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Airfix 1/72 Wildcat F4-4 (pics updated)


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Hi all

 

First post here, I've been building armor for the last 10 years but after having my eyes opened to the turn around from airfix in recent years I have bought a whole load of planes that I forgot I loved and with that have found a new fondness for the application of decals, in some cases I've spent two days applying decals to a 1/72 plane! (a nice change from 3 crosses and two turret numbers!) I've also found that I can get models finished in good time and don't seem to get bogged down with the inaccuracies of a kit (due to lack of knowledge). Not to mention kits are £5 each not £50!

 

Anyway hope you like one of my first planes in 20 years.

 

68D04D5D-3293-44C4-85E1-F82182E1105C_zps

 

F9D753C2-B60A-49DF-B27C-7A8F14A65CD3_zps

 

093D1AC8-56F5-47CE-B639-92637C4FA2B6_zps

 

9945E89F-F641-4912-8732-4EC140FB1A27_zps

 

8659632C-F21C-44BE-8389-014781382244_zps

 

58E51ED4-056A-40DA-981B-D1D02394D3A8_zps

Edited by Epimedium
Wrong link for pics
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That's really nice work - impressive for first aircraft build .........

 

I've pondered over this particular kit myself several times - does it go together well, any vices?

 

Regards

 

Dave

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Your Wildcat is absolutely fantastic; you said it is 1/72 scale?

But for me it looks like a 1/48 scale model, just as fine as the Tamyia Wildcat looks.

I especially like the satin finish of the two colours of camouflage; blue grey over light grey.

A great model which you really can be proud of.

Bravo. Polo.:clap2:

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51 minutes ago, Epeeman said:

That's really nice work - impressive for first aircraft build .........

 

I've pondered over this particular kit myself several times - does it go together well, any vices?

 

Regards

 

Dave

 

Thanks, well it's typical (new) airfix, some people have said the under carriage is fiddly but I found it ok but you must be careful cleaning and removing the parts as they can be brittle, other than that it was fine. The wings attach on stiff struts so they're actually the easiest I've seen in terms of attaching. I have the martlet as well so looking forward to that one too.

 

both have the option for wings folded which I'm desperate to try

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19 minutes ago, polo1112 said:

Your Wildcat is absolutely fantastic; you said it is 1/72 scale?

But for me it looks like a 1/48 scale model, just as fine as the Tamyia Wildcat looks.

I especially like the satin finish of the two colours of camouflage; blue grey over light grey.

A great model which you really can be proud of.

Bravo. Polo.:clap2:

 

Thanks for your kind comment it means a lot! I'd like to try some 1/48, the problem is I'm finding is there are way too many aircraft out there I keep buying everything I like the look of!

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Of course if you want to build 1/48 scale aircraft you will have to consider that they take way more space, or room, than 1/72 scale ones;
I would say you should have to limit yourself about the range of models you want to build.

For instance, for myself, I have decided that I only want to build British, American and German models from the World War Two or from the Golden Age between the two wars,

because of the wonderful colourful aircraft you could find in this lap of time.

Thus, I don't build any French, nor Italian, nor Russian, nor Japanese aircraft and so on .

But that is my way and I am assuming it.

Nevertheless, I do enjoy when I see beautifully built models of French,Italian, Russian and Japanese aircraft, and even other.

I also like those beautifully built early jets, for instance from the US NAVY in the 50s and early 60s.

Cheers and keep on the good work. Polo.

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Very nice build.

 

Funny you should mention accuracy as I am struggling to nail down the blue gray color of the USN scheme. Airfix says Humbrol 164 and all I get out of it is very dark grey with hardly any blue. Looking at other modeler's Wildcats they seem to range from light blue grey to very dark blue - even for the same livery and pilot :unsure:

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Really nice work,

 

I'm building this kit myself and my undercarriage bits weren't molded that well, especially the base bit with the holes (really accurate description lol)

Still it fit well enough though.

 

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First aircraft in 20 years ? It turned out very well, Congrats !

Mixing vehicles, aircraft and other modelling subjects is good for the hobby, it will never get boring.

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Thanks guys for all the kind comments, I must clarify this is ONE of my first aircraft in 20 years, I've done 3 or 4 all around the same time so I have learned a lot from these builds. ll pop some more up here when I get a few minutes.

 

9 hours ago, Knight_Flyer said:

Very nice build.

 

Funny you should mention accuracy as I am struggling to nail down the blue gray color of the USN scheme. Airfix says Humbrol 164 and all I get out of it is very dark grey with hardly any blue. Looking at other modeler's Wildcats they seem to range from light blue grey to very dark blue - even for the same livery and pilot :unsure:

 

I'm defiantly no expert and I don't worry too much about absolute accuracy when it comes to colours as there seems to have been so much variation. I used Tamiya xf18 for the top and xf19 for underneath, both were lightened a little with white. I did do some of that pre-shading and picking out panels, which looked good until the last pass with the airbrush and it all vanished! :blink:

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