WIP - Tamiya 1:32 Vought F4U-1 Corsair Birdcage; #60324 - FINISHED

Just a helpful tip from your Uncle Jay;

Your build is coming along nicely but your drybrushing skills need a little help. It appears that you still have too much paint on the brush because you're not getting that worn paint look. Ya hafta have almost no paint left on the brush (I use a stiff one or a brush trimed down to an eight of an inch long bristles) and go back and forth over the area several times (takes practice). It also helps to use enamel as it dry brushes nicely. I happen to like Testor's Flat Steel in the little square jars. 

I found the drybrushing techniques here form others ,mainly Lawdog ,as follows;  

paint up your office with acrylics, 1st flat black, then 2nd your very thinned interior color.( this helps give a depth to the work ) 3rd spray a  coat of Testor's gloss laquer, 4th, do your dark wash,then 5th dry brush the Flat Steel.  I hope this helps and I didn't miss any steps.

Turbosteve,

I think you've done a nice job so far. I guess there are two things I might mention to be of some help. First, I don't really have the ability to drybrush very well - yet. However I believe that most techniques, when practiced enough, will eventually be mastered. I don't think you did a bad job at all. I simply feel that you'll be more comfortable with the technique, as Jay Jay suggests, with some more practice. The amount of weathering on an IP or in the cockpit in general varies, I'm sure, with the age of the aircraft, how often it was flown, etc. So going nuts with weathering effects can sometimes detract from the end result.

Again, nice job!

Second - push those harnesses closer to the seat bottom and back!

Thanks for the helpful comments guys. Obviously need to 'brush up' on my very limited dry brush technique. I only have acrylic paints and find it dries too quickly, guess I'll have to invest in a little enamel next time round. (or can you also use oils?)

And Mike, harnesses adjusted :)

Yes, there are those that in fact use oils for drybrushing but I find the technique more difficult than enamels. I simply use enamel right from the jar . With oils the proper mixture of thinner to pigment is much more daunting and inconsistant for me IMHO.

So, have had a fruitful weekend, Fathers Day at a classic car show with some mighty fine examples on show   In amongst all this I also got to get the fuse buttoned up and made a fair start on the engine.

One thing I must say is that the fit on this model has continued to amaze.....it all just lines up perfect and haven't need any filler....so far (keeping fingers firmly crossed)

Yes Steve, it looks like the cat's pajamas. You still might add some wiring.

Cool photo Mike, thanks. Still a relative newbie at all this so the thought of adding wiring scares the dickens out of me! Afraid to make a dogs ear out of what seems to be a very nice kit so far. I'm happy with how things are so maybe wiring is something I'll try another day.........see how I feel tomorrow, you never know , maybe it will seem like a better idea after some sleep. Will have to have a dig around the house and see what I can find as unlike many of you guys, I don't have any scratch build stuff around. BUT...if I did try then this photo would certainly show me the way to go.

Steve, don't try anything you feel you're not comfortable with on my account. It's just that, with some skinny brass/bronze wire, a pin vise, and some paint, it's not that difficult.

Turbosteve...welcome aboard. I echo the others on dry brushing with enamels. It will go much smoother for you. I used to use floquil bright silver, but they no longer make it and it’s impossible to find now. I found a substitute with model master chrome silver, but any enamel silver will work.

You picked a great kit and I look forward to your progress. If you intend to display the wings down, it will be tricky getting a good bond. Make sure you add styrene reinforcements from inside.

Any GTOs at the car show. A 66 is on my bucket list.

So, the last couple of days has been a lot of World Cup Football so not so much on the modelling front. Bench is a bit of a mess, maybe I'll have a little sort out tomorrow 

Fuselage is buttoned up, rear stabs on and started on all the bits and pieces inside (don't know what they're called.....bits inside suits me!). Decided to go with wings down, thought about 1 up and 1 down but figure I'll probably end up confusing myself....gonna keep it simple.........good old KISS!

This is a fantastic kit. And you’re doing an amazing job on it!

Your friend, Toshi

So, have got a little more progress today.....which has now ground to a halt subject to a run to the local HS to grab some more Insignia White and primer.

Have got the "wing sub assembly" finished and mated to the fuselage. All went together amazingly well and only required a tiny bit of perfect plastic putty on the wing roots. Got the left side of the undercarriage done but not fitted.

