Tamiya 1:32 F4U1-A1 Corsair Build Thread

My overall impression of the kit is SPECTACULER. I've been building models since I was 8 with a few years off for driving, girls and guitars, and this is the best engineered model I've ever built. If something doesn't go together perfectly, you're putting it together wrongly. 

The first thing I did today was photograph the hinges from both sides, import it into CorelDraw and draw the 1:1 scale parts for the hinge directly over the scaled pictures. 

The parts are very small, so before getting into a jewelry project I decided to see if I could get the plastic parts together using metal pins of varying sizes. For the main joint I used 0.022" phosphor bronze, and for the fold actuating strut I used a piece of 0.010" guitar E string. I'm pretty good at drilling tiny holes in the middle of tiny rods. I use a very sharp dividers pin to make a mark in the center of the part and then drill it with the carbide drills. This time, I just spun the drill back and forth in my finger tips instead of putting it in a pin vise. I found I could control it better and not put too much stress to break the drills.

This actually held pretty good. The junction is pretty munged up with CA, but the intermediate blue will hide some of it. 

With the hinge fixed, I got back to putting in the wheel well piping. I got that last ferrule into place and then, using thin solder (about 0.022), I put the 6 lines to the control valve. The two center lines come and go to other parts of the airplane so I drilled holes in the wheel well sides and fed them through. The top and bottom lines on both sides go to the tops and bottoms of the door operating cylinders. These are put onto the doors first before you glue the doors on so the piping can't be completed until doors are in. I'm not so sure how well this is going to work and I'm going to see if the cylinders can be installed before the doors so I can paint the entire bottom before the doors go one.

There are number of other electrical wires that pass through the wells, but I'm not sure I'm going to install them. That being said, the main gear actuating cylinder will have lines going to it.

Next up was the wing fold detailing. It's a very complete model just with the plastic. I sort of painted myself in the corner by putting in some oversize fittings that impeded putting in the parts that came later. It's hard to figure out where these pipes should go before the rest of the parts are in place, and then it's too difficult to put them in so you have to get a head start.

For the fold area, I did smarten up a bit. I put the piping on the fittings BEFORE gluing them into the wing. And I held the wing with a quick clamp that was in turn held in my Panavise which kept my clumsy hands away from those delicate wing spars so I wouldn't break them again.

It was those two fittings that got in the way. This is a critical part in the airplane. It's the hydraulic cylinder that moves the pin into the wing lock that prevents the wing from folding up again when the plane's in the air. It has a line on both ends since it's a double-acting ram.

Another hydraulic cylinder that goes in is the flap actuator. I broke off the piston rod on this one so I made another with a piece of 0.022" phosphor bronze. I flatened the end and then bent it so it would wrap around the little pivot.

Here's all the hardware set into the fixed wing portion of the wing fold. There's also a valve body that goes into the folded wing area and piping associated with it. It's basically a swivel that permits the hydraulic lines to pivot around the wing-fold hinge line to get the fluids to the ailerons which are also hydraulically assisted.

You can see the fitting mashed over the side with the addition of the flap actuating lever.

The next milestone step was the joining of the wing to the fuselage. Like other steps, this one went together very well. I put the thin cement on the outside of the joints and just let it wick in. Any surface inperfections that this causes will be hidden by the paint.

I'll have one more work day on Monday to start work on main landing gear and then we'll be off to our son's house for Thanksgiving. 

Sorry to hear about your mishap but a working hinge out of brass? I would want those to add to the kit so maybe you have accidentally found a sideline?

In regarding the paints, You should be able to get the colours you need as singles and if your supplier stocks the full model air range you should be able to get the colours no problem with the 71 numbers I gave you and before putting on the model, sacrifice some white plastic spoons to the great paint God and do a test between the lifecolor and the Vallejo and I bet there is a noticeable shade difference, with Vallejo being the chipset accurate one.

To me, watching this is a learning experience for when I do the kit and I will do my normal look at what can be added and how I can alter the build to accomplish this without causing problems and breakages.

Although Tamiya provide a masking set that you have to cut out yourself, I think that investing in a set from Eduard could be a good thing using the Tamiya ones as backup.

I would like to know your overall impression of the kit.

James

I appreciate the offer. I should be getting the word tomorrow if the Life Color paints are in. I'll check the hobby shop out for those Vallejo colors. If the Life Colors are way off, I may take you up on your offer.

Today's output was a mixed bag. I got the upper center wing skins fitted out and joined to the lower skin. Got the lower skin bottom all fitted out with a couple of hiccups. Then I decided, fatefully, to start working on piping all the wheel well hydraulics. And just at the end of the day, when putting too much stress on the wing trying to get the last stubborn brass fitting on the gear door valve, I broke off the folded wing spar. And this is not going to be an easy fix.

So let's begin at the beginning.

On the bottom of the upper wing skin there are three parts on each side: the intercooler face at the wing root, the ceiling of the forward wheel well and the reverse curved fairing that contains the flaps. You have to constantly pay attention to whether you're building a "flaps up" or "Flaps down" version since there are different fairing parts in the flap area. I'm building "flaps down".

Here's a CU of the intercooler. and the duct leading to the carburetor. 

The intercooler was supposed to be Tamiya Metallic Gray so I mixed up some Life Color dark sea gray and Tamiya chrome silver. And of course, none of this is even remotely visible in the finished model.

The top wing was joined to the bottom and, of course, it fit like a glove.

The leading edge fairings for the cooler inlets went on nicely and the innards look pretty good. If you were able to peer through the louvers, which you can't really do very well, you would be able to see the intercooler facing. But I know it's there.

On the wing bottom there were several little bits and pieces. In the center is a vented hatch which is purposefully held in a slightly open position. Next to it are two reward facing hooks, the purpose of which I have no idea, possibly catapult use... I got one glued in and the other when manipulating it took off and supposedly disappeared. I thought about scratch-building another, but it was a bit delicate and didn't look too promising. So I got the next tiny part, the fairings that will over so actuator or another. I got one glued in and was gluing the other side in, and noticed the first piece, which I thought had set enough, had disappeared. And it was really gone. This piece was a little more straight forward so I did scratch-build another out of a piece of sprue. 

Then I found the missing hook. I put it on and added the outlet fairings from the oil cooler housing. Lastly, there was a triangular brace in the opening where a bottom window is placed which I glued in and then glued in the bottom window. The kit has masks, although they are not die cut and you have to cut them yourself. They're made from the material that Tamiya uses for their wonderful masking tape and it's slightly deformable. All of this gets painted Insignia White.

The above also shows more fairings for the "Down-position" for the flaps.

This brings me to the wheel well piping. I found that one of my Albion fine brass tubes is has the right O.D. for my finest gauge of solder. And this same tube kind of fits onto the nubs representing pipe fittings on the valve, except for the top position. I had to cut this off so the tubing will fit on the narrower stem. 

I got 11 out of 12 fitting in place and was fussing with the last one. It was one that would go over the top stub which was just a bit oversized and I was pushing a bit too hard and didn't realize what else I was putting pressure on. It was the folded outer wing spar. And this is a bad place for a break. There's very little surface area for gluing, and similarly, there's not much material to drill and pin. My first attempt to pin the hydraulic actuating arm and got it pinned, but then it broke below the metal reinforcement. I then drilled the main part for a pin, but it's a bit misaligned. 

This is getting messy and I'm contemplating what it would take to rebuild the joint entirely in brass. There's also another possibility which is to have one wing up and one wing down. That's not a terrible thought and I have entertained it before. If I don't make the entire thing out of brass, I could make that actuating arm out of brass and marry it to the plastic parts. All of the lugs and fitting could be brass since I've been doing stuff like this fairly recently. In fact, if done correctly, you could almost make the wing fold functional. Stay tuned...

If you have trouble getting the vallejo model air colours, then let me know and I will send you their US Navy & USMC colours 1940-45 air war set.

https://acrylicosvallejo.com/en/producto/hobby/sets/air-war-en/us-navy-umsc-colors-wwii-1940-1945-71157-es/

This build looks good and I just had to start on ZM's Ki-45. Look for a thread coming soon!

I don't know the answer to your question. Regarding Vallejo: Scale Reproductions has a full supply of their colors, but we couldn't find the ones that we thought were a good match. I'll use your spec numbers and try again.

Building in the inner details of the wings is a lot of fun. First I did some dirtying up of the oil cooler intakes. I again used the Tamiya Black Panel Line wash. 

That dirty front lip is hidden behind the fairing that goes on when the wing halves have been brought together.

I glued in the main spar and all the bulkheads and almost screwing it up by gluing the wing bulkhead in before the spar. It goes on top of the spar and interlocks with it. Luckily, the glue hadn't set and I was able to disassemble the errantly glued part and get it right. I then painted all the wheel well interior parts white. I then masked the white and sprayed the interior green on some parts that will never be seen. I didn't spray the exterior wing joint since this is going to be intermediate blue.

Here's the reverse view. There are a suprisingly high number of parts in this sub-assembly.

The wheel well ceilings were painted off the model so I could air brush the interior walls from both directions. I then glued the ceilings into place. Here's the wheel well fully painted before any weathering. The overspray doesn't matter since this section ends up being white.

While there's a ton of detail in the wheel area, what's missing is all the hydraulics. After gluing in the control valve for the wheel door cylinders. The valve and cylinders are there, but no inconnecting piping. So... what to do? The problem is that the valves are glued in place and not easily accessible. I didn't even realize what the valve was when I glue it in place according to the instructions.

I can't get the micro-drills in at that angle. I may be able to get the micro-tubing over top of the those little fitting and put the tubing into the tubes. You can't see these details unless the model is picked up, and I don't want people doing that.

Here's an example of the piping that's missing.

I know I'm going to add some 3D piping to the wing fold area since it is so obvious. Whether I'm going to do it in the wheel well remains to be seen. The detail is all on the back of the main spar and won't be seen looking from the front. I'll take input from all of you to help me decide.

I would have personally gone with Vallejo 71.295 for the NS Sea Blue (ANA 607) and 71.299 (ANA 608) for the Internediate Blue with 71.279 (ANA 601) for the Insignia White.

I can spray them through my 0.2mm H&S Evolution without thinning and they cure quite quickly although I am not a fast builder and do let stuff cure overnight. I like that they are chipset accurate and not the PC Scale conversion stuff which with some paints are not even close to the correct colour. They have a strong pigment and coverage is fantastic.

I do use other paint ranges depending on my colour needs and my favorite metals are AK's Xtreme Metal and Vallejo's Metal colour.

Did the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA) fly Corsairs? would be nice to do one of those in FAA colours!

Ended up ordering Life Color Non Spec Sea Blue and Non Spec Intermediate Blue to solve the paint color dilemma. I also got the word from one of my other threads that mixing Tamiya XF-18 (5 parts) and XF-2 (4) gives the intermediate blue. I'll give that a try too and see which one works best. When I was mixing the white and blue and did notice it seemed to have a bit of green and I countered that with a tiny bit of red.

Thanks guys! This is my third aircraft with radials. The first was the Yankee Lady that started with a Revell/Monogram 1:48 B-17 (old, awful kit) but had Eduard engine kits that were tiny, but very fine.

Then came the Avenger... a Trumpeter 1:32 with an R-2600 radial that had added stuff like this one including the Eduard PE engine set. Came out okay.

But practice makes perfect so the third one, so far, is the best. I didn't put that plate on today and I need to make a note to myself to do it. The cowl is very open and you see a lot of the engine so I can get to it. 

Today was mostly a painting day. It started with the wing center section bottom which has white, Interior Green and Intermediate Blue painting. I painted the white first and then masked and painted the interior green, all by the detail airbrush. I find I'm using this gun more and more since the spray pattern is so nice that I can hold parts in my hand while painting without covering myself.

A neat little assembly which will add a lot of hidden interest to the model is the oil cooler/intercooler intake trunk. It was a prominent feature of the early Corsairs. Later models had some of these intakes in the cowl lip.

Each side consists of 8 parts: 5 injection molded and 3 PE. One of the PE pieces will not be seen when the wing is assembled. This is the inlet facing side that will be seen in the wing opening.

This is the outlet side facing into the fuselage and shows that soon-to-be-hidden PE grill.

Lastly, I put together the main wing spar in the wing-folded position. Again it has multiple colors including the wing hinge area in the intermediate blue color.

It took me almost a 1/2 hour to try and match that intermediate blue color. Tamiya calls out A-20, an aerosol pre-mixed color. I don't want to use rattle can paint in the house for areas as big as the plane so I bought some Tamiya bottle paint to try and get a match. The medium blue I bought which I thought would work as a starting point didn't work. I then tried to lighten the Royal Blue, but that didn't work either. I then mixed up some Flat Blue and lots of white (white was used in all the other mixes too), and was getting closer. I was matching this all to the color sheet included in the model. I found that I needed to add a small amount of red since the color was tending to a blue green. Here's the output from all those tests and the one that I thought was the closest as designated by the arrow. I can probably get it a bit closer and then I'll need to scale it up to make a batch for the airbrush. Or... I might buy some Vallejo that's already matched to this scheme. I'm not a big Vallejo fan since it's more temperamental, doesn't thin with IPA and dries much slower.

Tomorrow I have some errands to run and won't get so much done, but I will be continuing with building the wing center section.

Everyone is right, that engine is spectacular.

Stunning engine! I would add the manufacturers plate now while you have complete access.

Zoukei-Muras' latest release is at this moment in my grubby little paws with the official release being December/January.

They've done it again and you should get one!

The cowls are split top and bottom, so I'll leave the top clear and the bottom painted. The clear parts have a slightly frosted texture which tamiya has included on all the skin parts to give it a better paint adhesion. They recommended and I did dip the clear parts in Pledge and will check them out on Monday after they completely cure.

