Brian,
Enough of this FM-2 research. Now get back to your B-17F build.
Joel

THAT will happen this weekend.

Sure no football.
Joel

I'm not a football fan.

Well for all you folks who've been following these Wildcat wanderings I think it's just about time we declare victory, and go home. Looking through the F4F box bottom I can't find any more pieces that I didn't intend to forget so it must be done. For anyone who hasn't built the Tamiya F4F-4 kit it's a winner straight out of the box. This kit is just about the optimum mix of fit and detail, even with modest modelling skills (as this build proves) you can build a very respectable replica right out of the box. As with any build and the benefit of 20/20 hindsight there a some things I'd do differently next time. I knew going into it that the canopy wouldn't sit right in the open position and I should have done major surgery before I painted it. It was just blind dumb luck I didn't screw something up majorly with all the hacking and slashing I did on the thing. The camera lens on the left wing leading edge should have been installed early on and sanded down with the wing, cleaned up and masked with liquid mask (of which I am currently out), which combined with some sloth let to my putting it off. There are also a couple of what I think are suppose to be position lights along the top of the spine that I never did come up with a good solution for, so I just ignored them (thereby hoping everyone else would too). I really do hate antenna wires, they always affix to something very fragile or inaccessible and are fiddly in the extreme. On this build I tried something new, I picked up some very fine thread (.0008 inch to be exact) when the wife was prowling through a bead store. I don't know if she was planning on trading with the Indians or what, but I know enough to preserve the domestic tranquility by not bringing up the fact she missed that boat by 3 or 4 hundred years. Anyway this stuff is coated so it doesn't have threads and fur hanging all over it, so I figured I'd give it a try. The advantage is it's about the right color (it says "smoke" right on the spool) so it doesn't need painting. The down side is, it doesn't seem to respond to heat like stretched sprue or fishing line does. With sprue or fishing line if it's not quite taunt enough, waving a soldering iron or other hot object (not flame!) under it will cause it to snug up. Another disadvantage is this is pretty tough stuff (apparently they don't want you to lose your wampum) I planned on snipping off any excess with a small pair of clippers, my plan went awry. After several failed attempts, I ended up cutting it off with a sharp x-acto knife, with some corresponding loss of tension in the line. I think this stuff may have some applications but it's definitely not a panacea for antenna wires. While the Hasegawa P-51 rocket launch stubs were a great find, knowing what I know now, I'd make the stubs and mount plates slightly narrower, I think they'd look a little more to scale that way. All in all this was a fun build, especially since I've had a multi-year break from the hobby and it was a good project to get back into it. A special thanks goes out to Brian, Joel and Hermon for all the good insight, suggestions, and prodding along the way, they sure helped keep the project moving and on tract, thanks guys. For all the folks who just stopped by to view the follies from time to time, I hope you enjoyed the trip, and if someone got an idea or two from it, it was time well spent.













I should probably work on photography too!

And while I'm thinking of it, my next foray into modelling mischance is to tune this:



Into this:



We'll see how that goes.

I recommend a re-do of the wire, however painful when the model is done (we all know when "finished" it's probably at 99%). Let's look at the real thing again:



The antenna visibly intersects with the top of the forward post and all the pics I've seen show it intersecting with the top of the one on the rudder too. Even more important, I've never seen a Wildcat with loose antenna wire between the two points.

I respectfully recommend something like this, taken of my "not the best model in the case" Tamiya/Just Plane Stuff F4F-3 conversion. I truly think taut wires running from the top will dramatically enhance your excellent build.

Here's a link to the kind of "binding wire" I use. Not sure of the gauge, but get the thinnest you can find. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HYOH44?psc=1

The beauty of this stuff is that it stretches when pulled into a straight line. The downside is that afterwards the slightest pressure or misstep will deform it and you have to start over. But if you measure right and cut on a flat surface with a #11 blade, or after the length is crazy-glued to the top of two posts (with a nail scissors, but gently!) it looks great. For the side wire piece leading to the fuselage I would bend one end into an L and insert that into the fuselage hole, then gently position it to intersect with the overhead wire and glue that sucker on with a glop of crazy glue. Here again, carefully measure and cut to the required length in advance whenever possible.

And yes, I hate antennas too. Each kit calls for a different approach, seems to me.

And thanks for sharing your journey with us. It's what modeling on Aeroscale is all about.

As for your next build, I just finished the Academy 1/48 scale P-38L. So I'll be following your build to see what the differences between them are, and which is the better kit out of the box.

Brian, have you considered trying EZ line? The vast majority of WW1 builders love the stuff, and my brother who builds 1/32 scale WW11 aircraft says it's light years better then my beloved stretched sprue.

Joel

No I haven't tried it. I'll Google it to see where I can get some.