F4F-4 built as FM-1 Wildcat by Landlubber Mike - FINISHED - Tamiya - 1/48

[Canute]

One could drop a lot of money in that shop. I use it for a number of items, like the saw and micro chisels. He also carries those mini metal folding brakes for bending PE, like ladder stiles.

[Egilman]

Yeah, I would have a serious problem with the admiralty if I spent any time there....

[popeye the sailor]

quite a bit of progress Mike........the cowl looks really good    amazing how you got the cockpit to fit....looks nice as well.  just as well on the gun bays,  since you really want the wings to fold.  look on the bright side......the example you showed didn't  get both of these upgrades either  

 

your doing a great job!  

[king derelict]

I looked at the shop site and promptly placed a $100 order! I placed the order at 9pm last night and it's already packed and in transit. Great recommendation. Thanks Mike

 

Alan

[Lt. Biggles]

Found out over the last few days that there are “non ship builds” on the site!

I started by building planes as a teenager. Great work on those internal details mate! Looking good, now I’m thinking I might try a plane next

[Old Collingwood]

21 minutes ago, Lt. Biggles said:

Found out over the last few days that there are “non ship builds” on the site!

I started by building planes as a teenager. Great work on those internal details mate! Looking good, now I’m thinking I might try a plane next

Come and join the club   we are a merry bunch locked away down here   - we are a bit mad  (well I am anyway)   but more the merrier.

 

OC.

[Landlubber Mike]

11 hours ago, Lt. Biggles said:

Found out over the last few days that there are “non ship builds” on the site!

I started by building planes as a teenager. Great work on those internal details mate! Looking good, now I’m thinking I might try a plane next

 

Thanks for the kind words!  It's funny, when I got back into models maybe ten years ago, I didn't want to do plastic because I thought it was insert tab A into slot B and paint from the old little Testor's enamels bottles (which I was terrible at).  So I went to wooden ships for more variety of components and parts of the build.  When I saw how plastic models have changed with all these detail sets, airbrushes, adhesives, etc., I've almost completely moved back to plastic (though, I still want to work on and complete my wooden ship kits and there are a few I'd like to scratch build down the road).  Personally, I find the subjects of WWI-WWII era planes and ships (and for cars, early 70s and earlier) more interesting.  

 

So, I'd give it a shot!  I really feel like I've learned a lot in terms of techniques, tools, etc. to be a better wooden ship modeler.  Definitely post a build log here.  The MSW folks have been kind to allow a place for non-ship builds, and I have to say, there seems to be more activity, commentary, help, and sharing here than on some of the plastic plane boards.  I'm enjoying the camaraderie and education on this forum as much, if not more so, than actually building.

[jwvolz]

Just catching up a bit Mike, looking good. 

 

I've used a lot of aftermarket cockpits in my day and it's so common to find less than stellar fit. Nice work with all the PE and resin. 

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Joe.  Yeah, this cockpit needed some modification but in the end I got it in.  In the end, I'd say that probably using the original kit parts as modified with the Eduard PE set would have been just as nice for a lot less trouble.  Plus, you can't really see much inside the cockpit anyway.  I do like this particular Aires set for the engine and other details though. 

 

Does make you wonder whether to just stick with the newer, better designed kits - Wingnut, Zoukei-Mura, etc.  Unfortunately, they are fairly niche product lines so you are stuck looking at older kits for most subjects (which generally can be spruced up a bit with aftermarket).

[jwvolz]

Most of the Tamiya, Eduard, AM and Hasegawa 1/48 kits have pretty decent cockpits, and I've generally only added PE seat belts or a resin seat. As you said, it's hard to see much in there anyway.

 

Modern fighter jets are another story...

[Landlubber Mike]

Hello everyone, hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving (for those in the US or that have similar holidays).  With the holidays, various home projects, etc., I haven't made as much progress on the Wildcat as I've hoped, but I did cross a couple of big thresholds.  

 

The lower tub is now glued into the fuselage.  Took some slight modifications to help get everything to fit correctly as there are multiple parts with the deflector plate, the PE open panel parts, etc., and I decided to use 2-part epoxy to make sure it all holds together.  Big relief that I'm passed that stage.  As you can see, I added a few wires in the open engine mount area, and opened up the fuselage panel at the top of the nose which leads to the oil tank.  Last night I glued the wing stubs from the Wolfpack set also using 2-part epoxy.  They went on fairly easily, which just some slight sanding to help get them to sit correctly.  Looks ugly, but hopefully things will smooth over after filled and painted.

 

 

 

 

I've got a tiny amount of filler to use, but so far everything is generally fitting together fairly well.  I do have an issue with the underbelly where the tub and the fuselage didn't exactly line up too well, so I'll have to sand it down, rescribe the panel line, and add rivets.  Will be a first for me, and hopefully it looks ok given that this kit has raised panel lines.

