Stumpy - Airfix 1:72 Wildcat

[Squibby]

Ok time for a quick relaxing build (lol).

After the spitfire I'm back off to 1:72 land. I was hoping to build one of my nice Tamiya or Eduard kits but the paints I need are taking their sweet time to cross the Tasman sea...

 

Anyway rather than waiting I've decided to get through a quick OOB build from my (tiny) stash. I've had Airfix's new tooled 1:72 Wildcat F4F-4 kit staring at me forlornly for ages and I decided to put it out of it's misery.

I know... another Airfix kit but the plastic on this one especially on the wings and fuselage looked suspiciously smooth and had nicely refined details . I tentatively cut out a few bits and test fitted, and everything seemed to be in order. It's got a nice easy camo scheme to boot.

 

 

Time to crack on then, Started with the cockpit bits. All seemed to fit, though there was some of that soft Airfix moulding on show on some bits. Nothing major though. I'm not going to spend weeks detailing this little office, looks good enough out of the box.

 

Got some Gunze H58 Interior Green on, and sprayed some H51 Light Gull Gray around the wheel well bits. Annoyingly enough the H51 is a gloss paint so takes ages to dry and is very prone to acquiring fingerprints. I'll have to be super careful. Especially when I get to painting the underside

Also had to do a bit of early glass masking with the underside windows but it wasn't too taxing.

 

Edited October 24, 2016 by Squibby

[Old Man]

Nice to see the inside of this one, Sir.

 

Looks like a choice kit.

[Squibby]

And Airfix quality strikes again... seriously, not only is the undercarriage a hugely complicated mess of spindly parts, every single one is molded all blobby and in some cases the 2 mold halves had offset to create some truly gnarly seam lines that were way outside my skill level to clean up. One of the base pieces was also short shot and just did not look anything like what it was meant to be (the white bit with the holes in it in the photo), It took me ages to clean it up and make it workable, and I hope it doesn't screw up my gear assembly.

 

The fit appeared to be workable at least. I'm just getting sick of Airfix's soft plastic and moulding tolerances, it really struggles with producing crisp gear legs and struts in 1/72. For a newly tooled kit it's pretty disappointing.

 

So much for a relaxing build.... I gave up trying to clean the parts up too much and just got the paint on ugly step seams and all. Hopefully once assembled the visual interference of that birds nest of struts should distract from it.

I also finished off painting the cockpit bits and adding the decals. I also added a bit of chipping and paint wear around the rudder pedals, seat and base. I tried using AK Truemetal (kind of a wax paste metalliser) to add these rather than my go to acrylics and I was actually quite impressed. As it's a wax paste it's more workable and you can create scuffing and gradual wear effects as well as abrupt chipping. It also lays down really smooth and easily.

 

 

Next up I'll stick some Eduard belts on, flat the whole lot down and attempt to assemble it all.

 

As an aside my shipment of paints finally landed and I'm regretting not waiting a couple of days and cracking into my Tamiya FW-190 or Eduard LA-7 instead...

Edited October 25, 2016 by Squibby

[Squibby]

Got the pile of undercarriage bits to form up into something resembling the kit instructions... Got to say it all fit together reasonably well, so touche...Airfix,

 

Also got the Eduard PE belts on, forgot what a pig tiny tiny PE belts are... I mangled them into position well enough and weathered them with some oils.

 

And buttoned up the fuselage.The fit was ok, though I ended up with a small gap along the top of the front cowling and along the underside. Shouldn't be too hard to fix up, though the with the undercarriage fitted I'll have to be quite careful.

Edited October 26, 2016 by Squibby

[Smudge]

Nice start. Those seat belts look great, do they come from a generic set?

[Squibby]

Yes, they're just from the Eduard generic 1:72 scale USAAF / USN WW2 seatbelts set.

[Squibby]

More progress,

 

Cleaned up the seams around the fuselage, turns out there was a tiny step as well as a gap that needed to be removed.. I've got to be more careful aligning things in future.  Nothing too taxing but it took several hours of sanding and filling to sort out. The landing gear bulge underneath was a bit of a nightmare though due to the misshapen undercarriage base part surprisingly not fitting cleanly.

I also ended up cutting a few dorsal bumpy bits off in order to sand the seam cleanly. I never understand why manufacturers insist on molding these features into the fuselage sides. I'll just have to restore them with some punched plasticard discs and epoxy blobs.

 

On the plus side I got to test out my new Scribe-R scribing files to restore the panel lines and I've got to say they're quite easy to use. Normally rescribing is a white knuckle experience but with these I restored all the lines without any fuss, a mistake doesn't really show up unless you run the scriber over the line a few times.

 

I then test fitted the engine cowling and spent an age filing and sanding down the top and bottom surfaces to better blend with the fuselage and avoid a noticeable step.

