The Official F4U Corsair Group Build 4/01/08 - rolling end date

I have no idea what One-Go is, and I agree with you about rattle cans.  I tried finding the Australian name of Future in my back issues of FSM.  I'm sure I saw it in the magazine somewhere, but I just couldn't find it.  

I did find something cool over on the aircraft forum posted by oscarduece.  The website has a cool photo section showing Goodyear Corsairs under construction in Akron, OH during WWII.  

http://www.wingsoverakron.org/photos.html 

It's a good thing for Corsair fans.

Semper Fi,

Chris 

Thank you very much ridle!!!! That slide show is great on the link!!!!!

Cheers, Richie 

Hi ridleusmc,

Future isn't pat of the S C Johnson range here -- there was something said about a similar product here a while back, but the Johnson website for Australia listed no floor glossing products at all, as of a few months ago. "Kleer" is the UK name for Future, I might be able to source some from there...

Thanks for the link, that's a fabulous photo resource, I LOVE the Super Corsairs! I've been fascinated by them ever since I first heard a Wasp Major had been grafted to the bent-wing bird!

Cheers,

TB379

I have heard the Wasp Majors at full throttle at Reno in '85. Dreadnoght and the Super-Corsair were duelling it out at over 450 mph!!!! A most awesome display of horsepower!!!

Cheers, Richie

Oh, how I'd have loved to be there...! I was a photographer at Avalon '97-'05, and just wallowed in the rumble of Merlins and the thunder of jets. Missed the last event, still hoping to be there next year.

Cheers,

TB379

This one can be called complete, I guess, though it seems like nothing I build ever really feels completely complete.  Don't copy my landing gear color, I think it should be a dull silver.  Maybe I'll fix that later by rubbing some silver over most of the white.  The step on the left flap was filled, -1 (all before the -1A) didn't have a step in the flap.  However, it seems that on -1Ato -1D Corsairs the flap on the right should have the step, not the left one, unless all my photos are reversed.  I also removed the little fairings from the tail wheel doors that are behind the opening for the tailwheel, that's another -1 specific change and Tamiya's instructions don't mention that.  I did a little wear and weathering with aluminum powder and Tamiya smoke, but not too much.  The decals went down nicely and there was only one major scare.  When I put Micro Sol on the insignia they wrinkled up like my face looks in harsh morning light.  After 4 or 5 hours they went down and snuggled in very nicely.  Surprised me, as I've always heard that Tamiya decals were resistant to the stuff.  Maybe it was the warm day or something. 

Mike I have some pics of Avalon '07.

John that looks perfect mate!!!!! The color looks just right!!!! Don't know about what you said about the gear color but, the whole enchilada is near perfection!!!! AWESOME!!! WELL DONE!!!

Cheers, Richie

Another nice build John !  Nice pictures showing this great build ! I like the way you present them.

Jeaton -- very nice build! I must have one like it some day, I hope to have a whole line of Corsairs, just like for Spits and Mustangs and Bf 109s and Phantoms...

Richie -- I shot over 700 frames at Avalon '97, I used to work with two Pentax K1000 round my neck, one with slide, one with print, one with a zoom lens, the other for close-ups, both with polarisers. Ah, the pre-digital days...

TB379

Great job, John!!    The paint scheme is outstanding and not "overweathered."  Did you cut out the elevators or did the kit come that way?

Ken 

kbuzz01 wrote:

Great job, John!!    The paint scheme is outstanding and not "overweathered."  Did you cut out the elevators or did the kit come that way? Ken

Thanks for all the nice comments, guys.   It's appreciated.  Made me brave (or silly) enough to start today on another corrugated beast, the Junkers G-38.

The elevators are molded together on the kit, but the plastic is soft enough and the lines are well enough defined to make it fairly easy to separate them by dragging a new #11 blade backwards down the separation areas until they separate.  Takes some care where the fore and aft line is, but there is always superglue or Milliput for goofs.  I got lucky on this one and just had to sand the contours as needed. 

Great work John,

Congradulations. 

The overall colors look great, especially with the borders between colors.  The relaxed elevators look great, and I love the look of the engine.

Semper Fi,

Chris

Hmmm. For some reason I can't see John's pics...are they still showing up for everyone else?

Still plugging away on my bird - hope to fire some paint tonight or tomorrow.

Ahhh, there they are!

Great finish, John. Came out really well!

gzt wrote:

I can see John's Corsair picts. Question for the experts of FAA Corsairs. I am building a Mk II and techmod decals show no bottom "window". Is it simply a clear part painted over or should I use a different approach ?

