Arma Hobby 1/72 F4F-3 Wildcat
By Matt Bittner
Overview
When Arma Hobby announced their Wildcat series (which started with the FM-2) they mentioned they would release the F4F-3 in the future. Well, lo and behold the future is here, just a few years after the announcement was made. And it was an worthwhile wait.
Arma Hobby has made a brand new tooling for the F4F-3 (hereafter just referred to as the "-3"). Comparing the -4 with the -3, you can see the -3 take advantage of lessons learned with the -4. For example, there isn't the same complexity in the wheel well in the -3 that existed in the -4, FM-1 and FM-2; the entire upper part of the wheel well no longer exists in the -3, which was difficult to see in the final build. In addition, the -3's landing gear is a bit simpler: you don't have to use any sort of jig to build the landing gear, instead all pieces are as-is on the sprue. As with the -4, you can glue the landing gear into the gear well after painting; a definite help.
Thankfully Arma Hobby did their research and includes all pieces to make all of the -3s: first, second and third production group, along with the -3A. This includes three different windscreens; two different gun sights (including the telescopic gun sight); four different tail wheels; two different pitot tubes; three different cowl faces; two different forward fuselage pieces between the cowl and fuselage (which takes care of the different cowl cooling flaps); and two different engine front-pieces. Everything you need to build the four different -3 types. If you decide to build an aircraft from the first two production groups then you'll need to do a bit of kit surgery, but it's nothing major. There are two bulges on each side of the fuselage between the wing and the beginning of the cowling. These did not exist on the first two production groups so definitely check your references of the aircraft you're modeling before you carefully sand these away.
In the past the only part we had to convert the Hasegawa -4 into the -3 was at least new wings, and depending on the conversion manufacturer a new cowl. But these conversions did not go to the extent that Arma Hobby has with their new kit; on these conversions everything that wasn't provided was needed to be fashioned by the modeler.
Note that my primary point of reference is the Detail & Scale publication on the Wildcat.
The Kit
The new Arma Hobby F4F-3 Wildcat consists of 73 parts in injected grey plastic; 12 parts in clear plastic, plus a three-part assembly jig; canopy and wheel masks; and markings for three aircraft:
- F4F-3 “F-5”, VF-2, USS Lexington, flown by Lt. Albert O. Vorse Jr., Battle of the Coral Sea, May 1942
- F4F-3 BuNo 4019 “211-F-11”, VMF-211, Wake Island, December 1941
- F4F-3 “F-13”, VF-3, USS Lexington, early 1942
Decals are now printed by Cartograf and look excellent. The sheet includes instrument panel decals, along with other decals for the cockpit sides. Also included are decal seat belts. Note that via the QR code on the instruction sheet you can download STL files to print your own replacement items: seat with insitu harness, exhaust pipes, landing gear opening mechanism chains, cockpit control lever set, and gun barrels.
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Now to compare the two kits, as far as I can, by primarily looking at the instruction sheets and remembering my build of the F4F-4.
It appears the cockpit has the same parts, but the instructions are just a little different with the new -3 release. The next few steps are basically the same but one area that is left out of the -3 release is the upper detail between the firewall and the front of the fuselage; nothing exists in this area at all anymore. It's not a huge deal as a lot of it would be difficult to see, but unusual in its absence; instead the front of the fuselage where the cowl sides and front are added to, is now part of the main fuselage halves.
The next series of steps involve the forward fuselage as well as gluing the fuselage halves together. A simplification Arma made was with the engine. With the earlier releases the engine assembly included the exhaust collection pipes behind the engine. These no longer exist. Again, a difficult-to-see area so the parts deletion won't be missed. Now you add the cowl sides and the cowl front and you definitely want to pay attention if you're building something other than the kit-supplied schemes. Be sure to check your references for which parts to use because they were different between the three production groups of the -3, as well as the -3A.
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Attention is now turned towards the tail, once the fuselage halves are assembled. Thankfully Arma still provides the stabs and rudder as separate pieces so those can be positioned. The area in this set of instructions to pay attention to is the tail wheel, which was specific to the version of the -3 and -3A. Even if you finish the model using one of the kit's schemes you still have to pay attention as there are two tail wheels to choose from.
Another change are the air scoops under the wings. On the -4 the internal structure was molded into the wing and you added the external scoops. On the -3 the scoops are molded to the wing while the internal structure is separate and added to the inside of the wing before the wing halves are glued together. Arma provides 100lb bombs and racks with the -3 so if you want to use them, you'll need to drill the holes on the inside of the lower wing sections for the racks.
Now comes the area that gave everyone fits when the FM-2 was first released, the landing gear. Arma had you bend one of the pieces into shape, and then you carefully glued that to the other part of the main gear, after assembling that part also from two pieces. Thankfully the F4F-4 release made it only a little bit easier by providing a jig to use to help build the landing gear, but the -3 goes one even better. There is no longer any bending or trying to assemble bits and pieces to make the landing gear. Not counting the landing gear doors, the -3 has six pieces for its gear versus eight - that included bending and gluing unusual pieces together - for the FM-1/2 and -4. A welcome reprieve. Adding the gear to the firewall is the same, though.
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While the -3 could carry external fuel tanks, it wasn't a frequent occurrence. Because of that Arma does not provide any in the -3 kit. If you have reference to a -3 with external tanks, then you'll need to source them from an earlier Arma Wildcat release.
As mentioned above, Arma provides different gun sights (including the telescopic one) so use your references to decide which one to use if you're not using any of the markings from the kit.
Conclusion
Finally, we have an excellent kit in 1/72 of the Grumman F4F-3! While it took a few years from when it was announced, it was definitely worth the wait. From what I can tell Arma covers everything needed to correctly model the earlier -3 version of the Wildcat. As I've mentioned throughout my review, definitely pay attention to your resources if you plan on building this release as something other than what the kit decals provide. I am sure that Arma will release the -3 in other versions and will spell out exactly what needs to be accomplished for that boxing if you want to wait. If not, study references and make your decision. I am really looking forward to working on this kit.
Huge, huge thanks to Arma Hobby for not only producing this early version of the Wildcat, but also providing it for review.