Joe I have somewhat of the same feelings.  I never thought the Corsair was ugly but always found others to be better.  John.

Nice work so far

Wow, that looks awesome so far.  The corsair has always been one of my favorite planes mostly for being so odd/ugly looking.  I hope one day to be able to do one justice.

I will be following this build closely.  I wish there was a better way to subscribe to the thread.  I don't want to miss an update.  Keep up the great work.

Gordy

Sweet build!!  I do agree about one thing, the Corsair is a distinctive plane and you'll either love it or hate it.  I doubt there's much room in between for most.

But don't you just LOVE how this Tamiya kit goes together!!  I had so much fun doing it.  I'm always looking forward to the next one.  I'll be watching... =]

Looking good so far, Joe. Keep building and posting!

Oh my Gawd! As a total newby, that cockpit is a museum piece! I wish I could build like that! The cockpit seems like the hardest part for me to build and paint. And then it seems to hide almost out of site under a finger printed, paint smudged canopy. I know, keep practicing. Build skills.

It's always a treat seeing your cockpit builds! I'm a Corsair lover myself, there wasn't anything prettier than her in the sky!

Joe, looking good!  Are you doing this in the tri-color paint scheme or just blue/grey?  Can't wait to see more!

Steve

Really nice work in the cockpit!  Excellent wash to bring out the details!  You builders always astonish this collector; not only because you build, but your results are an inspiration.

Awesome work! I have been watching all your builds and have just purchased some of that Alclad Klear Kote.

Sorry to hi jack your thread but with that gloss clear, what do you use to clean your airbrush after use?

Keep up the awesome builds!

Another super job there! Wish I'd seen this before I started my Salvadoran Corsair for Stikpusher's Latin America GB, I could have picked up a bunch of tips.

Joe,

For someone who doesn't like the Corsair, you're sure doing her proud!  Can't wait to see the finished version. 

And just for inspiration...

Gary

Sweet start, I'll be watching.

Unlike you, I absolutely love the F4U ;-)  To me, it's the very epitome of a WWII fighter, especially in the PTO...  Big, Mean, Burly, and ready to kick rear and forget about taking names!  I think you saw my rookie attempt at Pappy's 817, and I'm glad your having a better go at it than I did with the Revell version.  I'm actually looking at picking up another pretty soon, maybe the Hagasawa.  I'll watch your build with a great deal of anticipation.  Raymond  

Great start with a fantastic kit. I have that one in my stash so I will be watching your progress. That cockpit looks like the real thing!

Speaking of bosses, my first real job while in college was selling shoes at Jordan Marsh and the boss I had was a P-38 pilot in the Pacific during the war. Old Harry had tons of war stories to tell me, he was a real nice guy. His buddy was a Marine BAR gunner and worked in the other shoe dept. in the store. They both had some very interesting tales.

Johnny, I'm glad someone agrees with me.  Its all in jest of course and I hope not to offend anyone.  Just a personal feeling.  

Gordy, truthfully I have no idea how to "subscribe" to a thread, but thanks for the compliments.

Bvallot, Its nice so far.  I did however  put the wings on last night and struggled a bit.  I'm not crazy about the design and I think Tamiya could have been more create (more on this later).

Devil Dawg, Thanks bud...

Beeryboats,  "museum piece?  LOL, don't know about that....but thanks.  I have a tutorial thread in here somewhere on how I paint them.  If I can find it I'll post the link.  

Mississippi, thanks for the kind words.  Like I said, its in the eyes of the beholder.

Panzerpilot, Thanks a lot.  Glad to have you aboard.

Steve, thanks.  I believe Pappy's Corsair was tri-scheme.  I just ordered Sky Models decals off E-bay which has Pappy's "740" and "883" on it. I'm hoping I can piece "915" together with the options on this sheet.  It has like 20 planes.  If not, I'll do "740" probably.  

Lonski, thanks a lot.  I'm glad I can help.  

Luft, no apology needed.  That's what its here for.....and you will love that stuff.  You can toss your Future....LOL.  I run Lacquer thinner through the AB a few times after use.  

Gamera, thanks.  I just started this the other day so it's likely your way ahead of me.  Nice to have you aboard.  

