Review Build New Eduard F4F-3 Wildcat in 1:48

[Mike]

After reviewing this little gem from Eduard, I decided to give it a whirl, especially as I'd got a bunch of their aftermarket bits and bobs to go with it.  It would be churlish not to really    here's a pictorial run-down of what's there:

 

 

Obviously, I'll not be using both sets of wheels, and there's a bit of overlap in the sets with seatbelts and a few other bits, but I'll probably hold those over for another build or something else later. I've been putting a few bits together over the last few days, and have managed to achieve a bunch of sub-assemblies that are now stuck to coffee stirrers and cocktail sticks ready for painting.

 

The 3D printed cockpit is a bit of a jaw-dropper, so I began with that after I'd cut all the printing bases away and made good.  Beautiful detail!  I've mixed up a bottle of my favourite Gunze Mr Colour from the given recipe for the interior green, so should be ready to go with that when I get a minute.  I've still got to decide what colour everything is to be painted though, as I've kind of lost the plot, and I think it's my first aircraft of this era from the American arsenal.  I'll be making a few stuff-ups on the way, so if anyone's got any advice, just let me know in a calm and pleasant manner, and I won't break down in tears.  Anyway, the cockpit.

 

 

You can't get too far toward closing up the fuselage without making up the landing gear, and I'm going for the BRONZE set that I reviewed the other day.  Minimal clean-up, and really nice and dainty.  I'll be hanging a pair of resin wheels off the bottom too, using the later wheels, as I'm doing the last decal option, F for this build.

 

 

 

lastly, the engine, which is all from the kit parts, even though there is a resin engine out there somewhere.  That's all ready to go, and I might add some ignition harness wiring if there isn't a PE one in the various sets I've got.  My mind's a blank as it stands:

 

 

....and why haven't I made any more progress?  A combination of other stuff, including migraines, taking my mum to hozzy for an important appointment about her peepers, and taking our 12 year old Christopher for his birthday treat with the family.  He got to drive Super Cars around a track on the Wirral (yes, a 12 year-old driving expensive cars).  He got to drive three cars himself, including a Ford Mustang GT, a Maclaren P1, and his personal favourite, the Aston Martin Vantage (I think?).  Here's a pic of him piloting his favourite with one of the instructors, who were all friendly and very encouraging.  I know he's my son and I'm supposed to think he's brilliant, but he did really well, going faster and with more confidence  on each successive lap, and needing little help apart from a few half turns in the car parking area so he got to the correct place to park.  We got the videos of his performance, which includes an in-cockpit camera and one of the track he's going round, plus a photography dude in a red Audi taking pics as they all went round.

 

I watched another kid go off in a Lambo while Christopher was out, and the instructor had to leap at the wheel as the kid was about to plough straight into the front corner of the Ariel Atom I was going to play in later I kept expecting to hear a crash while he was out

 

 

Once he'd done four laps in each one, he also got a 3-lap trip round the circuit in a tricked out Mazda MX5 (Miata for the Americans) that was going hell-for-leather, but he seemed to take it all in his stride, smirking all the way around while the tyres wailed on every corner.

 

 

Caz treated me to a neck-breaking ride in an Ariel Atom, a car I was familiar with from Top Gear and which I knew was fast, but didn't quite know it was THAT fast.  My neck was aching horribly for an hour afterwards, but it was an absolute hoot that was over way too soon.  They squeezed my massive head into their biggest helmet, and helped me into the cockpit, which is tiny and open at the sides, and the lack of doors made it very difficult for me to get my legs over the side, as they don't work like they used to and I had to lift the first one over   They got me in eventually, strapped me down in a four-point harness and off we went.

