Landlubber Mike

Thanks for that info guys. I read Ian Toll’s first two books on the Pacific War which I highly recommend. Just saw that third and final book in series is out now - hooray! I was all jazzed up late night to start building, but instead i spent time fixing some of the parts that had broken, washed them to get the residue off, and organized the parts in a plastic box rather than stuff them back into a plastic bag. Also spent time organizing my thoughts on how to proceed by matching up the instructions for the kit with the Aires and Eduard aftermarket sets. The kit doesn’t have many parts, but my guess is that the Aires set is going to triple the build time with al the intricate details. The engine Itself has probably 2-3 dozen parts when all is said and done. The Aires set has replacement panels so you can show off things like the engine, the gun bays, etc. I’ll see how things go, but I might do a diorama of the plane getting maintenance on a carrier deck to be able to show things off and keep the panels.

Hey Roger, agree about the progression. Interesting stuff. Apparently the Wildcats were slower than the Zeros but built sturdier and ended the war with a great kill/loss ratio of 6.9 : 1 according to Wikipedia. Actually, a raft sounds a lot more likely. One would think the parachute would be with the pilot in the cockpit! For resin, you have to use CA and not the typical plastic cement. I don't know if the white glues work, but had some resin parts in my F4B-4 and P-6E builds that I attached using CA without problem.

Anyone know what part RP52 is supposed to represent? It's on the spine of the aircraft behind the cockpit. Is it supposed to be the parachute? It looks like it has the shape and texture of something like cloth:

So I spent some time working through the kit and the aftermarket. The kit is fairly simple to assemble, with only nine or so steps, and can probably be done in a week out of the box. Interesting way they approach the cockpit - the kit has you assemble the fuselage first, and then run the cockpit up into the fuselage from under the plane. At least on the last few planes I've built, the cockpit was built first and the fuselage assembled around it. The Aires aftermarket packet is a bit overwhelming. Lots of resin pieces, along with two small sheets of PE! The kit details are pretty nice, but in the second picture below, you can see some examples of how the Aires set adds a little bit more detail (for the top item, there's actually additional PE you're supposed to add to the part like the gear chains). Of course, one won't be able to see most of this detail, but I suppose the fun is knowing it's there. I also have the Eduard PE set for the kit, and it is mostly focused on the cockpit. Some of the details like the seatbelts and the dashboard are nicer than the Aires set. I might try both out, or possibly swap out some of the Aires stuff with Eduard PE if it looks nicer. I'll just have to take a deep breath and figure things out. Some of the parts are on fairly thick plugs, so it's going to take a lot of work to remove them. And the instructions are pretty much pictures. They are fairly well done, but sparse is probably a good way to describe them. Fingers crossed this goes smoothly...

Thanks guys, really appreciate the kind words!

Thanks man, really appreciate the kind words. I'm slowly getting the hang of this plastic stuff - a lot trickier than it looks! Thank you! Really appreciate it! Get better soon Lou! I'll try to delay my wife as much as I can

Hey Lou, thanks for the kind words! Really appreciate it. You didn't miss much the last few weeks except for me working out a bunch of new cuss words on things like the cowl, the pitot tubes, etc. You should definitely build that JRS-1! What a cool looking bird! I tend to like the quirky stuff. I'm not itching to build in 1/72 any time soon, but I've been looking for one of those since you mentioned it a few months ago. They are pretty rare for sure! Looking at plane "boats" I did come across the Airfix Walrus which is now in the stash. Ugly looking thing but I like it! Even found a cool catapult set to build with it to set it up as a diorama when I get a little more skilled. I'll blame you for inspiring me if my wife finds it

Unless you are going to build your own, I would consider getting the sliding table. Makes cross cutting so much easier -- and more importantly, much safer. Not sure if Jim is still building them, but consider getting a wider table top for the saw. With the wider table, you can keep the fence on the table while using the sliding table, rather than have to remove and reinstall the fence when changing the cuts you're making.

Probably logical, but I chose it because the box is in terrible shape and I was worried about keeping the contents secure! I have a Special Hobby 1/32 Buffalo in Finnish markings that probably should have gone next time wise, but it's a pretty nice kit and with a more complicated camo scheme, and I figured I needed a little more experience. Your card F4F sounds like a great, yet tricky, project! It has been nice building these in somewhat of a chronological order to follow the development of planes during this time. Amazing how much development there was, even during war time.

Awesome, count me in on this one. I have the kit as well in the stash with I think the Infini upgrade set. Looks like it builds into a really nice model.

