[1250ships]

Another of my Dragon pickups this week is the F4F-4 Wildcat of VF-9 embarked on the USS Ranger for Operation Torch. Of the models I picked up I like this one the best. Perhaps because it has the fewest parts to assemble! The gear down option is well done but not very steady. Time for glue! I thought the gear up parts looked a bit cheesy- not a problem for me because I want gear down but your milage may vary. Only other part to deal with is the antenna.

The canopy I might have prefered not to have the opening feature but displayed open it is pretty nifty. Looks good next to my Easy Model Wildcats. It is good enough that I'll probably get some more if Dragon keeps releasing them. A Fleet Air Arm Martlet would be a nice addition.

Again in the interest of full disclosure I am a Dragon dealer and sell their cruise ship models but don't stock anything else. You can salt my opinions accordingly. And yes- that is the display base from the Corgi Corsair set. I've seen them on Ebay now for under $50.....

[jim]

The little Wildcat always makes me smile when I see it flying.
First in the display is the Bearcat and Tigercat roaring past closely followed by the Hellcat and then putt putting on behind comes the little Wildcat. Rasping putting away for all its worth trying to keep up. Lovely sight to see.
A relative of mine worked on them and said they are a sturdy little fighter and very easy to maintain and at the time the Fleet air arm was very glad to have them.

[djjeffhall]

1250Ships,
Thanks for the pictures. The Dragon Wildcat is a nice bird. Like you said, not to many fiddly bits, which I usually don't mind, but can become cumbersome.

It would be really nice if you could get the display bases separately as I'm sure that most of us have carrier birds that would go nicely on them. (Wishful thinking I know......)

[ZS-VAN]

Very nice Ships. I'd ordered one from the Mule, White 23, USS Yorktown, but they failed to include it in the dispatch. Thankfully it's now on the way! Really looking forward to it now that I've seen yours.

[lanslide]

I REALLY wanted this version but Dragon got it wrong! "Operation Torch" upper wing national insignias are suppose to be without yellow surrounds while the lower wings should have the yellow surrounds.

[leeG]

I worked with a gentleman who told me about a demonstration he saw at Grumman just after the end of WW II. They had a Wildcat, Hellcat and Bearcat lined up on the runway side by side. All three throttled up and released their brakes at the same time. At the moment the Wildcat was starting to crank its gear up, the Hellcat was at about 500 feet with the gear fully retracted and the Bearcat had climbed out of sight.