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

A little progress on my bird. I will call the office finished. Will get pics up soon. Working on the engine now. Wrapped a plastic strip around the handle of my X-acto for the harness, sand to right thickness,attach, drill and then wire. Sounds easy looking at the text but this is 1/72!!!!

Patience will be tested with the wells Harv, perserverance will see the job completed. Really looking forward to some more pics!!!

Too bad about the wings Harv. They would have looked sharp!

 The -86 pit is looking good. Keep it up.

Looking forward to the pics Richie. Keep on it buddy.

Harv- Looks like you're making excellent progress on your birds.  I agree about the wheelwells, looks like a sanding session is in order to get them to fit properly.  Be careful how tight you hold them when the begin to get thin as they could be very easy to break.  Your Sabre pit looks great too!

Richie- Sounds like you are pulling out all of the stops for that little bird!  Can't wait to see some pics.

Hi guys,

Months have gone by and I have written off Great Models as far as ever receiving the order I sent. I've sourced a True Details F4U-1 cockpit from Squadron, not quite correct for the -1D, but the major difference would probably just be the underwing load arming and release switches, a fairly minute detail in 1:48 and I'm not going to quibble for the inaccuracy after this long. The new pit should be here next week, so I'm going to get started on the Hobbycraft FG-1D in Salvadorean markings at long last.

First job, prepainting. Gloss white for the prop hub and landing gear struts, satin black for the prop, gunmetals and grey for the mill, interior green for the pit when it arrives, plus the gear wells and cowling interior.

We're coming into the good weather down here in Aus and I've been spraying enamels outdoors to avoid the toxic and offensive fumes. I aim to do the full four-tone camo job in enamels on the patio table by the pool. Can we say 'luxury modelling?' If people ask what I'm doing I'll say 'painting a model by the pool,' and they'll probably assume enviously that I'm airbrushing a nubile young woman in tigerstripes with non-toxic dyes...

Mike/TB379

Thunderbolt379 wrote:

If people ask what I'm doing I'll say 'painting a model by the pool,' and they'll probably assume enviously that I'm airbrushing a nubile young woman in tigerstripes with non-toxic dyes... Mike/TB379

Hey Mike,

If you ever get around to painting one of those up, skip the F4 and post plenty of pics of that

-Fred

Hi Gig,

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "Tiger Meet" doesn't it?  We could have a spray-your-girlfriend contest at a tropical hotel somewhere... Um, better get back to Corsairs before this conversation is deemed off topic!

TB379

Hi all,

I made a small start on the FG-1D thisafternoon. Let me outline the scene for you:

I decided I would spray the gloss white needed for the prop hub and landing gear. Naturally that meant clean up the parts first... So I decided to assemble the three parts of the tail wheel unit before spraying them as one. The A-brace was hopelessly deformed and without locators of any sort. The wheel unit had a peg but the main assembly had no corresponding hole. Hmmm, can anybody say "Hobbycraft?" It's no skin off an expert's nose to drill a hole, and that's what I did. Good fit, no bother. Then I applied a drop of glue to join them, and while the parts did not really want to stick to eachother, the drilled part disintegrated.

Um, come again?

Wasn't this session supposed to be about painting?

Right now I'm seriously considering pulling out a Tamiya and shoving the HC back in the stash. I mean, I could use the FAS decals to do the scheme I want on a far better kit, but can I trust them not to fail as miserably as the showing so far has been? Maybe I better test one and see if it'll actually work! Sheesh, I ordered another True Details pit for this thing last night.

Feeling grumpy,

TB379

 Mike,

 I've seen your work & I'm sure you'll do fine on the parts. This is my 100th post so

 for the record I agree with Fred on your " other " airbrushing project

 Frank C

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the kind words, mate! Well, I'm thinking I could maybe scrap the landing gear and build a stand, do this beast in flight, flaps up, use the TD pit and use a Monogram Korean-vintage pilot figure, to build a Corsair anywhere from Korea to Central America... Of course, the HC gear bay doors will probably not fit worth a darn in the closed position!

