[yet another] 1:48 Tamiya F4U-1a

[Thom216]

3 hours ago, Johnny1000 said:

That look so good, I wouldn't be surprised if someone wanted mount it on a real plane!

[Johnny1000]

Thanks @Thom216! What a delightful thing to say. Much appreciated.

-J

[Johnny1000]

On 1/16/2018 at 11:52 AM, MeneMene said:

Good job. Any idea on how easy/difficult it will be to mount the engine? I'm working on the Italeri Fiat CR42, and I had a nice vector resin engine I was going to use for it, but set it aside because of the complicated way the kit had engineered the fit of the engine, exhaust, and cowling panels.

@MeneMene I've worked it out, and it's going to be super easy. In the case of this Corsair, the Vector engine, minus the back housing which is not needed, is almost the exact same depth as the kit engine.  So you just have to cut off the flange that the kit exhaust manifold part connects to. I've also filled in the remaining hole with sheet styrene flush to the front of the fuselage (where the firewall would be, I guess) to give more surface area to affix the engine to when I am ready to mount, and to facilitate adding a shim if needed when fine tuning the placement (it might need a few thousandths to get it sitting just right). No pics yet, but it's straightforward. 

 

I hope this helps with your CR42.

 

-J

 

[MeneMene]

4 hours ago, Johnny1000 said:

I hope this helps with your CR42

 

Glad to hear it was a success. The CR42 ship has sailed, unfortunately, the kit engine was meant to be mounted from the cowling structure (from the front), and that cowling was in several pieces. The detail of the kit engine wasn't too bad, so I just went with that plus some extra wiring.

 

Now, what to use a spare A-74 on.....

[Johnny1000]

13 hours ago, MeneMene said:

Now, what to use a spare A-74 on.....

A Macchi C.20 would be pretty nice...

[Johnny1000]

With the engine wrapped up, it’s time to finally turn my attention to the airframe. I got the fuselage buttoned up, which feels momentous. Huzzah! I had been holding off on that until completing the engine in case I had to do something surgical to mount it. As mentioned above, all that needed to happen was cutting off the flange on which the kit exhaust manifold part mounts and then filling in with styrene.

 

I’m not sure this is all that important, but to give more surface area to the connection point of the engine, I cemented .040 styrene sheet across the inside, and then .040 and .010 discs laminated together on top, so that it’s flush in front.

 

To fill in the void left by cutting off the rudder (way back in October!) I roughly cemented styrene sheet, and then filled in with Milliput. It’s going to take a bit of back and forth to get the rudder to fit in snug with the vertical stabilizer. 

 

I also got the some of the details picked out in the wheel wells to get the wing root subassembly ready. This looks pretty good from a distance, but the detail is a bit mushy up close from insufficiently controlled application of CA. I’ll probably try a wash and maybe a little chipping here and there to at least give the illusion of crisper detail. 

 

As always, thanks for looking, and any comments/tips/pointers, etc. are appreciated.

-J

[DMC]

Nice! Taking notes.

 

Dennis

[MeneMene]

What sort of wire did you use in the landing gear?

[Johnny1000]

3 hours ago, MeneMene said:

What sort of wire did you use in the landing gear?

It's just scrap hookup wire:

[Uncle Uncool]

On ‎03‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 2:01 PM, Johnny1000 said:

As mentioned above, all that needed to happen was cutting off the flange on which the kit exhaust manifold part mounts and then filling in with styrene.

 

I’m not sure this is all that important, but to give more surface area to the connection point of the engine, I cemented .040 styrene sheet across the inside, and then .040 and .010 discs laminated together on top, so that it’s flush in front.

Hi, Johnny One-Thousand!

Such an ambitious build you've got yourself into. I'm glad you did it, as I'm particularly keen on watching how you tackle with the placement of this new beautiful engine, as not only will you have to take centering into consideration, but also the depth at which the new engine is to be placed on the new firewall so that the screw and spinner protrude at the exact spot out of the cowl. The kit engine is an awful joke.

I've got an unbuilt Tamiya Corsair kit if you ever want me to take measurements.

The Vector bits are a must to go with the Tamiya kit, methinks. They look awesome.

Cheers,

 

Unc² 

[Johnny1000]

Thanks, Unc^squared!

 

J'agree about both the kit engine and the Vector. Radials are kind of a weak spot for Tamiya across the whole line... the 1/32 kits (Corsairs, etc) are a little better, but not as better as they ought to be for the asking price. The Vector is probably overkill, but it was worth it to me, if only for the experience. If I was the type who could crank out a model every few weeks, I might feel different, but I'm not, so all's well there.

 

Measuring with the old Mk I eyeball, I think it's a straight drop in at this point. I'll measure with calipers to confirm once I'm ready to attach, but worst case it'll just be a few thousandths shim to get it so the top of the gear reduction housing sits at the right depth. The good news with respect to placement is that there is basically no wiggle room in the cowl, so I can use the cowl itself as a placement jig to get proper x/y positioning and then just have the proper rotational alignment to worry about. 

