F4F-3 WIP

I'll be using this brassin set for the F4F. It's my first time handling a fully resin cockpit, albeit this one is 3d printed. 

The canopy came damaged, both the unopened and opened versions of this part were damaged in the same way. 

I tried to unwarp a small part of this resin part using hot water, but it curled up the entire piece and as a result I had to straighten out the piece over multiple attempt. There were no guides in the instructions on how this part should be aligned. 

With this bend I managed to get it fitting properly, but the front part holding the instrument panel was backwards, which I learnt a bit later. 

This part is not hollow and has a protrusion on the other side, but the instructions are always done facing towards this end, so I got confused on which way this part should be oriented. 

I thought there was a mistake in the instructions as the part had a protrusion already and it looked hollow in the instructions, but it was my bad. 

It might be hard to see, but this part shows the main downside of 3d printed parts: layer lines. These are very hard to sand on detailed parts like these and will show up with any sort of gloss coat or metallic coat. 

The cockpit parts are all mostly cleaned up and test fitted. 

The holes for the arms in the wheel bay area had to be drilled out, I wasn't expecting this in a new kit. 

The instructions have you install all the arms with this part floating in the middle, only putting it in the fuselage afterward. To make sure the arms were aligned, I temporarily glued it to the fuselage a it sits right in the centre. 

This sub-assembly is almost complete, I managed to get it mostly aligned correctly. 

This part helps align the struts, I think it should be installed earlier than the instructions tell you. 

This engine part came with some very thick sprue gates in hard to cut locations, I couldn't use my nippers here. 

I had to use a fresh knife blade to cut off the runners, I'm not sure why Eduard chose to place them there. 

I decided to glue most of the cockpit together before painting to make sure it fit properly, especially the side consoles. Although it is still a bit warped in places, it doesn't hurt the fit in the fuselage much. 

I didn't do a lot of research, but I couldn't find a photo of a wildcat without this red part, does anyone know what this panel is for and whether the F4F-3 had it? I decided to keep it in as I forgot to remove it before gluing the cockpit together. 

This red part here is tricky to remove, and I've seen some photos of wildcats with both pouches. While the red one can be removed for the Brassin cockpit, the PE19 part I think is already included in the resin side console. 

The instructions tell you to attach this small part to the fuselage sidewall without any good placement diagrams and if placed too low it would prevent the cockpit from fitting properly. I dry fitted the cockpit in the fuselage and glued this part using the side console as a guide. 

The wheel bay, engine and cockpit parts are ready for priming. 

I used Mr Black Finishing Surfacer 1500 for priming the parts here. 

Unless I'm wrong the instructions never mention that this part should be painted flat black, but looking at photos it seems to be black. 

I lost the resin stick, so I test fitted it in both the resin and regular cockpits. 

Because of the connector being a bit different, the angle is further forward. I think this is fine, especially if I can lower the elevators as they seemed to drop fully on the ground. 

The propeller has strange small hard bumps, I'm not sure what this is, I've never seen it before. Maybe it's because the sprue gates are so far away from the propeller tips? 

After priming I realized the right console has some very obvious small holes in it, I think these are air bubbles. I'll try to fill these and if I can't I'll probably either leave it or just abandon the resin cockpit. 

Part N6 should have metal tips and the ring should be the same gray as part N24/25, but the instructions don't mention it. 

The instructions also didnt mention that the top parts here are meant to be black, the painting is a bit messy as I'm not the best with a brush. 

I used Mr Color C13 Neutral Grey for this part, I'm not sure what the exact color is, I think this neutral grey might not be blue enough, but I think it's close enough. 

I tried to fix the holes in the most visible area on top of the radio(?), it looks fine but isn't perfectly smooth as sanding in that area was very difficult. You can also see the clear layer lines in the floor. 

I used MRP-132 Bronze Green. It covered nicely without any thinning with the airbrush. 

I'm unsure on this shade for Bronze Green, I think it might be too light and not green enough. I think it'll look fine after a brown wash. 

I brush painted the black on this part on top of Mr Color MC217 aluminium which is a very nice aluminium color. The painting here is a bit messy again due to inexperience with brush painting. 

