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

That is one great looking model. Super results.

Thanks all for the kind words...... I am pretty proud of this one, probably the best I've done yet.

Looking thru the ones I've made before now I can definitely see my progression through this, what is slowly becoming, compulsive hobby. The missus is currently quite happy that this is finished and that I currently do not have another model to start on. She thinks I shall now have time to do all the things she wants me to do around the house. Wrong........tho maybe I'll get a few of them done before I start something else 

I'm thinking of something with NMF, something to challenge myself with.

Any decent 1/24, 1/32 examples you guys recommend/suggest?

Nice job on your Birdcage. Just found this thread and glad for it. Nice WIP.

All you need to work on is getting another model on the bench.  Mighty fine work.

Well, here she is, all done. Finished with a matt coat of Windsor & Newton rattle can varvish.

It's been a fun/nice build and I'm happy with the finished result. The build progressed smoothly and fit was good with very little need/use of any filler which is a pleasant change from the last couple I've done. Had a few hiccups along the way but they were self-induced (didn't read the destructions properly.......note to self, read everything twice to be sure you get it right).

Not sure whats up next, nothing has been procured yet, though got my eyes on a couple of things . Might go for a car next, never done one of those yet (not that I've built that many models to start with , only about 10 so far).

Anyways, I digress a little...........here she is.....comments, both good or bad, greatly appreciated as these will let me know where I need to improve on whatever my next project turns out to be.

My oh my ,your painting skills are very good.    I'm going to have to try my hand at building this one and thanks for the fine inspiration.

Thanks to all for following me along this journey and your helpful comment(s). This is the first time I have ever done and posted a WIP. I haven't been doing this for too long yet (maybe 7 planes and 2 armour) so all the comments /suggestions go a long way to giving me the confidence that I'm heading in the right direction and doing things at least "almost right".

On the finishing straight now, just a matt coat over the top and add some clear bits and antennas and I'll be calling it done 

Steve

Well, my Flory washes showed up this afternoon...........and boy are they good. Sooooo much easier than the Tamiya Panel stuff I've been using 'til now. Slap it all over with a brush, let it dry, and then rub it off with a SLIGHTLY damp kitchen towel. I cant believe I never bought this before now!

Slapped it all over:

Let it dry for half an hour.......and then started to rub it off:

Does this....and the following pictures look about right to you guys......only ever done a few panel lines before and never a whole model (rivets and all).

Would appreciate a little feedback before I seal her all up and call her done...........thanks in advance.

Once I sort of weathered some armour, but when I varnished it it seemed that a lot of the weathering 'disappeared'. Is this 'normal' and so you weather them  a little too much so that its gets knocked back a bit when sealed up?

So here we are, almost completed the decals, just a whole bunch of tiny ones to go.

Made a rather large boo boo early on, the 'roundel' on the top side.........got some Tamiya panel line wash on it and when I went to remove it with thinners I found that I also remove part of the white star..........never knew that would happen. Guess I learnt something new that day. There is no 'spare' so will have to patch it up and live with the result. I have seen that some people spray these roundels on but I do not think my masking skills are up to it and also worried I will make a bad situation worse by damaging the decal even more with the tape. Guess it will just have to be "battle damage".

Once I've got the rest of the decals on, then I will try weathering. I have been using Tamiya Panel Line Accent so far, but that requires X20 (which I cannot get) or thinners/turpentine to remove excess . This also removes the varnish and I'm not so happy with that, although that's no great issue. What varnish do you guys use? An enamel varnish?  (I currently use Windsor & Newton in satin / matt/ gloss).

I have ordered Flory washes which are due for delivery in the next day or so, so I'm going to switch to those as it appears they are water based so will not damage anything. Once the weathering is done I can then add all those little bits which I normally break off (antennas, wheel wheel doors etc)......I'm way too clumsy when there are little 'break off'able bits.........lessons learnt the hard way so leaving them til the absolute end 

So here she is as things currently stand

matte

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.

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.

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!

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.

Looking really great!

Your friend, Toshi

Your 1/33 Corsair looks fantastic.

Your friend, Toshi

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.......

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?

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!