1/72 Fujimi F4U-5N Corsair -- The Last Prop Fighter Ace?

[TheRealMrEd]

Having just finished my tiny 1/72 F-85 Goblin build, I have screwed up the courage to try and restart building another of those shelf queens on hand, in this case the very model I began when I first re-entered modeling after a 20 or so year lay-off.  I  am talking about the famous F4U-5N  Corsair, flown by Lt. Guy Bordelon, the only U.S. Navy Ace of the Korean War, but quite possibly the last propeller-driven fighter pilot Ace of all time.  I don't know this for certain, and am open to other "entries".

 

Anyway, here are the relevant pieces of this build:

 

 

The Fujimi kit is actually pretty nice, but a little simplistic in areas such as the cockpit.  The ancient Hi-Tech set will help with all that.  Also shown are part of an old Microscale decals for this aircraft, long hidden in the stash, and a set of Moskit F4U-5

exhaust stubs, which I may or may not use.  If they are not of the flame-dampener variety, I may try to use them on an F4U-7 later on.

 

The major problem I had, years ago, was directions for the Hi-Tech PE parts, which were not including in the kit,which I found on E-Bay.  Folks on-line helped me find directions for them on-line, but I have to say, they are the worst PE instructions I've ever seem, from the limited verbiage, to the poor drawings.  Using that PE has been a matter of studying photos of the rear aircraft, to S.W.A.G....

 

Despite having tried to re-start this kit over the years, I can only hope that I have attained the confidence and skills needed to see it through this time!

 

Anyway, when recently resuming this build, here's where I was, the front cowling parts cut off to fit the Hi-Tech resin replacement, and the cockpit sides scraped and fiddled to also fit the Hi-Tech cockpit.  Also the kit rudder has been removed, for the same reason:

 

 

Below, the arrows point to holes that need to be opened up for later installation of antennae, etc.:

 

 

Above right, mustn't forget the two holes for the pilot's step, to be glued in later on.

 

The Hi-Tech cockpit had years ago been brush-painted with a heavy slathering of Interior Green enamel, mostly obscuring the few PE parts I had been able to find positions for at the time.  Recently, I brushed on some Testor's ELO paint and decal remover:

 

 

Above right, after much painting and fiddly PE adding, it's looking much better than the original effort.  Bear in mind, the whole cockpit is not much wider than the width of my thumb:

 

 

Not a bad beginning.

 

Warning! -- you KNOW I'll be back!

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheRealMrEd]

Back again.  Now for some needed prep work.  Because the Hi-Tech kit includes both wing flaps and rudders in resin, the plastic bits must be removed from the kit.  For this, I used a razor saw for the fore-and-aft seams, and a #11 blade with just the very tip snipped off (arrow) with pliers.  This seems to me to help the blade track a little better, whereas the normal fine tip wanders a bit more.  Also, this part can be done with a scriber of your choice:

 

 

Above right, the outer flap is next removed, as it takes a little fancy knife work to remove the center flap, and leave the flap actuator bumps.  (note -- I later ended up removing the bump in the center on both sides, simply carving it flush with the trailing edge, but letting it stick out on the bottom surface.  This was necessary to get the resin flaps to fit -- a chore in itself!).

 

Next up, I took a tiny drill bit, the width of the cartridge ejector chutes, and drilled three holes in each molded chute, which will later be opened up with a knife tip, and a small flat file:

 

 

Above right, the kit provides several holes for the ordnance pylons.  For the F4U-5N two holes are molded open (x's), and the innermost front hole (arrow), needs to be opened up.

 

Below, when gluing the wing top and bottom together, the points marked "A" must be glued together, to help keep things lined up.  The points marked "O" are where some simple wing spars made of plastic card could have been used to help hold the wing space open at the rear, to allow the resin flaps to fit properly.  I didn't, and were I ever to do another (like the Italieri F4U-7 perhaps), I would test fit and glue these items to the top or bottom wing, before assembly:

 

 

 

Above, at this point I cut out the spots for the wingtip lights, drilled a hole in some clear plastic sprue, added a drop of paint in the hole, attached the cleat part to the wing, and when dry, sanded and polished to shape.  The bulb sticks out from the fuselage side, not the aileron side.  Also (a word to the wise), test fit the wing mounted guns to their holes at this time, I didn't, and had to drill, sand and fiddle more than necessary.

 

Below, rocket stub pylons are glued to the wing into the holes opened up earlier.  The missing one is part of the outer wing gun assembly, and can be ignored for now.  All the edges marked "X" are scraped with a knife blade, tapering them inward from the rear-facing edge, both top and bottom.  This gives the rounded edge of the flaps a better fit in this area.  Also, note the opened cartridge chutes. :

 

 

Below, the little parts marked "X" (that were marked "A" in the earlier photo) will later have to be chopped off flush with the fuselage, the the little PE filler part is to be used.

 

 

 

Whew! Tired already.  See you next time...

