Another great looking build. 
The smile is for successfully landing and enjoying another day a live.
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Stunning build Torsten. It is beautiful.
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Ryan and Peter, thanks for your kind comments! Glad to hear, you appreciate my efforts. Meanwhile I found out, that the lower part of the main landing gear should be painted in Black (see also b/w photo of O’Hare above). Well, I leave it this way now …
Ryan, yes, another day alive. He had a way too short life, like so many others … 
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Finally I can call also the VF-41 Wildcat done and ready to take off for the model show next weekend! 
Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat
VF-41
aboard USS “Ranger”, December 1940
Pilot: Lt. Charles Shileds
Kit: Eduard 1/48
used paints:
Vallejo 71001 White
Vallejo 71073 Metallic Black
Revell 90 Silver
Revell 91 Steel
Revell 99 Aluminium
Revell 302 Black
Revell 310 Yellow
Revell 364 Leaf Green
… and both kitties side by side …
Adding the telescopic gunsight as the final part of the build was a last challenge as the hole in the windshield was a bit too small. I noticed that when the gunsight broke into parts … 
Fortunatly I have 2 identical kits. So I used 3 different sizes of drills to make the hole larger step by step. Not a welcomed work on a clear part which is already attached to the build but patience and a steady hand worked well. The new part fitted well through the windshiled now.
Final coating was again made with a 70/30 mix of Revell Clear Gloss and Clear Matt. Since I started using this paint and found the best ratio for me I’m really happy with the final coatings of my latest builds.
I want to thank everyone who has followed me again through these builds and I hope you’ve enjoyed watching as much as I enjoyed building them. It’s always a pleasure to have you at my side. And sorry, but I couldn’t find a photo of the pilot, neither in my few references nor in the internet.
Happy modelling!
Torsten
13 Likes
Great looking yellow wing bird.
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Another pair of fantastic builds. The different schemes are very striking.
Loved seeing these progress Torsten. Looking forward to the next instalment.
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Another pair of fantastic builds Torsten.
They’ll make great additions to your hangar 
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Torsten,
Being a life long Grumman fan as growing up all of 30 min by bike from the main plant in Bethpage, I love all things Grumman.
While never actually seeing any F4Fs or F6Fs since I wasn’t even born yet, both are personal favorites. And your two Wildcat replicas due the full scale planes justice for sure. Both builds are up to your usual high museum standards.
joel
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Really excellent builds. After seeing your builds and a few others, I’m starting to appreciate—and maybe prefer—the museum finish instead of heavily weathered and beaten finish.
Both have their place. But I’m really enjoying yours.
What’s next?
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Wow, Torsten, they look amazing. VF-41 is still my favourite but VF-3 is really close (love that rudder). I was thinking to add a wildcat or a hellcat to my ‘to do list’ but seeing your great skills at work I am sure to try it (although not sure about the result). One thing about the size of the real thing, never realized until I saw one in a museum and stood next to it - it was so big and bulky but still strangely beautiful. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Dragos
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Wow! 
Thanks for all your kind comments, guys! Never expected that. Glad to hear, that you like my latest works. VF-41 Wildcat is the most colourful aircraft I’ve built to date. No talking about camouflage here … 
Joel, over here in Europe I have visited several airshows over the years (not lately though) but I’ve never seen a Hellcat or a Wildcat there. If there are some in airworthy conditions, they must be all in North America or maybe in UK. Also in museums I can’t remember seen one of those here.
Dragos, I can recommend both Eduard kits, Wildcat and Hellcat, to add to your collection. They are a fun to build. The landing gear of the F4F is a bit difficult to assemble, but you get the parts together. Older but still decent kits are also coming from Hasegawa (Hellcat) and Hobbyboss (Wildcat). I have a few of them in my stash. My skills are nothing special. There are many guys here at Kitmaker who are far better than me, also in smaller scales. You’re talking about the size of the real machines and I took some photos of my models for comparison. Here you can see that a Hellcat is far bigger than a Wildcat …
… and a comparison between a Wildcat and a Bf 109. They have both about the same length, but the 109 is slender. Or - as I said before - the Wildcat is a flying barrel … 
Spitfire, glad to hear that you appreciate the “no weathering look” of my builds, or, as Joel calls it, the museum quality. I’m not really a fan of weathering, for my taste it’s often overdone and looks unreal, especially on modern military jets, vehicles and tanks. I prefer them clean, it’s my “personal note”. But that’s to everyone’s personal taste. You asked, what I do next. Well, something completely different. I joined the Convoy Campaign and have opened a new build blog at the truck section of the Automodellers Forum for my little Tempos …
Tempo A400 Lieferwagen + E400 Hochladerpritsche - Automotive / Trucks - KitMaker Network
Haven’t done much so far, just started cleaning the parts with methylated spirit. Hope to have finished both builds by early May for our own model show … 
Maybe some of you like to have a look in there from time to time.
Torsten
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Hi Torsten, IIRC there’s a newly restored to flight Martlet (Wildcat) in the UK, wearing the colours of the RN when serving out of North Africa, plus 3~4 others either on display or undergoing restoration
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Thank you for the kit recommendations, will surely help when I will get to buy them. As to the size, although they are pretty much the same, the americans are more massive, bulkier and they looked bigger, at least to me. But they still have something that appeals to me.
Cheers
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Wow… great work !
I didn’t follow the builds, just got here when they were already finished.
Still fun to watch them come alive Torsten, great paint job , Congrats on these fantastic aircrafts !!!
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Wonderful duo Torsten, very nicely done! Interesting comparison shots as well, so much variation in the designs of the time.
Looking forward to your next aircraft builds, and definitely following your auto adventure as well.
Cheers, D
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Thanks again for your feedback, guys!
Dragos, the kits I mentioned are all in quarterscale. Don’t know much about smaller scales … 
Returned yesterday evening after a great weekend at my first model show 2023 in South Germany. This was my table with a mix of my latest builds and some earlier works like the Spitfire Mk. XII, which is at least 10 years old …
… this was my display for the new Wildcats … VF-3 still needs the photo and story of O’Hare.
My next show will be in May. Hope to have something new done by then.
Torsten
12 Likes
Oh Man!!! I can’t decide which one I like more. Some (A LOT) fantastic craftmanship. I’ll just echo what everyone else said.
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Thanks a lot for your kind words, HG! Glad to hear you like my efforts. I try to be half as good as you, though it’s not easy!
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My adventurous trip to the Automodeller world has come to an end with finishing the little Tempos on Saturday …
Next weekend we’ll have our model show so these little Tempos were finished just in time. I’ll be back here with some flying stuff pretty soon and this time it will be an real oldie …
Hai noroc!
Torsten
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Huge smile, bet those were fun.
1 Like