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

[Landlubber Mike]

Thank you Peter, really appreciate the kind words.  Maybe I'll start a separate log for the Vindicator.  It's not a highly decorated plane for its war service, and there aren't too many kits available for it, but I think it's a pretty interesting subject.  I'm actually planning on building it with partially folded wings, which should be a little different from the few models out there.

[Landlubber Mike]

I'm just about at the end of this build.  Everything is pretty much painted, decaled and put together (aside from the folded wings which will be attached at the end), and has a coat of gloss pre-weathering, etc.  So far so good.  I just purchased the Proxxon hot wire cutter so can start making bases for my models, including dioramas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Quick question - anyone have any ideas on how to represent a WWII carrier's hangar deck flooring?  I haven't found many pictures of what it would look like, aside from this colorized one of what I think might be a Wildcat:

 

 

I can't really tell what the floor is made of - metal?  How would I represent it?  A dark steel color with scribed lines to represent what looks like big metal floor panels, with some oil and other spills?

Since I have the model with panels off, etc., I was thinking about sitting it on a hangar deck in a diorama scene with a mechanic or two.  I have this Verlinden set which could supply some of the figures, though with the hoods, I'm wondering if those mechanics would be more apt to be on the landing deck versus the hangar deck:

Thanks in advance!

 

[belugawhaleman]

Always a big fan of the Wildcats. Who would of thought these tough, stubby,  barrel-shaped,

Little planes could have been so formidable contenders against their Japanese counterparts. I'll be watching.

 

Paul.

 

 

 

 

[Peterpools]

Mike

WOW, awesome progress and what a build. Glad to see you're close to rolling your Wildcat across the finish line.

Wish I could offer an answer of just going beyond guessing: wood for the same reasons as the flight deck.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[Bomber_County]

Looks amazing congrats, just coming to the end of the Ju88, I have the Trumpy F4F-3 in stock you may just have inspired me……

[DocRob]

Your Wildcat is very eye catching with all the opened panels and the not too often represented North Atlantic scheme.

Cheers Rob 

[Landlubber Mike]

This one has been close to the finish line for quite some time as I got a bit bored with it and moved on to other projects.  Just about done though now, just have to add the wings and finish the diorama.  Want to clear the bench before the 2023 group build!

Warning - even though the kit instructions say you can model it with the canopy open, the sliding piece just does not fit.  I came to find out that others had a similar issue, with one person cracking the part to get it to fit.  Thankfully, the eBay auction seller included a Taurus canopy, and I was able to replace the kit part.  The Taurus canopy was a bit loose though, so when i pressed it to the fuselage, a bit of glue spread further than I was hoping.  🤬  Oh well, not much I can do.

I almost threw the whole thing out when clear coating it - I ended up getting spiderwebbing in a few places when using one of the Mr. Color clear products.  Even got it when trying out the rattle can version.  I think it just pooled too heavily.  My spray booth has these really bright LEDs, and sometimes I can't tell how much of a coat is being applied with certain colors and with the clear products.  Live and learn.  The good news is that was able to lightly sand off the clear coat, reapply a bit of dark wash, and re-apply the clear coat with no issue.  Whew!

I did spend a bunch of time trying to figure out how to put it in a diorama on a carrier hangar deck, as there aren't many pictures out there of what the flooring at least looks like.  I did get a diorama base finished though, and at this point, just have to finish painting some of the mechanics to go along with it.

Thanks for looking in! 

[harv]

I remember this. Very good !....harv 👍 

[GazzaS]

I do like that paint job!  Will be nice to see on the carrier deck.

[CANicoll]

Whoa, nice build!  Paint looks terrific.  Can't wait to see the wings attached.

[Landlubber Mike]

Finally finished with this one.  Probably a bit steep on the difficulty level given that it is my fifth plastic plane model, but I'm quite happy with how it came out.  Given that the engine and other panels were removed, I tried to model it as maintenance work on a hangar deck of an aircraft carrier.  Couldn't find good color pictures of what the deck looked like, but some of the pictures showed what appeared to be larger squares that were dark gray and/or metallic in color, so I went that route.

