1/48 Hobby Boss F4F-3 Wildcat (Early) Finished.....

I'll be lurking, watching closely, and learning as I do with all your builds. The comparison with Tamiya's -4 will be very interesting.Your comment about Tamiya's P-38 staring at you hits home. Mine should be here this afternoon.

Nice LD. She looks like a barrel with wings! I'm in. 

Joe, that box art looks really nice. I think the plane is stellar in those colors. I am interested to see which kit builds up better. Your pit looks fantastic.

BK

Cool project with the new Midway movie coming out soon. Looking forward to it and following along!  Could be a wave of Dauntless, Avenger and Wildcat classics coming...

Off to a great start, awesome looking IP Joe and the flaps look great as well

tomwatkins45

I'll be lurking, watching closely, and learning as I do with all your builds. The comparison with Tamiya's -4 will be very interesting.Your comment about Tamiya's P-38 staring at you hits home. Mine should be here this afternoon.

 

 

 Nice to have you Tom. 

Mopar Madness

Nice LD. She looks like a barrel with wings! I'm in. 

 

Indeed she does. Glad to have ya. 

BrandonK

Joe, that box art looks really nice. I think the plane is stellar in those colors. I am interested to see which kit builds up better. Your pit looks fantastic.

BK

 

Good to have you Brandon. I can tell you, I've built many Tamiya wildcats and that kit is fabulous!  It will be hard to beat. 

Hoss WA

Cool project with the new Midway movie coming out soon. Looking forward to it and following along!  Could be a wave of Dauntless, Avenger and Wildcat classics coming...

 

Indeed Hoss. I look forward to seeing that movie. The trailer looks awesome!

TREYZX10R

Off to a great start, awesome looking IP Joe and the flaps look great as well

 

Thanks Trey

Good to see this one coming along, I just watched an episode about this airplane and it's use over the operational life span. I had no idea it was so fast, as was said it looks like a barrel with wings. It achieved speeds over 300mph.

The landing gear was raised/lowered by the pilot manually, by use of a handcrank. And the gear might have looked a bit "spindly," but was tough, effective and well suited for the rigors of carrier operations.

I'll be onboard for this one, always a good FSM day when Joe's shop is open for a visit. Thanks for the post and WIP.

Patrick

It’s always a treat to watch one of your projects come to life, Lawdog. Beautiful work on the ‘pit for the opening act. 

stikpusher

It’s always a treat to watch one of your projects come to life, Lawdog. Beautiful work on the ‘pit for the opening act. 

 

BrandonK

Joe, that box art looks really nice. I think the plane is stellar in those colors. I am interested to see which kit builds up better. Your pit looks fantastic.

BK

 

Looking forward to seeing the yellow wing Wildcat.

Hey, if you're talking Midway, don't forget the Brewster Buffaloes. Heck, when was the last time you saw one of those? The other bird I miss is the P-36 Hawk. It was actually a pretty nice aircraft, not particularly competitive, but nice none the less.

patrick206

Good to see this one coming along, I just watched an episode about this airplane and it's use over the operational life span. I had no idea it was so fast, as was said it looks like a barrel with wings. It achieved speeds over 300mph.

The landing gear was raised/lowered by the pilot manually, by use of a handcrank. And the gear might have looked a bit "spindly," but was tough, effective and well suited for the rigors of carrier operations.

I'll be onboard for this one, always a good FSM day when Joe's shop is open for a visit. Thanks for the post and WIP.

Patrick

 

Not to mention the Grumman ruggedness.  They wanted their pilots to return home.  Nice to have you along Patrick.

stikpusher

It’s always a treat to watch one of your projects come to life, Lawdog. Beautiful work on the ‘pit for the opening act. 

 

Thanks Stik

tempestjohnny

 

 

stikpusher

It’s always a treat to watch one of your projects come to life, Lawdog. Beautiful work on the ‘pit for the opening act. 