 

Ed

 

 

[TheRealMrEd]

Moving along, the Hi-Tech kit offers a resin piece for the nose, upon which to mount their resin engine and cowl.  There is also the resin cockpit assembly, and a resin wheel bay for the tail wheel and hook.  These must be test fit, individually, and then glued into place (CA first, them some ACE canopy cement backup:

 

 

The fuselage can then be assembled, along with the assembled wing:

 

 

Next, the wing is glued onto the fuselage,  I had to trim the wing mating area at the front and the back where it joins to the fuselage.  When all done, there is a slight gap at the front of the wing on both sides:

 

 

Below,  I have not been a very big fan of the Vallejo line of products/paint, but I have to say, based on a couple of month's trial, that their Plastic Putty is my new go-to in place of Perfect Plastic Putty, not because it performs any better, but because it has a much better tiny little applicator tip built in, but it also doesn't seem to dry out in the tube as quickly as does PPP:

 

 

Below, the Vallejo putty has been smoothed with water, and the arrow points to the area at the rear of the wing, where the protruding wing plastic has to be cut off so as to have a more-or-less flat surface to glue on the PE filler piece:

 

 

Also, the outer wing flap has been temporarily installed to test the fit of the wing gap.

 

See you next time,

 

Ed

 

 

 

[TheRealMrEd]

Next up, a little more prep.  I've decided to drop the elevators, as these are often seen that way in photos of Corsairs:

 

 

Razor saw was used for the chord-wise cuts, and several passes of a scribing tool, followed by X-Acto blade were used on the span-wise cuts.  After separating and sanding smooth, the leading edge of the elevators "R" were sanded round, while the trailing edge of the horizontal stabilizers (along the red line) were sanded into a concave shape, using a tiny rat-tail file.  This will give a smooth fit when joined at their new angle.

 

Next, the elevators and stabilizers have been glued on, as well as the resin rudder and windscreen.  Note that a little filler has been added to the front of the windscreen.  The main canopy has been temporarily glued in with just white glue,  Also, the tiny trim tab actuators ("X") have been installed from the PE fret sheet.  These are installed into the slot between the ailerons and flaps, centered on the middle of the trim tab of the aileron, on the rear end:

 

 

Also, the canopy has been masked, using Parafilm "M", the flap segments have been added, and a bit of hobby foam has been shoved into the tail wheel well as a paint mask. There was also another tiny PE bit attached to the outer end of the inner flap segment, but it can barely be seen, even upon close inspection.  Perhaps all these flap and aileron ends need to be painted interior green.  I am not certain...

 

Below left, the flash guards have been installed (arrow).  Although PE parts were provided for this, I elected to use the Italieri kit plastic items, just thinning them a bit.  I am so tired of PE parts falling off things, and this fuselage will still get a lot more handling!  Also shown to good advantage is the flap/fuselage filler PE part, as well as another shot of the aileron trim tab actuator PE part:

 

 

Above right, another view of the aircraft, with the pilot's step added permanently this time.  The other antennas and bits will be added at the end of the build.

 

Below, a rather poor photo, showing the elevator trim tab actuator PE parts, and a better shot of the foam wheel well "paint mask":

 

 

Above right, the main landing gear doors have more-or-less been installed with white glue.  (I didn't want to cut off the mounting tabs that they have, so they are not on really well.)  They well will need a little touch-up later, but this is still faster than re-masking the wheel wells, etc.

 

Well,  she'll soon be ready for the first coat of paint.  Normally, this event would signify turning the final corner for home,  but not this time.  There will be plenty of work left to do after the paint goes on!

 

More later,

 

Ed

[chrisbob12]

This is a really great build log! Great modelling and a masterclass in how to do it. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

[TheRealMrEd]

Thanks, chrisbob12!   I learned almost everything I know the same way, learning from other modelers , most of which I learned so long ago, I can't remember much about who or where.  So, I figured to try and pass it along, in their honor.

Back in Boy Scouting (eons ago!), we had a saying: "If you stumble over  a stone in the path, pick it up and move it, so that the next guy won't have to stumble over it.", and that's what I'm trying to do, as well as have a little fun and add to  my collection, of course!

 

Just remember, when your turn comes, pass it on -- and have a little fun as well...

 

Ed

[TheRealMrEd]

Hello again, back with a fresh coat of True North Enamel's Gloss Sea Blue, of which my bottle seems more of a semi-gloss:

 

 

Right about here, I decided it's best to show all of you what is on the PE fret sheet, and more-or-less what parts are (as near as I can figure, anyway):

 

 

Sort of left to right, the things written out more or less explain themselves.  If not, feel free to ask questions.  The letters, starting with the "C" 's on the left, indicate various cockpit console parts.  On the right side, the "A" stands for aileron trim tab actuators, the "R" is the rudder trim tab actuator, the "E" are the elevator trim tab actuators, and the "F" 's are the wing flap to fuselage filler parts, shown earlier.  If anyone else has one of the Corsair Hi-Tech kits, maybe this will help!