Just wanted to thank everyone for the help on this build, I really appreciate it.  Thanks!  Here are the pictures.

 

[harv]

Wow, came out great ! Like the figures too....harv 🤘

[JohnB]

Turned out really nice! I like that Atlantic sea search scheme.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks guys!  The figures are a nice touch I think.  I used figures from this set.  Word of warning though - the figures that come in the box look nothing like these figures!  Different positions, no hats, no toolbox, etc.

 

 

@JohnB, I love the Atlantic scheme too.  Once the GB is done, I have two Accurate Miniatures Avenger kits that I'm going to build, and one of which will be  a sub hunter in the Atlantic camo scheme.  

[DocRob]

Wow Mike, great display and skillful work to get there. I too love the Atlantic scheme a lot and yours is perfectly rendered. Your persistence with the canopy and clear coat issues payed off, I may have binned the kit. I had similar problems with Mr. Color Clear, I think it was G100 with spider webbing and turning goo in my airbrush. Strangely, it worked before. I don't know, where the problem is with this stuff, but I seem unable to achieve steady results with this stuff.

Cheers Rob  

[JohnB]

12 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Thanks guys!  The figures are a nice touch I think.  I used figures from this set.  Word of warning though - the figures that come in the box look nothing like these figures!  Different positions, no hats, no toolbox, etc.

 

 

@JohnB, I love the Atlantic scheme too.  Once the GB is done, I have two Accurate Miniatures Avenger kits that I'm going to build, and one of which will be  a sub hunter in the Atlantic camo scheme.  

I look forward to seeing it!

[Landlubber Mike]

17 hours ago, DocRob said:

Wow Mike, great display and skillful work to get there. I too love the Atlantic scheme a lot and yours is perfectly rendered. Your persistence with the canopy and clear coat issues payed off, I may have binned the kit. I had similar problems with Mr. Color Clear, I think it was G100 with spider webbing and turning goo in my airbrush. Strangely, it worked before. I don't know, where the problem is with this stuff, but I seem unable to achieve steady results with this stuff.

Cheers Rob  

Thanks Rob, really appreciate it!  

I think I was using GX100 (probably same one you are talking about).  I find you have to really thin it, like 2-3:1 thinner to clear, or it gums up the airbrush immediately.  Even then, it sprayed a lot better if I first shot the clear out the airbrush at 40-60 PSI almost to prime the nozzle, and then shot it around 20 PSI.  I don't know why I got the spider webbing, except that I might have sprayed too much in a few spots.  I'm always very careful in letting underlying paints dry at least 24 hours before clear coating.  It also happened with the rattle can, which I tried spraying over to see if it would reset the clear, but it exacerbated things.  

I'm just glad I was able to remedy things in the end.  One interesting result that I found was that in lightly sanding off the clear, those spots were a tough lighter than the surrounding paint.  I've never tried sanding before as a weathering technique, but it might be another arrow for the quiver.

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

I think I was using GX100 (probably same one you are talking about).

Exactly Mike, that's the stuff. I use about the same mixing ratios like you, but never tried to raise the air pressure that high, because I work comfortably at about 20 PSI normally with all kinds of colors. I will give the GX100 another trying session, because when it doesn't gum up or spider webs, it looks great, better than the easier to work with Tamiya LP-clear or Future / Pledge.

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

6 hours ago, DocRob said:

Exactly Mike, that's the stuff. I use about the same mixing ratios like you, but never tried to raise the air pressure that high, because I work comfortably at about 20 PSI normally with all kinds of colors. I will give the GX100 another trying session, because when it doesn't gum up or spider webs, it looks great, better than the easier to work with Tamiya LP-clear or Future / Pledge.

Cheers Rob

It really looks great when it goes down well.  The rattle can versions go down really well too - I found the nozzles are much better than the Tamiya rattle cans which have a tendency to spit in my experience.  I thought going to the bottled version would give me more control, but after the spider webbing on this build, I used the rattle can on my Buffalo.

