JayW

Thank you Craig - no the pipes are going to be the biggest challenge yet. Sometimes I get surprised, both ways, but usually I can get a feel for what is straight forward, and what is problematic. The pipes are definitely going to be problematic. The exhaust pipes for the Thunderbolt, which you may recall, were easier. One, the ends of the pipes are unseen largely, instead travelling back inside the fuselage to the turbocharger. And two, they collected into a large diameter pipe, one per side. The Corsair will have three pipes per side each one nestled next to one another, with a distinctive 3-pipe exit at the cowl on each side. Every plan I think of has huge flaws. I think i might just dive in with both feet and see what happens - something you are good at! I sure don't want a sloppy result after all this effort.

Cotter pins through the axle caps? That is just showing off Peter. Hey - some of the pics show the tail wheel half off or something. That thing alright? Very fragile component of these models.

Well you made us wait for it. It's the most realistic airplane model i have ever seen. The craftsmanship passes the microscope test - close-ups are just as impressive as far away. That's hard to do. Congratulations. You will receive trophies.

OK, the prop governor (Hamilton Standard 4G10 series) . Amazingly little technical data around, although I found a manual with parts lists for Hamilton Standard constant speed prop governors at Aircorps Library. It has pictures like this: Note the big pulley wheel - that is meant to be rotated by a cable attachment emanating from the cockpit, and it changes prop pitch depending on the rotation. The manual speaks of single capacity and double capacity governors, which look a bit different. Also there is a variety of bases that the governor is mounted on. Lastly it appears that certain layers of the governor can be turned 90 deg or 180 deg to help with the integration with the engine. All of this served to confuse the issue of what this thing looks like for Corsairs. The propeller installation drawing VS-10375 offered even more confusion by showing two different versions of the governor control - one the pulley wheel that is commonly seen: And two - a bracket and linkage arrangement (no wheel): I could not find any point in the production run where the wheel arrangement took over, so I went to work looking at wartime pictures. I have concluded that F4U-1's and 1A's had the linkage arrangement, and the wheel arrangement came a little later perhaps with the paddle bladed propeller or the pressurized ignition. The F4U-1D has all that stuff, and I am making a 1A. So my engine gets the linkage. Here is a shot of the PITA prop governor, ready to be mounted onto the engine nose: And on the engine: And with the little bracket assembly (the linkage comes later): Pan back and you see the full engine in its current state of completion - it is basically fully complete all the way back to the supercharger sections aft of the cylinders. Now, I believe I will start looking at the exhaust collectors. Here is a picture of them from the parts catalog: Talk about hand wringing. The Vought drawing is very good, fully defining the pipes and their curves and shapes. I will make the pipes from the .125 inch diameter silver solder I have used before. Outside of that I just do not yet have a plan for how to accurately produce these. Wish me luck.

The Bendix-Scintilla DF18LN magneto, used on the Corsair (there also is a Bosch magneto that seems less common) is a complicated little bugger. And it is hard to find good pictures or drawings. I did find this though: This comes from a R-2800 "operators Manual" I found at Aircorps Library. This provided alot of good scaling at least for the side view. I also found a magneto on E-bay with some good photos like this: This plus other photos of R-2800's gave me enough to go on. So a ten-times size (10/18 to be sure) layout, and just short of a hundred little plastic parts later I got this: Mounted on the engine, and wired up: I am so glad to be done with that infernal .025 gold painted solder. Next is the propeller governor. I have found some material on Aircorps Library on this too, but there will still be guesswork. After it is installed, I really have to decide what to do next. There are many options, including the back sections of the engine - something I have never done before, and something that requires guesswork as well. Stay tuned!