 

Finally I glued the wing pieces together, (fit perfectly for a change) and fited the rudder and tailplane. The tailplane due to my fuselage misalignment was a bit of a bugger to get straight. I had to sand out the slot a bit to get it to fit. The misalignment also had a minor effect on the rudder with some noticeably larger gaps on the one side and a gap at the top. I shoved a sliver of thin plasticard into the top gap (yet to be fettled down and blended) and will blend the other gaps out with a few swipes of PPP.

 

Overall I've got to say the fit of the wing and tailplane was spot on, only complicated by my fuselage issue. Although on the other hand I've got to mention how hilariously chunky the sprue attachment points are, it's making cutting the bits out and cleaning them up a bit harder than it needs to be.

 

The model as it stands...

 

 

Cheers for reading!

 

Edited October 27, 2016 by Squibby

[IanC]

On ‎25‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 1:24 PM, Squibby said:

I'm just getting sick of Airfix's soft plastic and moulding tolerances, it really struggles with producing crisp gear legs and struts in 1/72. For a newly tooled kit it's pretty disappointing.

 

 

I have to agree with you. Every kit a new adventure...

 

Except for the Defiant. No problems there at all, for some reason.

 

[dogsbody]

You picture isn't showing. All I see is a black rectangle with this print in white:

 

The image you are requesting

does not exist or is no longer

available.

 

imgur.com

 

 

Chris

[Squibby]

Should be sorted now,

 

I've been unable to access photobucket for a bit and I was trying out a different image host.

 

[dogsbody]

Yep. All good now.

 

 

Chris

[Squibby]

A small update...

 

I got the wings cleaned up and stuck on. They fit really well and only needed a few swipes of PPP to blend any gaps along the root.

 

[Squibby]

More progress... moving along quite nicely now.

 

Painted up the surprisingly detailed, very well molded little engine (why they can't keep this level of detail and molding across all the bits puzzles me ).

I base coated it with some Vallejo Metal Colour dark aluminum over gloss black then hand painted the ignition wires, push rods and crack case cover. I gave it a wash with some black Tamiya panel liner and dabbed some AK engine oil around the crankcase to finish it off.

 

 

and fitted off into the cowl. fit was decent, though I needed a few swipes of PPP to blend in nicely.

 

 

[invidia]

Building mine at the moment. I agree about the plastic, am doing the wings folded to save space.  looking good.

[Squibby]

Sprayed the IP coaming black and attached a gunsight glass made from acetate sheet. Then masked up and fitted the canopies.

 

 

 

The open canopy section fits quite well in the closed position so I'll use it as my cockpit mask. I added some tape on the inside just to make sure no paint gets through as it's a bit wider than the front glazing.

 

I also spent a while carefully masking off the undercarriage and engine cowl openings and it looks like we're ready for paint.

 

[Squibby]

Started to slather this little beastie in paint.

 

Started with the underside in Gunze H51 Light gull grey. It's gloss as previously noted so too forever to dry but it goes down so nicely I briefly contemplated leaving it all shiney and smooth

 

... once that thought had left my head I decided to crack on with some distressing. Since I'd already laid down a light colour I couldn't just use a lightened colour to modulate the paintwork. I also wanted to capture those patches of grime you see on lighter coloured surfaces so I went with a post - preshade (or is it pre-post shading ...)

 

So on with some scraggly lines of a dark grey (I used Gunze H416 RLM 66) applied haphazardly around following the odd panel lines. I kept it deliberately patchy and focused on a few spots as I wanted to avoid the uniform patchwork quilt trap.

 

I also bombed a little white over some panels and around the fuselage 'rib's though I doubt that will come through after the blend coat.

 

Then blended back with the base colour, the glossiness obscures the effect somewhat but it's very apparent in reality. When a flatcoat on and with some careful highlighting of the panel lines it should hopefully look quite convincing.

 

 

 

 

 

[Squibby]

Finished off the topside and tried a little experiment.

 

Gunze H42 went on first, but seemed very dark to my eye.

Used a mix of H42 and white to shade then whipped out the AK true metal steel to add some paint wear and scratches / scuffs around the edges of panels. It looks horrible here as expected but I am going to blend it all back to hopefully end up with a nice effect. I'm aiming for a bit of texture rather than a chipping effect.

 

 

And blended, I used a mix of 2:1 H42 with white to blend as I wanted to lighten the base colour a bit. H42 out of the pot is a tad too dark to my eye.

 

As for my little 'texturing' experiment. It kind of worked though it's hard to see in a photo, the glossiness doesn't help. I think I if applied to a plane I intend to add paint chipping to it'll give me a nice base to work with.

 

 

All done anyway and it looks quite nice. No point doing it over.

[Smudge]

On 10/26/2016 at 9:16 PM, Squibby said:

Yes, they're just from the Eduard generic 1:72 scale USAAF / USN WW2 seatbelts set.

 

Cheers, I must get some. I have this kit, and today I picked up the Martlet IV. They look very good, yours seems to be coming along nicely.

[Squibby]

And a little bit of a disaster

 

Turns out Gunze gloss paints need months to dry...I peeled back my underside masking to reveal all the paint marred and damaged . The underside had been sitting for 3 days+ beforehand and was only masked for a day or so.

