F4F-3a Wildcat with Kendall Conversion

Tamiya’s excellent little Wildcat kit is a true work of art by itself, I built the F4F when it first came out and just had to do a –3 variant. The Kendall conversion kit is straightforward and needs very little prep to add it to the Tamiya kit. The kit interior was replaced with Kendall’s, painted Testors Interior Green and left to dry.

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The wings were tackled next and seemed intimidating from the way Kendall describes the removal of Tamiya wings. Care must be taken to cut right along the outer lower edge of the wing root, and there should be no problem fitting the resin wings to this joint with a minor sanding. No filler was needed and I was impressed at that. I envisioned a gap and sanding of resin and plastic that would require panels to be rescribed etc.