1/48 VF-33 Tarsiers

Starfighters History

by Darren Roberts

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VF-33 was first established in the middle of WWII. The Tarsiers received the F6F in September of 1943 and became the first US Navy squadron to take the Hellcat into combat. After the war, VF-33 was disestablished, but was soon be a fighter squadron again. In October of 1948, VF-33 stood back up with the F4U Corsair. The Tarsiers entered the jet age with the FJ-3 Fury. This is where I chose to begin my history of VF-33. I used the ESCI FJ-2/3 kit as a basis for the build. While the problems with the kit have been discussed before, I felt that the finished product was close enough. I did reshape the intake to make appear larger, as the kit used the F-86 intake. I robbed the cockpit and wheels from the Grand Phoenix FJ-4 kit, as I felt it added quite a bit to the look of the finished model. Decals were cobbled together from my spares box. The majority were from the old Superscale 1/72 F-8 Crusader sheet which contained VF-33 markings.

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 VF-33 transitioned from the Fury to the Grumman F11F Tiger. I used the Lindberg kit, as the FM kit had not been released yet. I was able to get ahold of a solid resin Tiger display model, and used the nose, wings, and tail from that to help correct the Lindberg kit. I scratchbuilt the cockpit and landing gear. Again, the markings were mainly from the Superscale F-8 sheet with the VF-33 markings. For the panel lines, I used a .05 Micron pen and drew them on using a template.

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In the early 60’s, VF-33 traded in their F11F’s for the hotrod F-8 Crusader. They accompanied VF-102 onboard the newly commissioned USS Enterprise on an “Around the World” cruise. The Hasegawa F-8 kit was a given, although the Monogram kit isn’t bad. The kit went together quite easily, with the exception the slats and flaps, which didn’t fit very well in the up position. The decals came from Aeromaster.

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The F-4 Phantom II was the next mount for the Tarsiers, one in which they would fly for the next 17 years. While I had the Hasegawa kit in my stash, I had started a Monogram kit and decided to use it for this project. I had an extra Hasegawa cockpit, so I robbed the rear sidewalls from it to correct the Monogram kit, which has F-4 C/D sidewalls. I also used the main wheels from the Hasegawa kit to correct the Air Force style wheels that are in the Monogram kit. The intake covers are from Steel Beach while the decals are from Aeromaster. Overall, it was a fun build.

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The last fighter that VF-33 would fly would be the venerable F-14A Tomcat. The star and lightning bolt continued to adorn their aircraft, but by 1987, VF-33 had officially changed its name from the Tarsiers to the Starfighters. I used the Academy kit OOB with the exception of a pair of resin Verlinden GRU-7 seats. The markings were scrounged from the spares box and the tail markings were painted on. In the end, this was a fun project to complete, and the bright markings really liven up my display case.

Darren

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Photos and text © by Darren Roberts