With the F3Fs completed, I'm going to build the F4F-4 Wildcat, but as the FM-1 version. The Wildcat was a carrier based fighter that began with the US Navy in 1940 (and was known as the Martlet with the British Royal Navy). It was built by Grumman, but Grumman ceased making the plane in 1943 to focus on the newer, and more superior, F6F Hellcat. General Motors/Eastern Aircraft continued making the Wildcat identical to the F4F-4, but reduced the number of guns to four and added wing racks for two 250lb bombs or six rockets. I'm going to build it using the Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat kit. From everything I read, the kit goes together very well and easily. Of course as per my usual, I'm making things more complex for myself by adding a bunch of aftermarket, including a wing fold set from Wolfpack that allows you to build the kit as the FM-1. I happened to get very lucky and find this kit on eBay with all the aftermarket shown below, aside from the Wolfpack set, for under $50 with shipping from Greece of all places. The Aires set alone, which has a ton of resin and PE components, retails for $55 or over, so I figured why not? For the color scheme, it's fairly simple - a nice change from my past yellow wing builds! Here is sheet from the Wolfpack set, along with a diagram I found of what the scheme looks like (reminds me of the coloring of Great White sharks): Finally, here are pictures of an FM-1 in the Smithsonian collection. While I live in the DC area, unfortunately it looks like it's not on display at the moment (and I believe the museum is closed due to Covid). Oh well 😕 https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/eastern-division-fm-1-grumman-f4f-4-wildcat/nasm_A19610122000 Should be a fun build! Thanks for looking in.

Thanks Roger, that's really nice of you. With the pitot tube and the rigging, I feel like I need some kind of displace base just to keep them protected, let alone, to show in a diorama setting. I knocked the pitot tube off one of them last night when taking the final pictures, and it took me 20 minutes to reattach

Thanks guys, really appreciate the kind words. I still have a long way to go, but slowly getting better thanks to all your helpful tips and suggestions. @CDW, thanks for posting that info along. Interesting that the pros don't use a clear coat under the decal. I can see cutting off the excess clear carrier film on things like insignias, but numbering and lettering must be a real process, yikes! I almost think it would be easier to paint certain decals rather than cut them out. Speaking about painting rather than using decals, @yvesvidal asked about how I painted the insignia. I used the Montex stencils as I mentioned a page or two earlier, but last night I watch a youtube video by Plasmo who cut out his own in doing a Buffalo (very similar plane). All he used was a circular cutter, a scalpel, and Tamiya masking tape. Easy to prepare the disk masks using the circular cutter. For the stars, he used the kit decals as a template - he put the Tamiya tape on top of the decal, then traced out the star using a scalpel. Took him like 30 seconds (probably would take me 30 minutes, but seemed very easy to do). This is the circular cutter I used by the way (and Plasmo was using) - inexpensive, and cuts circles as small as a little under 1/2"/1cm.

A few days ago I was looking up what to do with carrier film issues. Some suggested that it could be from air pockets between the decal and the model. To minimize this, the consensus seemed that (1) a gloss coat before decal application gives a smooth surface, so the decals can sit easier, (2) use of decal setting solutions (I've been using Micro Set and Micro Sol, but it sounds like there are others that are stronger but you have to be careful on certain kits, and (3) use a pin to pop a hole in the decal to let the solution under the decal to release the air pocket and help the decal to sit better. On my 1/72 planes, I sprayed with Future, then added Micro Set to the model before adding the decal. Once the decal was on, I added more Micro Set and a bit of Micro Sol. Had zero carrier film issues, but sitting the decal on the Micro Set led to a weaker decal that was prone to ripping. On my F3Fs, I added the decals straight to the painted finish without the Future gloss coat (didn't want to dull the aluminum finish). When applying the decals, I added water to the model, added the decal, then added Micro Set and Micro Sol on top. Much easier to manipulate the decals using just water and not Micro Set, particularly the pin striping. But, if the light hits it just right, at an acute angle you can see the carrier film edges. It was more prominent pre-final clear coat and weathering, but is still there. So I don't know what the answer is. This certainly wasn't a controlled experiment as I was using decals of different ages and from different manufacturers. Next time I might try using both water and a touch of Micro Set under the decal when positioning them. Seems like the carrier film issue is prevalent across many model and decal types though.

Looking great OC! My guess is that with some weathering and a final top coat, the tail code films will be even less visible.

Nice collection you have over there Kevin - and love the cabinet you made for it!

This looks really amazing - a big testament to Chris' skills as a designer to make a model with such detailed focus on developing a skeleton for the model that ensures its stability and accuracy. For me, having to figure out where to cut gunports, modifying the skeleton so it all fits together accurately, etc. in other kits were very aggravating. In this kit, Chris looks like he's set it up in such a way that you can spend more time building and adding details, which is what I most like about modeling.

