[Yet Another] Tamiya 1:48 F4U-1A WIP

ChrisJH666

Good to see you are actually human after all!! Looks like it's still coming on nicely though

 

The engine and gear bays are superb!

Double Wow! on the engine!

Max

thanks guys!

Just looked up Jerry Strobel's link for P&W engine logo decals

http://fundekals.com/RadialEngine.html

only to find they are out of stock!! Grrrr!

ChrisJH666

Just looked up Jerry Strobel's link for P&W engine logo decals

http://fundekals.com/RadialEngine.html

only to find they are out of stock!! Grrrr!  

I sent Wally at fundekals an email inquirying. He says "we're thinking of doing a larger sheet with LOTS of goodies in one place: instrument dials, engine logos, prop labels. whaddya think of that??"

"Sign me up!" is what I think. 

One of the things that the Tamiya kit gets wrong, but in the ‘right’ way, is how they handled the flaps.  Dropping the flaps lends a nice sense of animation to the F4U, and the way they engineered the details looks really good. The only problem is that land based Corsairs didn’t really ever seem to be parked with the flaps down during WW2. 

Check out the weathering on the rudder!

Even the shot Tamiya based the box art for both the 1/48 and 1/32 F4U-1a has the flaps up. On the illustration for the box, they altered it so the flaps are down.

Ultracast makes a resin drop in replacement, but it isn’t really that hard to modify the kit flaps. 

Here they are as they come. Note I’ve filled in the cut out on the starboard inboard flap, as that wasn’t added until the dash 1D. I just cut .040 styrene strip to size and then cemented in place on both sides. Later I’ll fill in any gaps with Mr Surfacer 500.

The first operation is to trim off the locating pegs. (What are they actually called?) Sprue cutters are super useful for nibbling.

File and sand down. You also have to trim off a panel from the smallest flap, and a hinge in the wing itself.

I worked my way in from the outbound most flap on the logic that fit issues would be more noticeable out on the wing than in the root. I did need to close a gap between the middle and inboard flaps. I cemented a bit of .010 styrene to the end, then trimmed and filed to shape.

Once all the flaps were installed and aligned, I daubed some 5 minute epoxy in the cavity for additional strength, since there weren’t any engineering features, such as the trimmed off locating pegs, left to reinforce them.

Finally, I cut strips of .005 styrene to represent the panels that cover the gaping openings between the leading edge of the flap and the trailing edge of the wing itself on the actual plane. I’m not really sure how these worked—perhaps they slide into the wing prior to the flaps actually dropping?

Note the smear on the inboard port wing. That’s the remains of a sloppy glue fingerprint. Ooops.

On the inboard starboard wing, the hole got a lavish application of Mr Surfacer 500, which was allowed to dry overnight, and then sanded.  

I’m so close, yet somehow still so far, from getting some paint on this. 

Thanks for looking.

-J

According to current Hollywood cinematic narrative structural theory, there’s a dark place towards the end of the second act, where the protagonist experiences a kind of reckoning, facing death (literal or symbolic) and emerges with the insight and vision s/he needs to vanquishing the forces of opposition and carry the day, propelling us into Act 3, where it all goes down. 

The weirdly influential screenwriter and codifier of this theory, the late Blake Snyder (“Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot”, “Blank Check”) called this beat “The Dark Night of the Soul.” While the merits of Snyder’s theory are debatable, it really is influential, and has become a big driver of the Hollywood formula. (Happy to debate this elsewhere.)

That’s where I am in this build—the dark night of the soul. I’ve actually had a lot of time  over the past week to work on it, and have made some progress, but it mostly felt like nothing was coming together. Since bench time is rare for me, and extended time happens almost never, it’s a little frustrating, but what can you do? 

Enough philosophizing and sad sacking… since this is a procedural, let’s procedure a bit, shall we?

First up is the navigation lights, which come molded into the wing. On the real thing, they’re clear with a colored bulb, so faking it out won’t really work. Snip, snip.

