1:72 Wedell-Williams Model 46 P-42A ‘Kestrel’; aircraft ‘41’ of the United States Army Air Corps’ (USAAC) 18th Pursuit Group; Wheeler Field (O’ahu; Hawaii), early 1941 (What-if/Sword kit)

+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:
The P-42 was a was a fighter aircraft design submitted to the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) before World War II by Marguerite Clark Williams, widow of millionaire Harry P. Williams, former owner and co-founder of the Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation. Developed as the “Model 46” it was the company’s second attempt to propose a modern high-performance monoplane fighter with a retractable landing gear. The first approach had been the stillborn XP-34 in 1932, a design based on an air racer by Jimmy Wedell, who was considered, "one of the most noted race plane designers of its day". The XP-34 had been a direct result of the development of Wedell's most successful designs, the Model 44 and Model 45. The interest expressed from the USAAC had been based on the success of the private racing aircraft in the 1930s that were reaching 300 mph speeds in competition, a performance level not achieved by standard aircraft types in service in the U.S. military. However, engine performance problems prevented any order and any potential redesigns to fit more potent powerplants would have been so thorough that the aircraft was subsequently rejected by the Air Corps before any XP-34s were built.

A few years later Wedell-Williams came forth with a new fighter design for the USAAC, the Model 46. It was developed to be a lightly-built and highly maneuverable interceptor/fighter aircraft, even though it was this time a completely new design and not an adaptation of a relatively light and fragile race aircraft. As a clean sheet design it mended many flaws of the earlier Models 44 and 45. The emergent aircraft was equipped with a Curtiss-Wright-style retractable undercarriage and bore substantial similarities to the contemporary Seversky P-35. Refinement of the Model 46’s aerodynamic characteristics greatly benefitted from a series of wind tunnel tests, and on 24 May 1939, the prototype performed its maiden flight and was officially designated as the XP-42 ‘Kestrel’. Much effort was spent to lower overall drag, and as a result the Model 46 had a very high surface quality as well as a fully retractable landing gear, including the tail wheel.

On paper the P-42 promised to be able to engage several significant combat aircraft of the time on equal terms, including the German Messerschmitt Bf 109E. Flight testing of the XP-42 prototype, held at the Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation base in Patterson (Louisiana) by the USAAC, conducted throughout late 1939, revealed that the aircraft was able to attain a speed of 518 km/h at an altitude of 5,250 m, along with 506 km/h at 6,000 m; it also climbed to 6,000 m in 6.5 minutes and demonstrated an 11,500 m altitude ceiling. Throughout the test flights, the aircraft showed that it was capable of excellent performance levels, and the USAAC enthusiastically awaited the Kestrel at its airfields.

The first production P-42As were delivered to the 1st Pursuit Group (27th, 71st and 94th PS) stationed at Selfridge Field in Michigan. The P-42's performance was better than the similar P-35’s, which it replaced in many units, and USAAC aviators appreciated the aircraft's high top-speed in level flight and its good handling. But despite the pilots’ praise, the P-42’s service history was marred by numerous teething problems, mainly due to structural issues. These included the engine exhaust, which had to be re-designed, skin buckling over the landing gear and along the wing roots, and weak points in the airframe, which severely restricted the performance envelope when the aircraft went through high-G manoeuvers. The aircraft used a wet wing to save weight, but the ground personnel quickly learned about persistent fuel leaks, esp. when the wings had been over-stressed.

The Kestrel’s armament, consisting of a pair of synchronized 0.5” (12,7 mm) machine guns above the engine and firing through the propeller disc, also turned out to be insufficient. Due to the fuel tanks inside of the wings it was not possible to retrofit weapons in this position, so that external machine gun pods, similar to those mounted under the P-39s’ outer wings, with a single 0.5” (12,7 mm) machine gun each, were hung onto retrofitted bomb hardpoints. While this was a serious increment in firepower, the gun pods precluded the carriage of bombs for ground attack missions, and overall TOW as well as drag grew.

By the time the P-42’s many issues were resolved the aircraft was already considered obsolete and relegated to training units and presumed low-threat overseas detachments like Albrook Field in the Panama Canal Zone, Elmendorf Field in Alaska, and Wheeler Field in Hawaii. Due to an embargo of the United States against exporting weapons to any nation other than the United Kingdom, declared on 18 June 1940, the USAAC became and remained the Kestrel’s only operator. Only a total of 149 machines were eventually built until early 1941, because the USAAC’s focus was now put on the Curtiss P-40 and its improved variants, to standardize the units’ equipment and ease maintenance and logistics.

The only serious combat P-42s took part in was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, but only four of the twenty-four P-42s based at central O’ahu were able to take off during the attack at all and failed to shoot down any Japanese aircraft.

