Tamiya F4U-1 Birdcage Corsair

[Guest]

It's hard to keep them lit though....Harv

[Shaka HI]

Smoked Salmon is fine...Rare? NO THANKS (certain type of fish, IMO should never be consumed raw)!

[BloorwestSiR]

It's hard to keep them lit though....Harv

But it's smoked Harv, it shouldn't be lit, smoldering is good. We've got a Big Green Egg which is perfect for that sort of thing. Like an 8 lb brisket

 

[BloorwestSiR]

Smoked Salmon is fine...Rare? NO THANKS (certain type of fish, IMO should never be consumed raw)!

Really? But sushi and sashimi...

 

What about steak? I remember asking for my steak rare in a restaurant once and the waitress replied very straight faced: "OK, take a bite out and ride the rest home". We all had a good laugh.

[BloorwestSiR]

Back to the Corsair, I assembled the flaps got them ready for paint:

 

 

 

I assembled the outer wing panels too.

 

[BloorwestSiR]

And, a quick teaser to see how it all went together.

 

 

I'm planning to do a VMF-213 bird and those seemed to be pretty weathered so I'm going to try some chipping on the inner wing. Since it's not something I've really done, I decided to try it out on something else first:

 

 

The plan is use rubber cement over the base coat and see how that works.

 

More soon.

 

Carl

[Guest]

Oh yummy! Using the bomb racks ? Did you drill the holes before assembling outer wings?....Harv

Edited December 6, 2016 by Guest

[BloorwestSiR]

Thanks Harv! It was yummy indeed. Or do you mean the Corsair?

 

I dabbed on the rubber cement using a cut down brush.

 

 

Once that was dry, I sprayed the top colour on. After about 15 minutes, I started rubbing the cement off and this was the result:

 

 

Think this will work fine on the Corsair.

 

It also means I can get back to work on the Slave 1 model

 

Carl

[BloorwestSiR]

I forgot to mention, I won't be using the bomb racks on the wings.

[Guest]

I meant both! ....Harv

[BloorwestSiR]

So, here's my first try at chipping paint on a plane. I used Alclad Duralumin as the base. I then applied the rubber cement. Once dry, I sprayed the top colour which is Gunze C366 intermediate blue.

 

 

I'd love some feedback as I'm not 100% sure it looks right. The technique works just fine. I'm just not certain on the pattern of wear.

[Guest]

Buddy, I really like it. I think your headed in the right direction. I'm watching real close.....Harv

[David Hansen]

I like the technique, but i think the weathering is in the wrong places. Not for a lack of effort or execution; its just that the paint chipping is too large an area, and not in the right places.

 

First of all, i grant that no two aircraft weathered exactly the same, and the conditions on Guadalcanal were worse than average, resulting in some very dirty and knackered-looking aircraft. Having said that, i'd start looking at as many photos you can find of F4U-1s from this time period. Books like the F4U in Action series by Squadron, Corsair Aces of the Pacific by Osprey, and Dana Bell's Volume I on the Corsair are all good reference points.

 

The Corsair fuselage and wing center section was primed with Yellow Zinc Chromate primer prior to painting, so some of that should be visible. Corsairs had prominent walkways made of an anti-skid material ( i don't know exactly what), and while it held up pretty well, the material seemed to come off of the numerous spot welds in little "dots". Also, there is a trapezoidal, spring loaded step (hinged along the aft side), that experienced heavy wear.

 

As a generalization, the wing root, up against the fuselage skin, near the front part over the ducting for the air/ oil cooling inlets seemed to have suffered the most wear. Vought manufactured work platforms that hooked into the lip of these inlets and a rod at the opposite end of the platform plugged into a hole in the nose ring on the cowling (you can see this on the nose ring of the kit if you look closely). There was a lot of foot traffic up close near the fuselage, where big sheet metal panels on the sides were frequently removed to gain access to the stuff behind the stainless steel "dishpan", like throttle linkages, Oil tanks, Hydraulic accumulators, etc.

 

Going further: this wear pattern was even worse on the right hand side, than it was on the left. Partly because the right side had the same removeable skin panels, but also because the right side was where the oil filler door was, as well as the hydraulic reservoir access door, and most importantly.... The Shotgun Starter access. Plane captains had to climb on and off the forward right wing a lot to load and change these things out. As a result, Plane Captains would often climb onto the tyre, and then onto the wing at its "low spot". Finally, the pilot boarded the plane from the right hand side, sometimes by putting a knee up on the trailing edge of the wing, but always assisted by the spring loaded hand grips on the wing and fuselage sides. When de-planing, the pilot had to slide his foot down the fuselage side until he found the spring loaded step, so there's a fair amount of grease, boot rubber, handprints and worn paint, especially on the step door itself (its why they put a vertical stripe on the side of the fuselage only on the right side).

 

One last thing: The machine gun access hatches were locked in place by these weird sort of crank/bayonet pins, and these were popped out and cranked almost 360 degrees to move the bayonet pins in and out. Repeated use would often lead to circular paint scratches along the path that these cranks were turned.

 

I know i threw a lot at you, but having this information, i think you now have a better idea as to what to look for and i know that when you start reviewing photographs you will zero in (no pun intended) on the areas of interest i mentioned.

 

Good luck in your efforts and do keep us posted.

 

david

[BloorwestSiR]

Thanks Harv!

 

David, thanks for the information and feedback. That's exactly what I was hoping for. I'll try and look at some pics and figure out a more typical wear pattern.

 

I have to refinish the wing anyways as my airbrush conked out just as I started spraying and I had to switch to another. So the paint didn't come out as nicely as l would've liked.

 

One nice thing about using the rubber cement is that it'll work with a lacquer top coat. It doesn't have to be acrylic.

 

Carl

[Guest]

Good stuff David....Harv