Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat

Trumpeter

Previewed by Brett Green

Trumpeter's 1/32 scale F4F-4 Wildcat will be available online from Squadron.com

Trumpeter's new 1/32 scale F4F-4 Wildcat comprises 223 injection molded parts in grey plastic and clear styrene (including a clear cowl), rubber tires, a small bag of metal rods, a photo-etched fret with hinges for control surfaces and an acetate sheet with printed instruments.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

I was quite surprised by the large number of recessed rivets in the wings. The remainder of the parts were more subdued in this respect, with crisp, recessed detail on the fuselage halves.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Control surface textures are a little exaggerated though, with prominent raised ribs on the elevators and peculiar, capsule-like shapes representing fabric texture on the rudder. Light sanding will improve these areas.

All control surfaces are movable, including the flaps. Each control surface is connected using a metal rod and photo-etched hinges. It will be interesting to see how these work in practice. Curiously, even though the rudder is hinged, it is sharply squared off at the leading edge. Some modification will be required.

The wings folds are also workable. These are hinged via a single styrene pin inside the wing, so care will be required when handling the model and operating the wing fold.

The cockpit shares the error of most other F4F kits, in that it has a solid floor. In this large scale the problem will be more obvious. However, the cockpit also contains some nicely detailed parts. Quadrants, boxes and cases are all supplied separately so there is ample potential to complete a superdetailed cockpit without a floor and with some scratchbuilt structural detail added to the lower half of the fuselage.

Detail in the engine is not bad, but we are presented with only short intakes for the intercoolers. Adding wiring detail on the engine will be worth the effort as it will be quite visible in this scale.

The clear parts are really very good. They are thin and clear, and the shape of the canopy parts is accurate.

Comparison to Drawings and Other Kits

Even while the kit was still on the sprues, something did not look right when I examined the fuselage and canopy parts. This impression was reinforced by diagrams in the instructions. At first I thought that the windscreen angle was to steep, but I could not quite put my finger on the source of the problem.

I decided to scale-up the 1/72 scale drawings in Bert Kinzey's 2000 edition of "F4F Wildcat in Detail" to both 1/48 scale and 1/32 scale. Please note that I did not rely purely on the comparisons with a single set of dramatically upscaled drawings. I also tested the important discrepancies by checking photographs and the shape of other Wildcat models.

My conclusion is that there are serious discrepancies between the drawings and some fundamental shapes on this model. Further comparison with photos and the Tamiya 1/48 scale F4F-4 suggests that there are some real problems with the outline of Trumpeter's kit. The diagram below indicates the areas of discrepancy between the side profile drawing and the kit fuselage/rudder:

The main problems are:

1. The rudder hinge line is located approximately 3mm too far aft. However, the rudder itself is close to the correct size, and the leading edge of the fin is in the correct position. The effect is that the vertical tail is noticeably too wide.

2. The access hatch is in the wrong position and is the wrong shape

3. The fuselage spine should be almost a straight line, but a noticeable downward curve has been added near the canopy.

4. The nose is as much as 6mm too short in height, and does not taper steeply enough to the engine cowling. As a result of problems 3 and 4, the canopy line has been altered to suit these new shapes. This means that the angle of the canopy, which should be angled upward almost in line with the fuselage spine, is almost flat. Interestingly though, the shapes of the windscreen and the sliding canopy section seem to be very accurate. They just look odd because they will be mounted at the wrong angle.

5. The top cowl intake is squared off, not angled forward as it should be.

6. In addition to these outline and dimensional problems, the cuffs on the propeller blades appear to be proportionally too long. The diameter of the propeller assembly is close to correct though.

The image below shows the actual Trumpeter fuselage laid over the scaled-up plans:

The wings are also too short in span by a total of around 10mm, although this is not as noticeable as the fuselage contours. However, each aileron is also 5mm short. The shape of the wingtips is also wrong:

I compared the Tamiya 1/48 scale Wildcat fuselage to the 1/48 upscaled drawings. Conformance between the drawings and the Tamiya kit in the areas of the fin, the fuselage hatch, fuselage spine and the nose was much closer: