Midway Week! Entex 1973 Grumman F4F Wildcat Vintage Model Airplane Kit Unboxing Review

Рет қаралды 977

Ай бұрын

Howdy! Welcome back to the channel. Continuing Midway Week with the main US fighter at the Battle of Midway, the Grumman Wildcat! A reissue by the short lived Entex from 1973 from an Aoshima mold from 1964. Have you built one o these or one its other issues? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for watching!

Пікірлер: 43

@MrDastardly Ай бұрын

Now who does not like a Wildcat?? Very informative presentation. 👏👏👏

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

I think the Wildcat is my favorite of the prop cats from Grumman. Panther is my number one jet cat.

@maxbrandt6 Ай бұрын

I'm more of a Tigercat fan myself! 😊

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

@@maxbrandt6 I remember getting the Monogram 1/72 Tigercat as a kid and annoyed by the lack operating features! You couldn’t even build it with the gear up!!

@stevecausey545 Ай бұрын

This was a surprise. Captain Dan! That got a laugh out of me....

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

Life is like an Entex kit, you never know what you’re gunna get!

@stevecausey545 Ай бұрын

@@CelebratingVintageModelKits I built a few entex kits..my favorite was the Fiat X19...what a cool kit.

@paulbervid1610 Ай бұрын

Great video and very historical

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

Thanks for watching Paul!

@maxbrandt6 Ай бұрын

Good review of this rough nugget of a model kit, fortunately things have improved for Wildcat fans.

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

Even at the time of the original issue in 1964 I think it was already being outclassed by other makers. The folding wings were a bonus, even if they were done pretty sketchy!

@modelermark172 Ай бұрын

I never built this one. I was interested in the folding wings - a feature not usually seen in 1/72nd scale aircraft kits. But I had joined the local IPMS Chapter in 1975 at age 15 when I first saw this kit at the local hobby shop where we held our meetings. The older club members steered me away from this kit; warning me about the soft engine detail, questionable landing gear, and spartan-even-for-the-time cockpit. Instead, I got the bagged kit from Airfix that also haled from 1964, but gave me a much better base to work with. As a sidebar, I had the good fortune to have been a member of IPMS Gateway in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. I literally studied under the Masters of the time - of ALL time, really - including Bob Letterman and Lewis Pruneau, among others. I even got to meet Francois Verlinden one day at the same hobby shop (who was being shown around by Bob Letterman) where I almost bought the Entex F4F a few years earlier. Thanks for sharing this with us. 5th Like.

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

Did the 64 airfix have a folding wing option. I think I built one of the MPC Profile series issues of the kit and I don’t remember.

@modelermark172 Ай бұрын

@@CelebratingVintageModelKits The Airfix kit did not have a folded-wing option, but my then-new IPMS mentors advised me it was a better base kit to start with. If I wanted folded wings, that was nothing a little extra work, sheet plastic, and good reference material couldn't fix. Also, I was advised to chose between extended wings or folded wings, and to NOT make it as a working option. Any "working features" like retractable landing gear, foldable wings, or opening canopies - I was told - would make the model "toy-like," and would require plenty of compromises in detail to make it work. (I have distinct memories of arguments at hobby shops when it came to the F-111 and the then-new F-14, and whether or not building one with working variable-geometry wings violated this dogma . . . .) In 1975 when my F4F experience happened, the only sheet plastic our hobby shop had was Plastruct, which was ABS, and not styrene. (Evergreen Sheet Plastic was still about two years away.) Research was also more difficult since you had to "luck-into" finding it by chance at the library, or finding a Squadron-Signal book on your subject that cost as much as your kit. In my early days as a 'Serious' modeler, my "next project" was often dictated by what information I could find at the library - which was usually my first stop before going to the hobby shop when I got my driver license. As an aside, though I met many of the Masters, I never had the opportunity to meet Shep Paine; the man I credit more than any with keeping me in the hobby.

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

@@modelermark172 All very true. Not only did kits get better over the years, so did the reference material available and accessible. Living in southern California, I was able to go to many museum and manufacturers archives when I wanted to find more info for building. Now its at the click of a mouse of touch of a screen!

@AlanToon-fy4hg Ай бұрын

Had a 1/144 B-1A from them, bought it 50 years ago...

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

I thought that might have been one of the few ones they made themselves but Scale mates shows it being made by G-mark of Japan. They only made a couple of planes. Possibly commissioned by Entex?

@peterhewson3216 Ай бұрын

Guess and by God instructions. The latter comment probably refers also to the response when checking the kit out! Have a soft spot for Wildcat kits- love the aircraft and also it was the first ever WW2 model I ever built in 196..frozen to death lol!

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

Yeah those instructions were were about as clear as the canopy plastic!

@neillowe8230 Ай бұрын

Built this in the early 1970's, not the easiest assembly. Still have most of it's bits to rebuild it.

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

Time to resurrect that old bird! Thanks for watching!

Ай бұрын

Great video 🙂👍

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

Thanks! And thanks for watching!

@russkinter3000 Ай бұрын

I have to admit I didn't know Entex made the Wildcat. I had their B 1 bomber and ten-speed bicycle (two copies, actually with one still in an unopened box). I always regretted not getting their four antique planes in one box

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

They certainly had an eclectic mix of kits. I remember getting some of their Formula 1 cars including a JPS. Damn that was a good looking race car! I may still have them at my parents house. Review worthy?

@stuarthanna2417 Ай бұрын

Believe it originated in 1964 from Aoshima.

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

Glad you kept watching!

@garyleblanc2170 Ай бұрын

Looks like a fairly nice kit but they should have included more detailed painting and decaling instructions. I love the Wildcat and all the Grumman fighters from WW2. The wildcat hellcat, tigercat and bearcat. Nice review and as always very informative.😊

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

Wildcat is my fav prop cat and Panther my fav jet cat.

@garyleblanc2170 Ай бұрын

@@CelebratingVintageModelKits yes! I'm not really a Jet guy but I love the look of the panther it looks fast just sitting on the ground. And also my idol Ted Williams flew one in Korea.

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

@@garyleblanc2170 Bridges at Toko-ri and Men of the Fighting Lady seemed to be on every month on the local channels when I was a kid. Solidifying my love of the Panther!

@garyleblanc2170 Ай бұрын

@@CelebratingVintageModelKits yes great movies

@johnreep5798 Ай бұрын

1973 air, probably had second-hand tobacco smoke in it.

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

A couple of the solid metal models i showed in the airliner show haul were coated in a tobacco film!

@pauladams286 Ай бұрын

The USS Lexington was CV-2, USS Saratoga was CV-3. Entex was not exactly a quality outfit. As you say, the box has Movable Flaps - but it is the ailerons that are movable. Also, no rudder stripes on the decal sheet, and only four roundels although the aircraft on the box top seems to have six roundels. The Buffalo had an even worse box top, calling the aircraft the FZAZ, when they meant F2A-2.

@CelebratingVintageModelKits Ай бұрын

Did I get those reversed?!? I know better than that! I guess I was distracted by the amazing decals provided! Thanks for keeping me honest!