Jump to content

Revell F4 Corsair


modelldoc

Recommended Posts

  • 2 months later...

I see that the latest iteration of Revell's 1/72 Corsair is to be a Fleet Air Arm F4U-1B Corsair and a quick glance at the instructions on Revell's website shows it has a new sprue for clipped wingtips.Has any other manufacturer done a clipped wing version in 1/72 as I'm moreused to taking the file so standard Corsair wings?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Nigel Bunker said:

I see that the latest iteration of Revell's 1/72 Corsair is to be a Fleet Air Arm F4U-1B Corsair 

Yes, I saw the announcement and said "F4U-1what?!?"  I had honestly never heard of the "F4U-1B" before, probably because the designation never existed.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Nigel Bunker said:

I see that the latest iteration of Revell's 1/72 Corsair is to be a Fleet Air Arm F4U-1B Corsair and a quick glance at the instructions on Revell's website shows it has a new sprue for clipped wingtips.Has any other manufacturer done a clipped wing version in 1/72 as I'm moreused to taking the file so standard Corsair wings?

It saddens me that nobody (except Heller, but in a not very accurate manner) have thought to provide separate outer wing panels that can be built folded or extended.  These would, of course, come in US and FAA versions so to speak. 

These early versions were part fabric covered; toolings of later models would have them (again separate and so foldable) with the correct full metal covering.  One can dream.

It surprises me somewhat that Wolfpack haven't been 'on to' this, but then they seem now to be concentrating on modern Aircraft only.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Denford said:

These early versions were part fabric covered; toolings of later models would have them (again separate and so foldable) with the correct full metal covering.

The catch with that plan is that any later model that had metal-skinned outer wings also had different inner wings.  It wasn't just the outer panels that changed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, LanceB said:

The catch with that plan is that any later model that had metal-skinned outer wings also had different inner wings.  It wasn't just the outer panels that changed.

This is drifting off what I meant, that the 'separate outer wing' tooling could have be continued to other outer wing designs and all that went with them.

Revell Germany missed a trick - well actually two - here.

Had they tooled to outer wings separately: a) They would have made the tooling of an FAA variant much easier/cheaper. b) Both could have been made 'foldable' virtually for nothing.  For that alone I certainly would have bought - well probably both  - but in fact won't be buying either.  Others would surely have done likewise ie there would be a potential sales increase at no cost reduced cost.  Something that intuition says doesn't often happen!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Denford,

 

Ah, I see what you are saying now, my mistake.

 

A 1/72 Corsair with folded-wing option would be interesting, yes, but it would have proved expensive.  I work in the industry and have repeatedly heard from makers that to add one part to a  steel tool kit costs in the neighborhood of 4000 EUR.  Size of said part and level of detail affect that slightly, but not as much as one would think.  The time and energy required to do the CAD work and make the master are different for a wheel and a wing panel, but the time and work required to transfer that to a steel mold don't vary as much - thus the cost ends up about the same.

 

The current Revell Corsair has a wing of 5 parts: bottom (one piece), top port, top starboard, port wingtip, starboard wingtip.  So that would represent an investment of something like 20,000 EUR for the tooling just for the wing.  If you split up the wing, that is three parts for the bottom half and four for the uppers (assuming the wingtips were tooled in place), plus one would now need the faces of the wing fold (minimum four more parts, six if the actuator rod is a separate part), and two more parts to support the wings in the spread position for those who wish to build their kit that way.

 

So we're now at a minimum 13 parts, and over 50,000 EUR investment in tooling, just for wings for one version of the Corsair which is now going to be more fiddly to build on top of more expensive.  

 

Even if I am wildly off concerning what it costs to cut steel tools in Eastern Europe, the increased parts count is going to seriously raise tooling costs for just the wing, which is going to raise the maker's list retail up, which drives sales down.  And if you end up with a Revell 1/72 Corsair that retails for about what the Tamiya kit goes for, but doesn't build like the Tamiya kit, guess which kit most modelers will buy?

 

IMHO a folded wing option is best left to Wolfpack or Aires or CMK.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very interesting: I must admit that I hadn't really considered cost.

Wolfpack gave us this for the Helldiver (even if they left the slats closed) but now seem to have moved away from WWll.  They implied, as far as I could understand, that the reason the wing fold set for the A3D didn't include a tail fold was lack of data.  My providing it hasn't produced anything yet and they still seem 'fixated' on modern subjects. 

So if a Helldiver wing fold can be made in cast resin let's hope Aires/Quickboost and CMK are reading this! The latter did produce a wing fold for their Scimitar so perhaps there's hope.

Sadly the Kendall resin wing fold (conversion) for an Avenger is now long oop: I still hope Airfix may yet (re)tool the Avenger and include wing fold as an integral part of the kit as they have done with the F4F, Kate, Swordfish and others.      

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...