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

  Chris,

 All I have to say is just keep plugging along and you'll get through.

 Your F4U looks great so far .

 Frank C

 F4U almost painted (today maybe ? )

 P 47 finally painted !

Hey fellas,

It's good to see that participants are still rolling along and that some are getting started.  As far as tires go, the maintenance guys are just going to install the best of what they have or whatever they can get.  You could probably put different style tires on the same aircraft and it would be accurate. 

My latest struggle has been with decals.  I've been working on them for the last week or so.  They went on realatively easily (even with Micro-Set), but bubbles and silvering have been a plague.  Every night I poke some holes and spread some Micro-Sol, and every morning they look alittle better.  Here's how's she's looking now.  You can see what I'm talking about with the underwing pic of the "Marines" decal.

Semper Fi,

Chris

Thanks Jeaton and Simpilot,

I found a photo of a -5 serving in the same action in '69, a top pilot's plane that's preserved as a standing diaplay today. The tires look either smooth profile or circumferential, it's hard to tell, but they're definitely not diamond pattern... It was probably mix'n'match, as you say, it was a time of emergency, El Salvador was getting planes under the table, any way it could in the weeks running up to battle, and during the action too, so they probably came south with whatever tires they had on when they were bought.

I'll go for the circumferential tread if I can get it, that should be reasonably accurate. Also, I can get a -1 cockpit from True Details for only $7, it's the -1/1A cockpit and the only major difference for the -1D would be the drop switches for the underwing load, and the fuel selector for when drop tanks were carried instead of bombs. That's a very minor difference, details a milimeter across and I wouldn't even know where to look for them, so I'm inclined to forgive the discrepency and save the $13 difference on a cockpit set that features those bits.

Here's another question -- the kit is designed to feature dropped flaps. What colour were the edges of the flaps on Corsairs? Dark red in 1950s USN fashion? Interior green?

Thanks again, and I look forward to posting WIP pics,

Cheers,

TB379

Like knobbies on a dirt bike. I looked through a couple of my books, US Navy Carrier Fighters of WWII and USN/USMC over Korea(both from Squadron Signal), and from what I could gather and MHO, I think they put on what was available at the time. If you have tires that fit and missions to fly are you going to scrub a mission because its the wrong tread??? I don't think so! Some of the pictures show diamond treads on planes in Korea and circumfrential treads. there were also smooth treads on some in WWII. Hope that helps some!

Cheers, Richie

Thunderbolt379 wrote:

ADDENDUM: Quick question for Corsair-aholics: is there any hard and fast rule about tread patterns? Would a -1D serving in 1969 in the Third World be as liable to have circumferential tread as diamond tread? Need more F4U reference books...! Cheers, TB379

In my memory the diamond pattern tires were not seen much in the 60's, most tires of that period had gone to circumferential tread, probably due to runways being paved most everywhere.  The diamond pattern was more common to WW II.  But, photos are king if you can find them.   Diamonds are better for dirt.

Holy cow! You're already painting!

I may be able to catch up in a few days.

Looks good, btw! 

Hi guys,

Now that The Hunters GB is out of the way and the Big Cats and IDF are well along, I'm starting to think about something with wings, and that Hobbycraft Corsair (1969) is whispering to me. I've been surfing for AM sets to dress it up, and have been seriously considering the Quickboost engine and gear covers, as well as a True Details cockpit and wheels. For reasons of economy (there still being details to buy for other GBs) I'm thinking of going with the latter only. The bird looks like it should build well, has recessed panel lines, openable cooling flaps and canopy, and dropped flaps, so she'll build as a plane between missions, engine hot. The engine may be basic but there's not much visibility through the cowl. And I can always go to town dressing up another at a later date.

I can put the wing together while the pit's on its way from GMW. I might get a start soon.

ADDENDUM: Quick question for Corsair-aholics: is there any hard and fast rule about tread patterns? Would a -1D serving in 1969 in the Third World be as liable to have circumferential tread as diamond tread? Need more F4U reference books...!

Cheers,

TB379

Yes, Great looking birdcage there John!!! Love the feathered edge, it looks just right!

, Richie

I agree, Great Job,

I see your early model has the short lived belly window.  It's a very cool little detail.  Great paintwork.  

Semper Fi,

Chris 

Fred, I must have squeezed the fuselage too tight when I was mating the halves, I guess.  Here's some pictures of where I am now.  Have to be gone for a few days so Dupes and you can catch up.  As you can see, I'm doing an early F4U-1 with the flat contour birdcage canopy.  Must like masking, right?  The plan is to have a Corsair lineup with at least one model of each variant eventually.  The last will be the AU-1 in the Gull Grey over white, a sort  of inversion of this scheme of blue grey over light grey, which turns out to be the same as gull grey.

Hey John,

I used the back of a #11 to get rid of the high points.  A few quick scrapes and it was all good.

I didn't even bother drilling into the ignition ring.  I drilled into the piston casing, and glued the solder in place.  Once the glue had cured, I snipped the solder to length and put it behind the ring and then added a drop of CA to secure it.  I don't have the patience to drill some 36 holes (or even 18 just to do the front row) in that thing.  There'd be no plastic left.

-Fred

Springs on the gear struts, forgot about that.....Looks good, though.

