1/32 Revell F-4U

That is amazing. I love the work you put into it and what it represents. 

Accuracy sometimes needs to take a back seat.

I love it.

Uncle Dennis was ecstatic about this. Said it represented his entire childhood! Told stories about the Corsairs landing, his brother actually hitting a wing with his bow and arrow, dragging a wing back from the Navy dump, and about the Navy coming out and repairing their chimney after one of the pilots spread it across the front lawn with his landing gear. Apparently they were right on the approach for landing! The best part, this build will do more than sit on a shelf 

Thanks guys! Told my Uncle about it yesterday and he was surprised and excited about it. Will make the handover tomorrow.

Thanks again stikpusher for the pics and details on the aircraft. It was helpful in getting it as close as oossible with the Revell version I had.

Looks like you did a great job with this one. Neat display as well.

BRAVO!!!!!

It may not be 100% accurate, but it looks beautiful! The end result is impressive!

Well done, well done!

Done! Had a last minute change of course. I needed to change how the Corsair was mounted. It was too unstable for me to give it to someone, it would have ended up crashing. Lesson learned on that one as it wanted to do a roll and dive in for an attack. 

Let's start with a realistic prop-blurr!

An original Revel pilot...still looks a bit like a Russian nesting doll even after all teh surgery I did to him.

And here's a video of the start-up of the radial engine with the lights and sound coming on in sequence. Click on these next 2 pics to see the videos.

Here it is running full tilt...

Ok that's it for this wonderful Father's Day! I have a few updates to make. You may have noticed the missing tail wheel. Originally the mounting rod left there, but with the change to keep it stable it looks rather empty. I may try and get it installed so it looks the part before I take it off to Akron tomorrow. If I do will include some updated pics.  Until then, Happy Modeling all you Dads out there!

Woohoo this ranks as one of my best ever! It’s a good thing to because Uncle Dennis is an artist and I’m putting pressure on myself to make it worthy 

i took 3600 grit sanding sponge across all the markings in the direction of airflow. That was just enough to knock down the edge that was created by the tape and give them just a touch of wear. Lastly a satin clear and here you go...

I had nearly zero leakage under the Maketar masks so thrilled with that too. Tomorrow I want to do some exhaust staing, finish the canopy, and add the long pitot on the wing to finish it up. Then put some trim on the base and I’m ready for the model club show on Monday and presentation to my Uncle on Tuesday.

She's all done except for the decals...although after looking at the pics I may still do some touchups LOL don't we all do that! I left the canopy frame ZC but I think it needs to change. Going to look up some pics of them in flight with the canopy open to see what it should be. Way too stark in the pics below. Will have to do some work on the way I have it mounted. It wants to roll left 

Now there's no prop on her yet. Until I get the decals on I don't want to risk messing it up. Also will see if the short video of the Magic Scale Modeling lights, sound, and engine will link up as well.

You gotta love this dopey pilot that came with the plane! I cleaned him up alot but there just didn't seem to be much more I could do with him.

Thanks Stikpusher! I know that’s good confirmation coming from you.

I have to tell you the fit was really good on this one. Almost none of my rivets got sanded off in the process...a few are smaller than when they started tho 

i’m Working on taking some better pics and finishing up the canopy. Here’s a couple where i was able to use a tripod and adjust iso and shutter speed...i think you guys can see the weathering better with these.

Good choice on the satin finish. Most F4Us seen in Korea had lost the shine off of the Gloss Sea Blue.

Finished with a Satin Clear. I was thinking that sheen would look more realistic. I've continued to work on my airbrush technique. Instead of spraying in long strokes I did smaller areas and built up the paint slowly. I managed to do all this in 2 coats doing it that way. It's taken me awhile to get the airbrush technique down. My other work with dark colors has come out somewhat splotchy I think, not a uniform color across surfaces. This is much better. 

Making progress again. All the main parts are mottled and ready for a final coat. I may do some light sanding before that as there is some fine dust I see in the pics that I may be able to clean up some. 

here is the 1st marble coat of dark ghost gray(DGG).

I finished setting up the wing to fuselage attachment today.

Here you can see how I configured the magnets and the tab that keeps the wing from shifting forward. The magnets are neodyneum with a 0.3lb pull strength. It worked with 2 but I could shake it and get the wing to pop off so to be safe (I don't expect it to get shaken but you know how that goes...) I doubled the magnets up.

Thanks stikpusher. I can replace the lower antenna on mine with the ones shown. That’s an easy scratchbuild there. Maybe i can find someone with a spare 4-bladed prop. LSP has a for sale/trade section and I’ve often found people willing to ship stuff out of their spares.

