Alexander Sweatman
Rankin Park, New South Wales, Australia
When I got Academy's 1/72 scale F4F-4 Wildcat, a relatively simple kit with only 35 parts, I wanted to make it a little more interesting.
After three months of work, I created an underwater scene in which the F4F-4 had crashed into the sea and sat there for decades.
I glued the starboard wing on at an angle to make it look as if the wing spar had corroded and snapped. The stump of the port wing was a spare Airfix part. Torn aluminum was made from a painted and torn-up piece of foil.
I gave it a flat coat and sprinkled salt on it to give it a rusty texture. The control surfaces were painstakingly made from thin copper wire bent into the correct shapes and glued together. I tore up a model railroad bush and painted it green for coral.
The rust effect was a base coat of flat rust, followed by stippling on various shades of brown. The fish added an interesting touch.