Well, here I sit again...Trumpeter kit in one box, Revell kit in another...this time, it's the revised F4F-4 Wildcat from Trumpeter. To cut to the chase - Trumpeter wins, and wins BIG.
With the exceptions of Trumpeter's "usual" slightly too heavy treatment of the fabric surfaces, the kit is VERY similar to Tamiya's offering in
1/48 at first glance (if you've built the Tamiya kit, the similarities will be pretty obvious). Not a bad start...then there's the engine bay- a very well detailed engine and engine bay including the engine mount, exhaust collector and stacks, seperate pushrods, oil tank, etc. An intercooler does seem to be missing, but would be easily scratch built.
The engine and engine bay seem to be where Trumpeter has provided the majority of additional detail (over and above the outline corrections) .0033..the cowl flaps also do not have the "toothy" appearance that the ones in the Corsair kit have - the cowl and flaps look great. The cowl in this kit is also clear, giving thee builder the option of painting it or not.
Although the instructions show a part with a full floor, the actual part is "semi open" and will be easily opened to repesent the real thing. This of course leaves the builder to fabricate the fuel cell located beneath the foot troughs, but again - not really a difficult bit of scratch building.
The etched hinges are there for all of the surfaces, though the installation of them is much simplified over the Corsair kit - simple through rods trapped by the plastic parts - and should work well. The wing fold is also operational and looks well engineered, though I'll probably drill out the joint and replace the plastic fold stud with a metal pin made from wire just to be sure.
The landing gear also appear to be well molded and sturdy; again, similar to the Tamiya offering in 1/48. Two under wing drop tanks are provided, as well as fully detailed gun bays with seperate cover plates in each wing, and a nice set of semi-hollow rubber tires.
Overall, I'm almost ready to say that the Wildcat kit is nicer than the Corsair one...very well done. I'll be looking forward to seeing how well the wing fold actually works. And I just noticed that that missing intercooler is included in the Eduard etch set for the Revell kit...yup..I'm moving all of my Wildcat aftermarket items into the Trumpeter box...
Keep 'em coming Trumpeter.