Some final pictures of the F3F-2:

Some final pictures of the F3F-1:

Finished the F3Fs last night. Hooray! Funny how the final details always seem to take me 10x longer to complete than I would have expected. A few post-build notes: 1. As I mentioned earlier, I decided to add a flat finish to the belly bands and painted areas of the cowl. I probably could have gone with semi-gloss, but I like the contrast against the tiny aluminum. 2. For the rigging, I used the kit's PE parts. I wouldn't say it was an easy process to include them, but they went on much easier than the PE rigging set from Starfighter that I used on my F4B-4 and P-6E. The material was stiffer, and Accurate miniatures added slots to the wings into which you could slide the rigging. 3. I added pitot tubes to the right N support. I ended up using pieces of bug pins for the tubes. The pins (used to pin bugs in bug collection) are stainless steel and come in various very thin sizes. The N support already had what looked like the wiring and other hardware, so I just found a pin that seemed to roughly match in size. 4. The radio antennae wires were made using EZ-Line fine. It worked like a real charm. I know some people pooh-pooh it because it's more flat than round, but I think you can only tell that under extreme magnification, at least for the fine size. It attaches easily with CA and stretches (supposedly up to 7 times its length) so you can get a nice taut line. Seemed much easier than stretched sprue or other materials. It was a little complicated in that the wires that run from each wing tip to the tail connect ahead of the tail and then run in a combined line to the tail, but I managed to get it to work. 5. The kit has you attach the upper wings, then attach the bottom wings and supports, suggesting that you try to do it all at the same time. Of course, it's much harder said than done. On both planes, the right side ended up a couple of millimeters higher than the other. If I had to do it again, I would probably have attached the bottom wings to the fuselage pre-painting, to avoid any seams and to better set the dihedral. I think if I had taken that approach, all I would have had to do is manage the angle of the top wing (as opposed to trying to glue the two bottom wings and the top wing, position the struts, etc. all at the same time). Learning experience for next time. I just wanted to thank everyone who has been looking in and helping me work my way through this. I really appreciate all the help so thank you! For my next plane, I'll be doing the Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat kit as the FM-1 version using the Wolfpack wing fold conversion set. Simpler in the sense that it has limited rigging and a single wing, but I have the big Aires resin/PE detail set and the Wolfpack set, so it will be challenging in other ways.

I'm using ebony for my Charles Morgan build, and I have to say that I don't find it as difficult to work as people tend to say. Sure you have to be careful of the dust, but you similarly have to be careful about the dust of many woods you see used in the hobby. For what it's worth, I've heard that the leather dyes can fade, so you might want to try using black stains if you go that route. On my Pegasus, I've been using General Finishes stains and the black still looks like the day I applied it. If you're looking to source ebony strip wood, try Matt at Inlay Banding. He put together a package of ebony for me a couple of years ago at a reasonable cost, dimensioned to what I needed. https://www.inlaybanding.com

Nice work, great job! Even more impressive that you did it at such a small scale!

Wow, that detail is amazing. Greg, if you don't mind, I was wondering if you could share any tips on fixing the railings to the model. Do you use CA? White glue? Do you pre-prime and paint before attaching? I'm close to adding the rails to my 1/700 destroyer and am wondering if there is a proper way to go about it. The PE is so thin, that I have to do it right the first time or it will look like garbage. Thanks in advance!

Thanks man, really appreciate the nice words and the advice! Even though these are fairly simple planes, the color schemes are anything but. Maybe I should have started with something easier, but I can say that these we have been a big learning experience for me. I'm slowly getting better and more facile with the airbrush, but I need to figure out a lighting solution, as the lights in my spray booth are super bright LEDs, and it gets tricky to see if I have sprayed too much or not enough paint on the model with certain colors like metals, paint colors on similar undercoat colors, etc. My next plane model (I think it will be the F4F-4 Wildcat converted to an FM-1, mostly because the box is in rough shape), only will have two or three colors, and no belly bands, chevrons, two-color cowls, etc. so that should be easier. Vallejo Metal Varnish. Last night I sprayed the top sections of the bottom wings with Vallejo Metal Varnish, this time adding Vallejo's thinner to the cup. Worked so much better, went on smooth without clogging the tip. So, while I've had great success shooting Vallejo paints, I think their finishes need thinner or flow improver. When I first went to use the airbrush, I was barely getting any paint flow. Took off the tip and cleaned it, and a small sheet of dried varnish came out (despite a thorough cleaning at the end of the prior session). When I went to clean the airbrush at the end of last night's session, it still was shooting good and clear. Top Wing. I also ended up top coating the top of the top wing (the yellow wing). I debated whether to go with flat or semi-gloss, but just went with Tamiya flat from the rattle can. The newer planes in museums seem to have a pretty glossy finish, but I wasn't sure if that was because they were using modern paints and finishes, wanted to protect the planes, make them shinier for museum visitors, etc. I kinda like the flat colored sections as a contrast to the aluminum, as otherwise, the whole model would just be way too shiny. Cowl. I then took a chance and sprayed the flat against the red cowl of the F3F-1. It not only dulled down the "wet" look of the red, but also seems to have minimized the orange peel appearance. So that was a relief. Next I'll do the same for the belly band and the tail, and similarly tackle the F3F-2. Just about at the finish line on these. Looking forward to knocking them out and moving on to the next subject and hopefully avoid some of the mistakes I made on these.

I'm not surprised - looks professional, and a testament to your skills. Very nice! You're setting the bar awfully high for me when I get to mine. 😐