Tamiya 1/48 F4f-4 Wildcat

[Ran]

With no less then three (3, tres, shlosha, f@@#$#@$) kits on hold for missing parts (Seafang, A-26B, Typhoon) I opted for something that should be a quick build.

My stash is full (if building was a way to guarantee long life - I would be a true Raelian, but most of them require a skill level I still do not yet poses in order to fully create a good build).

Finally picked this Tamiya F4f-4. Build should be simple to put together with most of the time spent painting.

Also pulled a resin cockpit for the kit I picked off eBay for pennies.

 

A small number of parts, good detail and some nice paint schemes - should bring the smile back

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2018 by Ran

[fubar57]

Great kit. I'm building this at the moment, converting it to an FM-1. The fit is as perfect as I have ever seen, no mud involved which is a rarity for me. Not sure what the resin piece looks like but Tamiya erred making a full cockpit floor, it should be open to allow the pilot to view the two small windows in the bottom of the fuselage

Edited August 2, 2018 by fubar57
spelling which I never notice until 2 seconds after I hit Submit

[Uncle Uncool]

שלום עליכם

Are you Ran Ronen, by any chance?

Yeh, I concur with the Canuck bloke above; great kit this is. I've built just everyone of them in 1/48; Monogram, Tamiya and Hobby Boss. I'd have saved the resin cockpit for the Monogram one, tho, as the Tamiya interior is good enough.

Following yer build.

Cheers Ran! 

 

Unc²

[Ran]

On 8/2/2018 at 10:54 PM, Uncle Uncool said:

שלום עליכם

Are you Ran Ronen, by any chance?

Yeh, I concur with the Canuck bloke above; great kit this is. I've built just everyone of them in 1/48; Monogram, Tamiya and Hobby Boss. I'd have saved the resin cockpit for the Monogram one, tho, as the Tamiya interior is good enough.

Following yer build.

Cheers Ran! 

 

Unc²

שלום גם לך
Not Ran Ronen - just another Ran 😜

[Grey Beema]

Its a good kit.  Throw it up in the air and it comes down assembled....  Well sort of...  

 

I am going to buy one for the stash.  I will convert it to a short cord cowling Martlet MkIV.  

 

Good luck with yours I'm looking forward to seeing it..

[Ran]

Hi

 

Summing up some building hours spent during the week and this week end.

 

Kit fit is indeed very good - with some interesting engineering decision made by Tamyia.

 

I started with the resin cockpit

 

 

Started by priming using Badger Stynylrez primer and later hit it with MM Interior Green 4736

 

So far so good.

 

From there things started to deteriorate. The KMC resin was very very brittle, the part breakdown made little sense and the over all engineering left a lot to be desire in the sense of fit, how parts align and locator pins and slots. Add to that a very brittle resin and soon after starting I had to use the Kit's seat as the resin one turned to pieces while I started hacking at the stub (partly my fault - I should have started hacking from a different side), the part that should have connected the paddles to the IP also did not survive the separation from the stub  and later on parts of the side instrument panels also broke down to pieces.

Some parts had some tenons that were filled with resin and with little clues on how to clear them it was hard to make a fit:

 

This resulted in trouble aligning everything:

 

I had to put it some support elements:

 

As thing kept getting worse I kept loosing my patience and mojo for the resin cockpit.

This is how it ended:

 

The way all this is installed is also some weird engineering. Resin sidewall extend well into the lower part in such an angle I had to break them as there was no way to make them have the right curvature in order to fit into the lower part of the fuselage.

 

As all the alignment is based on small resin parts (some got lost/turned into resin dust) it was very hard to make the assembled cockpit fit in the upper half of the fuselage. So I CA glued the back part of the head rest, clipped the small tabs in the lower part, where the cockpit floor (the one open so the pilot can see the windows) should meet the lower half, broke down the lower parts of the resin side walls, said goodby to the concept of the IP fitting right bellow the dashboard and opted for using the kit's gun sight - as it actually looks better.

 

 

So - all in all it looks like that at this stage:

 

 

Cockpit bottom line:

1. This is my 2nd resin cockpit - the first one must have been a beginner luck . I have much to practice before I'm good at that.

2. I Need a smaller hack saw for delicate tasks

3. the KMC resin cockpit is a complete waste of money and time.

4. This kits is gonna be a 'closed cockpit 3 feet queen'

5. The kit's cockpit is actually quite a decent one - with minor needed improvements it could be much better than the resin one.

 

Beside the cockpit:

 

Engine:

- Painted, per the instructions, with Tamiya Gun Metal X-10 and Metallic Gray XF-56. I think some parts should have been painted with something with a blue tint - maybe blue-gray, but decided to stick to the instructions.

