F-4U 7 Aeronavale in Algeria

[Col.]

With this kit sitting under my workbench teasing me since it came home here's the perfect time to get going

 

 

 

 

 

All pristine and untouched so far.

There's some nice detail in the kit parts...

 

 

 

...but the overall quality is somewhat reduced by a set of shallow wheelwells

 

 

Rather than add a lot of extra detail into the cockpit I'm thinking of fitting the pilot from an Airfix P-51 for some extra interest

 

 

That, however, may be a false economy if it means extra work in animating the control surfaces, opening the engine cooling gills, canopy etc. to create this,

 

 

Does look good though

[modelling minion]

This is a great choice Col, I really like Aeronanvale Corsairs!

If you're building one from Algeria then you should fine this site helpful, I did when I built mine;

 

http://www.frenchwings.net/algeria/gallery/index.php?cat=4

 

Some great images on there.

 

I look forward to seeing this one come together very much.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Very nice Col. Maybe find a figure of a pilot climbing up into the office or standing on the wing or deck ? 

Edited May 31, 2020 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[modelling minion]

Here's a picture of the F4U-7 I built for the French Fancy GB in 2015.

 

These took quite a beating from the North African environment.

[rob85]

I really like the look of the french Corsairs, great choice Col.

 

would be great to see it as depicted in the picture but can completely understand you not wanting the hassle of all that.

 

Rob

[Col.]

On 5/31/2020 at 8:37 AM, modelling minion said:

This is a great choice Col, I really like Aeronanvale Corsairs!

If you're building one from Algeria then you should fine this site helpful, I did when I built mine;

 

http://www.frenchwings.net/algeria/gallery/index.php?cat=4

 

Some great images on there.

I look forward to seeing this one come together very much.

Cheers fella. Found that one and a few others during a reference search and bookmarked it. Great inspiration in there  

Well impressed by your model by the way. That gives me even more inspiration and something to aim for.

 

On 5/31/2020 at 5:09 PM, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Very nice Col. Maybe find a figure of a pilot climbing up into the office or standing on the wing or deck ? 

On 6/1/2020 at 11:16 AM, rob85 said:

I really like the look of the french Corsairs, great choice Col.

would be great to see it as depicted in the picture but can completely understand you not wanting the hassle of all that.

Rob

Must admit I love the sense of power and animation in the photograph and others like it. That, to me at least, is what those mid to late-war machines were about and adding a pilot adds the human story that comes intrinsically linked to combat operations. Let's see how I get on with fitting Plastic Patrice into the 'pit and go from there before any other bits get hacked off and opened up. On the subject of which...

 

 

 

Not too bad after closing up his legs and clipping his heels back but he still looks a bit bored so some further surgery required to place his right hand on the control column and then modify his headgear to a 'bonedome' rather than leather flying helmet. If I don't fail at these tasks then the airframe gets butchered to suit. Otherwise we'll pretend this never happened and I'll add some basic seatbelts to go for a quick otherwise Out Of The Box project, okay?  

[modelling minion]

I think Plastic Patrice looks quite at home in the Corsair cockpit, is he a less famous relative of Plastic Bertrand? And yes I know he was Belgian but he might have family in France.

 

If any of this goes awry we shall all forget that anything happened and sing the praises of your seatbelts.

[Col.]

1 hour ago, modelling minion said:

I think Plastic Patrice looks quite at home in the Corsair cockpit, is he a less famous relative of Plastic Bertrand? And yes I know he was Belgian but he might have family in France.

Second cousin twice removed on his mother's side I think Craig. Although if we were to go into detail of the surgery required to fit him into the Corsair 'pit we could assume he sings a few octaves higher than his more famous relative.

1 hour ago, modelling minion said:

If any of this goes awry we shall all forget that anything happened and sing the praises of your seatbelts.

I may come to appreciate that yet but at least I've tried. One day I might actually build a kit out-of-the-box again for the first time in years rather than complicating the process but in the meantime it's all good fun and keeps me off the streets.

[Col.]

