My contribution so far....Hobby Boss F4F-3 (Early)

I managed to get this done finally. Between trips to Palm Beach dealing with illness, I managed to get a little bit done each time.

This is Hobby Boss' 1:48 scale F4F-3 "Wildcat". I didn't take a whole bunch of pictures during construction, just a couple here and there. I did enjoy the kit which was started before this group build came online, but languished long enough on the work bench, I think, to make it eligible.

The kit comes packed as a 'Yellow Wing', complete with telescoping gun-sight through the windscreen. I wanted to do a war time -3, so I borrowed the windscreen from H/B's late version. The plane is Lt(jg) Wilmer E Rawie's F-14, which is the aircraft crecited with the first USN shoot down of an enemy plane, by a Fighting Six, off Enterprise. I made paper lap belts, cut from the kit's instruction sheet, using Rafe Morrisey's masking tape technique.

Other than the modifications I mentioned above, the rest of the kit is built O-O-B. Here are a few pictures. Thanks for looking and I'll apologize in advance for my photography issues...


Here are two shots after I got the fuselage together. These two pictures were taken inside a motel near Savannah Georgia, along I-95, last February.




These next shots were right before the finish top flat coat were going to applied...




And here is the finished product. I had taken the model to New Jersey for the IPMS region Two how and there were some GLARING errors with it. I stuck her out there anyway. After the show, I brought it home and put her back in the rack and fixed those screw ups. Did a little reworking of the antenna array, a little more flat coat and weathering, and her she is...









So many models, so little time...