- Pistons decorated, again per the instructions, with Tamyia Semi Gloss Black X-18 and Gold X-12. lousy job with the Gold - but as I told you - low mojo at this stage.

- I decided to skip a black wash - the thing looks black enough.

 

The bulkhead ahead of the cockpit was painted Tamyia XF-2 Flat White as were some struts. The instructions fails to ask you to paint the upper part of the wheel well (front part of the fuselage parts) white although it does so for the lower part.

Wheels were painted white (back of the wheel), masked and then painted Flat black.

 

Propeller tips where painted Tamiya X-8 Yellow and then Tamyia Semi Gloss Black X-18.

 

Fuselage parts where glued together (just before sticking the cockpit parts).

 

State of affairs as of now:

 

 

That's it for now

Ran

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thom216]

Trials and tribulations! I have a fear of resin cockpits and so stick with PE accents. Good luck with it.

[fubar57]

Shame about the resin parts and as you said, the kit cockpit isn't bad if the canopy is closed. For what its worth, the kit bulkhead behind the pilot doesn't fit well either. I'm going to add some plastic strip to flesh it out. I'm still trying to remove the outer gun panels which Tamiya molded raised for some reason

[Ran]

Going forward. Been modeling for two weeks now w/o update - its time for that.

 

Next stages involved:

 

- Installing the bulkhead - to find out the following gap:

Which I fixed with some Mr. Dissolved Putty and some filling.

 

- Installing the wings and admiring the perfect fit:

 

- I've decided to put the rudder in a position similar to that used for take off (may be a bit too pronounced) to create some interest:

 

- The fit is perfect but not without its glitches:

 

- The fit for the cowl was also very good:

 

The wheel well seems to fall in place - but I have a notion its all to good to be true.

 

For the canopy masking I've used a technique picked up here.

 

 

Next was painting.

I've done some research and stumbled into this reference for the f4f.

 

For the Light Gray I used MM Light Gall Gray, FS36440, 4763.

The Blue Gray was a bit more tricky as the above reference just mentions Blue Gray. Googling a bit I came across this blog reference which mentions M-485 and FS35189. This in turn translated into Mr.Color BlueGran 367 which I happen to have (snatched a couple of CS682).

 

I started with Green as the internal color of the canopy frame. After shooting some green through the airbrush - with limited effect on the tiny parts of the canopy not masked, I decided to do it this time different. I diluted some MM 4736 Interior Green with alcohol and used a brush. Let's see how this turns out.

 

 

This was followed with priming using the trusted Badger Stynylrez white primer.

 

I was so eager I shot the light gray even with out pre-shading. And only noticed it after the entire bottom was painted.

I should have noticed I'm too eager at that stage

I then pre-shaded. Used low pressure and turned the trim tab on the airbrush to limit the paint flow - and achieved really good spraying - what a joy!

I was too eager to continue and forgot to take pictures. Not like me.

 

I moved on to the BlueGray which shot like a charm. I free handed the boundary between the Gray and Blue. It turned a bit tricky to get the same hue when filling up with paint and thinner again as it was varying even with small changes in the mix ratio. I'm getting better at free handing but still have a long way before I can produce stable, symmetric and sure lines.

 

As base layer for washing and decaling I used Alclad Aque Gloss Clear - good as ever.

 

This was followed with Flory model wash - to which I added some dish washing soup (to break the surface tension and allow better brushing)

 

 

After cleaning came decaling - not too many and the sheet that came with the kit was good.

 

When do you know you are pushing it and its time to call it a day???

 

Hint:

 

 

This happened while I was dry-fitting the wheel contraption into place only to find out the notion that all that good fit can't be true all the way through is true 

 

These Tamiya decal are THICK - so I was able to fix the decal almost perfectly.

 

So I've called it a day:

 

 

 

Comment are welcomed as always.

 

Ran

 

[Ran]

Are we there yet?

 

The wheel contraption installation went on with some filling, pushing and shaving - to show the engineering is not that bad.

 

Installed the Prop, drop tanks, Fine Wire aerial, the hook.

 

Been cleaning the wash endlessly.

 

 

 

 

Ran

[Thom216]

That's a good looking 'cat.

[Ran]

Well - DONE !

 

Magic time when masks are removed !!

 

The green internal framing is kind of OK

Too many little spots instead of clear plastic - Not OK

Nice framing on the curved/complicated parts of the top-front frame - OK

Not so clear lines when removing the masks - some paint lift off - Not so OK and I'm not sure I understand why.

 

   

 

Some detail of the aerial:

 

A couple of images before the official "book" (I need to set up my photo booth)

 

 

 

 

 

Ran

[Greg Law]

I have that problem when I take off masks. I think it is because mine have been on a long time. I use a tooth pick to clean the edges which helps.