 

 

The helmet was super-tight, but I managed to slide my shades back on inside the visor, and after the first acceleration caused my head to clang against the rear fairing, I braced myself and started to get into it.  The driver was so used to driving it that he had it almost diagonal and shrieking like a banshee on most corners, pushing its tyres to the absolute limit of their grip with a fabulous staccato howl coming from the rubber on the fastest corner. at the end of each lap  Three laps took about 0.1 seconds, and I was into it by the start of lap two, bracing my neck against the lateral-G as we approached the next corner.  That driver must have immense neck muscles!  I almost had to keep the helmet, but managed to get it off in the end, and Caz said I was visibly shaking when I struggled out, probably buzzing from the adrenalin rush.  My poor system isn't used to it any more

 

I'll be back to my usual levels of lethargy in a few days, and can recommend having a go if you get the chance.  Much fun, but not conducive to getting any modelling done

 

 

[LorenSharp]

This looks like it will be an epic build, So I must follow along. After looking at that last picture, I'd have to say that BM has their very own STIG but with way cooler shades.

[BuNo02100]

Mike,

I didn’t  run into any issues with my first build.  Only aftermarket I used were wheels as the ones in the kit don’t really resemble any that I have ever seen on any F4F-3s.  As for the ones you have indicated you intend to use, I think they are more appropriate for a General Motors FM version, perhaps a late Grumman built F4F-4 and you would be better served accuracy wise to go with the smooth ones as an option.  I think you are going to enjoy the build. 
 

BW

[dnl42]

That looks outstanding!

 

What I've seen so far is head and shoulders above Tamiya and HB--the latter was my preferred F4F, but now...

[Winded Penguin]

For me, the sub-assembled parts would look decent enough in 1/32 scale. For 1/48, I'm more than impressed 👍

[Mike]

Thanks for the comments fellas Not a huge amount of progress to report, but I did a little bit of testing of fit last night, so while I had it taped up, I put the wings and tail on with a bit of tape to see what it would look like once done. 

 

 

 

I've separated all the parts into basic colours, so I've just got to get my act together and put airbrush to plastic.  Hopefully at least some of them should get a bit of paint today/tonight.  Who knows?

[Mike]

Just to prove I've not been sitting on my hands since I was mucking about with the tape, here's a pic of some of the sub-assemblies I'm currently working on.  In addition to the ones here I've also got a ton of engine parts to paint, some ancillaries to the engine that have been base painted, the landing gear legs and wheels, plus the cowling itself.  Oh, and the interior sides of the fuselage, which are both green and grey.  The detail painting has been done on the cockpit parts, with just a few extra bits to do, as well as applying some decals and the instrument panels later.  I'll be chucking some gloss clear on it before too long so I can apply some washes.

 

 

It's a spiffing kit, and I'm really enjoying it so far.  I wish I had a bit more time to devote to it at the moment though, but there's a lot going on offline and on.

[Mike]

After much.... well, I'm not entirely sure, but it's been 3 weeks since I did any modelling.  Have I been abducted by aliens?

 

Yesterday I was determined to get something done, so I glossed all the assemblies after a bit of detail-painting, then gave them a wash of Ultimate Dark Dirt™, then rubbed and mithered it off with kitchen roll and cotton buds.  A matt coat later, and some re-glossing of the parts I wanted to remain less matt, I started putting some of the sub-assemblies together, and adding the PE parts that included the instrument panel.

 

First up was the tubular engine mount with the ancillaries bunched up in the centre, which looks quite nice now it's painted in Gunze colours, despite only being two parts.  I tried to leave some of the wash around like smudged and smeared oil on parts that would be seen through the gear bay apertures.  I've test-fitted them in place, and they look alright in that shadowy area Those oil cooler baths might not have had a silver surface, but as unpainted louvres radiate heat better, and to my eyes they look better, I went for it.  There are so many differing colours even inside the gear bays of this pugnacious little barrel.

 

 

The next bit was the engine itself, which is again only four very effective parts.  The pic makes it look really messy at that size, but the PiP in the bottom corner shows it at around real size on my screen at least.  I'm now toying with the idea of wiring up the plugs, but have been known not to bother from time-to-time.  The ring could be drilled and outfitted with thin lead wire though, so I'm erring on the side of doing it for this one, as the engine is reasonably visible inside the cowling.

