Alain Gadbois Posted August 1, 2021 Share Posted August 1, 2021 The wheel opening fix turned out very well! Excellent progress! Alain Fanes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanes Posted August 7, 2021 Author Share Posted August 7, 2021 Current status: The gloss coat on all the parts in Grumman Grey is drying - pictures will follow later on. Maybe even after the washing and the final flat coat Since it then will be the time to finally close the fuselage, I have another question to be solved. The early Wildcats had two windows on the bottom of the fuselage. The Detail&Scale book denotes that the fuel tank is visible from below. Does anyone have a picture or a drawing showing the Wildcat's internal fuel tank? Cheers Joachim Wackyracer, Alain Gadbois and BradG 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanes Posted August 14, 2021 Author Share Posted August 14, 2021 With temperatures rising above 30°C the urge to head to the bench was rather rare in the last week. But nonetheless there's some progress I'd like to share. The wheel well and the other internal bits were painted and finished up. Over the (usual) black base Gunze H305 for the Grumman Grey was added in a translucent fashion to leave some shadows. After a gloss coat with AK varnish, which turned out to be a horrible orange peel (never again), a dark grey wash was applied and sealed with Tamiya's lacquer flat coat. The small bits were brush painted with Vallejo and CItadel arcylics. Onto the last hurdle before finally closing the fuselage: The lower fuselage windows. You can look right trough them which isn't possible on the real thing. I couldn't find good photos showing the exact dimension and shape of the fuel tank but I guess good enough is sufficient Some styrene sheet glued together waiting for a coat of Grumman Grey: That's it for now. The next post will show a closed fuselage maybe even with the wings in place! Joachim Greg W, coogrfan, MikeMaben and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanes Posted August 17, 2021 Author Share Posted August 17, 2021 Seal the deal Or: finally closing up the fuselage. WIth the wheel well finished and the fuel tank in place there were only two obstacles left. First one was an easy fix the tailhook is supposed to be inserted before closing the fuselage. A little cut on its recess and you can slide it in form the outside. Same problem, similar soultion with the tailwheel assembly. Here's what it looks like out of the box: The two pins have a corresponding hole inside the fuselage. There's no way to twist or slide it in at the end. The fix consists of stretched sprue in the mounting point and a slot on the tailwheel parts Assembling the fuselage provided no major hickups. You can get a slight step at the aft fuselage since the fit is vague. Well, some very intelligent bloke managed to get steps on the belly and the back of the aft fuselage - double the fun! Fortunately nothing that can't be fixed with a sanding stick and some CA (black). Rescribing is underway and the lost rivets will be added this evening. BradG, Greg W, denders and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanes Posted August 20, 2021 Author Share Posted August 20, 2021 Disaster struck! The good news first: the wings and horizontal stabilizers are on Unfortunately there's no wingspar just a small slot and the fit isn't great at all. I tried to minimze the gaps on the upperside but that's the best I could get: the underside is even worse Same goes for the starboard stabilizer: Well, hello Milliput my old friend.. Haven't used that stuff in a while but it seemed the best way to me to fill the gaps since it can be smoothed with a wet cotton bud before it's dry. Here's where it's at right now. I'll clean up the rivets (forgot to put some tape on to protect them) and give everything a slight sanding/polishing followed by a thin coat of primer to see where I'm at. In the meantime I wanted to dry fit the clear parts since installing the wind screen would be one of the next steps. Well, things started to go downhill from that point. The canopy has some heavy sprue gates that I removed with a razor saw but there's an issue: Some nive and heavy scratches right ou of the box. "Out with the sanding sponge and polishing compounds and these will be gone in no time." - but they weren't. They are quite deep and required a lot of sanding. Then some clumsy idiot - "of course I know him, he's me" - cracked the canopy I gues it's beyond fixing and the WIldcat moves closer to the SoD jgrease, coogrfan, Martinnfb and 3 others 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Molitor Posted August 20, 2021 Share Posted August 20, 2021 The upper wing seam turned out really nice for you. Great efforts going on here. Thanks for sharing your build with us. I need to pic this aircraft up sometime. Troy Fanes and Martinnfb 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 After a serious sanding buffing, give it the old dip in Future (or whatever the Euro version is). It'll still be visible but not as much. Pity to give up now Joachim Fanes, Alain Gadbois, BradG and 2 others 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanes Posted August 21, 2021 Author Share Posted August 21, 2021 On 8/20/2021 at 4:17 PM, Troy Molitor said: The upper wing seam turned out really nice for you. Great efforts going on here. Thanks for sharing your build with us. I need to pic this aircraft up sometime. Troy Thanks for the kind words, Troy! The Wildcat really is a nice aircraft, if only the kit was an A team effort from Trumpeter. 16 hours ago, MikeMaben said: After a serious sanding buffing, give it the old dip in Future (or whatever the Euro version is). It'll still be visible but not as much. Pity to give up now Joachim Very encouraging Mike - tank you very much. I tried that and it turned out okayish with light crazing around the crack, Wasn't happy and had a stupid idea: polish the part with my Dremel. Well, I slipped and it's two parts now I'm trying to get a replacement somehow. Otherwise it's definitely SoD Landrotten Highlander, MikeMaben and Martinnfb 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanes Posted August 22, 2021 Author Share Posted August 22, 2021 Change of plans The mishap with the canopy was really devastating - or in other words: a mojo killer. BUT (there's always one) the announcement of a possible decal release from fündekals with that beautiful ASW scheme, I'll prep the Wildcat for painting. Until then I'll wait for a response from Trumpeter if they can supply a replacement part. There's another possibility as well: just buy a new kit - seems crazy but the F4F-4 kits are quite cheap. I found for around 20€ which might be a steep price tag for a canopy, but still better than SoD. Now to the real problem: Which kit to pick from my stash for a therapeutic build inbetween? Cheers Joachim MikeMaben, BradG, Martinnfb and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinnfb Posted August 22, 2021 Share Posted August 22, 2021 Thats the spirit ! I will wait patiently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradG Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 The canopy should be fixable, future does work wonders. Fanes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanes Posted August 23, 2021 Author Share Posted August 23, 2021 13 minutes ago, BradG said: The canopy should be fixable, future does work wonders. Yes, indeed! Future did its magic to around 99% - then I screwed up and broke the canopy apart MikeMaben 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanes Posted September 1, 2021 Author Share Posted September 1, 2021 Good news everyone! Trumpeter is sending me a replacement part. It may take some weeks from China to Germany, but I wasn't going to finish this one on time anyway. Landrotten Highlander 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted September 1, 2021 Share Posted September 1, 2021 2 hours ago, Fanes said: Good news everyone! Trumpeter is sending me a replacement part. It may take some weeks from China to Germany, but I wasn't going to finish this one on time anyway. Will I move it to the WiP forum in preparation for your resumption? Kev Fanes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanes Posted September 1, 2021 Author Share Posted September 1, 2021 2 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said: Will I move it to the WiP forum in preparation for your resumption? Kev I'd appreciate that, Kevin! Joachim LSP_Kevin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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