Tamiya F4U Corsair Wing Question

The spar parts gave me some trouble, I had to do some sanding and scraping to get everything to settle down.  Here's a link to my build log, there is one photo of the wheel well area after the adjustments to place the spar bulkheads.

http://yolo.net/~jeaton/mymodels/f4u/1f4u/0041f4u.html

I've done a pair of them, without too much headache. I think (I disremember for sure) I cemented the inner and outer wing piece together, before joining the top and bottom pieces. I don't recall using the inner parts at all.

Coldiron,  How long ago were you a kid?  The Tamiya kit has not been out that many years, has it?  I do remember the Monogram folding wing Corsair, and it would have been tough for a kid to get a good glue job to put the wing in the extended position.  The Tamiya wing is very well constructed for either configuration.  Rick.

I've built two of the 1/48 Tamiya Corsairs.  It took me a lot of arranging, re-arranging and clamping a certain way, but I was able to get the extended wings joined in an acceptable fashion.

I  finished two Tamiya Corsairs, the 1A Birdcage and the 1D and never had any problems with the wings! Could there be something you missed in the construction?

Well I bought the planes around 1998 or 1999 and was a teenager at the time - so yes they have been out for awhile!

As I recall, the fit problems mainly consisted of gaps between the center and outer wing panels that were there irregardless of using the kit part that acts as a support for the outer wing panel.

Never built the Tamiya kits, but having built a large number of Monogram kits with those silly "folding" wings (TBF, Wildcat, and Corsair), I've found the best way id to forgo the interior parts and just glue them on tight, using strip styrene to give you something to glue to,  and putty the joints, then rescribe the detail...

I tried that on one of the Tamiya's a couple years ago and with the amount of sanding and fixing it wiped out a lot of panel lines and the rescribing it would take to make the wing look right is quite a bit beyond my skills. 

From that experience and others I have found its easier for me to fixed raised panel lines (using paint) than having to rescribe, so the older planes are much better imo.

From that experience and others I have found its easier for me to fixed raised panel lines (using paint) than having to rescribe, so the older planes are much better imo.

Really? Wow...

For me, rescribing recessed lines is faster and easier... I just put a straight-edge on it and give it a whack with the back of the razor-knife tip.. Depth isn't as importamt as straightness.. But I'm with ya on the older models though.. Rather have one old kit than  three "new" ones... 

This is what I did with the folding wings on the Monogram TBF:

As you can see, there're some "imperfections", but overall I was happy with the way it turned out.. After scratch-building the cockpits and rebuilding the turret, I was really in need of a "simple" part... The only "kit" parts in the front and rear cockpits are the pilot's seat (P-61 seat on styrene rod frame-mount) and the radios in the rear 'pit are from the Monogram B-25J.  Everything else is just sheet and strip styrene with some stretched sprue greeblies...

Hans von Hammer

Never built the Tamiya kits, but having built a large number of Monogram kits with those silly "folding" wings (TBF, Wildcat, and Corsair), I've found the best way id to forgo the interior parts and just glue them on tight, using strip styrene to give you something to glue to,  and putty the joints, then rescribe the detail...

 

 

Hans in my Opinion the TBF's wingfold mechanism was actually way closer to the actual aircraft than on the F4F Wildcat kit and the F6F Hellcat kit. On the real aircraft the F4F F6F and TBF Avenger were all supposed to have the same wingfold mechanisms.

Yeah, they do.. But it's pretty much unusable for displaying the wings in the stowed position due to the gaps in the wings, and the little tabs that hold them in place are totally inaccurate... Ya gotta decide if you're gonna show them down or stowed, IMHO, then glue them tight..  Also, if they get stowed, you need to add the detail in fold mechs..

Hans von Hammer

Yeah, they do.. But it's pretty much unusable for displaying the wings in the stowed position due to the gaps in the wings, and the little tabs that hold them in place are totally inaccurate... Ya gotta decide if you're gonna show them down or stowed, IMHO, then glue them tight..  Also, if they get stowed, you need to add the detail in fold mechs..

Thats a little easier to do on the TBF since you have all those bulkheads in the wings and also you would need the metal restraining bars which wouldn't be too difficult to scratch build.

I dunno if I ever built the TBF to make the wings work.. I know I did it with a few Wildcats and Hellcats though.. The Corsar's fold was ok, but that landing gear with the "floating" front gear door was maddening... I never got it to work right.. Got the Revell 1/32 Corsair to work though, as I did the F4F's... 

Speaking of that kit, I gotta have one again (the F4F)..  I just gotta  make a FM-2 out of it..  I tear down most of my built kits after photographing them, but I didn't get rid of the Wildcat.. Although it's broken and battered, it's just a matter of reattaching parts to get it brought back to life..

Whoops.. Sorry 'bout the thread hijacking, Iron... I just wanted to show ya some of what I did to the wings..

Back to your Corsair..

Hans von Hammer

 

 

From that experience and others I have found its easier for me to fixed raised panel lines (using paint) than having to rescribe, so the older planes are much better imo.

 

Really? Wow...

For me, rescribing recessed lines is faster and easier... I just put a straight-edge on it and give it a whack with the back of the razor-knife tip.. Depth isn't as importamt as straightness.. But I'm with ya on the older models though.. Rather have one old kit than  three "new" ones... 

This is what I did with the folding wings on the Monogram TBF:

 

As you can see, there're some "imperfections", but overall I was happy with the way it turned out.. After scratch-building the cockpits and rebuilding the turret, I was really in need of a "simple" part... The only "kit" parts in the front and rear cockpits are the pilot's seat (P-61 seat on styrene rod frame-mount) and the radios in the rear 'pit are from the Monogram B-25J.  Everything else is just sheet and strip styrene with some stretched sprue greeblies...

If you are tedious enough you can even use paint to restore raised rivet detail (which I've done) and it can come out ok, but it also depends on how much time you put into masking. I have a few planes I have done this on and new raised panel lines look almost exactly like the originals - and the only thing required is an airbrush and some tape.

The problem I have with rescribing is that I hate doing it.  I can do corrections mind you, but I am not a big of it myself, especially getting the width and depth to match up with whats already there to make it look  consistent with the rest of the scribing. 

Now the scribing I was talking about in reference to the Tamiya Corsair would be rescribing (in my case) the entire wing fold and the associated panel lines around it.  Lots of complicated scribing angles and whatnot and it would be difficult to get it to look right, especially for me.

Hey Cold....I built the Corsair earlier this year...I did one wing folded and the other extended...I remember the joint was not too clean...as mentioned before I also didnt add the internal fiddly bits to the extended wing...they just got in the way. I glued them direct...I did dry fit a few times to mak sure it was a tight fit and if I remember correctly added some internal reinforcement as well..

Good luck.

Carlos