Fred, a spot I had to go over twice is the top of the fuselage from the windscreen to the nose, I couldn't see it untill I had a coat of paint on it, but I had to go back over that area to get rid of a little peak on the seam area.  I used a flexifile and it went to the right contour pretty quick. 

Those spark plug wires are tedious things, and I have to fiind a smaller drill than I have now, I think. 

Fred and dupes, Great work fellas!!! Those mills look very nice indeed! Looking forward to seeing them in the final stages!

Cheers, Richie

Great work, John and dupes

Here's where I'm at - pretty much the same place as you two

The fuselage and engine (though it's not glued on)

A closeup of the engine.  I added some ignition wiring, but it's nowhere near as good as Frank's

And my landing gear.  I made the springs from some extremely fine wire copper and the brake lines are .015 solder.

Enjoy,

Fred

John and dupes- Excellent work there fellas!  Glad to see you're enjoying that kit.

John- Thank you very much, I am glad you liked my engine.

John - no fair! AM seatbelts! That's cheating!

I'm plugging away with you, should be sealing up the fuselage tonight. Here's a few pics of the engine and pit:

I'm pretty happy with how both of them came out, although next time I need to use some larger guage wire on the engine. It looked right when I started...but by the time I was halfway through I knew I shoulda gone with something bigger. 

Looking good there John! Well done!

Cheers, Richie

OK, Dupes, I got my camera going and the engine wired and painted and the fuselage all closed up.  That's what happens when you are retired and having fun, right?  This is a very nice kit.  I think they must have quit refining the wing join parts or fired the guy doing it, they needed some mods.  I don't understand what their plan was there.  The wing spar braces needed a lot of trimming to butt up properly to the wheel bay spar that didn't fit too well for me earlier.  Perhaps if they had made the wheel bay and outer wing panel spars one part, with two types, wings folded or extended, things would be more direct, and less work would be involved in getting the two wing ribs settled up close to the wheel bay like they should be.  But, boy do the wing panels fit together nice, and the fit to the fuselage is really good.  Much cleaner, and much stronger than on the Hasegawa F4U-4 I built some time back.

Anyway, I had a little cleaner engine in my mind's eye that I ended up with, certainly doesn't look as nice as Frank's engine.  Maybe I'll do better next time.  I like the wires, but I seem to end up making enough glue messes to lose the crisp look.  My fingers look really big under the magnifier!  The wires are 34 gauge craft wire painted black.  I drilled out all the spark plug holes in the cylinder, that simplified things because I could more or less do two wires at once, it was easier to get the lengths right and hold them in place while I glued them to the harness on the nose case.  I used a #80 drill but a smaller one would be better.

Hoped to post some pics up today, but apparently my camera is old enough that it isn't compatible with Windows Vista. Nice. Going to have to DL and edit the pics at home on XP, throw them on a USB key, and then try this again.

Lots of good stuff done, though. Pit is finished, and almost done with the engine wiring.

John that cockpit looks just fine to me.  I think you will find that the white will be a little less harsh once you apply a flat coat to the IP followed by a drop of Future into each of the instruments.

Cheers

dupes, Richie- Thank you very much fellas!  I painted mine a medium brown, then a VERY light drybrushing with silver to give it a metallic sheen.  Looks like aged copper up close.

Fred- For the holes, I used a .25mm round dental bur, chucked into my motor tool.  The motor tool I use is a professional grade unit, with multiple roller bearings to support the shaft and eliminate any vibration.  Not sure if a Dremel would be smooth enough to try it.

John- Yes, that is a weak point with the Tamiya kit IMHO.  Those spar pieces don't line up very well.  I love the Tamiya kit, though there are a few areas where the fit could be a lot better.

Nice looking pit, John!  You're in this GB - you're the 6th one down from the top.

I'm building the same kit, I didn't notice any fit issue there.  Though, myabe after spending 2 days jerking around with PE, nothing seems like a fit issue

-Fred

Looking very very nice so far John! Yea you wouldn't expect that from Tamiya. You don't know fit issues until you build an old Airfix!

Cheers, Richie

Did I join this GB?  I thought I joined this GB.  Building the Tamiya F4U-1 in the Marine blue-grey scheme, so here are some pictures at the risk of being thrown out because I am not official.  I was surprised, I had fit issues with the wing spar parts in the wheel wells.  Trimming and superglue fixed them.  I used the instrument panel decal, and it seems to be OK.  I do think the whites are too vivid on the panel and will try to tone them down and also try to get a bit more flat finish to the black. It did snuggle down pretty good, I doused it several times with Micro Sol.  My wash is not so good, I'm still working on that skill.

Daywalker wrote:

Chris- Outstanding paint on your bird!  Black is a tough color to get right, and you nailed it my friend! Fred- Beautiful cockpit there!  That PE really adds a lot to it.  I am tempted to give it a try on my next one. dupes- I don't recall what page I posted this on, but here are some photos of the engine I did for mine.  HTH!

Great work, Frank!  What size bit did you use to drill into the casing?

Since it's too humid to do much by me, maybe I'll wire my engine - at least I'll feel productive.

-Fred

Another ! Sorry dupes I didn't post that pic gzt did. This is the one I posted.

The engine discusion we had is about 6 pages back I think. I have my forum page setup newest to oldest. Hope that helps.

Cheers, Richie