A little work on the instrument panel to add some visual interest. Painted matt black then dry-brushed with a dark and light grey to highlight the detail before painting the dials with white,

 

 

Left that to dry overnight then overpainted the white dials with gloss black. Gave that 20 minutes to settle then picked some off to create the impression of instruments,

 

 

Now I need to find out what colours the kit of a well-dressed Aeronavale Corsair pilot was wearing during operations over Algeria...

Edited June 3, 2020 by Col.

[modelling minion]

Very nice work on the IP Col, that technique has worked a treat.

[Col.]

22 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Very nice work on the IP Col, that technique has worked a treat.

Thanks Craig. Not microscopically acurate but hopefully enough to give some impression of detail and interest within the cockpit  

On the subject of which, here's Patrice finished and in the 'pit,

 

 

As you can see I've had to remove the centre lower section below the instrument panel as that didn't exist on the -7 but that does help it fit with a pilot figure installed.

Next trick is trying to get this and the engine fitted into both fuselage halves.

Edited June 4, 2020 by Col.

[modelling minion]

I think Patrice looks great Col, well done on painting him.

[Col.]

6 hours ago, modelling minion said:

I think Patrice looks great Col, well done on painting him.

Thanks again fella. I'm pleased with him as well.

Got the engine painted and the cowl cooling flaps cut out. The upper set of three flaps are moulded too high which caught me out - one set had been removed before I realised this so a bit of triming and remedial work was required. Then the 'fun' began.

 

 

With the engine and cockpit done there was nothing to stop the fuselage halves going together. Well, nothing apart from the cockpit and engine as I was about to find out, this was a harder task than it should have been. Patrice was having a problem with the headrest but that was solved by taking half a millimeter off the front corners of the cockpit floor to move the whole unit forward. The arc of white along the top of the instrument panel is a shim of plastic to close a gap between it and and the combing. So cockpit in, engine in, fuselage halves closed, yay! Cowling front on next and... Whoa! The engine sits too far forward   Pulled the forward fuselage halves apart and hauled the engine out before the glue set. The simple solution it to fit the engine behind the two locating tabs it's supposed to mount in front of. That places the crankcase within the cowling rather than projecting beyond it so all good,

A photo tomorrow in daylight will let you see how that all looks as it's too dark here now.

[stevehnz]

Looking good there Col, with one of these in stock, I'm enjoying watching you find all the pitfalls.

Strve

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Some good work Col. looking forward to seeing how the rest of this one turns out. I need an AU-1 and -7 in my collection. So may grab some of Italeri kits. 

[CliffB]

What a nice project Col.  Have you been able salvage the flaps that you've cut out (or will you be replacing them)?

 

Cheers

[modelling minion]

Very nice work Col, and a great save on the engine positioning.

I sometimes wonder if someone at the kit manufacturers has done a trial build of their products just to see if they've made any errors in the instructions, Italeri are far from alone in this!

[Col.]

7 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Looking good there Col, with one of these in stock, I'm enjoying watching you find all the pitfalls.

Steve

 

7 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Some good work Col. looking forward to seeing how the rest of this one turns out. I need an AU-1 and -7 in my collection. So may grab some of Italeri kits. 

Hopefully I can highlight a few areas to be mindfull of as I blunder along in the dark here lads but the Italeri kit does offer a nice level of detail and parts fit in my opinion so far with the caveat of the engine mis-fitting but that's easily solved.

3 hours ago, CliffB said:

What a nice project Col.  Have you been able salvage the flaps that you've cut out (or will you be replacing them)?

Cheers

I have slavaged the kit parts but doubt I'll make much use of them in hindsight Cliff.

1 hour ago, modelling minion said:

Very nice work Col, and a great save on the engine positioning.

I sometimes wonder if someone at the kit manufacturers has done a trial build of their products just to see if they've made any errors in the instructions, Italeri are far from alone in this!

