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F4U-5 in 1/72?


RidgeRunner

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I've never really got to the bottom of the length of the Italeri Corsairs.  I know Detail & Scale cast some doubts about the length but them some doubts were cast upon the doubts.  Who's right?

 

Whatever the length, the engine needs replacing and the panel lines are very deep.

 

I'd love to see a new, decent, late series of Corsairs in 1/72nd.

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May I refer you to 

Also http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-last-propeller-pulled-corsairs-f4u.html

 

The F4U-5, AU1 and F4U-7 development was meant to minimise re-tooling.  The main external nose area changes centred around air inlet arrangements on the cowling ring.  They were all the same length

 

 

Edited by detail is everything
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15 hours ago, detail is everything said:

The F4U-5, AU1 and F4U-7 development was meant to minimise re-tooling.  The main external nose area changes centred around air inlet arrangements on the cowling ring.  They were all the same length

 

 

  I know that this is one of those wide-spread myths, but we've just had these out on another thread.  The -5 nose is short, the -7/AU-1 is not.

 

EDIT:  This is talking about the kits.  The real aircraft were the same length.

Edited by Graham Boak
Clarify for anyone coming in late.
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As Graham aluded to this came up before, not only did we find the nose is indeed longer on the late Corsair but italeri have retooled the kit with the longer fuselage at some point, the 2011 U-7 boxing which I purchased definitely has the longer nose vs the revell issue I’ve built before 

Edited by PhantomBigStu
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As far as i know, the F4U-5, AU-1 and F4U-7 were the same length. Starting with the -5 the forward fuselage also got a noticeable "Kink" in the fuselage skin above the wing. The fuselage tooling was changed in order to accommodate the Westinghouse dual supercharger, thus the forward fuselage got slightly, but noticeably (from the right angles) wider.

 

The tooling remained the same for the rest of the Corsair production run because of this.

 

It's the "Double Twister" dual supercharger that gives the F4U-5 its characteristic jet-like wine. AFAIK, no other R-2800 Aircraft had such an installation.

 

-d-

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3 hours ago, Wez said:

I'd love to see a new, decent, late series of Corsairs in 1/72nd.

Maybe Arma will do it? That sounds right up their alley. Fingers crossed!

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18 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

but we've just had these out on another thread. 

and I'm sorry to have inadvertantly dragged you through it again, Graham. My old brain cant retain all threads! ;) Thanks for your input. It all helps me. Maybe you can direct me to the previous thread?

 

Martin

 

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12 hours ago, PhantomBigStu said:

As Graham aluded to this came up before, not only did we find the nose is indeed longer on the late Corsair but italeri have retooled the kit with the longer fuselage at some point, the 2011 U-7 boxing which I purchased definitely has the longer nose vs the revell issue I’ve built before 

Just to confirm it, wings are lined up and can see the extra long nose 3636-B921-E4-A2-4-F7-C-834-F-BED893-EF5-

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On 3/20/2023 at 8:41 PM, Graham Boak said:

I know that this is one of those wide-spread myths, but we've just had these out on another thread.  The -5 nose is short, the -7/AU-1 is not.

The 5 to 7 were longer than the 1 to 4 and the  5 to 7 were the same length as each other.

 

As alluded to above, the 5 introduced the dual supercharger, which required more space behind the engine and the extra intercooler air via the cheek air scoops and trunking (which ran down the lower side of the engine, giving the distinctive pear shaped nose profile).  The upper exhaust group indent sat above the supercharger air trunking which caused some vision problems at night.

 

The low level AU-1 did away with the dual supercharger and associated air trunking (but kept the pear shaped nose profile) and simply fared over the cheek air scoop inlets.  The upper exhaust group indent was moved down parallel to the now vacant cheek air scoop trunking line and used the vacant space behind the engine to house the oil coolers, relocated from the more vulnerable wing root inlets. 

 

The 7 was a minimum change AU-1 which used the engine and supercharger of the 4.  The tooling for the wing root intakes had been irretrievable altered, since the AU-1 was the last planned variant, so oil coolers could not go back in the wing roots 5 style. It was not economically feasible to retool for the limited number of French aircraft being purchased, so room was found for a single oil cooler in the nose, just aft of the second row of engine cylinders fed by a chin inlet and trunking which ran back under the engine. Unlike the 4, intercooler air was routed from the wing root intakes instead. 

Edited by detail is everything
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The discussion was about the Italeri kits.  The nose of their -5 is too short, and this was often assumed to be the same for their -7.  Wrongly.  

 

I understand how people coming late to the discussion can pick on what was said and misunderstand, so I'll go back and add a clarification.

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The fuselage of the Italeri F4U-7 has always been longer than the one in their -5.

When these kits were first issued a local magazine looked at all of them and their relative lengths and the author found how it was possible to build all variants with some crosskitting: he used the -7 fuselage to build a -5 but then made a mistake with the 7 as he believed that the -7 was based on the -4 and therefore shorter... so he used the -5 fuselage for the -7 instead of the correct original fuselage.

 

 

Edited by Giorgio N
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Well, i think at a minimum it's worth putting in an email to Arma, to see if they would at least consider it.

 

Given that it appears the initial drawing work is done by Junpei Temma, i suspect the resulting models would be very accurate. Having flown in a F4U-5 a couple of times , the plane has a special place in my heart.

 

-d-

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On 3/20/2023 at 2:40 PM, cpoud117 said:

Maybe Arma will do it? That sounds right up their alley. Fingers crossed!

I had a nice email conversation with one of the folks at Arma.

 

The Corsair is definitely high on the favourites list with the two top guys over there. They have gathered a lot of research data so far, but for right now they have other kit projects with higher priority.

 

With everything else going on, can't exactly say i blame them.

 

From what i can tell, at the very least its being very seriously considered but nothing more than that right now.

 

-d-

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On 3/21/2023 at 4:38 PM, RidgeRunner said:

 

 

The only reissue I can remember of the Italeri kit is the beginners set that can still be found in shops today. The content is here:

 

https://www.super-hobby.it/products/F4U-5-N-Corsair.html#gallery_start

 

The F4U-7 was reissued a bit later and should be in the current catalogue. Sprues here:

 

https://www.super-hobby.it/products/F4U-7-Corsair-1938845.html#gallery_start

https://www.italeri.com/prodotto/1929

 

To me the -5 fuselage in those pictures look shorter than the -7 corresponding parts: starting from the leading edge and moving forward, the 7 shows a straight line, then a step, some more plastic and then the rear end of the engine cowling.

On the 5 there' a straight line and then this meets the cowling, without the area ahead of the step. This is where the 7 is longer than the 5

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Seems I haven't helped with the confusion, it does seem it was never retooled it was three different sprues from early on

The Italeri kit was first released with this sprue layout with the short fuselage, as per the fully built one in my previous pic

 

5-D6-FA595-FB59-436-A-998-C-4-CC9253-FED

Then released with this layout which is the one I had with the long fuselage, as Graham says in the second boxing so can't be called a retool

1-EEABB44-AC10-4-F36-BB0-E-C24-DF2-BB1-D

And then reissued with this similar layout with what looks like the original short fuselage for the U-4 boxing  though I've not yet got myself one to confirm

6-C8372-B0-F9-E8-43-B9-AF3-D-BC67711-F70 

Edited by PhantomBigStu
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