Viva La Revolucion!! F4U-5NL Argentine naval Aviation 1963

[modelling minion]

Well seeing as I'm co-hosting I thought it was about time that I revealed what I will be building for this GB.

Now those of you who have seen my builds in the past will know that I like to build things in markings that are a little out of the ordinary and have an interest in things flown in smaller conflicts from around the World and as such I voted for the Small Wars GB which unfortunately didn't get picked this time around so I thought I would use this opportunity to show why I like the subject and hopefully garner some support if it comes up for voting again, and also to point some of you in the direction of the Latin American GB which could really use some more support in the Group Build Chat section, go on you know you want to!

Anyway to the build. I will be using the venerable Hasegawa 1/48 F4U-5N boxing which is still the best 1/48 kit for anything from the F4U-5 onwards and I will be using a decal sheet from FCM to produce an F4U-5 NL that was used by the Argentine Naval Aviation in the 1963 Navy Revolt which saw them used to attack armored forces of the Army as they advanced on the Navy base at Punta Indio causing quite a bit of damage. An interesting fact is that they were used in conjunction with the Navy's Grumman Panthers, which would also make a nice topic to build. The revolt got absolutely nowhere but cost the Navy dearly as a lot of their aircraft were destroyed on the ground by the Air Force.

Onto the box and it's contents, here are the usual box and contents shots starting with the box top;

 

And the contents;

 

And the decal sheet by FCM, currently taped to a window to increase it's whiteness;

 

And a look at what she will look like, hopefully!

 

So there we have it, a build which covers 3 GB's, Corsair, Small Wars and Latin America and will hopefully get a little support for the other two. Thanks for looking in and all criticism and advice is always welcome.

 

Craig.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

13 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Well seeing as I'm co-hosting I thought it was about time that I revealed what I will be building for this GB.

Now those of you who have seen my builds in the past will know that I like to build things in markings that are a little out of the ordinary and have an interest in things flown in smaller conflicts from around the World and as such I voted for the Small Wars GB which unfortunately didn't get picked this time around so I thought I would use this opportunity to show why I like the subject and hopefully garner some support if it comes up for voting again, and also to point some of you in the direction of the Latin American GB which could really use some more support in the Group Build Chat section, go on you know you want to!

Anyway to the build. I will be using the venerable Hasegawa 1/48 F4U-5N boxing which is still the best 1/48 kit for anything from the F4U-5 onwards and I will be using a decal sheet from FCM to produce an F4U-5 NL that was used by the Argentine Naval Aviation in the 1963 Navy Revolt which saw them used to attack armored forces of the Army as they advanced on the Navy base at Punta Indio causing quite a bit of damage. An interesting fact is that they were used in conjunction with the Navy's Grumman Panthers, which would also make a nice topic to build. The revolt got absolutely nowhere but cost the Navy dearly as a lot of their aircraft were destroyed on the ground by the Air Force.

Onto the box and it's contents, here are the usual box and contents shots starting with the box top;

 

And the contents;

 

And the decal sheet by FCM, currently taped to a window to increase it's whiteness;

 

And a look at what she will look like, hopefully!

 

So there we have it, a build which covers 3 GB's, Corsair, Small Wars and Latin America and will hopefully get a little support for the other two. Thanks for looking in and all criticism and advice is always welcome.

 

Craig.

Nice choice Craig.. I also have 204 in my decal stash, though Id like to find a gull grey set as well. The Black anchor markings on the Grey are distinctive and good looking to my eye as well. 

[modelling minion]

14 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Nice choice Craig.. I also have 204 in my decal stash, though Id like to find a gull grey set as well. The Black anchor markings on the Grey are distinctive and good looking to my eye as well. 

Thanks Dennis, I like the grey and white scheme too but this one fitted in with the other GB themes too.

[Dansk]

Awesome scheme craig - but are those decals wildly of register?

 

[modelling minion]

Cheers Paul, yes mate some of the decals on the sheet are a bit out of register but fortunately none of the ones I need for this build.

[moaning dolphin]

Nice choice, not really seen a Hasegawa Corsair go together before so this will be an interesting build to follow, looking forward to more!

Bob

[modelling minion]

35 minutes ago, moaning dolphin said:

Nice choice, not really seen a Hasegawa Corsair go together before so this will be an interesting build to follow, looking forward to more!

Bob

Thanks Bob, been doing a few little bits today, nothing special mostly just cleaning up parts might get some pics up later.

[modelling minion]

A bit later than promised but here are some pics.

We'll start with the easy ones first, the cockpit floor and the wings. The parts for these were removed and cleaned up and in the case of the wings the holes drilled for the rocket stubs for later and then a bit of glue added and we get what you see below;

 

Not bad detail for OOTB especially when it is painted and weathered, the seat has a rather crude moulded on harness which I will probably remove and replace with either aftermarket or scratch belts.

 

The wings go together quite well, there is some cleaning up required but nothing out of the ordinary.

 

Now we move onto the fuselage....

 

The Hasegawa fuselage walls for the cockpit are just bare plastic, which isn't right for any mark of Corsair, and from looking at cockpit pictures of F4U-5N's there should be what looks like paneling which is flat that covers the side walls so I made some supports out of plastic strip and then fitted some acetate over the top to form the panels. At the minute it looks quite crude (it is quite crude!) but I took the picture now so you could see the supports through the clear acetate, hopefully when painted and a few placards added it will look better, and the other fuselage half has had the same treatment.

 

Next is one of the not so good things about these Hasegawa kits.

