[kabelace]

Been thinking about getting a Dragon F4F to go along with the few other Pacific theater war birds that I have. Any suggestions? Kind of keen on the darker blue instead of the light blue, but the big spinner on these models kind of puts me off.

[admin]

Originally Posted by kabelace

Been thinking about getting a Dragon F4F to go along with the few other Pacific theater war birds that I have. Any suggestions? Kind of keen on the darker blue instead of the light blue, but the big spinner on these models kind of puts me off.

I was curious about that spinner too, I still bought it though I think it's a beauty.

Experiments were performed with large prop spinners to improve aerodynamics, this being something of a "fad" in aircraft design at the time, but as was the case with most of these exercises the spinners turned out to be little more than dead weight and were abandoned.

[FROGGY]

British wildcat with normal spinner.

[Shawn 507]

I have "Mah Baby" and while spinner is longer than normal, I don't think it distracts you from the rest of the aircraft. And the darker color does look good on the Wildcat.
I suppose one could stretch the truth with Dragon Cares and get a prop replacement with the smaller hub. If you needed the smaller one that bad.

[kabelace]

Originally Posted by FROGGY

British wildcat with normal spinner.

Has Dragon made an RAF version yet? I have heard nothing of this. If they did it would definitely be joining my Air force.

[Bluenosed Bastard]

Not yet on an RAF F4F. In regards to the Mah Baby long spinner, you can just pop off the extended piece. Then it looks like the others, really nice!

[HotTrap429]

AbbevilleReaper is right - just use a pair of pliers and gently pull the long spinner off. "Mah Baby" looks nice, but the tail is too short (ala a F4F-4 rather than a FM-2) so if you are a stickler for detail you may not like it. I'd vote for the VF-3 version or the new VF-9 "Operation Torch" one.

Remember that EasyModel also makes a pretty good Wildcat.

[Shawn 507]

So a pair of pliars will take the long piece off the spinner. What are you left with after that? Mine seems a wee bit tight for that trick.

[HotTrap429]

I hear you Shawn, I was worried about the same thing. What you get is a "normal" F4F spinner, only gray. You need to touch it up with silver to make it look right. I thought I was going to have to pull really hard and break it, but the offending spinner cover came off easily. Use two pliers. One on the spinner, the other on the shaft.

[JC Woodman]

Originally Posted by HotTrap429

I hear you Shawn, I was worried about the same thing. What you get is a "normal" F4F spinner, only gray. You need to touch it up with silver to make it look right. I thought I was going to have to pull really hard and break it, but the offending spinner cover came off easily. Use two pliers. One on the spinner, the other on the shaft.

So if I get this correctly the real Mah baby had a regular spinner?
I kinda thought that it was a "pretend" FM-2, inaccurate but still nice looking. I love mine! I like accuracy but am not absolute about it IF the model is generally accurate and looks good. I'm easy!


Easy Model does a pre war yellow wing which I love parked next to the Hobbymaster "yellow" Dauntless.
I am unaware of a British Wildcat though the Easy Model "Emperor" Hellcat is Sweeeeet!