I painted most of the interior parts with Hataka Light Grey Lacquer. I struggled a bit to find the correct thinning ratio as it's very thick in the dropper bottle which I didn't really expect. 

You can see the nub marks at the bottom of the arms, I struggled heavilly to sand these parts as they were super fragile and the sprue gates were very thick.. 

The biggest downside with Eduard decals is this large carrier film, you can see that it's a big problem for these small decals, especially ones that need to wrap around something else like decal 10 here. It's only a problem on smaller decals as it can interfere with placing them, but on larger ones it's not a big issue. You can also take off this carrier film afterwards but I've had it tear the decals before. 

The resin cockpit set comes with both a PE and resin instrument panel. I thought both looked ok, the resin one I think would be much better if the layer lines weren't so prominent. I had to use the resin one in the end due to messing up the photo etched one with super glue. The two instrument panels also have different dials on them. 

The wheel bay assembly is almost complete and is ready for a simple wash. The detail and fit is extremely good here, albeit I was careful to test fit it before assembly. 

The wheel bay slots in perfectly in the fuselage without any issues. 

The engine mostly complete, only lacking a wash. I had to take off the front after this photo was taken as the little rods were misaligned. 

I'm not sure what this beige/pinkish looking thing is around some of the parts, I haven't seen it before in Eduard photo etch. Is this something left over from the photo etching process? 

I added decals to the cockpit and before that I gloss coated it, hence the shininess. I also added some photo etch. I'm mostly happy with it, although there are a few imperfections in the paint job/decals. 

I added the seat as well as a small wash to the floor and seat, you can mostly see it on the floor edges on the b ottom. 

The finished cockpit. 

The front of this plane is extremely busy with the wheel bay and cockpit right beside each other. 

I couldnt get the fuselage to fit flush with the cockpit and gear well together, I'm not entirely sure why. It's the worst at the bottom. You can also see how the raised rivets sort of fade out as they reach the bottom of the fuselage. I think this is common with plastic raised rivets. 

There is a manegable gap here. You can also see that I haven't instulled the top cover for the instrument panel that has the reflector gunsight. This is because I will probably install it after painting the fuselage as it would be hard to mask the cockpit with it on. 

I started filling the gaps with a combination of black CA glue and Mr Dissolved Putty, I'll be spraying a primer in these seams to check if they're filled properly before painting the fuselage. 

I tried to cut away this triangular hole in the rudder to fit a necessary piece, but it didn't seem to work. 

I snipped off the top of this piece that needs to attach to the rudder. 

Without this, the piece wouldnt sit flush with the rudder like seen here. 

The bronze landing gear legs needed the thing that holds attaches them to the gear bay shortened a lot to fit, the one on the left here was shortened to fit. 

I mistakenly removed a lip from the stabilizers(?) that looked a bit like flash, the instructions didn't seem to show it so I didn't know it was necessary. As a result, there is a large gap. 

They also didn't fit without enlargening the holes for the tabs, I saw a review somewhere else that had the same issue so I knew about it beforehand. 

I added a lot of superglue to fill the gap, this will be removed with debonder. 

I added the photoetch air intakes to the wings, they have photoetch for both sides but the rear(not pictured) is almost impossible to see due to a very small opening. 

The engine cowling came in three pieces, I filled the gap with superglue. 

The gap after cleaning it up with debonder and a tiny bit of sanding. 

The wings and stabilizers are fitted. I'm thinking of painting the canvas control surfaces separately since apparently they looked a lighter color in photos. They also fit without any glue necessary, so there's no real need to attach them at this point. 

The fit at the wing root for both wings is extremely good. I will only need a tiny bit of filling on the other side. 

I scratched the resin tires while removing them from their casting block, so I sanded away a part of the central hub need the bottom. However, at least I can't really see the scratch anymore. 

There was a gap remaining on this part in the cockpit. I filled it with my trusty black CA for a seamless fill. Due to oversplay, you can also see the result of gap filling the front of it. There's a bit of overspray on the side of the cockpit where a closed canopy would sit, but I'll be painting over it with camouflage color anyway so it's not an issue.