 

To get the different nose profiles they have used a multi-purpose mould to which they add the nose section desired for whichever kit they are making and this can result in a less than clean join down the fuselage sides in the area marked in red. On my F4U-7 it wasn't too bad at all but this one had a nasty step which needed removing on both halves and I'm still not 100% happy with hos it looks and feels, removing it also means the inevitable loss of details which I will need to re-scribe later. None of this makes the kit unbuildable but it can be a pain to clean up and to be honest we expect better from Hasegawa.

That's it for now, not sure how much progress will be made today but as usual all comments and criticisms are welcome.

 

Craig.

[Col.]

Cracking subject choice Craig. It's always a treat to see less common schemes and markings getting attention and all the more so when we can learn something of their history along the way  

[modelling minion]

10 hours ago, Col. said:

Cracking subject choice Craig. It's always a treat to see less common schemes and markings getting attention and all the more so when we can learn something of their history along the way  

Thanks Col, I like to spread the word on less common schemes for our favourite warbirds.

[stevej60]

Good choice Craig definitely a bit different scheme wise too.

[modelling minion]

3 hours ago, stevej60 said:

Good choice Craig definitely a bit different scheme wise too.

Cheers Steve, you know me mate, never knowingly build something "normal".

[gary from darwin]

Got this kit. Watching with interest 😀

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Just now, gary from darwin said:

Got this kit. Watching with interest 😀

They build up nicely, Ive done two myself. If you scroll through the chat thread on page 7 post 172 you can see photo’s of them. 

[CliffB]

A nice start Craig, but as you say that nose joint looks to be a pain.  It does seem to be a Hasegawa thing.

 

Cheers.

[modelling minion]

4 hours ago, gary from darwin said:

Got this kit. Watching with interest 😀

Very happy to have you along Gary, hopefully I will have some more pics for you to look at later.

1 hour ago, CliffB said:

A nice start Craig, but as you say that nose joint looks to be a pain.  It does seem to be a Hasegawa thing.

 

Cheers.

Cheers Cliff, yes the nose joint has been a bit of a pain but is pretty much sorted now, just need to re-scribe it.

[GREG DESTEC]

Great subject for the GB and definitely a bit different! I always fancied this kit but have never seen it at a reasonable price 😞

 

Good luck with you Build Craig nice work so far 👍

 

Cheers Greg

[John Masters]

Very nice Craig!  I am aware that many would prefer the 'American' Corsair...I am pleased to see a S. American bird.

 

Don't cry for me...😁

 

 

 

 

[modelling minion]

1 hour ago, John Masters said:

I am pleased to see a S. American bird.

I am very pleased to hear that John, we could do with a few more in some GB's, including this one as I'm surprised there are none from the "Football War" represented here.

 

And just to prove that I am still plugging away at this one here are some pics to show the current state of play, starting with the cockpit parts which have all been painted and are now awaiting assembly and first up among these is the cockpit floor assembly;

 

Followed by the instrument panel which had the kit decal applied and then had some dry brushing;

 

I removed the moulded on seatbelts from the seat and am in the process of adding some etched belts;

 

The rear bulkhead has also been painted and weathered, it has some crude pedals incorporated in it;

 

The cockpit interior has also been given a coat of Anthracite to represent a scale/weathered black including my homemade panels;

 

The engine has also been painted up and weathered and had the little Pratt and Whitney logo decal added;

 

So that is how things stand at the moment, next step will be to get all the cockpit parts fitted together and then fitted inside the fuselage, then it will be time to close the fuselage halves up.

 

As usual thanks for looking in and all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

[Dansk]

looking super craig 👍😎 love the ip and switches details.

will you put shoulder belts on the seat too?

[modelling minion]

3 minutes ago, Dansk said:

looking super craig 👍😎 love the ip and switches details.

will you put shoulder belts on the seat too?

Thanks Paul, yes there will be shoulder harnesses added but I will be adding them after the seat if fitted to the cockpit floor.

[Dansk]

Cool.

love the way you made the belts there by the way, they fall really naturally, looks real.

[John Masters]

21 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

I'm surprised there are none from the "Football War" represented here.

You know me...I am always up for a challenge!  Why build 2 when I can build 3?  

 

What I don't know--what are the visible differences between the F4U-1 that I could buy in a kit and the Corsairs flown during the Football War?  I know there are motor differences, internal changes that I wouldn't see...but is the overall fuselage, wings, etc...the same?  Could I easily scratch build any of the additional 'modern' parts needed, like radio antennae, etc...

 

Nice looking cockpit, btw...and engine!

 

[modelling minion]

1 minute ago, Dansk said:

Cool.

love the way you made the belts there by the way, they fall really naturally, looks real.

Thanks mate, much appreciated.

1 minute ago, John Masters said:

What I don't know--what are the visible differences between the F4U-1 that I could buy in a kit and the Corsairs flown during the Football War?

Essentially nothing John, if you want to build A Salvadorean one that is. Their aircraft were FG-1D's which are the same as F4U-1D's, 3 bladed props and six 0.5" Brownings, these are the most colourful ones from the conflict with a variety of schemes. If you want to build a Honduran one that is possible from stock kits too as they were F4U-4's, 5's, and 5-N's which I believe are all available in 1/72 which is your preferred scale.

[John Masters]

14 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Essentially nothing John

My little research via wiki says the same.  I think the El Salvador bird I would build would be FAS-207, the dark blue aircraft with the ES markings overpainted on the American stars and bars.   I have seen a superb ES camo build here on BM already.  Very complex airbrushing...

 

Do you know anyone who has those decals?  I am not wanting to buy the whole Printscale set...