After studying more images of the R-2800 I noticed two other prominent pipes that could easily be inculded since they're right in the front bottom of the engine and could be seen through the wide open cowl. These are oil scavenge lines that lead from the oil scavenge pump that sits at the bottom of the gear case and goes to the oil receiver at the bottom onf the front cylinder bank and the other goes back through the engine and ends up probably at the imaginary oil tank. The smaller lines is copper colored phosphor bronze and the larger a piece of 0.032" brass, both of which were made chrome by the Molotow Chrome pen. Now the engine's done! Whoops I just noticed that I didn't put on the PE builder's plate. I can do that through the open cowl.

With the engine complete it was time to install the forward cowl leading edge and the open cowl flap ring. You can have it will the cowl flaps open or closed. I chose open since it shows off more of the exhaust spaghetti. As usual the engineering was excellent in locating the cowls to the engine, but becuase I had painted the lugs that tie the valve covers on selected cylinders to the rings. So the glue was having trouble getting a good grip. I ended up helping it along with CA.

The remaining two exhaust collectors were put in place and then the entire engine was joined to the fuselage by using tube cement just on the center ring which has the heft to provide a good joint. The cowls varied depending on whether you're doing version A, B or C. The "Big Dog's" Corsair was the earlier B version. This plane had opening cowl flaps at the 11 to 1 o'clock posirtions. These were eventually closed off permanently when the airplane had the habit of fouling the windsceen with leakage from the engine. The B model also had the original shorter tailwheel. It was raised in subsequent models to give the pilot of better view forward over the huge nose for carrier use. The long nose was the reuslt of having the fuel tank in front of the cockpit. A couple of tiny PE pieces help hold in the opened top flaps.

I liked how the new exhaust pipes nested into the others that were already in place.

This was set aside to dry. While the cowls were setting up, I started on the horizontal stabilizer. Both stabs are the same. It was clear that Vought chose to do this to simplify construction. One side has a series of circular access panels. So one the right side they're on top, and the left they're on the bottom. The trim tabs separate parts as is the linkage that operates them. You can have the elevators in neutral or dropped position using a different hinge part. I chose to have them dropped. Another B option is filling the holes in the tail. In the later models this was faired over with a rounded cover.

When I glued the horizontal stabs in place, again I marveled at the fit. No filler needed. I used tube cement here to give a little more coverage and dwell time. I just put it on the middle of the mounting stub and let the stab push it further towards the junction.

Next up was the tailstrut and wheel. It's a lovely affair with lots of parts, great detail and good engineering. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have glued it in yet since it complicates masking the interior from the white bottom color, BUT... it is held in tightly held by a sandwhich with part M2 that's also a body part. I could have put that part in without glue, painted the bottom, removed it and then glued in the tail gear. But that plane has left the runway and the tail gear is glued in.

I airbrushed flat white, painted the hydralic ram with the Chrome pen and then installed it, and glued in place M2. That ring just behind the wheel caster hole is the attachment point for the catapult. It's a tail dragger so I guess they have to link up at the back. The diagonal link ending at the tail is the arresting hook operating lever.

I ended the day putting on the tail wheel doors. These too have two version depending on whether you're using the short of long tail wheel. So much of this model is detailed in plastic that you'd have to do with after market or scratch build. I will, however upgrade the wing fold area since I found some good reference materials for some added piping.

Work begins again on Monday. Have a great weekend.

I would use the clear cowl but paint the right hand side, leaving the left side clear. This way you can have a full paint job on the right side and still see the engine on the left.

it does take some careful masking and painting but with that engine, well worth the effort.

James

Well.. thank you! 1:32 compels you to do more. I did the same level of nonesense in my 1:48 B-17 which had Eduard upgrades on all four radials. That was nuts! In 1:32 you at least have a fighting chance, but you're still drilling really small holes in really thin pieces of styrene. It's not for the faint hearted.

Got in the shop late today but got that last ignition lead installed, touch up painted the whole deal and added the last parts. The engine is complete and ready to go into the air frame. On the Trumpeter Avenger, not only was the engine detailed, but they included all the behing-the-firewall gear case stuff and engine mounts. These were then buried behind the skin. In order to show it all off I had to cut open the skin complicating the build considerably.

For some reason, the distributors didn't fit over the ignition ring properly and I had to doctor them a bit some they nestled in. I also added the magneto, the prop governor and the little part at the bottom which has something to with the oil sump.

These parts were supposed to be light gray, but I left the distributors semi-gloss black as I've seen in my pictures. Theoretically, there is some wiring that goes to an from the magneto, but enough it enough. This engine is done. 

I painted the valve bodies Tamiya chrome silver, and touched up the rest. Interesting about Tamiya paint... unlike normal acrylics, which when dry can really be reconstituted, Tamiya when dry can be sort of brought back to life with isopropyl alcohol. It's not perfect, but it let me re-use a little bit of the light gray I mixed that had totally dried in the little epoxy cup I used as my mixing bowl. I was able to use it to touch up the gear case and paint the few added pieces.

