Ranger CV-4 Willow Green (FS14187)
USS Yorktown CV-5 Insignia Red (FS11136)
USS Enterprise CV-6 True Blue (FS15102)
USS Wasp CV-7 Black (FS17038)

These colors look to have started March 15th 1937.

Information found at this site: Battle Colors Part 2 Sea Wings 1911-1942