David Hansen

Not my Circus, Not my Monkeys, but i think the complaining will stop when we start seeing photos of in-progress and finished Revell Spitfires. Roy Sutherland says there's nothing about the kit which is FF-ed, and thats good enough for me. david

Thanks Randy!

Hi Everyone. Here with an update. One that is actually interesting. Well, if the title was not a dead giveaway, it's gonna be the prototype Goodyear FG-1, Bu Aer No. 12992, which first flew in early June of 1943. This model depicts Goodyear's interpretation of the Navy 4-tone scheme, which i like to call, not surprisingly, the "Goodyear Scheme". Goodyear tried to blend the three main colours together seamlessly, in some cases using intermediate blue and in some cases skipping the intermediate blue entirely on the fuselage sides (though the rudder and outer wing undersides were still painted intermediate blue by the subcontractors). The model has been painted (so far) with Tamiya White Surface Primer (little square bottle), and Mr Color Intermediate and Gross Sea Blue (no really- that's really what it says on the label). This is my first experiment with lacquers and so far i really like them. They are extremely fast drying and the Tamiya primer has much less grain than Model Master Flat White; it also dries a lot faster and wet sands very easily. I'm using Tamiya lacquer thinner and so far, it thins both the Tamiya and Mr Color lacquers just fine. The three colours are supposed to blend together seamlessly, and to be honest its kind of a difficult job. Not only for me, but for Goodyear as well. I'm going from a handful of black and white photos and making a few educated guesses here and there, but you will notice that the colours don't have the distinct separation between colours like the better known Navy-Applied "Norfolk Scheme" and the later Vought-Applied "Cookie Cutter" scheme which we all know and love. The control surfaces you see here are just slid in place for continuity purposes. They fit very well. Had to modify the elevator and rudder tabs so i can cant the rudder, and make the elevators removable. Note also that in June of '43 the Three tone scheme had gone into effect, but Goodyear had not yet modified the upper cowling flaps to improve pilot visibility. The next step will be the Non-Skid walkways and the narrow in-spar walkway markings. I will probably paint the insignias on using Mal Mayfield's masks, but the rest will be decals. This plane was pretty devoid of squadron markings but it was heavily stenciled. I'm happy to say that the replaced Camlok fasteners turned out just as i had hoped. Visible, but not too large or obtrusive. Dana Bell has a book in the works and in it will be a significant discussion about the the Goodyear and Brewster contributions to the Corsair Production Pool. He's uncovered a lot of good stuff and hopefully we will learn a lot more about Goodyears significant, though largely overlooked contribution to Naval Aviation. Hope you likee. Thanks for shopping! -d-

It's a nice kit. You're gonna love it. -d-

Yeah, isn't saying the F4U-4 didn't see action in WWII, kind of like saying the P-47N, FW-190D-9, and Me-262 missed the war, too? Not a huge fan of the -4 mind you, but i'd love to build one in end-of-war markings, like USS ANTIETAM or LAKE CHAMPLAIN. david

Joe, while this is a little off point, i'd suggest salvaging the detail parts from the Trumpeter F6F, and perhaps consider taking a look at the Hasegawa F6F. Not perfect but definitely fewer shape problems than the Trumpeter kit. I was just as disappointed as you were when i saw one built up. I got 3 so i can easily spare one if you have any interest.... david

Jeff are these Mr. Color paints from the US Navy Set? Did you alter them in any way? david

Mee Still Likee. -d-

Well, the good news is i now have an experience base using the Mr Color US Navy set and the paints themselves, are rather nice. Another piece of good news is that the flat white is now on most of the plane (not the cowling or elevators though). That was probably the most tedious aspect of painting, so far. The bad news is, i think the Intermediate and Gloss Sea Blues are too dark for a 32nd scale model. I will have to wait for some Mr. Color white, so i can lighten up the blues so they look more to my liking. Took the model outside in bright daylight to look at it, and to my eye it still looks too dark. Better to stop, make the change now, than to paint the whole plane up and be disappointed. So, the painting is gonna go on hold for a little while. -d-

Did i happen to mention how much WHITE paint this model needs?

I was hesitant to say anything but yeah, the dihedral as installed was wayyy too much. Normally the problem i see with Skyraiders is very little, or no dihedral. You probably could have gotten away with the dihedral you had, so long as the model wasn't viewed by someone familiar with a AD. To those people though the excessive dihedral would stick out like a sore thumb. However that being said, you did a great job fixing the problem. You elected to do the right thing and not take the easy way out. it looks much better to me now. It was a significant risk but it paid off. I know it compromises the structural integrity somewhat, but you and i can now both sleep at night, knowing the problem is fixed. You don't become a great modeler, until you become a good repairman. david

Allan, so far the only Tamiya color i've used is the white liquid surface primer. Goes on thinned heavily with the Tamiya Lacquer thinner, and is much smoother than Model Master Flat White. However, a model the size of a Corsair in three tone takes up a LOT of white paint. Good news is the coverage is good and it sands beautifully. Everything else so far has been Mr Color. david

