Grumman F4F on floats

[Charles_c]

Are you lads aware that Grumman actually stuck floats on a F4F "Wildcat" and called it a "Wildcatfish" ? I modified a Guillow's "Spitfire" to a Spitfire Mk-Vb Floatplane, and was wondering if I could do the same for the "Wildcatfish". Does, or did, Guillows ever product a model of the F4F ???

Attached is a pic of the F4F-3S on floats....

Charles

[Phugoid]

I don't know, but Veron did, you should be able to find the plan on line....

Andrew

[Steve Blanchard]

There is a plan for the Wildcatfish on outerzone.uk onlne. it was an updated Earl Stahl plan by Tom Nallen . I'm sure it was engineered perfectly! Earl Stahl was one of the greatest scale freeflight modelers of all time and Tom Nallen is definitely one of the best as well. Here is the link http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=307

Steve

[Charles_c]

Thanks, Steve. I have downloaded the plans and blew them up so the wingspan is now 17 inches. That should be close to a 1/24 scale. As soon as I get to the LHS and get some balsa, I'm going to start construction. Never did any scratchbuilding, before, this should be interesting. The big problem will be the canopy.

Charles

[Bill Gaylord]

Heat pulling clear plastic over a mold will work for the canopy. The smaller the easier, and certainly manageable at this size. The simplest way to do it, is to mold only the highly curved front portion, since the rear portion can simply be made with at flat sheet of clear, flexed around the fuselage. The front and rear canopy sections can be carefully glued together, where the glue seam will be painted over, as it will be in the location of the front canopy frame. I've made this style of canopy from both one and two sections. At the scale of the planned Grumman model, it would be a much more relaxing task than the heat pulled canopies I recently made for the Miles Aerovan and Miles M38. I haven't yet decided which one was worse.

[Charles_c]

Looks good, Bill. I just ordered a Hellcat canopy from Guillow's. I think I can make the plans I have fit the canopy, with ease. Got to finish the Japanese P-40 first, tho...

Charles

[Phugoid]

Bill's advice is good since the Guillows canopies are very heavy ( as are most kit canopies) they can be over a gramme, or 10% or the airframe weight of a model this size.

Andrew

[Bill Gaylord]

The Guillows Hellcat canopy should be good. Gotta love a canopy like the Hellcat, where you can simply trim the bottom to change the scale a bit. For your 17" span, I imagine the smaller Guillows Hellcat canopy should be perfect. I'd be half tempted to buy the entire kit, and bash it into a Wildcat. I remember the kit having some of the better die cut and better fitting parts, of the Guillows die-cut kits.

Bill's advice is good since the Guillows canopies are very heavy ( as are most kit canopies) they can be over a gramme, or 10% or the airframe weight of a model this size.

Andrew

That's part of what got me into making them. Some of the heavier canopies, like the older Sig canopies, really weighed. When I started building planes like 30mm EDFs with 12mm inrunners and the older lower power lipos, the weight was really critical. The Guillows canopies are lighter than the Sig bulletproof glass, but for lighter weight a thinner plastic can still be used.

[dlazarus6660]

Are you lads aware that Grumman actually stuck floats on a F4F "Wildcat" and called it a "Wildcatfish" ? I modified a Guillow's "Spitfire" to a Spitfire Mk-Vb Floatplane, and was wondering if I could do the same for the "Wildcatfish". Does, or did, Guillows ever product a model of the F4F ???

Attached is a pic of the F4F-3S on floats....

Charles

Guillow's did not make a flying model of the F4F Wildcat but Comet Models did and Guillow's owns Comet Models now. It had a 32" W/S and I have a set of plans, somewhere.