I must admit that I have little knowledge of Royal Corsairs.  However, I do know that early Corsairs, bird-cage and some -1A's, were built with underfusalage windows to aid with bombing.  It was quickly realized that these windows were worthless and they were simply painted over in squadron use.  I believe the windows were history before the -1D made its debut, but I could be wrong about that. 

If you can't find the appropriate reference pics, it would be a good assumption that the window was there, but painted over. 

Semper Fi,

Chris   

Great looking bird, John.  A nice clean build, with some great paint.  A little too clean for my preferences, but that's just personal taste.

Greg, I'm building the tammy -1D.  The instructions say to paint over the window in exterior color.  What I'm doing is a little bit different, though.  I dipped the glass in blue-tinted Future.  Then I used a little bit of dark sea blue (my final color) and painted a little bit over the glass.  What I'm going for is an early -1D that had the window, but then specs called for it to be painted over.  It'll look like a field-applied paintjob (I hope ).

-Fred

Jeaton -- I was most interested to read that you scored the flaps free to pose them on the Tamiya kit, as I'm faced with something similar on the Hobbycraft -1D.

The kit comes with two sets of flaps, one raised, one dropped, but the kit is engineered to use the dropped flaps. To fit the raised ones needs some plastic surgery to the locating tabs. So, where's the problem? The raised flaps are provided with surface detail, recessed panel lines and raised stiffening ribs. The dropped flaps are completely smooth! Why can't anything ever be easy?!

Well, I can scribe the missing lines, but the ribs would call for half-round microrod at about .010" diameter, and I don't know if anybody even makes it that small (I can check Plastruct and Evergreen), plus I just had to buy two Plastruct packs for missing details on my Tiger. GRRR.

The other option is to use the detailed flaps, cut them apart and then modify them to fit the locator tabs for the dropped flap option, which would mean building the rounded forward side of the flaps from styrene, including the notch to match the tabs... Oh, fun! But possibly less fiddly than the alternative.

Any thoughts on color for the normally-hidden portion of the flaps? In the 50s the Navy was using dark red for hidden areas, like airbrake bays, but a 1969 photo of Ferdinand Soto's plane, Honduras's last combat Corsair (a -5), shows no color change on the flap edges at all. The plane was also in an advanced state of weathering, with control surfaces swapped in from other planes, so she was a patchwork quilt of finishes (sounds like a great subject to add to my 'Football War' lineup!)

Cheers,

TB379

Does anyone have any color pictures of an open gunbay?  All the pics I've seen, are in black and white.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Fred

Gigatron wrote:

Does anyone have any color pictures of an open gunbay?  All the pics I've seen, are in black and white.

hey!  I can help with this one.  Here's a couple of pics I scanned from a book of mine.  They're not the best quality due to my ancient scanner, but they're that I have.  HTH!

Thanks, Frank.

What book is that from?  I want to see if I can find it locally and get a good look at that picture.

And if anyone has any other pictures, feel free to post.  This resin gun bay is giving me fits.  Aires makes some great resin, but their instructions stink.

-Fred

Hi Jeaton,

I see -- yes, that would be an excellent improvement, dropping the elevators to suggest an unlocked control stick (did the Corsair have a surface-lock of that sort? The P-51 had a plunger-lock on the stick to immobilise the surfaces at zero-position).

No colour change on the edges of the surfaces simplifies things. I've looked at your build and compared the flaps to photos of the real deal, and it strikes me the sides of the flap segments are 'open,' rather than closed units -- is this correct? Hobbycraft moulded them as two-part slabs with closed edges, which feels all wrong.

I like the idea of using layers of primer to create the stripping, through a little careful masking -- thanks, I think I'll give that a go!

I'll start with the engine, the detail level is Hobbycraft, not Quickboost, but what the hey!

Cheers,

TB379

    John, if I haven`t already told you your corsair is great well....its great! I cant believe some are done with thiers already!. Today is the first day in a couple of weeks that we dont have family or friends staying with us. Trying to get back to "normal". But need to get back to my work bench and do some modeling!!. I`ve missed it terrably. Split my time between the 105 and my corsair. Havent touched either in almost 3 weeks. Hopefully I can post some shots by next weekend...............Harv

   Oh, and happy Fathers day to all you "muthas" Mine was the BEST I`ve ever had!!!
 

Quick question (I'm sure one of you guys know the answer) -

Where does the "interior green" paint stop? I'm thinking specifically about the areas underneath the canopy where the gunsight is attached, and under the 2 side windows behind the pilot's headrest. Still IG, or fuselage color for those two spots?

Hey dupes,

I'm pretty sure the area where the gunsight is mounted is flat black for anti-glare purposes.  The other area, I'm not familiar with.  Which bird are you building?

-Fred