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A Small Tamiya, F4U-1D


Shin

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Hi there! A little late to the party, but here's my entry for my favorite WWII aircraft. I'll be building a 1/72 Tamiya F4U-1D with box scheme. My focus for this project will be attempting a chipped/weathered effect for the aircraft, so figure I'd stick with a smaller scale kit. 

 

The only other Tamiya 1/72 kit I've done was a Zero when I first returned back to the hobby a couple years ago, so I'm looking forward to a trouble free and well fitting build.  As a fun fact, I picked this model up last year in Tokyo from the official Tamiya store when I had the opportunity to visit Japan.

 

I'm more focused on improving my technical skill and getting a good looking finish than adhering to historical accuracy, and any feedback would be much appreciated. 

 

Box/sprue shots. I'll be going with airframe scheme depicted on the cover, I like the splash of yellow in front instead of an all single colored blue scheme.spacer.png

 

Wonderful detail in this kit, especially at this scale. 

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And finally my first progress shot.

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Mission Models Black Primer, then US Interior Green for cockpit, mix of NATO black and black for the black parts, "dry-brushed" using a grey watercolor pencil then buttons picked out with white, red and yellow paints. Rear wheel well painted in Yellow Zinc Chromate. All of this was then carefully pinwashed with an thinned oil paint mix of burnt umber and black. 

 

Thanks for watching!

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Thanks fellas. 

 

Small update, joined the fuselage halves and applied putty to the seams. My least favorite part of modelling is trying to rescribe the detail lost after sanding this out, I have yet to do this consistently with a finish I'm happy with.

 

To make this build a little more interesting I decided to try my hand at surgery, and install some aftermarket Aires resin parts to allow for a flaps down display. A little patience with the razor saw and with only a few slips, think I made out alright. Curious how the actual installation will go...

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks both! I installed the flaps - one went in great, one was less cooperative. In hindsight maybe I should have used heat to try and get closer to the proper shape before trying to install it, but what's done is done. It looks fine from the top, but you can see the gap when viewed from below.

 

Since the last post I've installed the major pieces together, puttied and sanded the major seams, and tried to rescribe detail, all steps with varying degrees of success hah. There is a huge gap behind the cowling that I need to fill once I finish the engine and attach all that with glue. The black paint in the photo is primer to check my seams. 

 

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I also did a color test. These are the two paints that I was planning on deciding between to use for this build - Mission Models 052 USN/USMC Sea Blue and 065 Gloss Sea Blue. I'm not sure if either one hits exactly what I have in my mind's eye when I think Corsair Gloss Sea Blue, right now I'm leaning towards adding some regular Blue to the Gloss Sea Blue and see what that looks like. It currently looks more grey in real life than what I see in the above photo on this laptop screen. 

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Those flaps look really good to me Shin. I've got a set for the Italeri F4u-7 but I'm a bit reluctant to try them but what's the worst that can happen? As to the blue colour last year I used Tamiya gloss sea blue mixed with another blue and it looked ok to me but I am no expert.

 

Cheers Allan

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Have to say the Gloss Sea Blue looks neither glossy nor blue enough for what I think it should so your plan to mix more blue in there sounds a good one.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks for the comments so far all! L ooks like the finish line is coming up, will help put some fire under me. Part of the reason why lack of updates is I've been trying to get hairspray chipping to work with not much success. I still haven't determined whether it's my hairspray technique or the paint, but here are the some of the test results. Either it liquefies the paint or doesn't really come out off at alll. 

 

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At this point I need to get some paint on if I want any chance of finishing. Will probably add chipping via sponge and brush. 

 

But here we are, all primed and ready to roll after some drying time. Mission Models grey primer. Engine all painted, and cockpit buttoned up. 

 

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And here are my latest tests for Gloss Sea Blue. Not sure why they are reflecting purple, but the lower halves is what they look like with a semi-gloss clear coat on top of it. The paper towel might be a good indication of the hues, though not sure what they'll look like on your screens. 

 

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17 hours ago, Shin said:

The paper towel might be a good indication of the hues, though not sure what they'll look like on your screens. 

 

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I like the shade to the left its got a hint of green in it. The one on the right looks more like the post 1947 color to my eyes. 

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Agreed Dennis! I went with a mix very similar to the left one above. If any one is curious, it's a mix of Mission Models Gloss Sea Blue (10 drops), Black (2 drops), Blue (4 drops), NATO Green (4 drops). Notice how those units are in drops and not in volume - the black and blue drops are MUCH bigger than the GSB or Green. 

 

Here's what it looks like on the plane - wasn't sure how much I liked it after I shot it, but after looking at it again the next morning I think it's not too bad. 

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15 minutes ago, Shin said:

Here's what it looks like on the plane - wasn't sure how much I liked it after I shot it, but after looking at it again the next morning I think it's not too bad

Not too bad he says .... I think it looks darn good and the color mix looks as close as anyone will get short of a time machine. 

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hah thanks both for putting my mind at ease. honestly I think there's too much doubt in my head from information overload - search F4U-1D VF-84 online and you'll see every shade of blue from royal blue to an almost black dark navy on illustrations and other people's model builds. 

 

 

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Small update, box decals on. I cut off as much film as I could on them. A few hickups since the last update - i put the walkway decals on the wrong location so had to carefully remove what I could using decal solution then a knife. I then masked and sprayed those. Also I realized that I didn't spray the yellow on the nose far back enough, but had already put on the decals on the nose. So had to carefully mask and spray some more, which resulted in a different shade of yellow. Hopefully they blend better once the clear coats are on.

 

I also need to evaluate what I can get done before the deadline. If you recall I was originally going to try hairspray chipping with this plane, but couldn't get that to work. We'll see whether I can find time to do any weathering on here at all. But nothing wrong with a nice clean airframe either.

 

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Thanks for the comments Dennis and modelling minion! Unfortunately there was a huge setback that delayed finishing this in time. Namely, attempting to put on a semi-gloss coat ended a disaster. Originally I went with a VMS satin varnish and that sprayed great, but the resulting sheen was a bit too flat for what I wanted. The only other semi-gloss I have is Mission Models, so gave that a shot - instant orange peel. Initially I tried dry coats, and then went with wet coats to try and fix it and it made it a bit better, but there's still a micro-texture to the paint job which you'll see in the photos. 

 

I'll definitely have to look into how I want to approach this finish before I attempt things like the Blue Angel I have my stash. I may try Tamiya's X-35 (I use their X-22 and XF-86 flat to great success), or maybe see if I can get VMS gloss to mix with their satin. 

 

Either way, since last post, an oil pinwash for the panel lines, the semi-gloss coat, assembly, and detail painting the remaining things. Was thinking about trying adding antennae wire to this, but at this point I'm OK with calling it done.

 

Thanks for all the comments along the way and for hosting a great group build - I didn't get the result I wanted, but found some technical deficiencies to work on and also did my first major surgery with the resin flaps so that's a nice plus. It was also cool to see all the different Corsairs everyone put together, I had only seen them in blue before.

 

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9 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Very sorry to hear of these last minute upsets, they're always devastating when they happen. Hopefully it will be recoverable ? 
 

Dennis

I did what I could with some wetter coats. Short of sanding it down or putting on another wet coat of gloss, waiting for that to smooth and dry, and then trying another semi-gloss, not sure what else could have been done. Either way, more effort than I wanted to spend at this point. 

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