And lastly, I stuck the engine onto the airframe to see how it looks. There are some cowl pieces that need to go on before gluing it in place, and these parts have to be painted dark gray in their interiors (although I have no idea why since they won't be seen). I am contemplating either using a clear cowl piece to show off the hardware, or put one of the pieces in an open/upward position to do the same thing. There are some of the front bank exhaust pipes that are not aligning perfectly with the pipe extension leading to the outlet.

Hard to believe that a power package that little put out 2,000 hp or more. By the end of the era for the 2,800, they were getting 2,800 hp out of it. That's 1 hp per cubic inch. Now to put that in perspective, top fuel dragsters are now getting almost 10,000 hp out of a basically 400 cu. in. engine, but they last for about 1 minute of running time. The 2,800 was running thousands of hours putting out that energy. If you don't want something to last more than a few minutes, you can get a heck of lot of HP out it.

Once the cowl pieces are fit, I'll be moving on to the flight control surfaces.

That engine is looking good, especially around the cylinders. Are you planning on detail painting the reduction box? 

Wow! That engine is superb and you have shown me a new way of doing the ignition harness which I had not considered before.

I just wish you could also include metric measurements as well !! :)

I have Zoukei-Muras Shinden in 1/32 ready to start and their new 1/32 Ki-45 booked to collect at the IPMS Telford Show on Saturday.

After seeing your wire work I am going to have to up my game and the Shinden will be an excellent learning opportunity.

Thanks for showing the technique

James

As I would expect, but am continually impressed by, your work is exceptional.

And, since it's a corsair F4U, I'll be following along looking at your amazing building prowess and enjoying every moment.

One of my pictures yesterday was not an image of the Fine Arts Models r-2800. Instead, it is an image from a company that produces super-realistic 3D computer images. That firm is TurboSquib, an Internet-based company that offers very fine 3D models to the trade by various artists world-wide.

Today I almost finished installing the ignition wiring. I erred in not drilling the spark plug holes in the forward face of the back set of cylinders, since I now had to do it with the engine assembled.

I used the Molotow Chrome pen to pick out some bolt heads and the upper and lower clamps on the push rod tubes.

I assembled the engine starting with assembling the inter-connecting intake and exhaust pipes to the back of the forward bank. These are two-part affairs that are glued together and then you need to touch up the semi-gloss black of the intake tubes if you do what I did and airbrush the exhaust parts when they were on the sprue. Part of that piece is a section of the intake tube.

The rear cylinder bank went together very easily. Tamiya has been doing something that Trumpeter ought to learn. They connect the sprue gate to the rear of the part, not the side. There is no nub on the side that, when removed, can damage the part. Instead, the nub is on the rear gluing surface and is very easy to remove. To this rear bank I first installed the rear pushrod tubes, and then the rear engine case that has the intake tubes that exit from the supercharger housing. The rear engages with the front bank with a keyed inner ring and engages with the intake tubes that are coming from the front bank. When they do, the whole deal just pops together.

With the engine assembled I needed to prepare the ignition harness ring. This part is smaller and more frail than I would have liked. In fact, before I got it fully removed from the sprue it broke in half. I repaired this break by carefully drilling 0.021" to both ends of the break and CA'd it back together with a piece of same-sized phosphor bronze wire. I then had to drill the very small connection points (16) with the same sized drilled. Two wires eminate from each connection point. It was very dicey since the top of the connection point was wider than the little tube that connected it to the ring. Some of the holes went down the center, but a couple broke out of the side. I was almost going to plan B, by using and actual piece of copper wire to make this part, but I persisted with it.

For the wires, I chose 0.010" brass netting that was on the top of some Italian Montepulciano D'Abruzzi Tuscan wire. It was a twisted net with all the wires intertwined with each other. The two wires twisted together were 0.021" which is the same size as the holes I drilled and I actually wanted to use the twisted part too. 

To keep the twisted part from unraveling I soldered the twist just before it separates into the individual wiring. I was able to use the twisted part to anchor the wires into the holes in the ring and then captivate them using thin and medium CA plus a bit of accelerator.

I planned ahead with the cylinder head baffles by drilling the ignition wire pass-through holes before painting and separating them from their sprues. I then airbrushed them semi-gloss black and, when dry, glued them in place.

The rear wire for the front bank goes through the hole and then bends down out of sight. The front wire for the rear bank goes straight back to the plug since it's right in the middle of the cylinder facing you... although it's tricky to get the wire into the hole. The rear wire for the rear bank goes through its hole and drops down behind the cylinder. It could be belayed into the spark plug area in those cylinders if your inclined to insanity since it will be completely hidden by the cowl. Even if you use the transparent cowls included in the the US version of this kit you probably won't be able to resolve where these wires are ending up. Although if I have a cowl in an open position you might see this termination, so I may terminate those that would be seen.

