Hi Chad and guys, I am also very interested as this plane has been high on my list for several years. I happen to already have available scale accessories for it as well. I have both of the Curtis Electric style props as well as the Hamilton Standard depending on what you need, FM-2, F4F ect. I also have the dummy radial(s) 9cyl for the R-1820 or 7 (14 cylinder) for the Pratt and Whitney R-1830. I am lucky for the gear as I happened into a pretty good and almost completed set for cheap that someone made but never finished the plane itself. As I have looked into CNC'ng a set of my exact 1/6 scale Corsair Gear it is just not practical do to the number of parts this way unless you keep it pretty basic and simplified for the Wildcat. I am most likely going to have many of these Corsair parts investment cast which should be substantially cheaper. The Wildcat could be done much in the same fashion. We would just need a good CAD modeler to first create the components digitally. I could then print them out on one of our 3D printers and use those as a basis for casting masters. You would still need a few people onboard with the project to make it cost effective. I agree with the "challenges" of the Karlson design and construction approach. Chad, going by your other work I am sure you could keep that nice scale outline tht Bob did, but make it a hundred times easier and better to construct. I would also really love to have the option of doing the folding wings as well. Since they were manually folded, you would not have to worry about a drive mechanism, just the hinging hardware. The plane just looks so cool with the wings tucked it!
-Dave