INTRODUCTION
Wildcat 77 was flown by James Swett of VMF-221, Marine Air Corp 12, 1st Marine Air Wing out of Guadalcanal. Swett didn't take long to mark his place in history as an Ace. As a matter of fact, Swett became an Ace in a day on his first mission.
April 7, Yamamoto orders a major strike on Guadalcanal. Swett while out flying a standard defensive dawn patrol had just landed low on fuel when the coast watcher alert came in saying that the Japs were on the way. Swett's division flew to Tulagi Harbor to protect targets from the Japanese dive bombers. The battle insued and over the next few minutes Swett would have downed 7 Vals and survive being downed himself.
For his actions that day, First Lieutenant Swett was awarded the Medal of Honor Citation. Swett went on to score 8.5 more victories in F4U Corsairs totaling 15.5 kills.
CONSTRUCTION
Nothing really to hard with the Tamiya Wildcat kit, pretty simple to build and finish.
PAINT / DECALS
Paint is Mr Color Blue Gray for the upper surfaces. This kit was painted a year prior to it's completion so I am not sure what I used for the underside.
Decals are a combination of several sheets. Originally I wanted to do a Red/White striped version from the USS Ranger, but something happened and I ended up with this aircraft.
WRAP-UP
Overall this was an easy build, despite having some downtime. The downtime in hindsight was actually a cry for no desire to build models. But I am glad to be back into the building mode again after watching from the sidelines for a year or so.
Now if I only could find the tail wheel. It got lost somewhere in the basement reorganization.
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