Just for clarification, I don't spray on the model at 40-60 PSI.  Because the clear seems to immediately gum up the airbrush, I found that getting it going through the airbrush at that high PSI at least pushes out some of the clear and thinner, and probably I was getting a coating of thinner in the nozzle, etc. leading to an easier time spraying at 20 PSI.  I found that the longer I sprayed, the better the clear sprayed out of it, so the higher PSI just helps get to that point a little sooner.  Thinking out loud, I wonder if you run the thinner through the airbrush first, then run the thinner/clear mix after, if that would help prime things better?  Maybe I'll try that next time.

[Peterpools]

Mike

Awesome build - the extra details and the figures took your Wildcat over the top. Just beautiful work. Thank goodness you exercise a lot more self control then I did with the Whirlwind, taking a deep breath and came back another day to work out the repairs. I've finally learned my lesson and when frustrated or unhappy, there now is always tomorrow to figure out how to resolve it. 

My go to clear glosses are: Mr Color 46 and Tamiya Clear LP-9. Both I thin with Mr Color Self Leveling Thinner normally at 1 pt clear to 1.75 - 2 pts thinner. There is a lot of confusion when we discuss the PSI setting: is it the reading on the gauge just setting the psi or the working air pressure when shooting the paint? There is a huge difference. I normally use about 20 psi as my working pressure with a 3.5 tip. ,2 tip and I up the psi or the gun tends to clog.

 

 

[Martinnfb]

Super cool build Mike, everything looks very natural and realistic, well done 👍

[Landlubber Mike]

2 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Super cool build Mike, everything looks very natural and realistic, well done 👍

Thanks Martin!  Really appreciate it!

3 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Mike

Awesome build - the extra details and the figures took your Wildcat over the top. Just beautiful work. Thank goodness you exercise a lot more self control then I did with the Whirlwind, taking a deep breath and came back another day to work out the repairs. I've finally learned my lesson and when frustrated or unhappy, there now is always tomorrow to figure out how to resolve it. 

My go to clear glosses are: Mr Color 46 and Tamiya Clear LP-9. Both I thin with Mr Color Self Leveling Thinner normally at 1 pt clear to 1.75 - 2 pts thinner. There is a lot of confusion when we discuss the PSI setting: is it the reading on the gauge just setting the psi or the working air pressure when shooting the paint? There is a huge difference. I normally use about 20 psi as my working pressure with a 3.5 tip. ,2 tip and I up the psi or the gun tends to clog.

 

 

Thanks Peter!  To be honest, I almost threw the model out the window after all that work, but it all ended up ok in the end.

Good point about the PSI settings.  I usually work with a pressure of around 18-22, so the needle is usually set a little higher on my Iwata compressor.  I use that same pressure for Mr. Color clear coats.  I just crank the compressor way up and shoot it away from the model to get the airbrush primed (at which time I turn it back down before spraying the model), otherwise it seems too blocked to get a meaningful spray.

[Peterpools]

Mike

So your working pressure is between 18-22 which sounds fine but not sure why you turn down the working pressure when actually shooting. I also tend these days to use a .5 tip Iwata Revolution for clear gloss and flat coats rather then the customary .35 - just helps in applying more even coats. 

Of course, looking at the final results, they look perfect.🏆

 

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Just for clarification, I don't spray on the model at 40-60 PSI.  Because the clear seems to immediately gum up the airbrush, I found that getting it going through the airbrush at that high PSI at least pushes out some of the clear and thinner, and probably I was getting a coating of thinner in the nozzle, etc. leading to an easier time spraying at 20 PSI.  I found that the longer I sprayed, the better the clear sprayed out of it, so the higher PSI just helps get to that point a little sooner.  Thinking out loud, I wonder if you run the thinner through the airbrush first, then run the thinner/clear mix after, if that would help prime things better?  Maybe I'll try that next time.

Thanks for the clarification Mike, there are some interesting points in what you and Peter pointing out here. I may use a bigger needle next time and blow it free with higher pressure before starting. I always spray a drop of thinner through the AB before using the mixed color. On my gauge, the difference between spraying and non spraying is not that visible, it changes only a fraction due to the compensating air tank.

Cheers Rob