Battle of Midway June 4th 2006 - June 7th 2007

Dave23 wrote:

Ok, ordered some goodies this morning for my 1/48 Tamiya F4F-4 - - Quickboost F4F-4 Engine - Superscale Decals for LCDR John Thatch's plane - True Details F4F-4 Wheel Set - Ultracast F4F-4 seat (early war) This is gonna be fun! -dave

I have the Quickboost F4F Wildcat engine in my box of spares.  Not a bad little deal.  Nicely detailed. 

Dave - If this is your first Tamiya F4F, the only part to pay close attention to with that kit is the main gear assembly... it is SOOOO easy to assemble and glue it in backwards.  In fact when assembling you have to watch the directions and align the parts just like in the drawing to get it right.  I'll try to post a pic of my FAA Marlet I did with this kit so you can key on putting it in the fuselage the right way... (my first one I didnt, and I didn't notice until AFTER I posted pics... I've also seen it glued in backwards on a few other F4F's built in the GB's I was in...

Other than that the kit is a definite charm!!!  and honestly when the gear are in backwards it's hard to spot unless you'be built one before haha

Dave - I've built about 5 of the F4F's, I learned turning the parts to face in the same direction as in the illustration helps a lot getting it together right... and afterwards all you have to pay attention to is which direction the little tab that inserts into the fuselage is facing.  It fits either way but if you turn your model and undercarraige to match the instructions you can't go wrong!

As a side note only someone who has installed it backwards and realized it later would probably be able to tell if you did that though..   And my lips are sealed!

Dave - actually it *may* be a bit blue but so close I wouldn't fret about it... if it really bugs you, you could "bleach" the paint out if you haven't decaled yet.  Take some white, thin it about 10:1 thinner to paint... hold the airbrush about 6" or so above the body with moderate pressure (say 10-12psi) and just "barely" get the paint wet with the watery/chalky mixture.  You can concentrate on the areas that would sun bleach more like the upper cowling and wing tops to add a little tecture to the plane.

It looks fine to me like it is though, and that is one smooooth paint job!  As far as the gear I really can't see but it looks to be correct from memory due to the way the struts are pointing..

A very spiffy looking build indeed!  I might have to come in late with my build, I am just finishing an He-111 forthe BoB GB and about to start a B-25 for the Memorial Day GB with lots of PE and resin to it. 

Wow!!! Fantastic build Dave!!  And you're right.. the kit is really fun to make and looks good even without PE nd the sort...  For a little variety you can try the same kit done as a British Martlet.  there's a lot of different camo schemes you can do besides the blue-gray/light gray used by the US. 

Here's mine I did for the Battle for North Africa GB last yr...

the same kit I did as a Martlet Mk I for the Battle of Britain GB 2005:

Tom, which decal set did you use on the British Martlet Mk I? Do they represent the 804 Squadron?

-dave

Dave - yeah, it was supposed to be a Martlet based at RNAS Hastson, 804 Sqn. - Orkney Islands, Scotland...they had decals for that, one on the HMS Queen, Norway coast 1945,, the Lybian one and one on the HMS Atheling in the Pacific 1944.

Some decent decals overall...

If ya decide to do one let me know, I have a link or PDF somewhere with the mods needed for each different Mark of Martlet/Wildcat...

ok here are various webpages that may or may not help you...

of interest is the first one that lists how many guns each variant carried.  That Martlet I which you would be modeling had 4 guns instead of the 6 that the Tamiya kit comes with, I believe the outer gun was removed but let me check on this.  A little putty will fill that extra gun right in!

http://www.vectorsite.net/avwcat.html

another noting the differences between marks:

http://fleetairarmsig.netfirms.com/articles/martlet/scottspencer-martlet/martlet.html

PM me your email and I have a good reference in .pdf I can send ya... it gives a lot of info on the Martlets.. it looks like for the Mk. I you'll have to sand off that upper scoop and cut off and sand the inner scoops.  The cowl flap panel lines will need to be filled and sanded, then right in the middle of the flap scribe a new panel line.

OR - you can do what I did and throw caution to the wind on that 804 Sqn one and do it OOB... the Lybian one I went after correcting the cowl but the first one I was blissfully ignorant and "did it my way"... 

-=edit=-

something that bugged the bejeevers out of me on the first one was "what color was the lower wheel carraige?"  It is semi-gloss black, just like the Wildcat... also the interior is a softer green than Zinc Chromate Green, you should be able to get away with lightening the green zinc with a few drops of white...  I guess it would be more of a "sage" color...