Sunday 15 January 2017

Part 2 1:32 Trumpeter F4F-4 Wildcat Work in Progress

1:32 Trumpeter F4F-4

Wildcat

Work in Progress Part 2

Today's efforts was aimed at finishing off the cockpit and starting the engine assembly. The morning was mostly taken up with assembling the HGW seat harness and adding it to the cockpit.

 


I am aware that the harness should go over a bar above the seat. However, the bar is moulded to the bulkhead and I'm not that good scratch building 😟

Next I worked on the cockpit side pieces, I've had to guess at the colours of buttons, knobs and levers (Trumpeter would have you paint them all 'steel' and leave it at that!).



I'm quite pleased with the way the cockpit has turned out. 

Next I moved onto the engine, (Once again the Trumpeter instructions a woefully inadequate in the painting guide.) So I have copied the colours from some reference photos a friend sent me.  


 I still have the cylinder heads to attach and I will be adding the ignition leads using lead wire. That will be started the next time I get back to the bench.

Saturday 14 January 2017

Part 1 1:32 Trumpeter F4F-4 Wildcat Work in Progress

1:32 Trumpeter F4F-4

Wildcat

Work in Progress Part 1


I picked this kit up in a deal at my local kit swap just before Christmas. It very quickly became the kit in my stash that I really wanted to build.
Having built a Trumpeter kit before I know that the decals can be a little on the thick side so I opted to go for some after market decals.  After a browse on the Interweb I settled on decals from Techmod. 
Whilst I was in I buying mood I also picked up a Mondex Mask set for the canopy and because the kits has neither moulded or Photo Etch seat harnesses I opted for a set of HGW. I've used these before and love the look of them. Realising that I have no suitable paint I once again opted for MR. Paint.


I quickly taped the two fuselage halves together to get an idea of the overall size of the model.




I realised that the six inch square space on my bench wasn't going to be enough space to build in so first job was to clear the bench 😀


Bench cleared it was time to start building. Like most kits construction starts with the cockpit. As I started construction I noticed that the instructions is sadly lacking in the painting guide department! So research is the order of the day. 
Construction of the basic cockpit of the Wildcat is really simple and the parts go together well, albeit there is not a lot of detail 😒



Next I'll add the HGW harness, side panels and weather the cockpit a bit more