 

 

Next up are the wheels and landing gear.  The wheels are the resin ones, and the main gear legs are bronze, but only the main kinked struts of course.  Again painted in Gunze, and the oleos were done with a little dab of Mirror.  My usual process of painting the wheels is to paint the hubs, then brush-paint the tyres, but this time I had the masks from Eduard.  I'd already painted the centres however, and the masks were therefore useless as the back of the hub is raised, which is a shame, cos I wanted to try Gunze H77 Tire Black (sic).  I didn't fancy brush-painting with a paint I've never brushed before, so I reverted to my usual Vallejo Dark Rubber, which will be adjusted to show the contact patches lighter and the side details in some relief too.  The little cheese wedges in the centres of the inner hubs are painted with a little blob of Musou Black to give them some depth too.

 

 

The resin Eduard cockpit was the most involved bit of painting, because it's so detailed it's almost frightening.  I've got most of it painted and in situ now, but I still need to slot the rudder pedals into the cups at the ends of the side consoles, and put a few bits of wire in here-and-there.  I almost used the wrong seatbelts, as I was half way through making up the wide ones when a stuff-up made be check and start over again.  Probably for the best really.   It's amazing, I went over the whole load of parts with my OptiVisor, picking off the little cotton hairs left from the cotton buds with my tweezers, but no matter how hard you try, there's always a few that remain in hiding until you press the shutter button on the camera There's also a bit of wash that needs dealing with too.  Good job it usually reacts well even under a bit of matt varnish

 

 

 

 

Last but not least, the fuselage halves, which have been washed, and I even remembered to take off the home-made masks I'd put on the insides of the side view windows low down on the fuselage sides.  Very unusual for me!

 

 

There's a bit of tidying up to do, and small jobs like putting the glass in the gunsight, plus the afore mentioned wires before I can close up the fuselage.  Hopefully that'll be sooner that three weeks away before I post any more progress

[Mike]

I bit the bullet and wired up the engine, using a 0.3mm bit in my DSPIAE pin vice, making 28 holes in the rim without once breaking one of those tiny bits!

 

A bit of pre-measuring of the length of the fly-tying lead wire made the job a bit easier, but repetitive didn't begin to cover it.  Here's a quick candid photo of the thing still on my desk. 

 

 

Now.  What colour should the wires be?  My reference photo had them black, but it was a restored engine on a stand.

[Mcdood]

Hi Mike, I just remember (somewhere back in my head) that the leads are a light brown/ tan colour. 
hope that helps 

martin. 

[Winded Penguin]

You are so doing justice to assembling and painting this remarkably detailed series of tiny parts 👍

 

[Mike]

5 hours ago, Mcdood said:

Hi Mike, I just remember (somewhere back in my head) that the leads are a light brown/ tan colour. 

That's helpful, thanks I'll have another squint around and if I find any pics with that colour, I'm going with it as it'll add a bit of extra colour into the area

[Mike]

There we go.  Brown!

 

(c) The Simthsonian. Linky

 

Sure it's a restored bird, but there are loads more pics out there.  This was just the prettiest

 

[Mike]

I got a bit of time to do some more, so finished off the wheels, the cockpit, and prepped the fuselage and wings for paint by priming them.  Why before I've joined the fuselage?  because I had to paint the concave flange at the front of the gear bays, the forward section of the cockpit coaming, and the fairing at the front of the fuselage and behind the engine.  I thought I might as well do the lot, and squirted a bit on the wings and tail surfaces too, mainly to check my work.  Here's a few pics:

 

 

 

 

Next job is to close up the fuselage, and then make good the seams.  The primer has really brought out the detail on the surface of the parts, and it looks very impressive right now.  Hopefully I won't need to do much in the way of seam sanding.

[Navy Bird]

Looks like you've really taken to this modelling thing. Can't wait to see what you come up with once you get really good at it!        

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Stonkin' kit by the way.