Hi Everyone, I'm sorry i'm so late in getting you a photo update, so here's where we are at now. We are now ready to go to paint. Here's some overall shots with everything pinned together, just because it looks cool.... My construction and detailing skills aren't like those of Ironwing, Randy Ditton, or Wolf Buddee, but they're OK. I'm more of a painting kind of guy anyway, and since this is really my first serious 32nd scale aircraft subject i'm being pretty conservative. OK, and here what its gonna look like when i actually paint it... As you can see, i modified the tabs on the elevators so i could delay installation of the elevators until after painting. I removed the tab from the rudder entirely. The rudder didn't have much of a gust lock and it was pretty big and tends to flop about in the breeze. I'm VERY glad Tamiya gave us separate control surfaces on the model, because speaking from first hand experience its a LOT of work cutting them off, and rebuilding them from a more "static" model, like the 32nd scale Revell Corsair. Here's one last shot. This model is a testbed for Tamiya and Mr Color paints using their proprietary brand of Lacquer thinner, and among the many colours i'm experimenting with is their liquid surface primer (gray little square bottle). Like most lacquers you have to thin it a lot more than you would an enamel, but it sprays on nice and wet sands beautifully. The canopy pieces were undercoated with Tamiya Flat Black acrylic, thinned with Tamiya Lacquer thinner, and over that is the gray surface primer. The outer wing panels were installed to the core airframe already painted, so i will mask off the outers and use those as humongous-sized paint test chips to verify that i'm happy with the Non Spec and Intermediate blues. If i'm happy with those, then the stabs get painted and masked off and then it'll be time to paint the rest of this big old bird. Hope i am keeping you suitably entertained, and thanks for shopping. We now return you to the Kitty Hawk F-101 Voodoo debate, already in progress. david

Very nice, restrained work. i was frankly skeptical that the model would look "right" once built up, but you changed my mind. In some shots its impossible to determine if its the model or the restoration at the Museum of Naval Aviation. i think part of the reason is the decision to not put a wash in the rivets, which seems to be sort of the accepted norm among a lot of model builders these days. I wonder if Merit will consider a later version of Dauntless. I'm kind of a pushover for a Navy plane in three-tone schemes. Wonder why they chose 18th scale in the first place anyway... Keep on posting the pics. Very inspirational and i'm much impressed. david

Well, it could be worse. You could be building an Eduard BF-109G kit. Seriously though, the wing fix on the Skyraider looks good. Just promise me you will NOT put that stupid bumblebee on the tail. david

Great choice of paint scheme. I hate that stupid bumblebee. -d-

Looks good to me. Nice to see a Skyraider wing with some actual dihedral. PS: Actually, EVERYBODY expects the IPMS Inquisition, ha ha. Am following this build closely. The AD is not my favourite choice of subject but i've seen one of these completed so far and its a very impressive plane when finished and probably has less parts than a Trumpeter Avenger. david

Whew! For a moment i thought you were talking about Gaston. david

Beautiful Job, Spook!! Interesting how "Daphne C" and "My Bonnie" keep cropping up. I've easily seen more Tamiya Corsairs finished up than i've seen Spitfires or P-51s. Also, interesting to see someone do the 360-degree wrap around cowling flap option. Love the paint, love the weathering. Hope mine looks as good when finished. Thanks for posting! david

Hi Frank, On the subject of the wing joints, i'll say that mine were pretty good, but not perfect. I wound up using liquid cement to glue the segments aft of the spar, and when that was dry i had to coax (read: force) the center and outer sections forward of the spar (the so called "D-Section) into place and tacked them up with C/A. Close but not perfect. I wound up using a little bit of CA and some Tamiya gray liquid surface primer to touch up the gaps. It's certainly acceptable, and when you consider the massive parts count and complexity of this thing, i'm not gonna complain. Overall i'd say the fit is better than that found on their 48th scale Corsair. Onward and upward..... -d-

So glad you got this finished. Nice to have met you at Seattle. Really nice build. 1st place @ Seattle was well deserved. -d-

i saw this model at Seattle last saturday and it truly is, The Shizzle. david

Brief update: Wings have been glued on. Still finalizing the gluing of the joints and she needs to outgas for a while. All clear parts (except the canopy) installed and masked off. -d-

Beautiful build, Tom. The clear parts and the smooth black finish IMHO really make the model. Hope my clear parts turn out as good. Thanks for posting! david

Kurok the subject of Goodyear Corsairs having folding or non folding wings, and whether they were manually or hydraulically folded has been the subject of much confusion and speculation. As far as i know, they folded just like on the Vought Corsair. Most Corsairs were land-based where space isn't usually at a premium, so it was rare to see land based Corsairs with folded wings. Carrier based FG-1Ds definitely had folding wings. I don't claim to be the authority on the subject; i hope Dana Bell's forthcoming book on the Corsair helps to clarify this. -d-