Final progress report – F4F-4 Wildcat, F4U-2 Corsair and A6M2 Zero

I have finally decided to finish up the F4F-4 Wildcat as Marion Dufilho’s Wildcat even if I don’t have much information about which Wildcat he flew on August 24, 1942.

 

I know he flew a F4F-4 and I know he was a naval aviator aboard USS Saratoga with Richard Harmer. F-8 could even be the plane he flew or it could be the Wildcat Richard Harmer flew on that same day when he crashed his Wildcat aboard the carrier after being wounded.

I guess I will never know unless his son Tom looks at his father’s log book for that information.

My Forgotten Hobby II is a way to remember a hobby I started back as a kid in 1958, and is a way to motivate me with building what I have in my stash. It is also a way to share the experience and the fun of building model airplane kits some of which are in their boxes since the 1980s.

This being said here are my two other builds…

Richard Harmer’s No. 15 F4U-2 Corsair…

 

Saburo Sakai Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero…

 

Next time on My Forgotten Hobby II?

The choice is yours…

 

Next build – A Tribute to Richard Harmer

I know why we model builders procrastinate to start building a model kit bought years ago…

The fear of messing it up. So this is why we sometime buy two or three more just in case…

I had bought this model kit in February 2018.

I just bought a second one on Amazon!

USS Saratoga circa June or July 1942

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) alongside Naval Air Station, Ford Island, in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii (USA), circa June or July 1942.

We will soon know if Richard Harmer was on the Saratoga in June or July 1942 with the next log book page.

On May 13, 1942, Richard Harmer landed at Alameda, California. He left Oceana Naval Air Station on the 11th and cross the country in two days on a F4F-4 Wildcat. In two months he will be on the flight deck of the Saratoga with VF-5 posing for posterity with 38 other naval aviators.

Meantime USS Saratoga is undergoing a refit after being torpedoed in January 1942.