Gary, that and double thanks for posting that video!  This is one of the reasons I do threads......participation!

Reasoned and Raymond, thanks for the kind words.  Raymond, I did see your build, as well as Bvallot's version, which both had inspired me to drag out the Tamiya kit.  If you do build the Hasegawa version, how about a thread?  

Joe.  I went looking for a few pics some time after you first posted the start of his white 915 just to see what it looked like.  Here's one thing I found.

decals.kitreview.com/.../ced48226decalreviewrk_1.htm

I doubt the accuracy of the actual lines of paint laid down here in the pics.  I nearly always do actually.  Even the dates of when the red border around the insignia for some of these I believe are off, but it isn't like you couldn't pick and choose what you wanted.  This reviewer may have some facts crossed too.  Eh...

Try it out.  =]

Lawdog114, you're correct, 915 was the tri-scheme variant.

And, no problem on doing a thread once I do start the build...  I'm sure I will, I just don't know when, I'm in the process of starting two P 51Cs modeled after the "Gruesome Twosome," that I'll end up putting a diorama together for my wife.  She's a history teacher and she shows "The Tuskegee Airman" every year.

wow!! Nice office. I love it!

I, too love the Corsair F4Us. However, I believe Black Sheep aircrafts were F4U-1As not 1Ds. Very nice work on the cockpit.

Thanks for the kind words all.  Bvallot, I would love to get my hands on that Cutting Edge sheet.  There's alot of Meteor Production stuff I wish I would have bought before they closed up shop. Actually, from what I understand, their research was quite accurate so this sheet was probably pretty close to right on the money.   

Thanks for checking Raymond.  I thought so.  I do intend to fade the non-spec blue so it will probably be hard to differentiate the two colors.  We'll see....I'll experiment.  I do hope we get to see those P-51Cs when you done. 

Black Sheep, thanks for the compliment, Yeah, I was aware the Black Sheep Squadron, had A planes, not the D.  I decided to proceed with this build when I discovered that an A can be made with this kit.

In for a quick update.  I decided I didn't want black holes for the MG ports, so I fabricated some 50 cal muzzles out of brass tubes and superglued them into the wing.  I made a ledge out of styrene for them to sit on at the proper angle.  I'm hoping that under close scrutiny, they will be seen tucked in there.

I decided to build it wings down.  The plane looks better.  I found that attaching the outter wings was somewhat tricky.  They were ever so slightly thicker than the inner wings and I was having problems lining everything up and closing the gaps.  I ended up making tabs of styrene to mate the surfaces together.  I then Tenaxed the out of the joint and once dry, rescribed the the panel lines back in with a sewing needle chucked in a pin vice.  This technique also works great on all kits that have plugs, most notably Hasegawa kits.  I think Tamiya could have done a better job here, but since noboby else has mentioned problems in this area, it could very well have been operator error.  I also assembled the flaps and then filled in the step on the starboard inboard flap with stryene and superglue  Apparently this was not supposed to be there on war time Corsairs. It took me a while to get here....

I got it primered and found that I did a fairly good job on seam work the first time around (rare). 

The Black Sheep flew 1A versions of the Corsair.  This kit is a 1D.  From what I understand, if you delete the rocket stubs, fuel tanks (or should I say don't add), and paint over the bottom window, it becomes a 1A.  Good enough for me!.  It comes with two slding portion canopies too, with one of them being for the 1A (I suspect the one with the extra framing).  I'll start on the scheme once the Sky decals arrive.

I'm going to turn my attention to the R-2800 next...

Joe

Joe, I agree that the wings here can be a bit cumbersome.  I think if you take your time though the results come out rather nice.  You've seemed to knock this one out too.  =]

Quick question too...the bottom window below the cockpit is to be painted over??  The actual -1A Tamiya kit includes it in the instructions if I'm not mistaken.  I'm definitely no Corsair expert, and I can't recall seeing it or not in photos from the war.  If so, it seems I'm going to have to go back and take care of a few things.... [d'oh!]

and glad to see those gun barrels.  =]

Thanks bvallot, from what I read, the 1A didn't have that window.  I would imagine it was for bombing which, from what I understand, was not capable of bombing until the D.  It seems both Tamiya kits share alot of the same parts so that may why.  I'm not an expert either so I could be completely wrong.  Either way, I won't sweat it too much.  Thats what exhaust streaks are for....LOL....

