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1/48 Hobbyboss F4F-3


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Is there anybody that can give me some guidance on a Wildcat kit? I, for whatever reason, love the pre-war Wildcat colors of silver fuselage and yellow wings, then last month I got over to the Pensacola Naval Air Museum and they have one there and I had to be drug away from it. So I have slowly been collecting decals to build one but I guess the only kit out for the -3 is the Hobbyboss kit. So is it a good kit, any major issues with it? Any help would be great, thanks.

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They've got a few -3s out. I've got the late one in the stash that I'll build as O'Hare's. Here's a link to an F4F-3 (late) built for the Grumman Iron Works GB in 2013. I'm also slowly building their F4F-3S, which is that kit plus sprues with the floats, struts, and other modified bits (now painting it). Fit and detail are quite nice; you may want additional references for color.

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The Hobbyboss F4F-3 is a nice kit. It's very similar to the Tamiya Wildcat, although the wings are separate rather than being connected via the lower fuselage section like Tamiya, and the landing gear is a bit more petite than the Tamiya ones. Builds up nicely with no fuss - I did the "yellow wing" boxing a few years ago. Get it with no reservations.

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I built the HB F4F-3 early version. It was a nice kit, fairly easy build. I ran into one problem. The clear parts were thin, and I managed to crack the canopy in half. I have also built the Tamiya F4F-4, and I would say the two are comparable.

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Thanks a lot everybody, all your comments have helped me out a bunch. After reading all of your posts, I think I'll have to get me one...got to find it first, seems like several of online stores don't have them right now. Anybody got a spaire? :)

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I guess I will be the one to tell you. I started to build one and like you want a Yellow wing Wildcat in the ccllection. I found while it is a nice kit, Hobby Boss put the Sprue attachment points where they will be on the surface of the part. This,imho makes doing a silver finish that much harder because your surface should be flawless. Otherwise it will show up in the Silver finish.... But no one said anything worth doing should be easy

Go for it!

Max Bryant

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F4F's in the yellow wings scheme weren't shiny silver. They were painted aluminum, so you shouldn't necessarily need perfectly flawless finish like you would with natural metal.

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I am probably one of Hobby Bosses biggest Critics, but I must agree with these guys that it is one of their nicest kits and I also have numerous copies of this kit. I want to build examples from Wake island, Midway island, and Guadalcanal. I am not sure if the MC ever had Silver and Yellow aircraft but they had Gray and Yellow ones for sure. Most people do not realize that many if not most aircraft in the military back than which were silver were actually painted with silver Dope for corrosion protection. Very few were left in bare aluminum untill europe where corrosion was not an issue and never a worry because the aircraft were not expected to last long enough. But The MC and Navy did paint their aircraft silver in ALMOST all cases.

Edited by Otto
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The Marines never had any F4F-3's in the yellow wing scheme. They did have them in the overall Non-Specular Light Gray scheme. You are spot on with your description of the use of 'silver' paint instead of natural metal during the yellow wing period. The Navy from the mid 1930's used aluminium lacquer for metal areas and aluminium dope for fabric. There never were any yellow wing F4f's with gray metal areas - the use of gray for metal areas ended in the mid 1930's when aluminium lacquer was authorized.

Edited by jimmaas
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All paint increases weight. Matt paint increases friction losses. With air superiority in ET and PT, camouflage afforded by paint was less important than the speed benefit of bare metal's reduced weight and friction losses. Also took that much less time in the factory...

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All paint increases weight. Matt paint increases friction losses. With air superiority in ET and PT, camouflage afforded by paint was less important than the speed benefit of bare metal's reduced weight and friction losses. Also took that much less time in the factory...

It's also worth noting that Bare Metal wasn't necessarily Bare Metal. P-51 wings in the NMF finish were actually painted aluminium from the factory, as the wings were puttied. Most other NMF finishes in the late-war/post-war period were actually a mix of NMF and painted aluminium lacquer or dope.

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The Marines never had any F4F-3's in the yellow wing scheme. They did have them in the overall Non-Specular Light Gray scheme. You are spot on with your description of the use of 'silver' paint instead of natural metal during the yellow wing period. The Navy from the mid 1930's used aluminium lacquer for metal areas and aluminium dope for fabric. There never were any yellow wing F4f's with gray metal areas - the use of gray for metal areas ended in the mid 1930's when aluminium lacquer was authorized.

You are right about the F3Fs with yellow wings in the MC. The Marines got them too late for that paintjob. The only bare metal aircraft that the Marines used were, most land based transports, some SNJs and a few F3Fs in 1938. I believe that the only yellow wing monoplane combat aircraft the MC had were SBDs and SB2Us.

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Thanks to everybody that helped me make a decision with your posts, I went looking for a HB Wildcat. I found not one, but two being offered on EBay as a package deal. One is a F4F-3 early kit I was looking for and the other is an FM-1, which I don't really know anything about. As a bonus, the seller was also selling a Wildcat in Action book. So now I'm set, thanks again everybody!

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Thanks to everybody that helped me make a decision with your posts, I went looking for a HB Wildcat. I found not one, but two being offered on EBay as a package deal. One is a F4F-3 early kit I was looking for and the other is an FM-1, which I don't really know anything about. As a bonus, the seller was also selling a Wildcat in Action book. So now I'm set, thanks again everybody!

An FM-1 is a General Motors built F4F-4, without the outer gun and associated access panels on each wing.

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An FM-1 is a General Motors built F4F-4, without the outer gun and associated access panels on each wing.

I will look. I might have an extra one. Not sure though

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