 

Oh, and I broke (1) one of the landing gear legs, (2) the tail wheel, and (3) the antenna rod on the top of the fuselage.  Ugh.

 

For next steps, I need to clean things up in preparation for painting.  I might try out black basing, though again, that will be new for me.  What will be tricky on the painting is whether to add the engine and cowl so that the paint lines are smooth across the model and with a consistent color (on the flip side, there will be some tricky masking with the open panels).  Of course the folded wing sections have to be worked in somehow as well to keep a consistent shade.

 

Thanks for looking in!

[Canute]

Mike, a small, thin flexible ruler or some of that old Dymo tape works well for aiding your rescribing. I hate when a scribed line wanders off into an area of pristine plastic.

[Egilman]

Good to see ya back at the bench brother.....

[Landlubber Mike]

33 minutes ago, Canute said:

Mike, a small, thin flexible ruler or some of that old Dymo tape works well for aiding your rescribing. I hate when a scribed line wanders off into an area of pristine plastic.

 

Thanks Ken, that is a good idea.  I've seen people free hand scribe panels, and while I have steady hands, seems like a recipe for disaster on a round area like the belly.

 

11 minutes ago, Egilman said:

Good to see ya back at the bench brother.....

 

Thanks man, really appreciate it.  I'm hoping to make some substantial progress on my outstanding builds over the next few weeks with lots of vacation time planned, etc.  I did spend a bunch of time these last few weeks thinking about dioramas and picking up diorama figures and other accessories where I could find good deals, as well as taking inventory of my stash and re-arranging/re-locating boxes so that I didn't end up with crushed boxes.  So, I suppose that's model related   

[Landlubber Mike]

Here's a couple of questions for you guys:

 

1.  The auction for this Wildcat kit included not only the Aires detail set, but also a Taurus cockpit:

 

  

 

This is probably a dumb question, but I assume I need to carefully cut it out of the mold - seems like it could be tricky without a very sharp blade as any bending of the piece will lead to some sort of crazing effect on the glass.  Any tips on how to do this?

 

Also, the kit includes the cockpit in two sections so you can open it up.  This includes the cockpit as a single piece, so I'm assuming this means if I used it I would be stuck with a closed cockpit?  Even if I cut it into two, the end frames would be too thin to include on the model.  Maybe I'm missing something?  I was planning on displaying the cockpit open since the cockpit didn't come out too badly, so maybe I just end up practicing on this one.

 

2.  Has anyone made a WWII US carrier deck for diorama purposes?  I bought a Verlinden one that is supposed to arrive this week and a True Details one that looks ok.  I did notice that Tom's Model Works sells a PE set for the tie-downs (#215):

 

 

Has anyone used these before?  If so, do these tie downs sit flush with the wood deck around them?  Any color difference between these and the surrounding wood?  I believe these were metal, but just trying to think about how one would lay these into wooden deck.

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited December 8, 2020 by Landlubber Mike

[Egilman]

56 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

If so, do these tie downs sit flush with the wood deck around them?  

Any color difference between these and the surrounding wood?  

I believe these were metal, but just trying to think about how one would lay these into wooden deck.

#1. Yes they do....

 

#2. Yes, the metal is 20B deck blue and the wood Norfolk 250B flight deck stain if flying off a full sized carrier.... (flying off an escort carrier it could be either the stain or deck blue paint, check your references)

 

#3. Depends on how much detail you want to add... they would be inset into the wood surface, and down the middle of each inset slot you would make a narrower, deeper slot to relieve the tabs so you can slip tiedowns ropes under them....

 

Get a good pic of the deck with a measurable known distance  in it.. (like an aircraft wheel or wing so you can measure against your model) Simple math will give you the scale distance they should be apart, draw two thin lines, with the grain, representing the tie down strips across the surface equidistant apart at whatever you determine the distance between the strips should be.....

 

Using a steel ruler and fresh sharp razor blade, cut each line, only deep enough to match the strip thickness... Now, you chip out the material between the cuts giving you an inset relief for the strip...

 

If you want them to be functional, again using the steel ruler take a scoring tool and scrape a slot down the middle of each inset to give the clearance under the hooks for your tiedown lines....

 

Not hard to do, but it is some work, just remember to use fresh, sharp tools and take your time.....

 

Final detailing would be scoring plank lines in the rest of the deck section between the strips....

 

That is the way I would go about it...

[Landlubber Mike]

Thank you so much - really appreciate sharing all your knowledge and know-how!

