F4U Corsair

there are a number of ways to apply both sand and water. someone else will really have to help you with the water. get yourself a good base....decide how big you need it and add 2 inches...never hurts. get some celluclay at your lhs and mix (sparingly) with water and white glue and apply to your base (cover about a 1/4" around the base with blue tape b4 u apply mat'l). some people use spatula's or knives or whatever...i use my finger. doesnt matter as it will be covered up anyway. b4 the celluclay dries, pull your tape up. you may have to tap the ends down that come up where you applied your celluclay over the tape. (assuming you have). when the celluclay dries in a few days add white glue across the top of the area you want to be sand. dont just glob it on but again (i use my finger), spread it across thinly. get some sand (pool sand, kid sand for sand box or just look around outside) and sprinkle over the glue. you may have to do this more than once if it doesnt cover completely. that's it...that's my way...im sure you'll get other's as well!

Thanks ... very greatly apreciated...

axel, check w/ the ship guys (or even the recently posted U-boat in rough seas dio) and just ask those guys.

I've never done it ... yet .... but to my understanding its all about clear resin, some celluclay, and loads of Fuure floor polish.

You say that you want the Corsair on the beach .... are you going for a downed AC dio, or are you trying to show one at the end of a runway? Possibly near a hanger? Just do some "Google" searching for F4U's and I'm sure that you'll come up with some ideas.

I get all my build inspirations from actual photographs.

Well i'm trying to depict a corsair in working condition, but maybe stored off to the side of the runway or something. i'm not aming for complete accuracy, just something nice and interesting to look at.  I got the idea off of a photo i found (don't know where) but it was just an F4u sitting on a beach about 3 or 4 meters from the sea whith the pilot standing next to it.  I don't know if it was an actual realistic photograph, or just a pose for the pilot, but i liked the idea and thought i might try it out. Thanks for the tip about the ships, it never even crossed my mind. Thanks!

Something similar to this:

 

with something that flat axel you might get away with just white glue and sand. you may not need celluclay at all. unless you want to put a small hill in your dio (just to break it up) or whatever.

camo junkie wrote:

with something that flat axel you might get away with just white glue and sand. you may not need celluclay at all. unless you want to put a small hill in your dio (just to break it up) or whatever.

IMHO, you should ALWAYS use some sort of groundwork base like Celluclay or other clay like substance, even is you smooth it down thouroughly. Nature is not flat. The smoothest surface has some organic texture: slight rises and dips from the effects of wind, rain, roots and animals. An 11,000 pound aircraft sitting on three points is going to leave a mark on a sandy surface.

I'd also do some research on the beach issue...were there any islands with a landing strip that close to the beach?

ajlafleche wrote:

camo junkie wrote: with something that flat axel you might get away with just white glue and sand. you may not need celluclay at all. unless you want to put a small hill in your dio (just to break it up) or whatever. IMHO, you should ALWAYS use some sort of groundwork base like Celluclay or other clay like substance, even is you smooth it down thouroughly. Nature is not flat. The smoothest surface has some organic texture: slight rises and dips from the effects of wind, rain, roots and animals. An 11,000 pound aircraft sitting on three points is going to leave a mark on a sandy surface. I'd also do some research on the beach issue...were there any islands with a landing strip that close to the beach?

i normally believe that too ajlafleche. just looking at the picture and depending on the size...hhhmmm....may also depend on what he has in mind in terms of is he going to put in trees, a section of runway or whatever...and yeah, i handn't thought about the weight of the plane on the sand itself...good point!

I'm planning on putting a couple palm trees in the back ground (not too many) and i'm planning on making some *slight* elevation on the base just to keep it form looking too boring.  At this point, i'm not intending to put in any runway sections,  but i might change my mind.

I'm not sure if there were any runways this close to the ocean on any of the pacific islands, or if they just kept them to the side for matinence/ storage.  

