Grumman's cats WIP

Stash so far. Wildcat is on the table and next is gonna be Hellcat.

Wildcat - I used thinned white Oilbrusher for instrument panel. I guess it is fine for closed cockpit.

Wildcat - some wash and drybrush

Wildcat - I used decal for seat belts from Hellcat kit, should be fine for closed cockpit as well.

Wildcat - here I am so far

Not much progress during the summer but closing the fuselage soon.

Some progress on Wildcat. Connection wing-fuselage is good on top.

Connection of lower part of wing with fuselage needed a bit of sending and surfacer to eliminate the gap.

Clear parts on its place. Need to clean a glue residuals a bit. Masks will follow.

Little progress on small part.

Engine after drybrush.

Engine in cowling.

Sanded rivets renewed on lower fuselage. I consider it quite ok for the first time

Engine with cowling glued to fuselage. It looks much better now and very close to surfacer.

Lower part, I filled holes for underwing tanks which are not very realistic on Tamyia kit and I adjust it based on Eduard kit

Engine with cowling.

Now, it is black cat but soon to become Wildcat😄 Surface needs some correction before base colour painting, but overall looks ok for me.

I have started to work on another cat. This time it is Panther from Trumpeter and I sprayed cockpit and front wheel bay with black surfacer.

Wildcat - base colour airbrushed on bottom part. Bit of shading will follow.

Finally some movement on Wildcat, I finished upper surface colour today. I used AK Real Colour which are new to me and I am satisfied with result. I think, I will use them more often .

Moved a bit with Panther, cockpit parts after wash and drybrush.

it is time to progress with this built, I have fuselage glued together together this part of the wing where are the intakes. Model is cut in many pieces due to alternative parts and the fit is not the best.

I let it dry for some time and start with filling, sanding, and rescribing panel lines. I am still not decided if I fold the wings or not, I am little bit worried about the fitting in case I keep them straight.

Today, I managed to stick the wings, the fit is not the best as for the whole model. I let it dry for couple days and I am going to start with sanding, filling and rescribing the lines. Not the funniest activity.

Waiting for Panther’s joints to dry I decided to start another Grumman’s cats. It is second Wildcat, F4F-4, but this time from Eduard in Profipack edition. I couldn’t resist anymore and working on cockpit and wheel bay I am really amazed with level of details and fitting.

After some time I am back with Wildcat from Tamiya, I want to finalize it to have more time for other builds. I cut masks for numbers and insignia I struggled with decals. It is not perfect but after some tuning I will be fine with result.

Yesterday, I managed to attach landing gear, so Wildcat finally sits on its own, and spray gloss varnish. Today, I hope to start with wash.

Wash on upper surface is done, I hope to finish lower surface tomorrow.

Bottom side is in wash as well, need to apply varnish and start with the final weathering.

I’ve started with weathering on Wildcat on fuselage in front of cabin.

I finalized top side of Wildcat today.

I moved with weathering to a bottom side. I think it still needs some touches here and there but other than that I am satisfied.

I have retouched the bottom part of fuselage, I didn’t like previous look.

Last pictures of Wildcat in this album, I will post more pictures in dedicated galery.

Light preshading done on Panther.

Upper surface in colour, bottom comes next soon.

After a while, I did some progress on Panther. It was lot of masking for white and silver details but it went pretty well and I am quite satisfied with result, despite some small corrections are needed.

Finally, I decided to mask the tip of the Panther and paint it white than use decals. Didn’t have much trust in them.

I managed to apply decals today, I will wait until tomorrow to see if ai need to use any chemistry to get them settled properly. Small parts are prepared for weathering.