Trumpeter 1/32 F4F-4 Wildcat

By Frederick J Seitz III

Another kit I had been working on for quite a while, was this F4F by Trumpeter. There were a couple of battles, but on the whole, she went together well.

The biggest obstacle was getting the wings to look right in the extended position. I think the kit is designed to be displayed with wings folded but I wanted them deployed.

Upgrades to the kit included a seat harness from paper strips, Reskit weighted wheels, drilling out the gun barrels, Quick Boost exhaust stacks, Infini Aero Rigging, a thin wire ignition harness, and a Master Casters upgrade for the wheel wells.

I used custom mixes of Tamiya Acrylics for the Blue Grey over Light Grey early war scheme. A lot of the weathering I did was done as I painted the airframe, using successive applications of the base coat lighted up with light grey.

Markings are those of Lt.(jg) William N. ‘Bill’ Leonard from Fighting Eleven, (VF-11). Flying from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands Chain, Lt. Leonard flew this aircraft when he shot down two A6M3 ‘Zeke’ fighters on 12 June, 1943.

This is the the second one I've built. I am pretty pleased with the way she turned out and now I'll be looking at a '-3', so I don't have to worry about the wings!

Thanks for looking!

Trumpeter 1/32 F4F-4 Wildcat

By Frederick J Seitz III

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