Mmm, the 'other' AB project would sure be fun. I have a ladyfriend who'd participate for sure! I can say it would be a marvelous way to get the ladies involved in the hobby! (To be serious, she's looking forward to watching me work, and maybe trying her own hand at some styrene!)

Cheers,

Mike

  I`m excited! I was gona wait to post pics till I had the pit finished, but it looks to good not to share. All I have left is the IP and dash cover. The gun sight will wait till painting is done. Hopefully tommorro. So it gives me GREAT pleasure to present......

Damn, Harv - that came out fantastic

-Fred

  Mike,

 There ya go buddy! There is always room for plan B.

 Frank C 

 Hello again. Well I`m calling the pit done!! Heres what it will look like when buttoned up. All comments welcome..............Harv

thuds1 wrote:

Mike,  There ya go buddy! There is always room for plan B.  Frank C

The crazy thing about Hobbycraft, the parts actually look pretty good on the sprue. It's only when you blink and look again that the flaws start to appear! The overall shape looks good, the panel lines are acceptably machined, though obviously not to Tamegawa standard, but it's like the kit was designed by two engineering teams who didn't speak to eachother... The underwing rockets, for instance. The bodies are flat-backed with a locator pin, while the cruciform tail units are concave, without a hole. Was one ever supposed to fit into the other? No wonder HC got the rep they did.

Mike

 Mike,

 From a distance I sorta agree with you about HC . I mainly build 1/72 so I personally

 don't know , but my father built 1 of their aircraft and he had problems with them. But then 

 again, are we getting spoiled with the tamiyas of the world . My F4U is a 1/72 Hasagawa  

 is about 30 and I had to do a little extra work ,but it's coming along ok . So keep at it

 (maybe) ,you do good work ,I've seen your posts.

 Frank C

 PS

 Dirtball, that cockpit looks like a real f4U !!

Thanks Frank! You're right, it's a kinda love-hate relationship. I love the way the parts look in the box, I hate the way they go together. If the big parts fit acceptably well she'll still make a nice bird. I'm just wary of the plastic's reactivity to the glue, I'll need to do some tests on sprue, and test a spare decal to see if they're usable also. I'm really thinking of using a Tamiya to do FAS 219, and using the HC to build an alternate FAS bird, the famous one in camo grey with blue and white rudder and wingtip detailing and yellow canopy frame. Colorful, at least!

Cheers,

Mike

 You got it Mike ,

  I'm going thru the same thing with my tamiya P47. The paint job got all screwed  up         &  it has been as Bruce Spingsteen says  " 1 step foward , 2 steps back ". As for my  Corsair,the weathering is mostly done , gotta allow a couple weeks for the oil paint to dry on the wheels.

 Frank C

I hate it when a paintjob goes wrong -- knock on wood. Weeks for oils to dry? Ouch! I've heard of oils being put through the AB to create hyper-realistic large-scale skintones, over an auto-acrylic undercoat, on a vinyl subject, now that's scary...

I'm in no hurry and there's plenty of time on this build -- I'll see what I can come up with. It's not as if I'm short of Corsairs in my stash!

Cheers,

mike

Harv, my is I would glue tops and bottoms together per intructions. Then carefully remove the flaps. Then just fill in the gaps on the leading edges. Sounds simple but it will be a challenge. I dropped the flaps on an old Monogram P-51D with this technique, of course one section flaps are much easier but, with patience and doing one at a time, it should look GREAT!!!

Little progress here as well. Nothing worth pics yet. Got the pushrods shaved off and the black sprue stretched. Now just have to sit down and slowly reinstall the better pushrods(sprue). Then the harness and wires.

 Mike,

  I,ve never had a problem with oils, I use a clear coat of acrylic or lacquer paint

  to seal the finish before & allow a few weeks for it to dry ,that's what I

 was told to do. I'm in no rush.

 Frank C

Hello again,

I also never have any problem with oils.  I guess I am a multimedia painter since I use oils, acrylic, laquers, and enamels on my models. 

Sorry I havn't been around for awhile, been very busy, however, I do have my 1/32 F4U done except for mounting the aftermarket canopy.  the kit one got damaged when my mask had a leak.

I hope to take pictures and get them posted this weekend.

Cheers,

Scott