Alright, guys. This is finally my F4U finished. I already finished it months ago, but I did not post it here because I was busy (sorry
) But, I am very happy with how it turned out. The last time I posted progress of my F4U was almost 9 months ago, and this is what has happened since.
So last time, I finished the cockpit, the tail gear, and the propellor. I told you guys about the problem with the main landing gears not being able to properly retract.
Anyway, I fixed that problem. What I did was everytime I wanted the main gears to retract, I just removed the tires and retracted the gear since it took little space (the strut, anyway).
Once I was done sealing the cockpit, I painted the engine. I forgot how I made the blue that recreated the R2800 Double Wasp's crankcase (I think it was Tamiya White and Blue together with grey mixed into it). I painted the engine aluminum, and the pushrods black. Once done, I sprayed the whole engine bay with semi-gloss and weatherd it a bit.
![](https://i.postimg.cc/9FmFgckN/image.png)
![Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp - Wikipedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Pratt_%26_Whitney_R-2800_Engine_1.jpg)
Because the engine is not separated from the front assembly (it's already molded in contrary to Tamiya engines), it was a bit hard to detail it. Painted the inside lining black to simulate depth and shadows.
I then sealed the engine with tape, and puttied some nasty gaps:
![](https://i.postimg.cc/Qx9n3TvB/image.png)
I sanded it down, and then I primed it with Tamiya Surface Primer L.
Once that's done, I sprayed a basecoat of XF-17 Sea Blue. Before spraying, I learned that the blue itself was too dark for smaller models, so I decided to marble in a lighter version of the XF17 ( I added some white and blue). This was the result.
![](https://i.postimg.cc/rsdgMBZ6/image.png)
You can see each panel with this technique, and I thought it was a good try,
Once I was done was that, I then sprayed gloss on top of the marbled coat to prepare for the decals.
The decals were a bit thick, but using Mirco Set and Micro Sol helped it to conform to the curves the plane has.
![](https://i.postimg.cc/vBTtvRs1/image.png)
The final steps of the model were sealing the decals with Semi-Gloss. I weathered the fuselage a bit, and added some scratches from where the pilot will exit the cockpit.
I also added a smoke stain to where the exhaust is with Tamiya Buff and Flat Black. Once this was finished, I attatched the armaments and the bombs and rockets, and the propeller as well (which I have slightly weathered).
This is the final result.
![](https://i.postimg.cc/PJ8bBmNT/image.png)
![](https://i.postimg.cc/XvzQmNxK/image.png)
![](https://i.postimg.cc/PfZ2VjDZ/image.png)
Needless to say, I was very pleased with the result. I was able to make a good model even with the problems this kit has (fitment issues, manual problems). I was happy to finish this from the summer, and I again apologize for the long wait for this.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my model!
Teenage Modele