I first tried taking a length of clear sprue, filing flat on two sides at 90 degrees, drilling a hole, which I filled with Tamiya X-25 or 27 clear. That worked, kind of. Clear sprue looks okay, but is so brittle that it’s hard to work with. 

To affix, I tried UV glue. It’s basically like 5 minute epoxy, drying completely clear, except that it cures from ultraviolet light. It’s strong, but brittle. Every time I tried to clip off the excess sprue, I’d break it off. 

Eventually I got smarter and used shorter bits, but I kept cracking the part as I filed to shape. After two full sessions of this, I got even smarter and remembered that I had .030 clear poly, which is not brittle and turned out to be way easier to work with. The problem was that it was a little thinner than the wing, but UV glue came to the rescue, because you can build it up like gap filling CA, except that it won’t fog the plastic. 

Here we are, filed to shape, It looks miserable now, but hang on a second.

Here it is, polished and nice. It still needs another pass before it's completely shiney, but you can see where this is headed. I didn’t let the green paint dry before attaching it, so it bled a little into the glue. Still, it looks way more credible than painting the whole thing.
 

Now we’re ready to prime. I’m giving Mr Surfacer 1500 a try.

Naturally, after working on the navigation lights for four or five hours, I forgot all about them, and only remembered when I had to clean up an airbrush “burp.” The only way I could think of to do it was to mask around, then paint on micro mask. 

Then I remembered that I forgot to attach the spoiler. In cleaning it up, it flew off into the alternate universe where small styrene and metal parts go to be free. I took a bit of styrene L bar, and trimmed/filed to shape, getting the interior profile with a round jewelers file. I have references that show these in slightly different places—somewhere between 8 inches to a foot and a half outboard of the guns. I reckon they were probably just unscientifically riveted on wherever in that area.

Finally, and at long last, primed. Mr Surfacer 1500 is really lovely, if a bit unforgiving. But that’s a good trait in a primer. If you can get the finish looking tolerable, it will probably be okay.  

But this is just the beginning in a way. 

Next up: Adventures in Chipped Camo.

As always, thanks for looking, and comments/critique welcome.

-J

Did you not try obtaining a pack of sprues of various light lenses in clear coloured plastic? Just a thought. Got some myself which should look ok.

ChrisJH666

Did you not try obtaining a pack of sprues of various light lenses in clear coloured plastic? Just a thought. Got some myself which should look ok.

 

lawdog114

Loving this...I take it you didn’t have trouble attaching the outer wings. I had a bear of a time getting a solid bond and used styrene reinforcement inside. I love the raised flap work.

Thanks, Joe. I remembered that you had mentioned fussing with it, so I went back to your build log to see what you had done, but of course all the images got obliterated in the Photobucalypse. 

I did a bonehead move in getting my wings on, which was that I was so focused on getting the fit in the wheel wells right, I didn't check to make sure I had everything I needed before gluing the outer wall, and omitted the spars that exend out, which are meant to slide in before attaching. So I had to trim a bit, and then to reinforce, I first cemented and then filled the remaining cavity with 5 minute epoxy.

To get the outer wings on, I glued the wing tops on first, again reinforcing with great globs of epoxy, and then the bottoms after, reasoning that I'd get the strength I needed, and still be able to manage any fit issues. I think it worked out okay, but was probably the long way around the tree...

-J

Howdy, all

In addition to faded camo, land based Corsairs in the South Pacific were notorious for heavily chipped paint, mostly due to the runways being surfaced with crushed coral, which would literally sandblast the leading edges. 

I wanted to try multilayer hairspray chipping, and also black basing, because why keep it simple when you can overcomplicate it?  

Start off with a layer of Alclad aluminum cover the areas I want to expose. Then decant a bit of Tresemme 3 hairspray (some people spray it right out of the can, but that freaks me out) and spray 3-4 light coats.

As soon as that’s dry to the touch, a thin coat of XF-4 for the zinc chromate. This is going to pretty much all be covered or stripped, so don’t get too fussy about it. 

Chips! Rubbing a wet brush on the areas you want to chip soaks through the paint and reactivates the hairspray, loosening chips of paint. If you’re super fussy, getting very specific effects take practice, but here I was just trying to get a general effect. 

That gets sealed with a varnish, in this case MRP matte, and then when that’s dry, another layer of black (for the black basing) under the camo color. I used X-18, semi gloss black because, and then remembered why I avoid it. (What’s wrong with that shade?)

A quick detour to the belly to show the black basing. Basically, the idea is to slowly build up random patterns of the camo color (in this case MRP Insignia White), along with other colors to create a modulated surface. You can avoid the panels lines to get a kind of pre-shading effect. I sort of tried, but pre-shading doesn’t ever look right to me, so I gave up.

This gets a blend layer. I’ll be honest, by the time I had enough density to get the camo color looking right, I lost most of the modulation. I might try it again, and I’m a convert to the idea of a more nuanced finish, but I think other ways to achieve modulation might be more my speed.

Back to the top. MRP Sea Blue. MRP is more like a lacquer than an acrylic, so you have to get in quick to get chipping before it cures. The wing root area looks pretty good here. It’s hard to see in the glare, but the leading edge isn’t so great.

But the root on this side is just bad. You can see where I tried gently sanding down to get through the finish, which mostly just exposed the black layer. On the other hand, the leading edge on this side is pretty respectable.

So, a little 91% IA and I get the inner wing back down to the Alclad. On the second round, I didn’t bother with the ZC layer. 

And here’s where we are. The wing root is looking a lot better. The starboard leading edge is better, but could probably be better still. And then the main thing is I’ve faded the Sea Blue and Intermediate blue a lot, getting a nicely modulated surface. I’ll go back and touch up a bit here and there, and this will get a bit more homogeneous overall with downstream weathering, but I’m basically happy with where it’s headed.

That’s all's I got. Thanks for looking.

-J

Quick update… 

Not much to report, due to not much time at the bench, and what I do have to show is basically a rework of stuff I’ve already done. 

I decided that the camo coat needed some work, and that a lot of the paint chipping was a bit over scale. When I went in to clean up and rechip, I accidentally bombed the hair spray, melting a bunch of paint underneath. This necessitated much sanding and clean up over a good chunk of the upper wings and fuselage. I re-primed the key areas with Mr Surfacer 1500, and laid down Alcald Aluminum over, with a light hair spray layer over that to give me a base to chip with.

As long as I was going back in, I wanted to try to get a more finally modulated finish, so I built up layers of slightly lighter and darker blue tones, using MRP sea blue mixed with more or less MRP light grey. The nice thing about MRP being lacquers is that if you get into trouble, it’s not a big deal to sand back and get back in to fix.

Here’s where I’m at with it. I need to fix the blend in the intermediate blue on the fuselage, and I might tone down the transition to the fabric portion of wings a bit, but otherwise I’m pretty happy with how it’s starting to take shape. 

The chipping is at scale, and the variation of tones over the surface looks close to my references. 

Thanks for looking

-J

Thanks Bob

I look forward to seeing your Corsair when you get to it.

-J

Looking really good. Definitely has that worn and faded look nailed.

Thanks Chris!

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Had some time this weekend, and made some progress. We’re getting there, in fits and starts. 

First up, the panel detailing on the forward top of the fuselage. In the process of cleaning up the seam between the two fuselage halves, the fuel tank cover got a bit chewed up. This is an area that is messy in a lot of people’s builds, so I was kind of going to let it slide, but as I get closer to finishing, it was standing out as a real weak spot. I also noticed that it should only have an inner ring of rivets, not both inner and outer as rendered by Tamiya, and was considering how to address that.

I’m using lacquers (MRP) to paint, which are very sand-able, so it’s easy to feather out and then blend back in, which means you always have a lot of control and it's not a big deal to go back and fix things.

Here I’ve started sanding down and filling with CA. I was originally tried selectively re-scribing the lines and rivets, but it didn’t quite look right, and CA is hard to scribe with any control. I decided to wipe it out and start over. While I was there, I also noticed that the small square panel right behind the cowl isn’t shown on any reference I could find, so I deleted that as well.

My first attempt at a template for the rivets. The thing about this method is that it’s nearly impossible to line up precisely with the panel line. So, I filled again, this time with sprue goo, on the basis that it’s styrene, so it scribes well once it finally sets. 

In search of a more precise method, I got almost Budzikian with a plan to photo etch a template of the cover with rivet holes, which I would temporarily CA in place. My etching skills aren’t really dialed in yet, so that didn’t work. I eventually figured out that if you do the rivets first, it’s easy to line up the guide around them. 

Here’s the cover re-scribed cover. I had let the sprue goo set over night, but should have really given it more time because it was still a bit soft in spots. 

The end result. I’ve got to go back and touch up a few spots—a bit of goo sitting proud that I didn’t quite catch around the starboard side, and then pocks where the styrene wasn’t quite ready to be worked. Even still, as is it’s way better than it was. 

But in the meantime, it’s time for markings! I do not like decals for insignia if I can help it. Here I’m trying Maketar masks. That ID number is too big. I removed and used smaller. 

Here I’ve got the white bits masked, and am getting the insignia blue on. You can see the smaller ID number already on, but it’s not still not right—for one, the spacing should be tighter. 

This looks okay, but could look a lot better. I’d like to get closer to references (both shots from VMF-115). I have a plan. 

I didn’t wait long enough for the Insignia white to set before masking (sensing a theme here?), so I’ve got some remedial work to do to fix, but it’s starting to look like a Corsair. 

I’m really excited to finally get to panel lines and weathering. Just not sure when I’ll get time at the bench next… so it goes! Thanks for looking.

Cheers

-J

Thankee much! 

What I'm really liking about MRP is how workable they are after laying them down. I'm sort of using them interchangeably with Tamiya/MLT, but MRP does seem a bit more forgiving downstream. 

Re: decals... except for really small/complex stuff, they're for the birds. I haven't used Montex. I liked the Maketar masks okay, but as I kept mangling them, it was really bothering me that the supply of each insignia was extremely finite. And I also wanted a bit more control over how the ID number is rendered so... I just ordered a Silouette Portrait to cut my own masks. Rabbit, meet hole. :)

Johnny,

I am tagging this build log for future references.  You are doing a lot of neat things.  You tagged a photo earlier of the Corsair with the wild tail weathering.  That looks like a neat one to try to replicate.  

Scott

Looking really good Johnny. Can't wait to see how you weather it. Going to have to try spraying markings myself (a first for me) on the Boomerang due to the amount of fading.

Johnny,

Superb build, I will be starting on the Tamiya 1/72 Birdcage next, and this is getting me keen to start. Well done. Ill be watching this with interest.

Hello! Greetings from Shanghai, where I’ve been on assignment for the past week or so. 

I had a little downtime this afternoon waiting for my flight back to NY, and figured I’d cobble together a post.

Sorry for no update, or general participation on the forum. Same boring stuff—life/work. But even at my glacial pace of scale model construction, I’m probably overdue. This update won’t really be interesting, but the next one should be more so. I also didn’t do much documenting, so apologies for the lack of pics.

We left off last time with fixing the big circular fuel cover in front of the windscreen. Even after everything, it still didn’t look right. So I sanded it back, filled with CA, sanded and primed, and filled, sanded, primed some more until the surface was baby butt smooth to give a properly clean canvas. 

But now it was looking a bit flattened off. Uh oh. Holding up a straightedge showed a flat area about .5mm/.125” deep extending maybe 2.5 cm/1”. So I filled with a couple sheets of .010 styrene, and then shaped that. A few more rounds of priming/sanding, I was ready to scribe the panel and punch rivets. The scribing went okay, but getting the rivets perfectly aligned in the circle was not. 

More filling, sanding, and priming. While I was at it, I also sanded the side markings, wanting to get better ID numbers and to fix some little things with the insignia.

After trying everything I could think of in terms of jigs and paper guides, it finally occurred to me to try cutting a guide in vinyl with the Silhouette Portrait I recently got for cutting masks (among other things). I really, really wish I had taken a pic. I first scribed the outer circle using a metal template. Then, using the dimension of that circle, I created a template in Illustrator (which I’ve been using for work for 25 years, so it’s really fast for me—you could do this with the Silhouette software, I’m sure) and exported to the Silhouette plug in. 

