Trumpy ASW Wildcat - almost done

[Neo]

Love it

[Javlin1]

By far the best paint I have ever seen on a Trumpy Wildcat and excellent work on painting the insignia!

[Fanes]

Aaaand we're getting closer to the finish line.

The Wildcat recieved a panel line wash. Not the dark-brown-green-black-type, which looks mostly artificial but a much more restrained one.

"My" F4F from VC-13 was used as a photo backdrop for the crews and looks especially clean in all pictures. In fact all F4F-4s in the two tone ASW scheme seemed to be rather new and spotless.

So long story short:

a light (neutral) grey wash for the white parts and a dark grey one for the parts of the Wildcat in ANA621.

 

 

 

Of course a little boo boo happened:

I chipped the blue paint on one of the insignia when I tried to remove a lint before applying the flat coat...

 

 

As I post these lines the damage is repaired and the flat coat(s) are drying until tomorrow.

[Fanes]

Baby steps towards the finish line

So, the clear coats were applied and I started doing all the small stuff to finish her up.

Of course some things didn't go as planned.

The underside is supposed to be glossy - I went with a satin.

Then exhaust stains were added with MRP exhaust soot (for the soot obviously) and Tamiya deck tan (for the lead residue).

Light residues from the guns were done with black pigments.

 

Well, during adjustements for the exhaust fit, the blade slipped and scratched the white paint. Repairs are imminent; already sanded it sommoth (the black patch)

 

 

More things that didn't go as planned: removing the masks on the wheel hubs removed all paint coats, even the primer, as well.

 

 

The gun bay recieved some small paint chips with silver oil paint - easy to remove when overdone.

Keep in mind, that VC-13 F4F-4s appear to be held in good shape.

 

 

Another little setback: the canopy doesn't fit in the open position...

But it now has the small panel in non specular blue grey painted on the inside - a typical Wildcat feature often overlooked.

 

Well, cloed canopy it is. Doesn't look so bad either, does it?

 

What's left to do:

• repair the wheel hubs and attach the landing gear
• repair the scratched belly
• add the exhausts
• paint and install the nav lights
• get the drop tanks in place
• antenna mast and antenna wire
• shoot the RFI photos

 

 

[Neo]

Looks great, i think its a rare occasion where the canopy fit better closed then opened!! 

I think it looks better closed on the wildcat

[Javlin1]

For all the little BS setbacks that is still one Nice looking Crate!!

[Fanes]

Final update (or so I thought)

What was left to do?

• repair the wheel hubs and attach the landing gear
• repair the scratched belly
• add the exhausts
• paint and install the nav lights
• get the drop tanks in place
• antenna mast and antenna wire
• shoot the RFI photos

Well, I thought everything was done right. But during arangement for the glamour shots, I noticed that the wheels weren't as solid as I would have liked.

The opening in the Grey Matter wheels is quite oversized for the Trumpeter axle. So I used 5 min epoxy  and hoped for the best.

This didn't work out of course since even epoxy can't do magic on a butt joint. I'm already working on a solution (hacking up the Trumpy hubs).

Until then there's only one quick photo with a weird camber angle...

 

One more todo I'd like to add:

What will my next project be? - I'm looking for a fun build before I return to my pink photo recon Spit

 

Cheers

Joachim