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David Sampson
Bear Valley Springs, California
“I was inspired to build this model by an FM-2 on the Warbird circuit with these same markings,” David says. “I especially like the ‘Kitten Rampant’ insignia of Navy Composite Squadron VC-13.” He used HobbyBoss’ 1/48 scale kit to replicate a Wildcat of that unit aboard the escort carrier USS Tripoli in 1944. To improve accuracy, he replaced the cowl with a Vector resin item, and added resin .50-caliber machine gun barrels, M.V. Products lenses for the navigation lights, and an Eduard cockpit under a vacuum-formed canopy from Squadron so he could pose it open. “I made my own VC-13 squadron insignia decal from a picture of the real airplane I took at an airshow,” David says. “The national insignia were painted using Montex masks and all the numbers are from the kit’s decals.”