Seeking after market details for the Hasgawa F4B-4

[Michael Scarborough]

Gents and Ladies,

I'm about to jump into the old Hasgawa kit of the Boeing F4B-4 and with the plethora of after market details available for everything else, I wonder if anything was ever done for it?? Especially a nice, crisp resin engine??

Anybody out there have any ideas?

Help appreciated and thanks,

Michael

[Juggernut]

There's nothing that I know of. I've got an F4B-4 in my stash and I've been eyeing it lately. I don't even thing Eduard has a photoetch set for it....now that's something....they have a PE set for almost everything. Were I good at building masters and casting, I'd do something for these older kits but I'm limited to the most rudimentary forms of resin casting, where 1 in 5 may be a good cast. As far as a resin engine goes, Engines and Things may make one but you'd have to check because I don't even know which "R" engine it had.

 

Sorry but it looks like a scratchbuilding session is in the making for both of us.

 

TimC.

[LSP_Mike]

Mike,tim, I too had eyed my f4b4;no goodies though. I did see an article here from a guy who scratchbuilt much of the interior.the very old AeroSeries books have a volume with excellent photos;you may be able to dig one up. keep in mind the interiors were much simpler affairs back then!

cherrs mike in calif

[Mark P]

Like others, I have admired the quality of the early Hasegawa Bi-planes. A look at the Yellow Wings Website shows decals are TBA for the Haseagwa pre-war series. Perhaps a quick e-mail to them could answer any availabilty questions. Micro Scale also offered some decals for this series earlier in their 1/32nd scale history, but I am unsure about the current availabilty of those decals.

 

To the best of my knowledge, that is all that is available. As Mike pointed out, the interiors are rather simple, so scratchbuilding could be a rather easy.

 

It would be nice to see some articles about these kits

 

Mark Proulx

[Michael Scarborough]

Hello again, Gents, and thanks for the responses. This is my first post to LSP and I am really pleased. Not to change horses in mid stream, but I have decided that it makes more sense to finish a BF2C that I started in 1978 (!) than to go into the F4B-4. But, as getting the old engine off the kit will not be so difficult, I'd like to investigate the Engines and Things R-1820. I am not familiar with the company and would like some opinions...are they worth the $$$??? Also, does anyone make scale flying wires? I remember grinding piano wire falt in the old days; surely there is some modern alternative!

I look forward to more ideas, and, thanks!

Michael

[P-40]

Engine & Things has a wide variety of resin engines. I have only seen one of their Merlins which I thought was pretty nice, I have heard some of their engines aren’t that great so it be best to ask on the message board here for the specific engine you’re looking for to see if anyone has seen it before and whether it is worth the money.

[Tony Mollica]

Hi Everyone,

I'll chime in with my two cents worth too . I've been eyeing off all four Hasegawa Pre War US aircraft, as well as the Revell F3F lately. I intend to build all of these. Maybe the aftermarket people will notice the interest shown, so if you're interested in this stuff, add your voice.

 

BTW,does anyone know which Microscale sheet was available for this stuff, and better yet, does anyone want to sell one ?

 

Cheers

Tony

[Bob]

I have had or have all the old Microscale (later Superscale) pre-war sheets. Their sheets were:

32-003 Boeing P-12E

32-004 Grumman F3F-3/4

32-031 P-26A

 

I have them squirrelled away in with each kit for that day I get back to building those yellow winged beauts. I had done a BF2C, an F3F-3 and the F4B about 20 years ago, and the others have been waiting since. Definitely going to need some Super Film on them before applying.

 

Bob Yingling

[Barney Dunlevy]

I've built the series many years ago and the nightmare was the P-26A kit. I painted and stripped and painted and....3 times before I was happy with the finish. Th scallops on the tail and the Thunderbird on the fuselage were masked and painted with a brush...only to find out later that MicroScale had the decal sheet

 

The kits were well detailed and actually went together very well.

 

Barney

[Tony Mollica]

Whilst we're talking about yellow wings, has anyone had a crack at the Williams Bros Sparrowhawk, or the P-35 (well, the wing is almost yellow !) or backdating a Matchboc Dauntless to an SBD-1 ?

Is there anything else available ? I suppose the new Trumpeter F4F-3 will be a chance as well.

Cheers

Tony

[Bill_S]

Michael, I don't know how long those wires are, but I have used a smooth-jawed machinists vise to compress steel wire flat. I got .030 (inch) diameter down to about .012 thick. You could try floral wire - it comes in long lengths, and is pretty cheap. You have to crank pretty hard on the vise handle to get it that thin.

 

P.S. Welcome to the best modeling site on the web!

 

Your "cousin"

[Michael Scarborough]

Hey Cousin,

Back from vacation and catching up. Thanks for the tip on the vise as a means of flattening wire. I will give it a try, but will also post again to see what other ideas I can scare up.

Michael

[Gene]

below

[Gene]

below

[Gene]

Hi Michael,

Those between the Wars aircraft are a lot of fun. For your BF-2C Engines & Things offers their 32039 CW R-1820 F-50/60 Cyclone DD for Curtiss Shrike A-12,F-11C, Helldiver SBC, Grumman F-3F,F-1, BF-2C, GO-16, GH-23, Goblin, Vicker/Northrup Delta II, I-15, Vultree V-11, Douglas P2D-1, Fairchild A-942B, GA-P-14, Keystone PK-1.

Below are some photos. The most notable activity in using their products is the inevitable resin flash clean-up and in particular around those finely finned engine cylinders. But their product is the best upgrade available (and it just amazes me that they have such a broad range of 1:32 scale engines to offer -- some for kits that have never been produced even as a vac!).