1/350 Trumpeter Wildcat

by Wild Bill

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Silly Week 2005

 

Um, okay, so usually people spend a lot of time researching their topic so they can write all kinds of facts, figures and anecdotes about how great their subject is.  But since this plane only took a couple hours to build, and it IS Silly Week, I felt it was incumbent upon me to do as little research about the subject as possible and offer virtually zero historical value to this subject.  It is certainly a Wildcat, and well, it appears to be American.

For the purists, I apologize for my triteness (if that's even a word).  The REAL historical value of this model is that I got a free airplane out of the deal.  Well, actually I got two free airplanes because of this kit!  First, the girlfriend saw this plane and said "If you buy me one, and build it today, I'll buy you any kit in the store!"  We walked out of the store with the tiny Wildcat (a box of 10 actually) - I also had an Academy 1:32 Hornet under my arm, and she was mumbling something about "I didn't know they could cost that much..."

The icing on the cake is that Uncle Rick wanted to push me to expedite the build, so he offered to refund my money if I finished in less than one month.  I ended up meeting the challenge, but to ensure the auspicious win was recorded, I paid for half the kit price in return for a plaque stating that I won the challenge... just in case anyone stirred up doubt someday....

To give a sense of scale, the plane was photographed on a 1973 Canadian Quarter commemorating the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  The Wildcats are an easy build, but note that the wingfold joint is where they separate the wing, and the two halves will not fit together straight without a bit of scraping.  That might not sound bad, but I now have to scrape extra material out of the wing joints on 40 airplanes as I will someday have to build the girl an entire air force of mini Wildcats.  I'm building them one at a time to maximize the "in kind" payments!!!

Bill

Photos and text © by Wild Bill Bulek