 

-J

 

[Johnny1000]

Between a family vacation and upheavals at work, I’ve barely moved this build forward. We’ll get to the build in a minute, but first I hope you’ll indulge me:

 

The night before we left, my boss announced to my counterpart and I that he was leaving the company, which meant our team was facing an uncertain fate in the big game of Corporate Org Chart Shuffle. Therefore, I couldn’t really check out as things got worked out over many conference calls. One key discussion was with our global CEO, who was in Thailand at the time. He wanted to have the call before dinner, and Thailand is 13 hours ahead of Guatemala, so while I had to get up at what seemed like an entirely unreasonable hour, I did get to watch the sun rise behind a volcano over a beautiful lake.
 

File under: could be worse. 

 

Getting back home has meant long days at the office. It’s all basically good, even as I have Corsairs flying in my head while I’m meant to be focusing on this or that. Grown up stuff getting in the way of kid stuff, I guess. Thanks for the indulgence. 

 

And all is not lost, as I have managed to sneak in a bit of bench time here and there, and I’ve even managed to document a little of it, so away we go.

 

In my excitement over detailing the business end of the wheel wells, I completely overlooked the other end. Holy smoke, that chasm is awful. The illusion of scale is at least as much about the worst bits as the best, and something like that will instantly kill any sense of veritas. 

 

Please excuse the appallingly terrible photo. 

 

Paul Budzick has almost completely scared me out of normal putties, so I first tried sliding in stock styrene, but that didn’t work. A much simpler method ended up being stuffing in some Milliput and smoothing out a little with my pinkie. I was later able to sand, and now it’s all smooth. I don’t have a pic of the end result handy, but it looks like it will be plenty convincing when it gets a coat of paint.

 

I’m a glutton for punishment, and so decided to drop the elevators. To separate them with that 90 degree angle in near each end, I first cut the long ends with a JLC razor saw, which is capable of extremely fine cuts (super handy! Via UMM), and then scored the short end and snapped. The elevators will get their leading edges built back up with .040 styrene strip, and then be filed and sanded to shape. More on that later.

One issue I have with the engineering of the whole turtle deck scheme is that it means there’s inevitably an awful gap between the bulkhead and the fuselage. To fill, I first used gap filling CA. But naturally, didn’t sand it all the way down quickly enough, so in the process of smoothing/flattening/feathering, I ended up gouging the bulkhead. To repair, first I tried vigorous filing and sanding. And then I slathered on Mr Surfacer 1000, and gently sanded and buffed, which helped. It looks miserable here, but in the end, it cleaned up okay. 

 

And here we are. Some Mr Surfacer 1500 for checking seams gives it a slightly charred look, but it’s starting to look a bit like an airplane. 

 

Next time: raising the flaps.

 

Thanks for looking.

-J
 

[DMC]

Superior modelling, glad to see it back.

 

Dennis

[Johnny1000]

Thanks Dennis, that's kind of you to say.

 

Btw: your Monogram F4U-4 is extremely impressive. I've thought about starting with an old Revel or Monogram kit and then trying to get it to a more presentable standard instead of starting with a more contemporary prestige item and mangling it, but haven't had the guts, or something. Maybe soon.

[DMC]

On 13/03/2018 at 7:13 PM, Johnny1000 said:

Thanks Dennis, that's kind of you to say.

 

Btw: your Monogram F4U-4 is extremely impressive. I've thought about starting with an old Revel or Monogram kit and then trying to get it to a more presentable standard instead of starting with a more contemporary prestige item and mangling it, but haven't had the guts, or something. Maybe soon.

Thank you, Johnny.  As you can see, and no doubt already know, breathing life back in to one of these old kits is very time consuming.  I am currently swapping back and forth between the wheel wells and engine mount and am making some progress.  Also, back and forth between the Corsair and the Bearcat keeps me, so far, from getting burnt out on either. 

 

Recently picked up up an old Otaki F4u-1 on eBay and was surprised at how accurate it’s outlines were when compared to the drawings and a profile photo I am using.  A little short in the nose, easily fixed, but other than that almost spot on.  A nice kit, I think. I like dioramas and  I have an idea about one with this kit that would do away with all that fiddling with those bits that take up so much time.  Anyway, still a lot to do on the Corsair and Bearcat.

 

Cheers

 

 

Dennis

[corsaircorp]

On 12/14/2017 at 8:58 PM, Johnny1000 said:

Ah crappers! Thanks for the heads up @MeneMene

 

Just found the maintenance manual online. The max diameter is quoted as 52.8 inches. I'll measure the Quickboost tonight.

 

On 1/24/2018 at 9:14 PM, Johnny1000 said:

Yeah Dennis, it is a shame that it will largely covered. I partly justified it as a learning experience for a potential next project I'm mulling. 

 

The Quickboost is great--just the right amount of detail for a peek through the cowl, but it's too bad about the scale for the R-2800. At least, it was off enough to throw me into an OCD tailspin, and it was worth it to me to go full overkill with the Vector. You're going to the trouble to get an awful lot of other, more subtle, things right. 

 

Speaking of, here's where I am with the Vector. I've given it a nice wash, courtesy Humbrol, added the harness (0.010 copper wire, annealed and painted) and am working my way through adding the harness clips (wine bottle foil). The latter kind of falls into the category of "life's too short" because it's extremely fiddly and time-consuming work, but it's the kind of thing that, if I get it right, can also push it over the top. Not sure if I'm getting it right enough, but I'm mostly through it, so there it is. Once they're all on, I'll probably do another wash or something to get them to 'sit down' a bit. 

 

I'm also determined to get the PW logo painted, thought that might be more sheer stupidity than anything. 

 

 

 

Hello Johnny,

And do not forget the silver dollar inserted in the lower part of the reduction box !

Pretty good work on here, on my favourite aircraft.

I use to work with Aires P 2800 usually.

I have a Quickboost too, I will have a look at the diameter

It will be inserted in an old Otaki Corsair !

The verlinden one is also pristine, I put one in my F4U-1

Congrats for your seatbelts, I used it too but that drive me crazy !

So I went back to the Eduard PE ones !

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

[corsaircorp]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

Thank you, Johnny.  As you can see, and no doubt already know, breathing life back in to one of these old kits is very time consuming.  I am currently swapping back and forth between the wheel wells and engine mount and am making some progress.  Also, back and forth between the Corsair and the Bearcat keeps me, so far, from getting burnt out on either. 

 

Recently picked up up an old Otaki F4u-1 on eBay and was surprised at how accurate it’s outlines were when compared to the drawings and a profile photo I am using.  A little short in the nose, easily fixed, but other than that almost spot on.  A nice kit, I think. I like dioramas and  I have an idea about one with this kit that would do away with all that fiddling with those bits that take up so much time.  Anyway, still a lot to do on the Corsair and Bearcat.

 

Cheers

 

 

Dennis

Hello Dennis,

Very good idea, I really like that old otaki...

Right now My Hobbyboss F4U-4 is stalling, the nose is completely wrong !

The -5 is worst, fabric wings on a -5, how the hell did they managed such a mess !!

My recipe for the Otaki, MDC interior since she will be a FAA one

Aires P-2800 in the nose some rescribing and Voilà !

I have load of resin parts for my Corsairs !

I really love the oxygen bottle !! great modelling on here !

Congratulations again Johnny !

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

[pipthepilot]

You can tell that this is a subject close to your heart because of the attention to detail. Your build looks incredible, look forward to seeing the finished model.

[Johnny1000]

5 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

 

Hello Johnny,

And do not forget the silver dollar inserted in the lower part of the reduction box !

 

Corsaircorp, for a moment you had me in a panic rummaging through my references for mention of a silver dollar. Well played, sir.

[Johnny1000]

6 hours ago, DMC said:

As you can see, and no doubt already know, breathing life back in to one of these old kits is very time consuming.  

Thanks @DMC. I'm only on the second build of my adult life, so while I built a lot of those kits as a kid, my whole worldview was very different then. The whole idea of correcting a profile or detailing something like a wheel well was completely foreign. I remember seeing an ad for resin aftermarket wheels and thinking "a sucker is born every minute." Interesting how our focus shifts over time.

 

I've been intrigued by trying the Paul Budzik approach to panel lines, removing them from the plastic—which is much easier if they're raised—and then scribing them into the paint instead of the plastic. I've also been intrigued by the idea of getting something like a Revell 1/32 Corsair or another kit with good lines but feeble detail, and trying to scratch build it to a modern standard. 

 

One thing at a time...

5 hours ago, pipthepilot said:

You can tell that this is a subject close to your heart because of the attention to detail. Your build looks incredible, look forward to seeing the finished model.

Thanks @pipthepilot, that's kind of you to say. Much appreciated.

-J

[Twentecable]

This truely looks stunning!

Greetings TC

[John Masters]

Holy smokes!  What a motor!

[corsaircorp]

20 hours ago, Johnny1000 said:

Corsaircorp, for a moment you had me in a panic rummaging through my references for mention of a silver dollar. Well played, sir.

That's not a joke !

Even if in most case, the Dollar was teared off by indelicate mechanics.

Will send pic.

sincerely.

CC

[Johnny1000]

7 hours ago, Twentecable said:

This truely looks stunning!

Greetings TC

Thanks!

7 hours ago, John D.C. Masters said:

Holy smokes!  What a motor!

The Vector really is nice. It's a big head start.

[Johnny1000]

4 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

That's not a joke !

Even if in most case, the Dollar was teared off by indelicate mechanics.

Will send pic.

sincerely.

CC

Whoa. Really? I can't find anything on this. You don't mean the enameled brass logo plaque? That's maybe about the size of a silver half dollar from the '40s. Send the pic!