Joe  

Progress looks great.

I hear what you're saying about its looks.  Wouldn't say I ever loved it but it never bothered me either.  Then I went to an air show.  Watch a Corsair do a 300MPH pass at about 50 feet off the deck and feel all 18 cylinders pound in your chest.  Then we'll talk

Yep, the belly window is there, but almost all of them were painted over in the field. The pilots never used them at all (they were for bombing). So, if you paint it over, it's correct. If you leave it unpainted, that's correct, too. If I remember correctly, the windows were later deleted from the -4s and up.

Yeah, I can't imagine it was very useful for bombing.  By the time you needed to drop anything the bomb would land past your target by the time you could see it through the window.  That's a handy little factoid right there!  Thanks a bunch Devil Dawg.  =]

Thanks for the compliments guys.  Devil Dawg, thanks for the clarification on the window.  I concur that it probably didn't serve much purpose for anything.  I guess my bombing theory was wrong.  At least it fit well. 

I had the day off yesterday so I got some quaility modeling time in.  I like to "rig" my radials, especially the ones that Tamiya offers.  To me a radial that is easily seen is naked without its wires.  Some people replace these with Quickboost but I never understood why.   Here we have the Pratt & Whitney R-2800.   I will briefly show how I do my radials, but if you would like an in-depth tutorial, check this out:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/149327.aspx

I began adding the harness "points" to the reduction box with styrene rod.  Its two .10 rods fused together with Tenax (like a shotgun barrel if you will).  Just slice off a piece and glue it on the edge of the housing thusly.... 

Finished....

I painted the engine as usual.  I painted gear box XF-19 Sky Grey and the cylinders Alclad Aluminum.  The assemby was then glued together.  It doesn't look like much yet.

The next part is the most time consuming, but not real difficult.  I used some fine wire I stripped from an old stereo cord.  I chopped it to the right size, bent it, then attached it from the ignition point to the cylinder with "instant" super glue by means of tweezers.  I just worked my way around the engine. Once done, I painted them a copper color (I normally use a brass colored wire but I couldn't find where I put it).  Some may paint these wires black or leave them silver, but I find that it blends in too much. With all that work I want them to stand out a bit.  It then gets a post shade, Testor's clear gloss coat, Detailer wash, then Testors Dull Coat.  At the end, I give the engine a quick shot of XF-19 Tamiya Smoke to give it that dirty oily used appearance.  Here's how it look when finished...

In this session, I was also able to turn my attention to the airframe.  First I sprayed the panel lines XF-1 Flat Black.  I then took XF-2 Flat White and added a dash of XF-19 Sky Grey to dirty it up.  I sprayed the underside.  Once down, I then taped off the center section at the wing fold in preparation for the Intermediate Blue.  I found a formula for a Tamiya mix of Intermediate Blue, which suggested a mix of XF-18 and XF-2 Flat White.  I faded it with more white due to the theater of operations.   I then used rolled blue tac to mask off the demarcation lines. 

Once this was sprayed, I masked off for the Non Spectcular Blue. 

I used the same reference source and mixed XF-17 Sea Blue, XF-8 Flat Blue, and XF-2 Flat White.  I then sprayed it down.  There is nothing like Tamiya paint cut with their own lacquer thinner....like silk.   

It was at this point I decided to fade the wing tops in lieu of my normal steaking.  From what I understand, the Non-Spec-Blue faded very fast, especially in this theater, so I wanted to represent this.  I added more white and went to town.  I then taped off the control surfaces and lightened the a bit more.  This looks about right to me.  The surface got a postshading with a mix of diluted XF-69 NATO Black and XF-64 Red Brown.  I added some subtle staining around the fuel tank and engine cowling. 

Here we can what a difference a wired radial makes...

Here I added more postshading.  I then added a touch of XF-1 Flat Black to it and added the exhaust streaking along the bottom.  I suppose it could probably use more.

That's where I stopped.  I'm still waiting for the decals. 

Joe

Awesome.