AndyC Posted February 26, 2016 Author Share Posted February 26, 2016 So. had some time at the bench today and made a proper start on this. As alluded to earlier this is definitely a short run kit with some very basic details, some of which needs a lot of clean up. The interior is scarred by these enormous ejector pin marks (or should they be small towers) and these are all over the inside of the wings too. This will be out with the snips and the Dremel. As also stated earlier I am able to salvage parts of aTamiya F4U-1A (the flaps) and intend to use these. The flap travellers are different on the F2G but not markedly so. Size seems OK, however rather than the wing slotting into the fuselage, the fuselage sits over the wing which means that a small amount of wing sits inside it. The flaps will need to be carefully measured out and cut to make sure they are flush with the fuselage side. The footstep will need filling in the starboard inner flap. A quick tape up of the fuselage and wings shows that the outline looks OK and I think the fit should be OK (within SH boundaries!). The kit cockpit is pants and wholly inaccurate. I sliced off the TD resin and did some trial fitting within the taped fuselage. Predictably there will be some trimming to do but I expected that. The resin detail is excellent. The only issue I can see is how the headrest is going to project out of the cockpit - it's a F4U-4 'pit, so there will need to be some minor surgery as the 'shoulder' of the cockpit is more pronouned and lower down due to the cut down rear fuselage compared to a -4. Unfortunately the major disappointment is the engine. Nicely cast resin with good detail...however a R-4360 it ain't! Here is a picture in my reference book of the R-4360 in side elevation and cutaway...the corncob effect was achieved by offsetting the cylinders by twisting them and offsetting them between adjacent rows. This meant a smaller frontal area and that more air got to all the cylinders. the kit engine has 1 row in relief on a back plate and the remaining 3 rows laid out conventionally. The offset twist is there in that each row does not sit directly behind the other but the horizontal offset is missing. It's a complicated effort but it isn't a R-4360. I guess it may pass muster once in the cowling but there is no way you would want to leave a panel off this. After an hour or so hacking and sawing the resin, I got the central parts glued ready to receive the cylinders. One other saving grace was the procurement of the 14' prop from Obscureco. Compared to the feeble effort from SH, this is a lovely crisp rendition and will look massive on the front of this aircraft! So some mixed emotions on this one so far - the SH Curate's Egg! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 that engine is amazing, thats a complete model in its self!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted February 26, 2016 Author Share Posted February 26, 2016 that engine is amazing, thats a complete model in its self!! You're not wrong and there are going to be a few scratch built details on it too - the resin push rods are a bit rubbish so I'll probably replace those Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted February 28, 2016 Author Share Posted February 28, 2016 Time for some work on the engine. I think I will modify my earlier opinion and this actually isn't half bad having now looked at lots of pictures...so I'm OK with it now. SH appears to have given me an extra half an engine's worth of pots after I had removed 21 of the from their stubs and cleaned the bases to ensure a good fit The first 7 were glued and then dry-fitted for clearance in the cowling Next 7...repeat! Final 7...repeat. They all actually snuggle in. I cut to length and glued the front sets of push rod covers for the first 2 rows - I'm not convinced I'll see them, but we'll do it anyway (because we're modellers...right?) The magnetos/distributors (I think) arrayed round and in front Once happy and after a final dry-fit the interior of the cowling and the engine were sprayed Vallejo Panzer Grey Primer The cylinders were then painted Tamiya Flat Aluminium and the push rods Black. This was surprisingly easy consdidering how close the are together. I then cut some copper wire to length to run from the magneto back across the cylinders. In real life this is an insulated hose but again I don't think it will be seen but for the very front Ho-hum. Er no.. I won't see it! I'll give the engine a dry-brush with Silver and put a thin wash on the front cylinders to try and 'pop' the detail of the cooling vanes. I am waiting for a 1.8 and 2mm drill bit to arrive as the hole for the prop needs widening to take the Obscureco prop. Started moving on and had the Dremel out to burr off the ejection towers in the cockpit and the tail wheel well. That's all for now - cockpit next - some major work on this I fear 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F4u Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Coming along Andy the engine looks good . Guy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwaterous Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Great work on the engine-look forward to the rest of it K 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 great work on the engine. what a beast that is. Cheers, 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted March 2, 2016 Author Share Posted March 2, 2016 Thanks chaps! My drill bits arrived today so I can drill out properly for that beautiful prop along with the hypo needles I'm going to use for the exhausts. Hope to crack on with this again. My only issue now is whether the F4U-4 rear cockpit bulkhead headrest extends high enough up for the F2G. May do some dry-fits and if it doesn't I may have to graft an extension on. Until later... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 it's a real shame you really only get to see the front of the engine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted March 3, 2016 Author Share Posted March 3, 2016 Yes Rich it is. Although it can be done (although not authentically as I'm not sure the cowling just pulled away to expose the engine) http://hyperscale.com/2007/features/f2gag_1.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 it's a real shame you really only get to see the front of the engine!But you, and the Britmodellers watching this know that it's all there. Splendid job, how long do you think it's taken to get to this stage?Looking forward to more. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted March 3, 2016 Author Share Posted March 3, 2016 But you, and the Britmodellers watching this know that it's all there. Splendid job, how long do you think it's taken to get to this stage? Looking forward to more. John Thanks John - and yes, it's important I know it's there! Time so far? About 6-7hrs for everything I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 A bit of progress on the F2G... Been having a little tussle trying to get the cockpit to fit. No great problem here but I think the kit cockpit was too deep and when I try and fit the TD one to the same profile and 'sit' it won't go. The Dremel has been out and the 'pit base has been sanded. The other problem as mentioned above is the headrest. Once I had got the cockpit to sit right, I then sanded and shaped the shoulders of the TD 'pit so that the headrest will protrude sufficiently above to look OK. Here it is after the minor surgery. The cockpit rail platform was CA'd in place and that dictates the position of the 'pit going forward. It needed some shaping but was OK. Next up was some detailing for the bare tail wheel well. Simple Microstrip formers and stringers to make a structure. It will all be painted GSB anyway as per late war F4U's. The one thing I really want to do is drop the flaps as per a really nice photo of 454 at the NATC in 1948 (although it was stored and had flat tyres). So surgery will be needed for all the flaps and the counter-torque rudder. While I was at it, I noticed that the elevators were slightly drooped so these will be done too. Elevators first... Then the flaps to the upper wing using the kit panel lines which measure up OK The tail... I haven't started the lower wing ones because I wanted to make sure the wheel well wall all fitted properly as there is not much plastic left to fettle these if the fit isn't good. So I started fitting the wells - very poor detail here with no ribbing at all. Shaved off the rubbish moulded on duct and then after some fettling got the outer well walls in place to an acceptable standard The other thing that needs doing is the filling in of one set of gun ports as the F2G only had 4 .50cal guns. SH's instructions are all over the place as to which ones need filling but my favourite photo clearly shows the inner guns are filled/plated over so some card was glued over the shell chutes ready for filling Finally, gave the cockpit and the prop a prime with Vallejo Panzer Grey - this will be dry-brushed and painted once dry Thanks for looking and all comments welcome 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 Had a good session on this today once the house chores were out of the way... Cut the flaps out of the lower wings - I think I may have to take the final inboard bits off as a trial fit shows they foul the -1A flaps I'm going to use Put the tailwheel assembly together. The fit took a lot of work as the plastic was full of flash and sprue gate nibs. This can be slotted in later after the fuselage has been glued. I won't vouch for total accuracy but it looks the part. A dry brush of the cockpit parts after priming with Vallejo Black. Some detail painting on it too... Next up, finish the main wheel wells. No detail in these even though Corsairs had a heavily ribbed interior. This was added using stock strip The wing intakes are moulded separately with a rather nice vaned resin insert. These were CA's together and left to set. A slightly blurry shot of them in place - the fit isn't too bad Final fit of the cockpit Cockpit in and fuselage halves glued and the filling process has already started. Also shows a dry-fit of the wing. Not a bad fit actually. Here's a rough dry-fit of the underside of the wings showing the wheel wells Lastly a dry-fit of the cowling. I've also drilled out for the prop and that now fits nicely into the engine. SH has supplied resin exhausts but they are not very good (not hollow) so I'm going to use hypodermic needles as exhausts. Next up is to get the wings into shape and then some filling and sanding. Thanks for looking and all comments welcome 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 coming along nicely Andy, I like all the additional detailing you've done! