Nikola Topalov

I am using AM open cowl flaps and I found some room for slight improvement by adding flap mechanism cables made from stretched sprue:

Engine plumbed and ready for weathering:

Brilliant work man! Real eye candy. Well done!

👏 👏👏 Hats off Goran. Beautiful work! Well done!

Seatbelts in place. Only some idiot didn't read the text under the headrest which clearly says that the belts must go over the brace tube!

Cockpit almost done. I f'd up some stencils and didn't use them in the end. This is my first time working with them so now know what to do next time. Lesson learned. Left to do - some more dry brushing, chipping, scratches, seatbelts, etc. I might even do some wiring. I'll see. Best, Nikola

What a beauty Goran! Brilliant work! Well done man. I have one in the stash so this is definitely an inspiration. Best, Nikola

Thank you Tomcat! Appreciated! Best, Nikola

Hi gents, Some progress with the office and the engine. Not much and there is still a lot of work to be done, but this is it for now until I get back from vacation. I intentionally slightly overdid the seat hoping that when the seatbelts come it will all be visually balanced. I also decided not to scratch build the inside of the cowl flaps due to lack of enough free time. Thus I am going AM with this:

Thank you very much Markus! Appreciated. As I said, what I meant by routine was that I didn't really dig into all the things and details that I could have. I still put effort into what I was doing and tried to do it justice. Best, Nikola

Thank you Kapam! Much appreciated. Now when I said "routine" I didn't mean to sound arrogant at all, but I might have now that I look at it, haha. What I meant was that I didn't really dig into all the things and details that I could have since, as I said, it didn't inspire me that much. I still put effort into what I was doing and tried to do it justice. Best, Nikola

Great work Mathy! Well done. The only thing is that when you zoom in the pics are somewhat blurry. I know that there is wonderful detail there but we can't see it Best, Nikola

Hi Poirot, That's a forward looking infra red a.k.a. FLIR. Best, Nikola

Hi gents, Another one on the shelves. I could say that this was more of a routine build which did not inspire me that much, but I still had fun for sure. As these birds were kept relatively clean and well maintained, I decided to keep weathering subtle. I have used Aires cockpit set and I am not actually sure if it was for this kit even though it says it is. It was quite problematic fit wise in some areas. No pitot tube was provided in the kit. I have scratch built the intake cover as the fit was bad on the already wrong shaped intake, so it required covering up. Painted with Gunze Mr. Color paints and weathered with AMMO washes, Revell pigments and AK pencils. Hope you like it. Best, Nikola

Some initial progress... Cockpit, tail wheel mechanism and engine parts ready for primer. Best, Nikola Of course I managed to break both 0.3 and 0.4mm drill bits so it is what it is with 0.6mm in the end.

Bell says that as well: "Wheel wells were nearly always painted in the underside camouflage color, thought there were a handful of exceptions".

Thanks Scooby. It looks like you're right. I found this excerpt about Birdcages from Dana Bell's book: "The aircraft was expected to have two coats of primer over most assemblies. The first coat was untinted (yellow) zinc chromate; the second coat was to be tinted to ensure that there were no 'holiday' areas that received only one coat. As such, there should be salmon nearly everywhere. The inside of the engine cowl also needed an additional finish coat to reduce the possibilities of flash fires. This was usually the same Light Gray camouflage lacquer used on Corsair undersurfaces." I guess that the inside of the cowl flaps was also light gray. Best, Nikola

Maybe two coats of primer were applied only to areas where no further paint was to come.

Hi guys, I am about to finally begin actual work on this beautiful kit and I have a question about the wing root exposed primer. I read that for the early Corsairs, prior to mid 1943, the inside of the cowl, rear tail wheel bay, etc. are in salmon pink, but I am not sure which primer should weathered wing roots show. As I understood, the pink salmon was actually intentionally modified YZC second coat so that they would be sure that the aircraft recieved two coats of primer. I ask because I have only seen models with YZC showing on the wing roots. Thanks in advance, Nikola

Almost to the finish line. A few teasers won't hurt... 😜 Best, Nikola

Decals in place. Left to do - canopy, "beast mode" ordnance, ejection seat details, control stick and canopy mechanism installment, all bay doors installment, intake cover, some minor paint corrections and some more weathering with oils and pencils... Best, Nikola

Great job on the Rhino! Well done! The only thing I would mention is that the markings/decals are too clean and stand out form the rest of the very nicely weathered aircraft. Best, Nikola

The Corsair slowly advances... My phone sincerely apologizes for the photo quality.

Thank you very much for your kind words BB! Appreciated! And also thank you for the few tips which you gave me during the finishing phase. It meant a lot. Best, Nikola

Also, again after tedious masking, the cockpit base colours and a gloss coat are done: