Mur

Monte
Academy 1/72 Grumman F4F-4. Being one of the cheapest kits I have (I spent 6 bucks I think?), I was really surprised with the kit quality. If it wasn't for that #$%^ undercarriage, I would actually give it top marks for a beginners kit. Now, it does have several technical issues for purists in its depiction of an F4F-4 (and oh gosh - the pilot figure is wanting, but you can only build this with a closed canopy anyway). Still, it went together well, and I think looks fine, out of the box, when painted. I am trying to learn the middle road for weathering, and have gotten more comfortable making my own canopy masks. I have to go early Pacific war markings whenever possible, so I got 3rd party decals from PrintScale. Markings are for one of my favorite pilots: "Swede" Vejtasa of VF-10, USS Enterprise, markings from October 26, 1942, Battle of Santa Cruz. Swede flew two Combat Air Patrols. Shot down two Japanese torpedo bombers in the first CAP, and 5 dive bombers later the same day. An Ace in a day. However author John Lundstrom states that Japanese records only list two dive bombers lost in that attack, oh well.

Robert Podkoński
Good job!

Bas Tonn
Great job !! Expensive kits are nice but El Cheapo is great fun as well

Monte
Academy 1/72 Grumman F4F-4. Being one of the cheapest kits I have (I spent 6 bucks I think?), I was really surprised with the kit quality. If it wasn't for that #$%^ undercarriage, I would actually give it top marks for a beginners kit. Now, it does have several technical issues for purists in its depiction of an F4F-4 (and oh gosh - the pilot figure is wanting, but you can only build this with a closed canopy anyway). Still, it went together well, and I think looks fine, out of the box, when painted. I have to go early Pacific war whenever possible, so I got 3rd party decals from PrintScale. Markings are for one of my favorite pilots: "Swede" Vejtasa of VF-10, USS Enterprise, markings from October 26, 1942, Battle of Santa Cruz. Swede flew two Combat Air Patrols. Shot down two Japanese torpedo bombers in the first CAP, and 5 dive bombers later the same day. An Ace in a day, but Lundstrom states that the Japanese only recorded two dive bombers lost in that attack - oh well.

Monte
Hoping for a less eventful build with this one compared to some recent work I did.

Monte
After some time not being happy with the body color, I went ahead with a Vallejo Ash Grey and finished. It turned out more green than I expected, but I think it turned out ok. Actually had fun mixing my own washes with oil paints/thinner. Other than my paint indecision, this was a fun build. Next - I want to get more familiar with OPR.

Monte
Going to set this one aside. I started to apply decals, and every one cracked on me. Then I went to use the stripes for the scheme I had selected (and painted the spinner to match) and their lengths don't seem to be correct. I am moving on to build a few other things, will come back later to it. Maybe...

Monte
So I went back to this after almost a year. With a clearer head, I figured out that my headaches were due to the instructions calling out the wrong stripe decals for a few positions. In the end, the quality of the decals were quite good. The simplicity of the Hobby Boss model bothered me. For example, you can only do a build with gear down, but the inside gear covers are molded in the closed position. However, in the end I am glad that I decided to build this. It gave me a good chance to try NMF for the first time. I love the P-51, and have a Tamiya in my stash I will build in the future, with less frustrations, I hope.

Nicolas
Very nice.

Rui S
Nice work 👍

Monte
Group build project that helped me get my mojo back. I love the TBD-1 but this old kit was intimidating. Going for the paint scheme of Lt. Cdr. Taylor during his raid on the Japanese at Lae-Salamaua Mar 10 1942. Was going for more contrast on the lower/upper colors, but I'll take this. A big first for me - did the canopy mask manually, and survived. Getting the cockpit and fuselage lined up was a challenge, but I am happy overall. Actually got the tiny decal to wrap around the arrestor, didn't think that would happen.