 

I’m going to see what the Verlinden is like and compare it to the True Details piece.  I’ll probably use those first and then try to scratch build my own carrier decks using the Tom’s Model Works PE.  Might be fun to put together some small diorama pieces.  At the very least, would give the model a little extra protection.

[Egilman]

17 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Thank you so much - really appreciate sharing all your knowledge and know-how

That's what we are here for brother, my pleasure....

[Old Collingwood]

Give these guys a look over - they have  some great stuff - basis  etc.

 

https://www.coastalkits.co.uk/newstore/

 

OC.

[oneslim]

Landlubber Mike,  I scratch built a deck edge 40mm twin Bofors mount of the USS Monterey CVL 26 in 1/35 scale and used photo etch tie downs.  A plastic 'U' channel was used for the tie downs and  I milled wood the same height to make the deck even.  The tie downs were painted the same as the deck.  The color is 'U. S. Navy WWII Flight Deck Stain 21' from White Ensign Colourcoats.  Search the web,  they are still around.

Here is a link to some of my build.

 

Here is a reference photo.

 

 

Hope this helps,

 

BobW

 

 

[Egilman]

26 minutes ago, oneslim said:

I scratch built a deck edge 40mm twin Bofors mount of the USS Monterey CVL 26 in 1/35 scale and used photo etch tie downs. 

Very Very nice... but just one note, stain doesn't stick to metal, so they were painted 20B Deck Blue... But once the stain on the wood fades a bit, it's next to impossible to tell them apart....

[Landlubber Mike]

4 hours ago, oneslim said:

Landlubber Mike,  I scratch built a deck edge 40mm twin Bofors mount of the USS Monterey CVL 26 in 1/35 scale and used photo etch tie downs.  A plastic 'U' channel was used for the tie downs and  I milled wood the same height to make the deck even.  The tie downs were painted the same as the deck.  The color is 'U. S. Navy WWII Flight Deck Stain 21' from White Ensign Colourcoats.  Search the web,  they are still around.

Here is a link to some of my build.

 

Here is a reference photo.

 

 

Hope this helps,

 

BobW

 

 

Bob many thanks, incredibly helpful!  And that deck looks amazing - fantastic job!  Really appreciate the tips.

[Lt. Biggles]

Looks great! And all the open panels and having all the internals to fit looks like a huge job! Good work

[Landlubber Mike]

6 hours ago, Lt. Biggles said:

Looks great! And all the open panels and having all the internals to fit looks like a huge job! Good work

Thanks man, this has been a learning experience for sure.  The Aires set looks good but it’s not plug and play.  There’s a lot of massaging to get it all to work together.  

With all the aftermarket, about half of the original kit will remain I think.  That being said, this is a really nice, well designed kit and one can certainly build a great looking Wildcat out of the box.

[popeye the sailor]

nice progress Mike.........gonna be a cool display base   

[Landlubber Mike]

12 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

nice progress Mike.........gonna be a cool display base   

Thanks - we shall see how the model turns out first before deciding whether I build the base.  Don’t want to get ahead of myself here!

 

[Canute]

Evergreen Scale Models makes a number of styrene channels of 0.060, 0.080, 0.100 and 0.125. They go a little bigger, too. Check this page: https://evergreenscalemodels.com/collections/14-35cm-opaque-white-polystyrene-channel

[Landlubber Mike]

 

On 12/8/2020 at 6:21 PM, Old Collingwood said:

Give these guys a look over - they have  some great stuff - basis  etc.

 

https://www.coastalkits.co.uk/newstore/

 

OC.

 

Thanks OC, have you used them?  They look pretty nice and I see they make water for ship dioramas too.  I'm not sure if they are paper?  The Verlinden carrier deck arrived yesterday and it's a printed piece of paper that I guess you glue down to a base.  Not bad, but no depth, etc.  I might use it for my F3Fs though the "wood" is natural colored and I'm now learning that carrier decks were painted/stained blue at some point.  The True Details one looks to be resin so it's more three dimensional.  You have to paint it though.

 

22 hours ago, Canute said:

Evergreen Scale Models makes a number of styrene channels of 0.060, 0.080, 0.100 and 0.125. They go a little bigger, too. Check this page: https://evergreenscalemodels.com/collections/14-35cm-opaque-white-polystyrene-channel

 

That looks pretty cool - looks like another good option.  I ordered the Tom's Model Works PE tie downs so I'll report when those come in.

[Canute]

Mike, carrier decks were natural wood until 1941, then went with the blue stains. Like EG said, they had a stain for the wood, paint for the metal portions.

[Old Collingwood]

Hi Mike,   yep I used the one Coastal Kits base   it was sent to me  from someone,   it was used in my Airfield dio  with the mosquito and spit  with vehicles and  figures,    they are a  thick rubber type  material and really well made  - easy to trim to size you want also.

 

OC.