Here is Tamiya's 1/48 Wildcat in LT Butch O'Hare's markings. To do his aircraft I had to backdate the -5 in the kit to a -3. The primary differences were in the wings. A friend of mine gave me the Medallion Models wings so I figured I would go ahead and use them, it would save me some time. I think I would have saved myself time if I had scratch built the wings from ribs and stringers! The panel lines were all wrong, the fit was horrid (actually made for the old Monogram kit), the placement of the guns was 13 scale inches off (!!!!) and they even had the wing with full flaps instead of split flaps.

I did some detailing in the cockpit as well. The kit had a nice reflector gunsight but it was the wrong one for his aircraft so I scratched a new one. I used Waldron instruments and seat belt hardware.The rest of the model was a pretty easy build but those wings almost drove me crazy. I used AeroMaster decals (great decals btw) and ModelMaster enamels. The weathering is somewhat subtle and the photos do not really bring out all the subtleties. The base is made of planked basswood weathered with a combination of gray and black washes.

The full build up article is in the Work in progress section of my website (if it is not there I have moved it to the Features section)

Hi Scott

A great looking model! The weathering looks really good - the subtle staining on the fuselage is very effective. Did you use washes and pastels for the effect?

Thanks for the warning about the problems with the conversion kit. When you moved the guns, how did you tackle moving the ejector ports on the solid resin wings? (I never miss a chance to learn new techniques! )

Maybe you can also help resolve a question concerning the guns on full-sized Wildcats. In D&S Vol. 30, some pics seem to show the inboard gun projecting quite a long way. It also looks thicker in some photos than others. Was there a variety of gun-mounts used?

All the best

Rowan

The guns were the same. The inboard one stuck out about 3" or so.

I filled in the ejection ports with CA and sanded them smooth. I cot out a piece of styrene, cut out the ejection ports using a very sharp needle and a Verlinden template. I then traced the outline of the styrene into the wing, routed it out with the Dremel and inserted it in the hole. I filled in the edges with CA and sanded it smooth. Worked like a champ....

Before sanding them off, I made a mold out of milliput of the fairings that covered the gun mounts. When it was completely hardened, I melted the end of a piece of sprue and jammed it into the mold. I trimmed the excess around it off with a cutting bit and used a razor saw to cut off the fairing.

As it turns out, Medallion Models gaffed the flaps entirely so I would up gluing the flap back in place and filling in the top with CA.

Hi Scott

Thanks for the extra pics and the explanation - insetting a piece of plastic, complete with the ports, is a neat bit of lateral thinking.

The orginal joint line for the flaps looks so rough, maybe it's no bad thing that you had to fill the lot to hide the incorrect style of flaps.

Cheers

Rowan

That was before I had smoothed it out with a file. It had just been cut out when that photo was taken.

Great looking model. I like weathering, panel lines. Could you take some pix of interior ?

There is a full construction article (with cockpit photos) on my website:

http://www.scottsaircraft.com/tamiya_f4f-3.htm