To those that have gone before me on this model....question....am I better of spraying up the top coat colours on what I have so far and then attach the rest of the wing assys when done....or get it all together and do it when all assy is done?

Looks to be lots of little gaps (intakes etc) that will need temporarily filling prior to spraying.

Colours I am using are Tamiya rattle can but I don't think I will get much in the way of good demarcation. Is it easy to decant rattle can paint to then be able to spray with airbrush where I feel I will have a lot more control?

Anyways, this is where I am now:

Tubosteve

To those that have gone before me on this model....question....am I better of spraying up the top coat colours on what I have so far and then attach the rest of the wing assys when done....or get it all together and do it when all assy is done?

 

Looking good. You should build the whole model then do your seam work And prime it. For paint you go from lightest to darkest. In your case, the grey underside first then the blues, lightest to darkest. 

Thanks all for the comments and suggestions so far.

@ Toshi, thanks for the kind words. You are a proliffic modeller and have followed many of your builds and have been mightily impressed with your skills.

@ 7474.....yes the dry drushing is too heavy, but still learning so will do better next time.

@Lawdog, thanks for the paint tips. Still pretty new to this so all those little nooks and crannies that need to be plugged before paint seems rather daunting to me!

So, a bit more progress over the last couple of days, but seem to have run into an issue. Atttached flaps to wing roots and built up the rest of the wing assemblies. Test fitted the wings to the root via the long sticky out rods before putting the top and bottom of the wings together and all was good. Trouble is, now I've joined the two halves together the wings only go part way up the 'rod' and then bind up solid! Anyone else encountered this? If so, how did you overcome without detrimental effect to the integrity/strength to the whole joint?..........I have seem many people comment that this is already a weak point on the model.

Plan tomorrow is to either sand the 'rods' down until they go in......or cut a couple of inches off of the 'rods'...........which way would you go?? Maybe a little graphite to help it slip in....or maybe washing up liquid?

After careful sanding/fitting...sanding/fitting... of the 'spars' finally got the wings attached. Took multiple goes and had to reduce the height and width of the spars...but got there in the end.

Quick shot of primer and doesn't look half bad to me 

Undercarriage is all done and weathered

Next step is to mask up the canopy..........the kit came with these masks.....never used masks before so this will be an adventure......just wish they had been pre-cut as I've seen mentioned elsewhere that many masks come that way.......

Your 1/33 Corsair looks fantastic.

Your friend, Toshi

Looking really great!

Your friend, Toshi

You're doing first class work on this build.

When you ran in to the problem with the "spars" not going in to the wings and had to sand/ file your way back to where the parts all came together, I was reminded of my disastrous build of Tamiya's 1/48 Fairey Swordfish. I ended up trashing it (saved some pieces) and bought another (way down the line on my stash building list). You've come through with flying colors (colours for you ) on this build!

The F4U is my favorite WWII fighter so I'm following with interest.

thanks for the kind words and encouragement guys, let's me know that I seem to be heading in the right direction and that i must be doing it right 

Things are gonna stop for a few weeks now......got a busines trip to Houston for a couple of weeks and then a family holiday  to Spain for a week (Fathers 80th birthday) so will be a delay until early next month.

Will post again when things start up again!

That build is wonderful mate, well done.Im building Tamiyas little 1/72 cousin at the moment, so good to see the amount of detail in the beast.

So, it's been a while since I posted (or made any progress on my model), silly little things like a family holiday to Spain (Fathers 80th b'day) and Car Fest North got in the way  Well, I survived both and have been back a few days and actually got some paint down on the model.

I had planned to decant the paint from rattle cans......never tried that before, and I'm sad to say that I bottled it...........so the exterior has been done from rattle cans and loads of PlayDough snakes. Using the 'snakes' gives a good enough for me feather to the edges. I think that an old model will be used as a paint mule when I try decanting spray cans, just didn't feel confident enough to try it on this model and mess things up. BTW, what do you guys use to clean up an airbrush with after using paint from a rattle can (Tamiya TS paints).

Now the paint has dried I have also got a gloss coat of varnish on (also rattle can) Winsor & Newton.

Give that a day or so to cure and then I can get down to the stencils/decals and then try my hand at a bit of basic weathering..........little nervous of this as weathering is definitely not a strong point for me yet.

So here is as she stands just now: As always, comments and critique gratefully accepted.

matte