It certainly seems an unfortunate lack of clear thought and understanding of the subject was occuring with the engine part position Craig. The kit design clearly requires the engine bulkhead to go between the tabs and foremost lip of the fuselage parts and that would work well but that places the whole unit too far forward. The cockpit unit position will aslo work fine and me adding Patrice into the mix is the issue here - that instrument panel, however, looks as if it was designed for a different kit

 

Anyway, with all that in mind, here's where we are as of this morning

 

 

The two fuselage halves fit together well as does the cowl ring and the undercowling intake extension piece (part 52A for those of you with the kit). I've had to apply filler in areas around the cowl due to the mistakes in the cooling flap positions and also the two engraved lines representing the engine access panels being too high relative to the exhaust outlet. I'll have a look over the fuselage to ensure there's no more spurious or mis-placed lines to sort out before moving on to the flying surfaces.

[Whirly]

Great choice Col.! I have a soft spot for the Aéronavale Corsair and seeing your build is tempting me to add another piece to my Suez mini-collection!

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good afternoon Col

That is a very interesting project and a very nice start ...

The Corsair is one of my favorite planes I take a seat to follow because I could well let myself be tempted by building one of the kits that I have in my stash ..

Best Regards

Patrice

[John Masters]

Your build is looking really excellent Col.  The collected images are great too as they show some weathering and so forth.  I'll be building the same kit, albeit from the Suez Crisis.  

 

So you are animating the cooling gills the cowling...is there a rhyme or reason or order for their being open or closed?  I would like to do the same thing on my Italeri kit.

 

 

[modelling minion]

I think you have done really well getting the fuselage together and sorting out everythings position in it Col, it really does look good.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

2 hours ago, John Masters said:

So you are animating the cooling gills the cowling...is there a rhyme or reason or order for their being open or closed?  I would like to do the same thing on my Italeri kit.

 

 

Here John..  I actually own this DVD which includes Hellcat, Helldiver, and Avenger flight training films. They give a good rundown on everything's use and when and when not to do certain things. 

 

https://youtu.be/PzLM4-grT2g

[John Masters]

1 minute ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

They give a good rundown

Thanks Dennis!

[Col.]

22 hours ago, Whirly said:

Great choice Col.! I have a soft spot for the Aéronavale Corsair and seeing your build is tempting me to add another piece to my Suez mini-collection!

Go for it Whirly! I do like seeing French markings on aircraft and sure there's plenty room for another one in here  

22 hours ago, TEMPESTMK5 said:

Good afternoon Col

That is a very interesting project and a very nice start ...

The Corsair is one of my favorite planes I take a seat to follow because I could well let myself be tempted by building one of the kits that I have in my stash ..

Best Regards

Patrice

Good morning Patrice, hope you don't mind me naming my pilot after you?

By all means please let me tempt you into taking at least one of those Corsair kits from your stash and joining us here  

18 hours ago, John Masters said:

Your build is looking really excellent Col.  The collected images are great too as they show some weathering and so forth.  I'll be building the same kit, albeit from the Suez Crisis.

So you are animating the cooling gills the cowling...is there a rhyme or reason or order for their being open or closed?  I would like to do the same thing on my Italeri kit.

Thanks John. Hopefully I can catch some of this kit's quirks as I work through it and allow you to avoid them.

As for those cooling gills...

16 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Here John..  I actually own this DVD which includes Hellcat, Helldiver, and Avenger flight training films. They give a good rundown on everything's use and when and when not to do certain things. 

 

https://youtu.be/PzLM4-grT2g

...if Dennis' video doesn't cover it (not had a chance to watch it yet) the air-cooled engine develops a lot of heat when running and while that big fan on the front pushes a lot of air over it the heated air needs to go somewhere so the gills at the rear of the cowling open to allow that through-flow. While on the ground they open shortly after the engine starts and don't close until long after shut-down. From what I can recall they also open during slower speed flight such as during landing.

16 hours ago, modelling minion said:

I think you have done really well getting the fuselage together and sorting out everythings position in it Col, it really does look good.

Thank you Craig

Yesterday I'd filled in the engraving for the boarding step as its position and proportions were incorrect then concentrated on fitting the tailplanes after seperating the elevators. With that done the mainwheel bays were hacked out to get some full depth detail scratch-built into them. This morning the main boarding step was cut into the fuselage side and backed before I got started on the wheelbay walls

 

 

Suspect there's a few days work ahead of me in those wheelbays but as a tail-dragger with long legs it'll be worthwhile trying to create an impression of them.

Edited June 6, 2020 by Col.