Ok, I missed the beginning where this was to be a Korean War VF-653 F4U. The -4 had several differences. Exhausts, cowling scoops, four bladed prop, outer wings being fully metal skinned. 

Anyways, since you also mentioned to drop in photos for your reference, here is a nice shot of a 653 F4U during Korea.

richs26

Actually VF-653 used F4U-4's where the exhaust comes out behind the cowling flaps on the side above the wings.

 

That’s one of the things I’ve learned for sure. Plus a few variants and how they changed the designation going into Korea. Since this was a build for my Uncle I’ve not kept true to the details, just used what I had in the stash to recreate a memory for him. Wish I’d have thought about it though and did more research before i punched the holes as i could have put them anywhere. Gave him a preview yesterday and he sounded really excited about it! 

stikpusher

 

 

TheMongoose

And finally I cut out the openings for the exhaust. Made these from tube that I drilled out to give a thin sidewall...

 

 

 

 

Shouldnt the exhausts be flared and angled heading in the opposite direction?

 

YEP, sure should. Must have been tired when i did that. I turned them around. Thanks for the catch! It’s not an accurate plane for the era I’m doing but the basics should be correct And that’s one of them. 

Actually VF-653 used F4U-4's where the exhaust comes out behind the cowling flaps on the side above the wings.

TheMongoose

And finally I cut out the openings for the exhaust. Made these from tube that I drilled out to give a thin sidewall...

 

Shouldnt the exhausts be flared and angled heading in the opposite direction?

This is a fun build thread. Thanks for sharing your build, and I'm liking what you are doing so far.

richs26 that’s a cool link to the corsair. I’m starting to learn some about the different models through this build. I found the akron libraryhas an online section with pictures of the squadrons at the Airdock. If your friend or his dad are interested i can send you the link to see if he’s in any of them?

Work continues on this cold and rainy May weekend. At least I haven’t had to waste time watering the grass I planted a few weeks ago. It’s modeling time. I got my way upthrough primer today. Wing lights are in. Velcro’d the circuit board in. 

The wing is done. It looks good under primer so ready for paint here.

An excellent job on the old Revell Corsair.  A good friend of mine's dad worked for Goodyear at Akron, and became a pilot for VA-655, the sister squadron of VF-653, at Akron flying FG-1D's after WW2.  He had carrier qualified on Wildcats and SBD's, during the war but never was shipped overseas.

 My electronics came in last week. Right before my wife and I left for our anniversary trip. I'm back and on the bench now :-)

Drilled out the radial for the electric motor.Centered it up as best I could but will wait till final assembly to do a final check and glue it in place. A resin engine it aint lol 

Here's just the wiring for the IP and tail. 

I thought up a way to install the wing so it's removable to access the circuit board and wiring in the future. more on this once I get it set up. I have the formation lights, landing light, and speaker to hook up in here yet.

Then i finished assembling the fuselage this afternoon. now to let it sit and dry for a day. Almost no filler is going to be needed. You can barely see it but just a little down the center of the coming under the front glass. Overall fit is really good. Just some sink marks all over the model. May be somewhat related to the funky plastic. I've had trouble getting the Tamiya ETC to melt the plastic and bond pieces together. Weird.

mustang1989

Not sure I would've used the OOB pilot but the rest of the build progress looks good so far.

 

You know it just became a challenge to see if I could make him look good. This build is running a little light on funding and since I haven't built a prop in 20+ years in this scale I had nothing in the spares box. Maybe I should have posted a request for one? We'll see how he looks inside the canopy and make a call on it then...not going to close this canopy till the very last thing following the debacle on my last build lol

Not sure I would've used the OOB pilot but the rest of the build progress looks good so far.

Cool build log Mongoose.  Its good you got a old release of this kit. I built one a few years ago from the ROG release and the light gray plastic was soft and warpage extreme. Building it was like bathing a cat.

I built at least three of the Baa Baa Blacksheep kits when I was young and they went together really well.  All three didn't survive missions outside into the garden bombing ant hills or dogfights with my freind next door and his ME109.

Look forward to your build.

Scott

Good to see you come along Brandon! Just a few misc things going on now. I'm awaiting the mini LED lisghts and sound from MagicScale Modeling to show up. Can't close the fuse till I place all that.

Not much detail on this Revell kit but I will say the fit has been tremendous. Only trimming away flash so far. Today I added formation lights? on the wings

the landing light...I should have taken this pic more from the side so you could see the way I cut it out of the clear sprue corner so it would hold itself in place.

I always love a good Corsair build. I will be watching this one for sure.

BK