¹⁄48

Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat

Some notes about the model

The kit is the Tamiya 1/48 Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat (kit no 61034). It was built OOB apart from Eduard etched seatbelts, decals from the spares box and fishing line for the aerial wires.

The kit is superbly engineered, the only drawback is the instrument panel which is a bit bland. The only filler used was at the rear of the wing/fuselage joints and along the fuselage joint where there were a couple of tiny gaps.

I wanted to do something a bit different with the camouflage scheme, a few minutes Googling found this very attractive "Atlantic Scheme". I painted the kit with Xtracrylics and Vallejo Air which I airbrushed freehand to get a soft edge.

After a coat of Future I applied the decals which needed a couple of applications of Micro Sol to get them to conform to the raised rivet detail on the fuselage sides and sunken rivets on the wings.

I applied another thin coat of Future to seal them in which left a satin finish which was ideal for the application of Pro Modellers Dark Wash. I used cotton buds and paper towel I to remove the wash selectively to leave a well weathered appearance. A final coat of matt varnish finished it all off.