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Agreed, you've thought of everything Andy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 I'll third that. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted March 9, 2016 Author Share Posted March 9, 2016 Some more progress on this chaps... The wing root intakes were fitted and CA'd in place before fitting the top wing (although not without a dry-fit - this IS a Special Hobby kit!). There would be the need for filler (see later). The wheel wells have been given a blast of Vallejo Black primer. Wings glued in place - some slight sanding of the wheel well structure enabled a better fit than shown here. Seen worse though! Because of the 'wing under' method of engineering there is not wing to fuselage joint! You can see the root intake will need some filler and sanding. While everything was setting I sprayed the prop tips with Tamiya Flat Yellow Tailplanes fitted - starting to look very Corsair-like now! And with that huge R-4360 welded to the front - this mark is a beast and a really good looking aircraft Filler starting to be applied - I expect the next few days to be fill/sand/repeat And for a bit of perspective with that giant 14' prop on the front... One minor problem with the fact that the kit doesn't allow for a flaps-down option (unlike Tamiya) is that once the flaps are cut out, then there is a small wedge-shaped gap that needs filling at the rear wing root. This was filled by cutting some card stock to shape. This will be sanded and filled. Apart from the sanding, I will spray the prop and then start on the landing gear which is very poor on this kit being full of flash, likewise the gear doors. Thanks for looking and all comments welcome 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 That's looking fantastic Andy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted March 9, 2016 Author Share Posted March 9, 2016 That's looking fantastic Andy! Cheers Cookie - I'm going to hunt out the racer version. It's a bit fiddly but a good basic kit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 Very interesting build. Will become highly useful for me once I start mine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted March 11, 2016 Author Share Posted March 11, 2016 Very interesting build. Will become highly useful for me once I start mine. It's a nice kit of a great subject. However there were many minor variations between each a/c and if you're doing a service one rather than a racer, then the right configuration of intakes/aerials etc need checking (only if your bothered by that sort of thing) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 It's a nice kit of a great subject. However there were many minor variations between each a/c and if you're doing a service one rather than a racer, then the right configuration of intakes/aerials etc need checking (only if your bothered by that sort of thing) I will be makeing a racer version once I start this. Actually I have the racer kit from Special Hobby twice and intend to build the red and white #57 and the blue and white #74 with DIY decals/masks. Both in the 40s configurations (different airscoops on the cowling). My intention of #57 was to build it with dropped flaps as most picture show it this way. I later realised that only the newer photos show #57 this way - period pictures show #57 with raised flaps... Originally I planned to use the complete wings from a Tamiya Corsair for #57 (I would have used the Special Hobby wing for the Tamiya kit then, so nothing would be lost) but as you pointed out this seems not to be workable and your way does not look too complicated so seems the better solution to me. Rene 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted March 11, 2016 Author Share Posted March 11, 2016 My version of the kit seems to include the long 'low' intake over the cowling that would allow that and that seems appropriate from the pics I've seen. It's the bigger intake that isn't included. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 Yep - same with the racer kit - only the long low is included. Only that #57 had the big one fitted in 1949... Will have to scratch that as I want to build the 1949 version. I could however leave the flaps up then if I chicken out of this surgery ;-) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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