I micromeshed the worst of it out and touched a few bits up. Still a lot messier than I would have liked. Though this build is hardly notable so I'm really not going to bother myself with spraying it all again.

 

I glossed over the whole plane to prevent any more unwanted paint damage and it looks a lot better, when it's all matted down it should be hardly noticable.

 

I've made a mental note to never use Gunze gloss paints again if there is even an inkling of masking required. Or else grab a pottle of their flatting additive. The matt and semi gloss works amazingly and never gave me issues but the gloss is a completely different beast.

 

 

[Christer A]

I've noticed the same thing with flat gunze paint and Tamiya tape. One should probably gloss coat it before masking it seems.

Great looking Wildcat though! Did you do any detailing on the engine or is it all plastic?

I really like your painting experiment too!

[Squibby]

Thanks Christer,

 

No the engine is actually all plastic. It's surprisingly detailed and nicely molded.

[Squibby]

As tumbleweeds roll by I've made more incremental progress.

 

Got all the decals on, they went on well but the tail stripes were a tad fiddly. I had to cut a slot for them to sit over the elevator linkage and jiggle them into place. It took many applications of Mr Mark Softer and some poking in with a toothpick to get it to snuggle into the hinge gaps and into the large opening where said elevator cross bar went through.

For reference you need to make a short horizontal cut from the hinge side of the decal to about 1/3 of the way across centered on the 2nd white bar from the bottom. It eventually did snuggle in nicely and looks quite spiffing . Masking and painting this would have been a bit tiresome, potentially do this before you fit the rudder if you want to take this approach.

 

Anyway once all the decals were settled down, I lightly over-sprayed them with some heavily thinned base colour to dull them down and blend them in a bit.

 

 

I wanted to dirty up the wing walks a bit. I brushed on some AK chipping fluid,sprayed some thinned white on and tried to 'chip' it off to create a splotchy mess . Unfortunately I just can't get this stuff to work reliably, with the effect I want. The paint came off in larger clumps and some bits didn't come off at all. I went back and blended it back with more thinned white and a touch of tire black. I'm relatively happy. though I'd have liked a more scratchy appearance. That AK stuff seems to work a treat in the hands of some skilled modellers but I keep ending up with undesired effects. I think this time round I just applied too much water. Oh well, practice makes perfect

 

 

Anyway we're now all glossed up and ready for some weathering.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2016 by Squibby

[Squibby]

Finished off a good weathering session.

I started off with a selection of pin washes, I used Tamiya grey panel liner as a base across the whole plane then picked out some strategic bits with a paynes grey oil wash. Then went through and used some black panel liner to go around the control surfaces and pick out a couple of panels near the engine cowl.

 

I then hit the plane with a W&N matte varnish coat. As lovely as this stuff is it can be a bit too... smooth.

I found that rubbing a cotton bud dampened with turpentine on the surface creates a nice bit of texture to help break up the smooth flat coat. Probably just selectively removing and polishing the flat coat.

I also went around some panels edges and added some streaks with some heavily thinned white oil paint and blended it in with a cotton bud to further create a bit of texture. I finished off by painting on some thinned AK engine oil enamel and drawing a few rivulets of spilled oil from the oil filler cap on top of the cowling.

 

I then sprayed on the exhaust streaking using some tire black XF-85 for the base dark staining and used some matte white to add the lead staining. The manifolds were painted with Vallejo metal colours in 'exhaust manifold' and were given a light misting of copper on the fronts. I fixed them on using some super glue and dusted some 'dust' (light coloured) pigment on the rear edges and along the start of the exhaust stains. Painting these streaks was made a bit more difficult by the landing gear being in the way. I'll have to also add some staining to the gear doors.

 

 

And finally with all masking removed and ready for all the ancillary bits to be added.

 

 

Edited November 11, 2016 by Squibby

[Squibby]

Almost coming to the end of this rather quiet WIP thread.

 

Worked on some of the bits and pieces, surprising amount of work required here.

 

Painting the prop was a very involved process condensed into a couple of hours which went as follows:

Yellow on the tips, mask tips, black on the blades, grey shading on the blades, unmask tips, black shade coat to knock back the yellow (and grey), gloss coat, mask blades, gloss black on the hub, VMC Chrome on the hub, unmask blades, decals, fade decals, gloss coat, black panel liner on the hub, flat coat on blades, and finally thinned white oils to add some wear

 

I kept the blades unchipped, because they always come out far too large at this scale. I did fade and wear the paint with the aforementioned oils. I added some fading and scratches to front side edge and tips and heavily faded the rear of the blades.

 

I also finished off the wheels and U/C covers, sneaking them into the paint queue at strategic moments

 

 

 

Edited November 12, 2016 by Squibby

[Pierpaolo]

Nice build!

I've also wrong it in my wildcat .. the propeller look like a Curtiss Electric but the logo on it is the Hamilton Standard