[Mike]

Finally got the fuselage closed up and the seams sanded, which wasn't all that taxing, as the parts fit together really nicely.  You should know that the tolerances are fine however, so scrape the paint off any mating surfaces before you get too far into trying to close it up.  I had to shave a few areas in the cockpit to get things neat and tidy.  Everything has been primed, although the seams need a touch-up after sanding, and I've got to decide whether to glue the wings on now, or leave them to later.  The fit is perfect, so I'm seriously considering it.

 

 

I've spotted a minor gotcha with the engine, although I don't know whether that's due to my closing of the fuselage or not.  The engine mounts to the front on two pegs that are differently sized to prevent you from mounting it upside down, which is nice.  The engine is pretty loose in the hole though, so it pivots around the two points tipping up and down by a few millimetres without glue.  When I fit the engine, I'm going to have to ensure it centres up in the cowling, as it'll look really stupid with the line of flight too low or high, which will be obvious inside that circular cowling I might add some really thin shims to the plug and see if I can get it to centre up that way.  More news at 11.

[John Laidlaw]

Christopher's twelve?!? Where exactly has the time gone?

 

The model's coming along very nicely!

[Mike]

30 minutes ago, John Laidlaw said:

Christopher's twelve?!? Where exactly has the time gone?

 

The model's coming along very nicely!

tell me about it.  I'm also now 12 years older!

 

Thanks John

[Mike]

Silence for weeks, then rapid (for me) progress.  The wings are on, the engine and cowling are installed, and I've been prepping some more sub-assemblies ready for painting, including the prop, bomb carriers, pitot and arrestor hook, all of which have been primed.

 

To mount the engine securely without letting it wobble about, I put two small strips of 0.25mm styrene at the top and bottom of the plug, and then shaved the socket slowly until they fitted snugly.  Then I added some liquid glue.  Which came undone after tea I replaced that with CA, and carefully positioned it, testing it by putting the cowling over it until I was happy, then gluing the cowling in place.  Glad that's over!

 

 

I'm about to cut all the 3D printed gun barrels off the printing base and mount them on a cocktail stick so I can prime and then paint them too

[Mike]

MOAR progress. I put the base coat of light grey on the underside this evenink whilst watching a movie that was a total waste of time.  Dead for a Dollar isn't worthy of your time really

 

 

Modulation.  Coming to the underside of a Wildcat near you, soon.  Hopefully

[Mcdood]

Sad to hear about the film it had all the hallmarks of a good one with some fine actors , but thanks for let us know. Will steer clear. 

[Mike]

20 hours ago, Mcdood said:

Sad to hear about the film it had all the hallmarks of a good one with some fine actors , but thanks for let us know. Will steer clear. 

It was a bit like everyone wanted to go home early, including the writers

 

I've modulated the underside now.

 

[Mike]

Masking on for the top colours.  I'm going to freehand the demarcation between top and bottom, but decided I'd mask off the wings because there's a slight overlap of the top colour on the leading edges, and the elevators for obvious reasons.  I also put a line of Blu-Tak to help me make a straight line for the "sideburns" under the trailing edges of the wings.

 

 

Wish me luck!

[Terry1954]

Great progress on this build Mike. It really does look like a superbly engineered kit, and you are doing it serious justice!

 

Liked the approach to centering the slightly wobbly cowling. A good call out for the unwary who might steam ahead and find it a tad off centre to the cowling, once the latter is securely fixed. The human eye can see such things when even slightly off, in my experience.

 

Good luck with the top colours!

 

Terry

[Mike]

I've only gone and made more progress!

 

I got the base coat on the top, which was Mr color H367, and went down super-smooth like it always does after I cleared a blockage that I'd left in my airbrush from the last alleged "clean up" I'd done from the last colour.  Just goes to show you can always stuff up, even when you've got the best tools available

 

 

 

I eyeballed the bottom demarcation, doing the back as straight as I can, then doing the cowling separately.  Scarily it all matched up perfectly, which was quite a surprise as I hadn't given it a single thought while I was painting   One thing I did do however was line up the paint with panel lines from the profiles in the instructions, so that's probably what did the job for me

 

I'm too tired to carry on with the modulation this evening, so I'll get round to it tomorrow, hopefully.  You never know though