Howdy.

This is my first build blog so bear with me. As the topic says I'm building an F4F-4 Wildcat for the Campaign in the Pacific which ends Aug 15.

I'm building this one OOB. I'll be trying some things to improve my painting, and will be mostly painting with my new Renegade Velocity airbrush.

Ok I"m off to a good start.. working on the cockpit. Everything seems to fit pretty good. there are a few sink holes inside the fusalage but I don't think they will be visible after assemble.

They are painted with Model Master enamel Green zinc Chromate. well thinned and airbrushed at about 6 psi I like how the Renegade Velocity lays the paint down and the trigger action is very smooth. I thought my badger 360(155) was good.. but the Velocity just seems to give a smoother paint flow. (at least for me.)

overview of painted parts.



The next pic is a close up of the instrument panel just to show how smoothly the paint went on... except for a bit there at the middle console where i put it on a bit too heavy to cover the rudder pedals.. my own fault..

Good job, good start. Looking forward to seeing your progress on this one. Russell

Ok got some more done. namely painting the cockpit details and gauges a flat black.. then drybrushed the gauges with white.

I do most of the painting by hand I'll most likely have the canopy closed and a careful hand detailing tends to look pretty good to me. when it dries well I'll work on some mild weathering. I'm also thinking of scratching some seatbelts as the kit doesn't come with any.




until later.

I think that the US interior green you have paint, it's too "Green" & Dark


Cheers Nick

Yep it looks a little too green right now, but that will change after I apply a darker filter over it and a dark wash.

Ok Here are some pics after a filter wash of burnt umber oil paint.



the panel looks a little darker than it is because of shadows.

and here is a pic with my scratchbuilt seatbelts.. not
perfect, but I think not to bad.. I used brass wire and masking tape.




prob be all I get done for a while as we start vacation tomorrow.

Here is the next step..

got all the parts that are to be painted white and layed down some paint..



until laters.

Finally an Update.


the bad news is I didn't make the deadline on this one because all worked stopped in mid-July, one of my co-workers got hurt on the job and I worked a lot of overtime.

The good news, a new campaign just started OPERATION: Hangar Queen to finish something you've started, but didn't finish. And I think this fits in so I hope to finish it.

Here is a pic of where the work stopped for the blog, mainly its just main assembly work.



laters

Ok work has resumed and here are a couple of in progress pics.



a closeup of the gun sight nothing special, but this is the best one I have ever done. I think I've figured this fiddly bit out.



a few parts i've painted and the canopy all masked up, as you can see I use the many many peices of small tape method.

Laters

Howdy all

got some more paint on the project I'm trying to finish up now for the hanger queen build, Its been a while since I worked on this one.



Front view showing dividing line



top view showing my paint..



Close up view of the dividing line... I need to work on the curves a bit as its not all that sharp a line..

Paint went on very good though..

color is Model master pru blue

I like it! Good job, more pictures please when ready to post. Russell

just an update..

the aircraft is in decaling stage

here is an in progress photo....

still putting decals on so its just decals on a future covered enamal using solveset (my fav)



later
Delbert

Good looking bird there! I use Solvaset only in extreme situations, I find it is a quite strong softening/setting agent. Good job. Russell

thanks...

I use solveset for almost everything.. I like my decals to look painted on.. but it is strong stuff and you have to use it sparingly... I find using a very little for several applications to really snug the decals down..

I and on this bird I call all the panel lines and rivet detail a little extreme.

laters

[quotes]I and on this bird I call all the panel lines and rivet detail a little extreme.[/quote]

Hi Delbert,

Your Grumman is looking great! I look forward to seeing it when finished.

Don't sweat the rivet detail--the Wildcat was festooned with them. See this restored F4F-3: http://aeroscale.kitmaker.net//features/3858

thanks..

and I didn't mean extreme as too many rivets, I meant extreme as in needing solveset to get the decals to snug down to em..



and I really can't wait to finish it myself.. its been a work in progress for a while now..