Here are the first four wires in place. 

I got all but two wires in place before my session ended today. 

What still needs to be done is touching up the ring, the junction of the wires and the ring, the baffles (where the sprue connection was) and anything else that got worn. I'm also going to specifically paint the rocker covers a shinier metallic finish to differentiate them from the rest of the cylinders.

I'll accept your input. I did read that the two sparks were essential for operational effeciency, but certainly redundency was equally as important. And I did find that in the R-2800 maintenance manual they're referred to as "Inner-Ear Drain Tube" which almost sounds comical.

Part of the reason I wanted to build this model is building this motor. And the cockpit. One of the real bummers about building UCAVs is no cockpit... Boring! They have landing gear, but otherwise, there's not much going on.

WOW  your engine detailing is amazing. TY for the W.I.P. on this as I want to build oneof these puppies and I'll use this as a referance if you don't mind.

Nice work here, as usual.

The tubes are oil drains for the rocker shaft housings.  The two independant ignition systems surely have a effect on the flame front during ignition but the main reason is in fact redundancy. 

My daughter asked my wife and me to help her do some election day canvassing and it was a beautiful Fall day here in the L'ville, so we did it for a couple of hours. It took away some of the stress of waiting for election results and gave us a chance to get some fresh air. But I did get to "work" on the Corsair at around 2:30 and got to work on detailing the R-2800 engine.

I started by drillig the spark plug locations on the front cylinder (part 5) using a 0.021" carbide bit which is the hole size to recieve the piece of small brass tubing for the spark plug wire. I also, drilled out the two lugs up near the valve covers which will be the mounting place for a cross-over tube, that I don't know what they do, but it's a neat detail to add. This is a photo of a 1:16 scale R-2800 model that was offered (built-up) by Fine Art Models a few years ago.

Here's another pic of the actual engine.

And here's another shot showing how the spark plug wires lead to the back of the front row and the other set to the back row. Notice, the wire goes through the black sheet metal shield (which the model includes) which completely obscures the plug connection to the back of the front row. So I'm not going to worry about any super-detailing anywhere but the front of the front row. Notice also that from the side of the cylinders all the way back there is another sheet metal shroud that directs airflow closely around the front cylinders and provides a more uninterrupted path to the rear cylinders. These shields are never provided in model engines. Modeling with wine bottle foil would be possible, but not necessarily useful.

The R-2800 has two distributors and two plugs per cylinder, not for system reduncdency, but to manage the flame front across the cylinder and prevent engine knock. By firing plugs on both sides of the hemispherical combustion chamber it precludes the flame front from compressing the charge to pre-ignition temp before you want it too. And, NO, Chrysler was the inventor of the Hemi...

After drillig the holes I tinted the fines starting with Brown Tamiya Panel Liner to color the lower cylinder area and Tamiya black liner for the head areas. I then hand painted that black connecting seal between the head and cylinder body.

The Albion Metals tubing I'm using for the spark plugs has a 0.021" O.D. and nicely accepts a 0.010" plug wire. To cut this tiny tubing I laid down a piece of double-sides Scotch tape and rolled a single-edged razor blade back and forth until the tube separated. The sticky tape contains the tiny tubing piece so it doesn't go into the quantum rift. I then threaded them onto a piece of high E guitar string so they wouldn't get lost.

Not only did the guitar string contain the parts, but it served as a guide to enable me to place the tubing over the hole in the engine and push the tubing in using a tweezers.

The only thing I didn't get right in putting the tubes in is some are in deeper than others. I should have had a gauge to stop the pushing at just the right moment. If I do it again, I'll do it different. Funny thing happened... I had a bunch of tubes cut and threaded onto the guitar string, but not at the back, up front. I had the string on the cutting pad arranged for a photo, when the string fell to the floor, and, of course, every single piece of tubing was launched into the rift never to be see again. So I had to cut a whole bunch more to take the new picture.

For the cross-tubes, I originally was going to use the brass wire I'm thinking about using for the ignition wiring, but it was too soft and couldn't hold shape. I measured the distance between the holes using the tapered jaw width of my ChannelLock long-nose pliers, and marked the jaw at the selected width. I then was able to bend many copies of high E guitar string (piano wire) to the hole spacing. I drilled these holes with the #86 (0.011") carbide and it was an expensive operation. These tiny drills are about $1.50 each and I broke three of them.

After inserting the wire I put a drop of thin CA at each hole to hold everything in.

It's a great kit. Now I have my eye on either the Tamiya FB-VII DH Mosquito, or an SWS A-1H Skyraider. I have limited display space and I really need to build things with folded wings, which the Mossie has not. Either way, they're all fabulous models.