 

 

 

 

couldn't have said it better myself

 

 

Thanks Johnny

Aggieman

 

 

BrandonK

Joe, that box art looks really nice. I think the plane is stellar in those colors. I am interested to see which kit builds up better. Your pit looks fantastic.

BK

 

 

 

 

I did the F4F-4 from Hobbyboss a couple years ago alongside a Tamiya and an original Monogram (with heavy scratch-building). The Tamiya is hands-down the best Wildcat on the market in 48th, but the HB goes together easily and looks good once complete.

 

 

Looking forward to seeing the yellow wing Wildcat.

 

Agreed, Tamiya kit is certainly better. 

HooYah Deep Sea

Hey, if you're talking Midway, don't forget the Brewster Buffaloes. Heck, when was the last time you saw one of those? The other bird I miss is the P-36 Hawk. It was actually a pretty nice aircraft, not particularly competitive, but nice none the less.

 

P-36 is on my short list.  Maybe someday...

Alright, I have an update.  I decided to press on instead of tearing into that P-38.  Very soon though, got goodies for it.....I digress

I switched gears (pun intended) to the engine.  HB did a nice job here with the ring and points.  I rigged it with copper wires which I painted a red brown. 

I also built up the gear bay which was nicely detailed too.  I think this particular area is better than Tamiyas, but not much will be seen once installed.  It's Alclad Aluminum with a detailer wash. 

I built the rest of the airframe and attached the wings.  I found attaching the wings to be a quite a PITA.  I had trouble getting the dihedral right because you glue then right to the side of the fuselage.  Tamiya has the belly and lower wings as one piece so you cant screw this up.  I muddled through.  

I needed a little filler here and there, but nothing serious. 

Tail surfaces added without issue..

I managed to get out of doing the yellow wing clown plane and was given the green light to do a 1941 "war games" version. It's essentially a light grey paint scheme with red crosses on the fuselage and wings.  I think it's neat scheme and almost never done.  

I was having trouble finding the correct color for this.  I kept it simple and used a mixture of  XF-19 Sky Grey and XF-2 White until it looked ok to my eye. I experimented with the reverse basing technique again, going back and forth between straight XF-19 and the lightened paint.  Here's how it turned out. 

This is why I rig my radials.  Makes a huge difference I think.

Other than an aerial wire needed (ran out of time), I am done.  To recap, it's an early F4F3 Wildcat in August of 1941 "War Games" markings.  I'm guessing it's the 1941 version of an aggressor scheme.  Overall I'm pleased.  The detail was quite good but the engineering was tricky at times, particularly getting the wings lined up correctly. The engine was awesome I thought, although incorrect for this variant as it shouldn't have magnetos. Oh well.  The PE flaps were a complete pain in the a@@ and fit lousy.  I'm sure it was my own doing somehow.  I don't even think all the work was worth it.  I found some left over Montex masks from my Devastators in the stash and used them for the stars.  It was worth it.  I also made new fifties with Albion Alloys brass tubing.  

Oh yeah, I ended up cracking the sliding canopy while masking it (just one of those builds I guess).  Hobby Boss customer service is non-existent, so I went Squardon vacuform.  I hate working with these but I managed.    

I have since moved on to that turkey which has been staring me down.....the P-38.

Another museum standard build. Well done, beautifully exucuted.

Lookforward to the P38.

damouav

Another museum standard build. Well done, beautifully exucuted.

Lookforward to the P38.

 

Hardly.....lol.  But thanks Damian. 

tempestjohnny

Great build again. Definitely a different scheme

 

Thanks Johnny 

Another absolutely spectacular build Lawdog! I really like the shading and fading. It makes the model.  

Yeah I've tried the Eduard flaps once on an Fw190. They were a pain in the butt too. I told myself that was it.

That is such a beautiful aircraft with a livery you don't see very often. Such affective weathering too.

Looks great, Joe. Any troubles you may have had are well hidden within your skills.

BK