Hasegawa F4F-4 Wildcat Capt. Joe Foss

[Andwil]

While I toiled away on my Sword Harrier 2 seater I decided to build something straightforward that actually had parts that fit, as both a mojo restorer and for some airbrush practice.  I had bought this Hasegawa Wildcat some years ago at a show, it was second hand but I started, complete but bagged not in a box.  Any way the build went together without any issues, out of the box other than some plastcard bulkheads to close off the vacant space in the wheel well.  Decals are from Superscale set 72-287 and represent one of the aircraft of VMF-121 flown by ranking Marine ace Joe Foss ( although Boyington was credited with more victories a number of these were with the AVG in Burma before the US entry into the war) on Guadalcanal in October 1942.  Painted mainly with Hataka acrylics and weathered with a light misting of light grey wash to simulate the fading that was so apparent on Guadalcanal aircraft, and some staining with black and umber washes and a spray of a Tamiya smoke.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out, although I notice that the aerial wire  (Uschi Rig that Thing) has lost some of its tension overnight.

 

Enough blabber, here she is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking

 

AW

 

[Celestialsphere]

That is a nice model. Great subtle weathering and you have captured the paint sheen very nicely.

 

Well done.

Andrew

 

[RadMax8]

Well done. Shame about the aerial, though. I always screw my builds up during the aerial portion.

 

How did you find the Hataka paints?

 

Thanks for sharing!

[Jackson Duvalier]

She looks the part to me.

 

I hear the Hasegawa F4F is a bit simplified but from this vantage I can't really tell where.

[Andwil]

4 hours ago, RadMax8 said:

How did you find the Hataka paints?

I used the Red Line paints from the early USN and USMC set, they sprayed on very nicely.  I have even used paints from their Blue Line which are formulated for brush painting, thinned and also found that they spray well.

54 minutes ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

I hear the Hasegawa F4F is a bit simplified but from this vantage I can't really tell where.

I don’t have the newer Airfix kit so I can’t make a direct comparison, but yes it is fairly basic, there is not much to the cockpit other than a floor with moulded on consoles, an IP with a decal, a seat and a stick, but not much is visible through the tiny canopy anyway.  There is a void where the wheel well should be which required a couple of bulkheads with some scratched detail to address and it does not have a folded wing option.  But it looks like a Wildcat and that’s good enough for me.

 

AW

[Crane]

Looks Good! I'm sure you can replace the wire? I'm really starting to appreciate the looks of the Wildcat.

I have used the Tamiya Smoke recently and thought how ironic it is that the paint is gloss. My guess is that it goes on thinner???

It is easy enough though to hit it with a clear flat coat.

I have a Wildcat to build also - I wish the fuselage insignia was either smaller or easier to create a mask for 🤨