Went to the LHS to get some maintenance items: Tamiya masking tape, CA glue tips and some graduated plastic mixing cups. So I got to work around 2:30. Got the exhaust pipes air brushed and installed on the firewall.

Before installing the pipes, I dry-brushed some flat black and added some weathering powder to the sheet metal trough where the pipes exit. Then I air brushed the pipes Tamiya Dark Iron rubbed with some Rusty Brown weathering powder; not much, just enough to change the hue. And or course, you won't see anything but the tips which I painted flat black. I used my new Point Zero detail air brush for this. The nozzle is very fine and keeping it clean is not easy. There is another set that doesn't get installed until the engine is installed.

Instead of painting the engine parts separately, I sprayed/air brushed/brush painted all the ones that I could while still on the sprue. This pic shows the color selection. The cylinders are rattle-can sprayed Tamiya Bare Metal Silver. I then sprayed the intake pipes and pushrod tubes Tamiya Semi-gloss Black and the exhausts the same as the pipes on the firewall. I looked up the R-2800 on the web and saw that the gray can vary quite a bit. I took Tamiya Neutral Gray and added a lot of white and made a light gray. 

Some very fine details need to be picked out before removing the parts from the sprue such as the bottoms and tops of the push rod tubes are shiny, there is a black band around the bottom of the cylinder head to the lower cylinder, the valve covers are shinier than the cylinders, and then there's the provisions for spark plug wiring.

I have some Albion Metals very tiny brass tubing that is going to serve as the ends of the plug wires entering the cylinder heads. I used these the first time when detailing the wing fold area on the Avenger, so I'm comfortable cutting and handling it. It's best to cut it on some masking tape so the pieces stay where you cut them. You roll a sharp #11 blade back and forth to cut it. If you don't add any extra piping or wiring on a model, the least you can do it put the sparkplug wires on a 1:32 kit.

The lower cylinder has a slightly different cast than the heads, and all the fins need some seam treatment to set them off.

That looks great! Another kit on my short list. I'll be following this one.

its coming together and looks great.

Thanks! Tamiya includes nice figures. SWS has great figures too, but you have to order them on the after-market (+$$$).

Today was a milestone day: fuze joined. Before doing that there were a bunch of details that needed to be installed on one side or the other. In the aft portion, there were brackets, blocking pieces for the tailplane joining area, and four bulkheads and added details including the elevator bellcrank and actuating lever. Some of these pieces I had airbrushed on the sprue, but still had to hand paint some interior green to finish it all up. 

On the cockpit starboard (R) side there was an group of switch boxes held on a piece of flat PE with some CA. Two of the three pieces were dropped. I found one on the shelf at the bottom of my roll around work bench. The other was apparently gone and after I swept about 25 square feet I gave up. Then later, I see a little black speck at least 10 feet away and there it was. So I got all three installed and mounted to the fuze side. There's even the flare pistol which I painted exactly according to the plans plus wooden grips.

But... all of this wonderful detail is totally invisible as evidenced in the next group of pics.

Joining the fuselage was a joy! Even with all that stuff inside it just popped together. The seams are almost invisible. If any filler is needed, it will be very little. Then there were several panels that also fit perfectly. 

The cockpit opening is narrow (almost claustrophobic) and you can see almost nothing of all that fancy painting I did. I pity the guys that go the next step and run simulated wire runs to all the side switch boxes, also which will never be seen. The only seam that may need some work is the one immediately in front of the cockpit.

Here's looking up in the tail section. When the tail wheel and arresting gear are installed and then partially occluded by the gear doors, most of this won't show up either.

The last work I did today was paint the fire wall Tamiya Bare Metal Silver spray and install it. In this image you can see the beautiful fits on the front panels.

This same step had the exhaust pipes joined to the fire wall... at least 2/3 of the 6 pipes. The last two get installed just before the engine is mounted. I wanted to air brush them Tamiya Dark Iron as a base coat and needed to hold them. While the outlets are beautifully molded with the impression of an opening, I drilled them with a 0.032" drill and use some wire of the same size to hold them for paining. I will enlarge this hole just a tad to complete the illusion that these are, indeed, exhaust pipes.

After painting and weathering I will mount them to the firewall, which itself needs some weathering before the pipes go on. This model is moving along nicely.

Last night I gave the okay to laser cut my next model railroad building, so after the Corsair is built, I'll be back at railroad work.  

Builder 2010

...when I noticed the other lens piece on the same fret as the first one that I cut out. Oh... sprue "P" and "Q" and on the same tree.

I've had that happen too.  I search and search for a missing sprue only to find there are several sections molded into one sprue.  Arghhh....

Your corsair is looking fantastic.  Great work in the cockpit, and the figure too.  I keep wanting to add figures into my builds, but always chicken out.