Axel Smith wrote:

I'm planning on putting a couple palm trees in the back ground (not too many) and i'm planning on making some *slight* elevation on the base just to keep it form looking too boring.  At this point, i'm not intending to put in any runway sections,  but i might change my mind. I'm not sure if there were any runways this close to the ocean on any of the pacific islands, or if they just kept them to the side for matinence/ storage.

The hardstands/revetments were quite some distance from the runways...  On Vella LaVella for instance (VMF 214's home) the revetments were back in the jungle along with the buildings, all tucked under nets and jungle canopy..  Others paralled the shoreline, but were still quite some distance from the water... Runways and such had to be built on solid ground to take the weight of combat aircraft and beach sand ain't that good for runways.. Also, the tire pressures needed for runway take-off are much higher than the pressures for moving in sand.. Aircraft that try to taxi on beaches will likely get stuck..

 

Hey Alex

The one time I did water, I used a clearcoat called 'Polycrylic' by Minwax.  It is a really easy product to use.  I added Tamiya blue to it (since it is an acrylic, I had no trouble mixing Tamiya paints with is) and then poured it onto my base in thin layers (no deeper than 1/8" at a time).  The nice thing is that, since it is a clear coat, you can really vary the sense of depth and the color of the water easily.  It also dries pretty fast so you can build up your layers rapidly.  Since it is clear, you can also paint your base a sandy color if you are simulating shallow water - even with the blue paint added, it is still semi-tranparent if you use it thin enough.

I got a can of the stuff at Home Depot for about $5 - $10.  It is in with the other stains and comes in a can with a blue label.

I'll tell you, if I could do it, then this stuff MUST be pretty easy to use!!

Huh, okay thanks HvH, i never even thought about the tire pressure.  hmm... i might need to rethik this... and thanks Byod for the tips with the water, i'm sure it will help a lot (if i decide to do it on the beach)

I just did some water for a diorama and I used woodland stuff that I picked up at Michele's for a few dollars.


Hope that helps, Jim.

I usually use painted plaster for water, painted and then covered with high gloss stuff like clear polyurethane varnish, or "Mod-poge", which is a decoupage covering... It brushes on like white glue and dries rock-hard in a high-gloss...

I usually use that method for fast water and oceans... Here's the 1/48th plaster/Mod-podge ocean I did earlier in the year..

Man, I REALLY need to finish that build...

Have any spare coral around that you can crush?

Uh i think so... could i use that for sand or something?

LOL...

Axel Smith wrote:

Uh i think so... could i use that for sand or something?

The Navy Seabees used coral to make runways.

Oh I see... heh, sorry i'm new at this... it kinda shows doesn't it...

Okay, so for my dio, I'm planning on putting in three palm trees, the only problem is that  can't find any palm trees in a 1/ 48 scale, i've looked everywhere on the internet i can think of, verlinden doesn't have any palm trees is a 1/48 and i've looked on ebay and everything... So if anyone knows where i could some 1/48 palm trees it would be greatly appriciated iff you could tell me... Thanks

clear casting resin is great water.. you need to use another product in conjuction with the resin to create disturbed water, foam, waves ect. ect. I use woodland scenics Water Effects...it did pretty good. I'm getting ready to start a pacific dio myself...I'm going to scratch some palms, Ill let you know how they turn out! 

note disturbed water at foot.

Thanks for the tips on woater Stern0, and post those palms when you're done with them 

If I may suggest something a little different. How about displaying the Corsair on a carrier's deck. Several companies make deck sections that look fantastic and are fairly inexpensive.  

This pic might be of intrest.

Found here.

A few more interesting pix at the bottom of the page. 

Eric... 

Well,plastickjunkie I might have to do that if I can't pull off the beach and water... and thanks for those pics Eric, they helped alot... the Corsair is almost finished, (just waiting for a couple of rattlecans in the mail), and i'm more or less done with the design plans for my base, and hopefully i'll start working on it soon