“Movie Star” US Navy Fighter
The above Kong figure was try number 2 and the modeler was to make a third one as he did not like the size. In the movie Kong is 40 feet tall, but in some scenes seems to be 3 times that, especially relative to the aircraft attacking him.
The Subject
In the movie are 3 types of aircraft. In the air-to-air real life shots the aircraft appear to be Stearman C3 two seaters. The models appear to be US Navy F8C-5 Helldiver 2-seat fighters. There are also models of US Army Air Corps fighters that make a sweep in one formation near the Empire State Building but they are two distant to be identifiable.
Since none of us wanted to try making the Esoteric vac form kit of the Helldiver we agreed to modify the old Revell PT-13 Kaydet kit.
The Model
While the kits are old, they clean up well and by sourcing some pilots from the spares box I was able to find both a seated and standing pilot I could use. The standing pilot would be the rear gunner.
Conversion consisted of modifying the tail surfaces to look more like the Stearman in the movie, adding a cowl to the engine, and making a gunners station with scarf ring and machine gun. We agreed to zero super-detailing, no rigging, no extra stuff in the cockpits. That latter one did not matter since there was no room for that AND the pilot figures.
The cowl was a resin upgrade made by Starfighter Decals for some other biplane kit and the scarf ring and machine gun were brass items I had purchased decades ago for possible future projects, and I had 4 in my stash to donate to this project.
To make the mount for the scarf ring I found some plastic tube that was a bit too big, cut it to fit and then mounted the ring and Lewis gun. This was quite easy and I was surprised how well it came out.
The decals were custom printed by Starfighter Decals. We designed the artwork and worked with Mark create the right gray scale colors consistent with the movie. I was able to find the squadron logo online and we recreated that artwork for the decals since it was prominent in the close up scenes. Finding the right gray scale for the fuselage aluminum painted fabric vs metal, and the yellow wings, was a challenge. In the end, it all came out looking pretty good as we agreed on Model Master paints and specific, repeatable colors from their Federal Standard (modern) range.
Summary
This was one of those “let’s model for fun” projects. We had a great time bringing our models in each month as we made progress. Sadly, the figure modeler, making Kong, passed away suddenly just before the project was completed. I decided to finish my plane in his memory.
