1/32 Trumpeter F4F-4 Wildcat

Gallery Article by Russ Johnston on June 23 2005

 

      

Except for the decals and seat belts this F4F-4 was built out of the box. My wife chose this kit as a gift for me because of its high rating and many features. I started construction immediately wanting to keep the working features yet not loose to much of the realistic appearance, due to big gaps and sagging wings. Web articles had warned of sagging wings on this bird. 

 

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Assembly was going well and it came time to test fit the wings. Would they sag as predicted? Yes, gravity was the winner, dihedral the clear loser. I played with the parts quite a while and I might have found a new angle. So if you are thinking of building this kit, I hope the following photos and text are helpful if you get the sagging wing blues. 

The best suggestions I can give is to build the bottom left and right wing halves like the instructions show. However, when doing the top half of the left and right main wings, I feel its helpful to first sand the joints between parts b-3 and b-4 of the left wing and remove some material, likewise on the right side between parts b-1 and b-2. Be sure to remove the same amount of material on each part to make these parts fit so tight that the seam seems to disappear. Now the main surgery, file a full 1/16 th of an inch off of left and right wing hinge pin holder parts d-22 and d-26. File the material off the bottom and off the side tab of d-22 and d-26 so that the parts go deeper into the wing halves and tighten the top hinge to stop the sag in each side. Retest fit until all parts fit so tight that you get enough dihedral to resist gravity. Continue construction as per instructions. 

On final assembly, I found the folded wings won't stay in the rear position without the locking bars glued into their slots. This defeats the airplanes ability to have moving wings. My choice was to replace the 36 mm locking bars with fine nylon threads that hook to the wings where the locking bars were supposed to be glued. The nylon threads I made, are 33 mm long and have tiny seize loops at each end. They fasten to tiny hooks made with copper wire that was installed where the locking bar slots are. Holes for the tiny hooks were made with a tiny drill bit in a pin vise. The hooks are secured with super glue. The nylon ties are visible under the airplane in some photos and other photos show them holding the wings back. Getting the features to work on this kit and keeping it's realistic appearance is very rewarding. 

Russ Johnston

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Photos and text © by Russ Johnston