General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 7.99 m (26 ft 3 in)
Wingspan: 11 m (36 ft 1 in)
Height: 3.2 m (10 ft 6 in)
Wing area: 20.4 m² (220 sq ft)
Airfoil: N-38
Empty weight: 2,090 kg (4,608 lb)
Gross weight: 2,839 kg (6,259 lb)

Powerplant:
1× Pratt & Whitney R-1830-17 Twin Wasp 14-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine, delivering
1,050 hp (780 kW), driving a 3-bladed 10 ft 2 in (310 cm) diameter constant-speed metal propeller

Performance:
Maximum speed: 530 km/h (330 mph, 290 kn) at 5,300 m (17,388 ft)
Cruise speed: 440 km/h (270 mph, 240 kn)
Range: 545 km (339 mi, 294 nmi)
Service ceiling: 11,200 m (36,700 ft)
Time to altitude: 4,000 m (13,000 ft) in 4 minutes
Wing loading: 137 kg/m² (28 lb/sq ft)

Armament:
2× 0.5” (12.7 mm) Browning M2 machine guns in the upper cowling with 300 rounds per gun
Retrofitted hardpoints under each wing for a bomb of up to 100 lb (45 kg), or a light bomb rack for
three 50 lb (23 kg), five 20 lb (9.1 kg) or 30 lb (14 kg) bombs, or pods with 1× 0.5” (12.7 mm)
Browning M2 machine gun and 300 RPG each.

The kit and its assembly:
This fictional aircraft model was inspired by a what-if profile drawing from fellow modeler PantherG, published in October 2023 at whatifmodellers.com (modelforum.cz/download/file.php?id=1849555), depicting a Reggiane Re.2000 in colorful USAAC interwar markings, even though without unit markings or a concrete date. Due to the Italian type’s similarity to the American Seversky P-35, P-41and P-43 the whole thing looked very natural, and I decided to turn that idea into model hardware when I saw the profile – and here it is.

The build’s basis is the 1:72 Sword kit of the Re.2000, which is finely detailed and went together quite easily for a short-run kit, despite the lack of locator pins and light misalignment of the fuselage halves. The kit was basically built OOB, but I tried to change the look a little.
For instance, I replaced the propeller with a spinner-less resin donor from a QuickBoost B-24 upgrade set, so that an American Twin Wasp engine would be more credible. It was mounted onto a metal axis and the OOB radial engine block modified with an adapter to hold it. For a sleeker look I also removed the original carburetor intake above and the oil cooler fairing underneath the cowling. The carburetor intake was replaced with a much smaller scoop between the two fuselage machine guns (a piece of plastic tube, PSRed into a hole drilled above the engine opening) and the oil cooler was replaced by a shorter alternative of a rather square/boxy shape, scratched from an Italeri X-32(!) part and placed between the exhaust stubs. To beef up the armament I added machine gun gondolas under the wings, just outside of the landing gear wells, taken wholesale from an Eastern Express/Toko P-63 Kingcobra.

Painting and markings:
Well, the livery on this model is not authentic and but rather a mishmash of USAAC design elements from the Thirties. To convey the American “flavor” I definitively wanted the classic pre-WWII “yellow wings” on the model, even though they had by 1941 disappeared, and American frontline aircraft either already carried the olive drab/neutral grey standard camouflage or still were left in bare metal with some colorful unit markings. I imagined a training aircraft on Hawaii, where no war threat had been expected until the attack on Pearl Harbor and took inspiration from a contemporary Boeing P-26 ‘Peashooter’ of the 18th Pursuit Group based on Hawaii (found on a PrintScale decal sheet) and adapted its scheme loosely to my fictional P-42.

As a compromise and to remain plausible, the aircraft remained basically in bare metal overall, painted with Humbrol 27012 (Polished Aluminum Metallizer), but still with bright yellow upper wing surfaces (Revell 310; RAL 1028, Lufthansa Gelb), even though this would fall out of the model’s intended early 1941 timeframe. The interior was painted in zinc chromate green, and I used Humbrol 80, which is a rather bright option. The red cowling ring was painted with Humbrol 19.

The rest of the decorations was mostly created with decals. The fin flash on the rudder was scratched with a base painted with white, with single red horizontal and a dark blue vertical decal stripe to match/fill the P-42’s rudder. The red lightning cheatline as well as the roundels came from a USAAC Northrop A-17 bomber (MPM kit leftovers). Unit markings, tactical codes and “U.S. Army” tags on the wings from the aforementioned PrintScale P-26 sheet, only the big “41” on the fin was added but consists of appropriate USAAC “45° font” digits. The diagonal red-and-white fuselage stripe was improvised with a generic red decal stripe placed on top of a slightly wider white one (TL Modellbau).
Not much weathering was done. Some body panels were painted with different shades of silver/aluminum, the fabric-covered rudder with aluminum dope (Humbrol 56). Graphite was used behind the exhausts and a little around the machine gun ports, but very reluctantly. Finally, the model was sealed with semi-gloss acrylic varnish and finishing touches like position lights were done.

A rather simple project, because not much was changed to turn the Reggiane Re.2000 into this fictional P-42 fighter. The bright livery does most of the job, and with its shiny NMF finish and the red and yellow accents the aircraft looks really attractive, even believable, thanks, to the Re.2000’s similarity to some contemporary American fighter types.

Taken on: February 17, 2024

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