Today I will present two Wildcats. The three-colour one is the old Hasegawa, and the two-colour ‘in flight’ one is Arma Hobby.
The photos were taken by Grzegorz and, surprisingly, both models look very good when put together. You can see them below, both separately and in a joint composition.
Hasegawa in USS Ranger colours
I started making the first one before Arma released the F4F-4. Its interior is a True Details resin set. I took some elements from our company’s FM-2, e.g. the undercarriage. The decals are a set from Starfighter Decals for USS Ranger aircraft from Operation Leader. I really wanted to have a three-colour F4F-4 and in a combat scheme. Although the Ranger pilots in 1943 would have preferred to have Hellcats, they fought with what was on board.
Painting was done with cellulose lacquers from the Slovak company MRP. Their interpretation of USN aircraft colours really appeals to me. The base is a fragment of a laser-engraved plywood deck that we included in the FM-1/FM-2 Deluxe double set some time ago. I printed the pedestal for the deck on a filament printer.
Arma Hobby with Sam Folsom’s markings
The second model is Arma Hobby straight from the box. I wanted to do it in flight, which required mounting the landing gear covers and wheels in a retracted version. I helped myself a bit with pieces of plastic sprues. The pilot figure is from some Airfix kit. Painting is again MRP lacquers, Sam Folsom’s famous plane.
I made the model closer to a clean configuration, no scratches, just some airfield dirt. The base is a wooden piece plus a plexiglass tube with a smaller diameter carbon rod that fits into a hole in the model. Fortunately, the only thing missing is a moving propeller, but considering this lack, the model in flight looks really good.
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