Trumpeter 1/32 F4F-4 Wildcat
By Ed Fuquay
In my view this is the plane that saved the day back in World War II. Although outclassed by the Japanese Zero this stubby little Grumman fighter plane bore the brunt of naval air combat during the early stages of the war. Its rugged design and heavy armament made it into a formidable opponent.
I chose to build this kit straight out of the box and with minimal modifications. Easier said that done! But I restrained my self quite well. I did not end up rebuilding the whole cockpit or adding more nuts and bolts to the engine. I just limited my self to adding sparkplug wires and seat belts.
The painting was another thing. I had never put so much into painting a model. I thought Guadalcanal’s climate would be quite harsh on men and machinery. I used pre-shading, post-shading and I faded the colors using glazes of very light gray diluted in Dullcote. The paint chipping was done using a Prismacolor silver pencil and aluminum paint.
I painted the cockpit in Bronze Green rather than in the customary “Interior Green”. This protective coating was applied over the Zinc Chromate. Grumman built Avengers, Wildcats and Hellcats were painted with this “naval rust inhibitor” in their cockpit areas.
I had trouble with fit in the cockpit area, due to the fact that I decided to add the gun sight before putting together the fuselage halves. I had to remove the gun sight and reconfigure it to fit better. Besides that everything else went well in comparison. It is not a shake and bake kit like a Tamiya, but it is a good kit that with little effort looks good.
I hope you enjoyed this model, I did! I also hope you get a chance to stop by my web page and see other of my projects www.freewebs.com/jaeamf. Happy modeling.
© Edward Fuquay 2006
This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016