 

The Hi-Tech instruction sheet shows the PE cowl flaps, that are glued to the resin engine cowl:

 

 

Above right, shows them glued to the resin cowling, with the "x" 's showing glue tabs (you must bend them yourselves), and the arrow point to the little parts on the very edge flaps on both ends of all flap pieces, that must be bent down to simulate thicker cowl flaps than these resin pieces happen to be.  Please forgive the poor photo,  but then this isn't a modeling magazine, now is it?

 

The finished cowl is then put on a cone of rolled up paper, and painted blue:

 

 

 

Above right, the PE scissors are bent and glued to the main gear struts, after the plastic parts are removed.  Below, the main gear PE parts have been added, representing the folding parts of the gear mechanism.  These are incorrect as shown here.  The two longer parts should more resemble a "teepee", the the top at the gear leg, and the base widening out toward the rear.  When I do the F4U-7 someday, I will saw a little kerf into the center of the plastic "bump" on the gear leg, and install both of the longer legs splaying out from the center of the "bump" (if that makes any sense).  Anyway, they should NOT be straight fore-and-aft as they are shown.

 

 

Next the plastic kit tail-wheel must be sawn apart as shown:

 

 

Above right shows the rear landing gear assembly with PE parts added, as best I could decipher photos of the real thing, compared to the PE parts.  Looks better than the kit part, but very "fiddly".  The tail hook itself kept snapping in two, when installing into the rear wheel well.

 

Below, the landing gears have been added, and she sits on them for the first time:

 

 

Because I felt the Glossy Sea Blue wasn't glossy enough, I shot a coat of Alclad II Aqua Gloss Klear where the decals go, and added the decals after that had dried.  The arrow shows where a resin cylinder head decided to break off when attempting to install the cowling, despite several test fittings before parts were painted.  If anyone decides to build another of these, a wise move would be to thin out the inside of the cowling with a Dremel sanding drum or the like, before painting, to allow for the thickness of paint.

 

The radome was painted white, and on photos of the real thing, it looks like when they over-painted the other marking with thinned blue paint, they did the same here, but used a brush instead of a sprayer.  The end result looked pretty crude, although, probably not as crude as my rendition.

 

Anyway, still making progress.

 

Back later,

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheRealMrEd]

Moving along.  Next, some more detail.  The F4U-5N (and as far as I know, the F4U-5NL winterized version) had flame-dampening exhausts.  On Bordelon's aircraft, they look like this:

 

 

While I could never model ALL the details that these dampers have, at least I can try to improve on what the kit fails to provide.  I began by selecting a piece of scrap resin pour gate (sprue, if you will) of the approximate size needed, and sanded it down a little further, also shaping it a little.  The top of the photo would be the outside of the damper.

 

Next, on the inner side of the damper, the arrow points to a razor saw line, which will attempt to make this end of the scrap resin look like two sets of dampers, with two exhausts per side.  The tiny "x" 'x show where a tiny tapered or knife-edge file was used to try and delineate each exhaust pipe.  The real pipes consist of a "U" shaped piece, with the open end of the "U" facing outward, and the whole thing covered by squarish covers.

 

 

 

Above middle, the top of the photo is the outside face, and the exhaust "U" are facing the wrong way, but it's the best that I can do.  When cut, installed and painted, they look like the above right very poor photo.  Not great, but much more accurate than plain old round exhausts.

 

In any event, she's finally starting to come together:

 

 

 

One pitfall encountered was the tail wheel.  Either I didn't get the resin wheel well installed in the right place, or something.  Anyway, the well ended up being way too high or or too deep, and I had to shim the tail wheel assembly down a bit, to get the correct "sit" to the aircraft.  Note that the landing gear are painted blue overall.

 

One last detail.  The Italieri kit prop is too narrow.  The metal wide blades provided in the H-Tech kit are to wide and short, so I ended up using a prop from the spares box, probably from a P-47:

 

 

Now it's time to try and provide some justification for various painting and weathering details.  First up, a crop of a photo, presumably taken soon after Lt Guy Bordelon scored his fifth kill:

 

 

In the picture above left, notice that because of the already flat finish, there is no differently-marked anti-glare panel, either in sheen, and certainly not painted black.  Also notice that there is a little, but not very much, weathering or exhaust residue.

 

Above right, not certain about the tail wheel detail, but the main gear and wheel hubs are blue.  In addition, the blue over-paint (stain?) on the otherwise white radome can be clearly seen, as can the blue over-paint on the otherwise bright metal propeller hub.  So, these details dictated my painting choices.  Also, the propensity for film of the time to shade toward blue makes me feel pretty certain that the overall blue should be darker.  Or maybe the film's characteristics only make me THINK that the radome and prop hub were over-painted... dealer's choice!

 

Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!   Final sneak view looks like so:

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the trip.  Picture will be over at RFI  HERE

 

Thanks,

 

Ed

Edited May 10, 2021 by TheRealMrEd
added RFI link