2 minutes later, I had a perfectly cut guide in semi translucent vinyl, the exact size of the panel. Super easy to align. A few minutes with a beading tool and I had my rivets. Bang! I also used this to cut new masks for the ID numbers and insignia. 

I also filled and re-riveted along the nose, and finally attached the engine and cowling, which required still more filling, sanding and re-scribing. None of this is documented.

I know a lot of people say this is a shake and bake kit. And I believe them. But either I really suck at fundamentals of model construction (entirely possible) or we have really different standards for the level of finish and polish we’re looking for. Probably the former. 

(You’d think I’d have taken a pic.)

I added Quickboost exhausts. In retrospect, I could probably have just thinned out the kit exhausts. Live and learn.

Mr Surfacer 1500, followed by a thin wash of Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown, then various pigments. The exhaust stain will get detailed with oils later, but I started it with Tamiya X-19 Smoke thinned 1:10 with Mr Leveling Thinner built up slowly, and masked just behind the raised panel step approximate 1/3 back from the leading edge of the wings.

A quick reference check shows the exhaust cuts sharply off there, then gradually reappears farther down the fuselage. When I go back, I need to get a tighter scallop shape in the stain. 

And finally, I finally started the landing gear, which is almost the last major sub-assembly. One detail of note, is that Eduard supplies replacement PE for the scissor mechanism which has the virtue of including lightening holes. However, they have the wrong cross section, which should be quite hefty. My solution was to rough out the lightening holes in the kit struts, and then CA the Eduard pieces over. 

I’ve been trying to get into machining with a Taig micro lathe, so I thought I try milling them out as a learning exercise. This worked, kind of, but I’d have been better off just drilling them in the conventional way. I was hoping I’d have more control with the cross slide, but the area is just so tiny that it doesn’t really make a difference.

You can kind of see the finished result here. These are waiting for a wash and weathering. 

I’m also going to try to replicate the springs that run from the base of the support bracket up to just above where the hydraulic piston meets the strut. I’ve tried a few things as proof of concept, and think I can get close to the right scale diameter and tightness. Will report back on that.

 And here’s the gang. Ultracast wheels got masks from the Silhouette. I tried masking the old fashioned way, and after spending 15 minutes trying to get a clean cut in Tamiya tape with a compass cutter, realized that this could be way faster. 3 minutes later, perfect vinyl masks. The tires are Tamiya XF-1 with a drop of XF-80 Light Grey. They’ll get a little XF-57 Buff, and then washes for hubs and diamond tire pattern.

Thanks for looking/comments/advice!

-J

Thanks Rambo, that’s kind of you to say. Of course, that‘s probaby six weeks of work... :)

It's hard for me to fathom the patience, determination (as Keyda said), and skill you've demonstrated in the building of this kit.

While reading some of your posts I kept getting the sinking feeling that with all the sanding and filing you were doing you'd end up with a hole where there shouldn't be any. I'm sure I would have . But then that's the difference between me and skilled modelers.

That Silhouette Portrait cutting machine looks interesting. Were I to buy one would you recommend my getting just the machine or the machine plus the starter package?

See here:

https://www.amazon.com/Silhouette-Portrait-2-Starter-Bundle/dp/B07B13KLZQ/ref=asc_df_B07B13KLZQ/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=242034444893&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15788436527733658224&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032968&hvtargid=pla-438002476975&psc=1

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1376346-REG/silhouette_silhouette_portrait_2_4t_portrait_electronic_cutting_tool.html?ap=y&gclid=CjwKCAjw9-HZBRAwEiwAGw0QcadlpYOSXOPni9KWFvu5iy-L1uQA2jMU_oOoDuxO5hwclwAfbVyBnhoCeQwQAvD_BwE&smp=y

Yet more excellent work! Not exactly sure how I'm going to get mine that good once I get around to it. This post is pretty much the definitive guide to building a Corsair