1/32 Trumpeter F4F-4 Wildcat.

Possibly the worst box art on a kit since Revells mini ship kits, awful picture, luckily the kit is a lot better. 

I'm building my wildcat with folded wings, as Trumpeter made the kit with a rubbish working wnigfold gimmick, but mine will be permanently folded. 

Now, the eduard pe set. This set is actually for the old version of this kit that was pulled from sale, for scale and detail issues. Not sure I'll use a lot of this, maybe just the dashboard and seat, but we will see.  

Wing fold, I'm not going to spend too much time on the rear area, as this is hidden by the wing, so no need to fill ejector marks.  

I will add some detail to the front though, hand crank and plumbing.  

Looks quite nice just paint a mix of greens and caramel.  

Made a start on the 1/32 Trumpeter F4F-4 Wildcat, I'm having my wings permanently folded, this is just all dry fitted so far, I'll add more detail later when the wing is added. No point cleaning up the inside part of the wing of ejection holes, as this will be hidden behind the wing. Think it looks ok so far. 

I'll give the a wash and a dry brush when everything is together later.  

Shape wise this new version is very good, much better than the original F4F-4 release.  

Engine! Looks good. Just needs wires. 

And in the cowling hardly anything will be seen.  

 

 

So far so good.  

So today I've semi painted up the other sides wing root fold system. And started dry fitting the engine. Need to pick a scheme from the Techmod decals at some point, thinking of 1 or 4 so far. 

The inside of the front heatsheild bulkhead. I've added junk wire to just add something, you will not be able to see any of this when it's all joined up and finished. Atleast this version has a lot more detail than the original release.  

 

Bulkhead detail. I've added electrical wiring for some more interest. But not a lot of this will be seen. On the real plane there's a lot more and the gear bay area is very busy.  

Inside of fuselage, painted front off grey and the cockpit areas mixes of green and caramel.  

The engine bearing cage supports. Very nicely modeled, you cold add a lot more detail here.  

 

Landing gear, although looking complicated it's actually very easy to build and looks awesome painted up.  

Dry fitted inthe gear bay. Looks very nice. Trumpeter tell you to do this last, but for a stronger bond, I've fitted my gear before assembling the fuselage.  

 

 

Just a dry fit to see what everything will look like and how it goes together. 

Looks very busy and detailed straight from the box tbh. 

With the cowling on. 

Wheels!! Well I didn't like the rubber ones, so I bought some Reskit resin ones, and snipped and sanded the old wheels to fit. I didn't fancy sanding and cutting a load of resin for this, so stuck with the modified plastic wheels.  

And they look brilliant.  

 

 

And there we go, all painted up and weathered.  

Ooh landing gear and engine support structure. Just needs a few touchups, thats it done for now, have to glue it all up straight away, doing it later would be a pain in the ass. Looks ok, I'm no expert on these things. Just for fun build in-between other stuff. 

 

 

Test dry fit, looks very good.  

Not a huge model in 1/32. I like it.  

 

 

 

 

I think, as an engine that'll do really, don't need anymore detail on it. Couldn't see it if it was there anyway. I'll paint the rear bank of cylinders, but that's probably it. 

Only really need to add a bit of wore, and the engine looks good.  

Used a very fine wire for the ignition wiring. Looks great to me.  

That's all for today, making the most of what you get in the kit, only added bits of wire, no sense going mad with detailing parts you wont see. Prop tomorrow, finish the rear bank of Cylinders, and make a start on the cockpit. Looking nice so far, looks like an engine to me. 

Prop done. 

Seatbelts have turned up yay.  

That's where I'm up to so far. Cockpit is next.  

Finished engine.  

Added the rear bank of Cylinders and the exhaust, then mounted onto the bulkhead.  

Engine, exhaust manifold system and front bulkhead done. For what you can see, the kit parts are good enough. No point spending lots of money on a resin engine. Just some wire and a bit of paint. 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for today, don't think I can handle seatbelts as well. So far so good, looks like a cockpit, when it's in the plane, you won't see anything. I tarted up the kit seat, as I couldn't stomach making the PE eduard one. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I can do seat belts, but I hate doing seatbelts, not brilliant, but for all you'll see, it'll do me. My fear of PE is lessening, I'm getting a bit more confident each time, next the top straps. Then I can tackle the joining of the fuselage halves together, which is tricky on the 1/32 Trumpeter F4F-4 Wildcat, as a few parts need extra sanding to fit. Looks ok to me so far. 

Seatbelts done, that'll do. With my eyesight it'll look amazing from far away lol ? but for me, as a learning exercise, looks fine. I would wholeheartedly recommend HGW Laser seatbelts, they make it a lot easier. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the 1/32 Wildcat. Start of paint. 

 

 

Hmm, this is going to be interesting. As usual no idea what I'm doing, just riding by the seat of my pants. I'll try and block in all the colours then look into weathering. Who knows how this'll look. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiny update WIP, 1/32 Trumpeter F4F-4 Wildcat.Well, it's blueish grey now, or greyish blue. Because I'm a cantankerous stubborn fool, I paint everything with brushes, Main colours blocked in, teeny tiny fiddly bits added, now I've just got to build some more layers up, start lightening and shading areas. It won't be brilliant, but it may look good on my shelf. Which is the main thing, due to lack of space, pretty much all the aircraft I'm going to build will have folded wings. 

As is my usual way, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, just going with the flow, it seems to want to be like this.
A very, very long way to go still, it'll be a lot lighter than it is now, and not so stark. I know, I shouldn't weather it until later, but i can't help it, it's a curse. 

 

 

 

 

 

Starting to get to where I want it to be, loads still to do. The eventual colour will be a lot lighter. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right, well that's that for a while, going to be taking a break from this for a bit. It's going in the right direction, but it's turning into a long term project, I'll come back to it in a few months time with fresh eyes.