Cheers, Mark

DMX512

Toshi

i hope you and Mrs. Toshi are doing well and each day gets a little better for you both.

TOSHI if you could have seen the hood hinges that Builder 2010 fabricated for a fellow modeler / hobby shop owner here in Louisville you would be floored.

I greatly admire the skill you both have aquired.

 

Thank you all for the encouragement and good thoughts! I've purchased some Tamiya paints which I suspect, when properly mixed, will give me the shades I need. I've used Vallejo on the Avenger, but don't like how long it takes to fully dry. I use both paints all the time and the work you see here does include mostly Tamiya paint and some Vallejo (flesh mix, white and insignia red). 

I finished up what makes up the cockpit today.

It started with building the seat. It's five plastic parts plue one PE. Unfortunately, the PE part is completely hidden with the seated pilot. 

I airbrushed all the interior green parts that were included up to this point plus the interior of the fuselage and some other bulkhead parts for the aft of the aircraft. As noted before, the engineering on this kit is exceptional. Where you have fit challenges with Trumpeter, this one is amazing. And being 1:32, you can pick out details that would be almost impossible in smaller scales. Case in point; the skull and cross-bones decal on the pilot's flight helmet, and a decal on the instrument panel.

I glued the seat in place, and painted and installed the oxygen bottle. It called out semi-gloss black, but I painted it zinc-chromate yellow.

The underside of the seat is unpainted, but does not show at all. Getting the PE seat belt to stick using medium and thin CA was a challenge. It is VERY springy material and took more time than I would like to finally get it in place. All of the other PE seat belt material is not used when having a seated pilot. I also didn't put the wash on the seat since, that too, would be occulded by the pilot.

I glued the aft cockpit bulkhead in place trapping the control column and then, using thick CA, glued the pilot in place. Only then did I glue the right arm in place in such a way to grasp the control stick's handle. For this I used standard Testor's tube cement since it has some bulk and would fill any gaps between the arm and the body.

Now I had to get those pesky PE seat belts to join with the molded-on belts, which I now had to repaint from the white of the parachute seat belts to the dark tan of the cockpit seat belts since I didn't realize that some of the molded-in details were seat belts, not parachute belts. This was a wrinkle I wasn't expecting. 

The PE parts are probably stainless steel and are very difficult to shape. I tried to pre-bend them so the tension would be reduced a bit so the CA had a chance to hold them in place.

I scraped the paint off the pilot's seat belts so the CA had something to which to hold and then held them in place and hoped for the best. The first belt glued quickly, but the second was a different story. My experience with CA is if it doesn't glue the first time, any further attempts get worse. Each attempt had me scraping the cured CA off the plastic part so I wasn't putting new CA over old CA. Eventually it stuck and I repainted all the distubed areas.

The instrument panel cowling had several small parts that glue to it before attaching to the instrument panel. Out of the five parts needed to be glued, I had two take off to the quantum rift: the little two-toggle panel on the right side and the clear gyro-stablized gun sight optic. Of the two, I finally found the clear part which would have been the worst one to lose, but couldn't find the little switch panel, so I scratch-built it out of piece of sprue and two pieces of high-E guitar string. I used a Xuron hard-wire cutter to cut small pieces of the piano wire, and if I need two pieces, I end up cutting 8 or more since they are microscopic and fly into the rift without warning.

After painting and assembly the panel looks okay. There is a conduit that comes out of a hole in the instrument panel and goes to the bottom of the gun sight that is not included in the kit. I attempted to make it out of a piece of wire insulation. It didn't work, couldn't really be seen, so I scraped the idea. 

I used some Microsol Liquid Mask on the gunsight's lens and airbrushed the cowl semi-gloss black, picked out the toggle switches with the Molotow Chrome Pen and then glued it to the cockpit assembly. My source book shows the leather front edge of the cowl to be a brown shade which I may paint tomorrow just to add more intereset.

With the addition of the canopy cowl, the interior is complete and ready to be installed in the fuselage. I notice that I've worn some black off his headphones that needs to be touched up.

The cockpit of this model was the singular most complex and complex cockpit model I've ever built, and believe me, I've built a ton of them. Tamiya is to be congratulated for doing it this way. In later versions of Corsairs, a cockpit floor was installed. It was a real pain when the pilot would drop something in the cockpit and it would end up on the bottom laying on the fuselage skin. It would be most difficult to retrieve something there. Kind of like fishing something out from between a car seat and a console. 

Next up: more interior fuselage stuff in preparation for joining the halves. Can't wait to build the engine... I love radials and this one's a beauty.

Oh and these Vallejo Model Air colors as well....

71.119 White Grey

71.121 Light Gull Gray

I did not name the colors I am just using Vallejo nomenclature. LOL.