Grumman F4F Wildcat was an American Navy carrier-based fighter aircraft that entered service in 1940. The Wildcat was the only effective fighter available to the Navy and Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater during the early part of the Second World War.
The Wildcat was outperformed by the faster , more maneuverable, and longer-ranged Mitsubishi A6M Zero,
but with an experienced pilot it could hold its own because, with relatively heavy armor and self-sealing fuel tanks, the Grumman airframe could survive far more damage than its lightweight, unarmored Japanese rival. Lessons learned from the Wildcat were later applied to the faster F6F Hellcat. While the Wildcat had better range and maneuverability at low speed, the Hellcat could rely on superior power and high speed performance to outperform the Zero. Wildcat production continued throughout the remainder of the war, with Wildcats serving on escort carriers, where the larger and much heavier Hellcat could not be used. 7,885 Wildcats were built during the war.
The model is from the Tamiya F4-F 1:48 scale kit. I built the model directly out of the box with no additional Photo Etch (PE). I spent some time with the painting details, using black and white patches over the first coat of flat aluminum. This resulted in subtle fading with the final blue/grey final coat. I did a moderate amount of chipping and weathering to finish the model. I used a small paint canvas frame to display the model and a pilot figure from www.plusmodels.cz. Tamiya instructions were very good and, as expected, the part fits were excellent. This would be a good starter build.