After doing the late Grumman Cat F7F this one got on my
desk. More than ten years after it was first released this kit is still up to date, it
comes with fine details like raised rivets and recessed panel lines.
Only an Aires cockpit set, Moskit exhausts and some antenna
wiring was added. One big advantage of the cockpit set is that the floor really
has holes to look down through the windows at the bottom of the fuselage. Of
course you can cut out the kit floor, too.
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images below to see larger images
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It was a quite easy built, the fit of the Aires parts is very
good. There appeared just one problem: As the rear cockpit plate was too big I
had to fill a little gap between the two fuselage halves. As a result the canopy
does not fit any more and has to be replaced by a vacuformed one. Unfortunately
they are hard to get at Germany, so this is still on my to-do-list.
Moskit exhausts look very realistic.
Of course on this type of aircraft the exhaust are almost hidden down there at
the bottom.
Airplanes used by the Navy at the beginning of WWII do not need
as much weathering as those island-hoppers in 1944/45. So only some silver marks
to represent flaked-off paint were added. Some of the blue panels were
brightened a little by rubbing in some dry white paint using a Q-tip (some stick
to clean your ears
)
As I do not like Tamiya decals these came from a Techmod sheet and went on
quiet well with the help of Microsol an Microset. The model depicts a machine
flown by VF-41 in early 1942. The color used on top must be blue-grey, but isnīt
grey at all. I donīt care as it looks good to me.
Hope you like my Cat!
Dirk
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images below to see larger images
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