I have progress to show you, actually quite a bit. The spark plug wire harness is finished with all 36 wires routed, painted, ready to go. With that, the forward row inter ear deflectors were installed. And, this was the time when the forward and back row cylinders and crank case halves were bonded together, and the front reduction gear housing was bonded in place as well. I managed to make every mistake in the book along the way, perhaps the worst of which was to paint a 5 foot length of .025 inch silver solder (for the spark plug wires) primer plus gold before hand. I thought I'd be sly and pre-paint so I would not have to reach into inaccessible places to paint wires after installation. Well - as I should have known, the paint flaked off after making bends and curves, or sliding on clamps. So not only did it make a mess of flakes, but I had to go in and paint inside those inaccessible places anyway. In the process, I managed to break off a cylinder, requiring a delicate re-attachment in place with lots of stuff already attached to said cylinder. While joining the two cylinder rows, I accidentally allowed a free end of spark plug wire from the back row to get into the joint. I discovered this after the epoxy was already dry (or nearly), so I had to extricate the solder wire, breaking the wire about mid-length, and applying about a half hour of careful pressure to get the two crank case halves to seat properly. They are almost seated; not quite. That spark plug wire repair was also exceedingly delicate. There were other mis-steps and gaffs I will not bore you with - but suffice it to say that prior to this work, I was hand wringing about it, and was not sure why. Now I know. So here is the result of my pressure packed work: Note the two unattached wires for the magneto. A bottom view showing the scavenge oil stuff: A front view showing every one of those 36 wires: Honestly, I do not know how people do this in smaller scales. Notably absent in that photo is the P & W emblem - Fundekal has STILL not replenished their supply of decals. A rear view, showing the 18 exhaust manifold points that I will tackle one day: Pretty busy engine. Next on the agenda are the magneto, and the prop governor - both mounting onto the top of the reduction gear casing: Next post those primed flats will have components on them. Til then stay safe and healthy.

How far do you want to go? Aircorps library (google it) has on line drawings from the manufacturer, some complete, some not so much. The P-47 collection is like 99% complete. It's amazing. But I am not sure you want to get into the nitty gritty detail. And if you have no engineering background, it may be difficult to read the drawings and follow the drawing tree, etc. Also there is a nominal cost to subscribe.

There is a very good picture of a R2800-8 (the Corsair specific version) in the Dana Bell F4U pictorial volume 2 that I am making good use of: I like her shoes; I had some in high school! I thought I would show you the reduction gear case at completion, except the emblem, and the magneto and prop governor which both come later. I feel like this time I got the shape of the case just about right. I spent all day with the underside - the scavenge oil pump, and the outlet for the aft oil drain pipe. The scavenge pump is just an assortment of little plastic bits plus Meng nuts. The spark plug wire harness is bonded onto the flange of the case - with not much surface area in which to bond. I hope that it stays put as I do the wiring, which along with the forward inter-ear deflectors is what you will see next post. I still await Fundekals - the Pratt emblem decal sheet is still out of stock. Hope everyone is staying healthy! Til next time.

Paul - well said.

Just when you thought you had everything, here is what I found on Vought-Sikorsky drawing 10275 (F4U-1): Dimensions are from axle centerline to fuselage center of thrust - Extend - 6' 11" Compressed - 6' 1" "Taxiing" - 6' 3 1/2 " I think the assumption can be made that "taxiing" represents under full gross weight. So that means extension at taxi is 2.5 inches under full gross weight. One could always add a little more to depict an aircraft that was lighter. Just like we see way to many times, modelling manufacturers will go research a static airplane somewhere, see that its gear are fully compressed, and create their parts as such, believing it to be accurate. As for the history of varying strut pressures, etc, whihc would change the extension at taxi, I know nothing.

Dude - how about the "pre-imminent democracy on the planet" USA? We've got ya' beat I believe. Not getting into politics mind you. Something that I have been cogitating on lately is how something like this can become so political, at least in the USA. I have some theories (or better - hypotheses), but it still bewilders me that the response to this pandemic is so different depending (usually) on one's political identity.

I have the utmost respect for how NZ has handled this crisis. Your government appears to have done everything right, your people largely complied without riots and demonstrations, and you are now reaping the benefits (unlike my country which in all likelihood is going to go through another version of lockdown, or if not then endure a large die-off). This virus is not going away anytime soon. For countries that have had success, that means making decisions about who to let in the country. Until a good vaccine comes (if). What a terrible situation we are all in.

Believe it or not this is a Corsair project. But you are not going to see much Corsair stuff for a while - except for the engine. What a sub-project project! Work progresses on the ignition system. The assembly fixture enabled me to finish the spark plug wire harness with some confidence that it would fit - here is the finished harness "detail" I will call it: It lacks the round plates on each bud, and also the buds that sprout out the back for cylinders 1, 3, and 17. Confused? You will see. (Wolf is not confused) The distributors - the most difficult thing with the distributors is to determine the correct dimensions in the total absence of technical data. But I think I got it close: Note they each have a little port for a wire that goes to (or from) the harness. Makes sense. With a top coat, and some assembly work on the harness, we get this: That greenish anodize is gone forever. In real life (back in the 1940's), this harness seemed to be polished aluminum. I tried, with buffing aluminum plate (Testors), and got some shine, but not enough for a factory fresh part. But what the hell - this is not going to be a factory fresh aircraft! The back side of the harness looks like this: Note the three buds pointing aft. Two are behind the distributors, and the center one is behind the magneto. And OMG - I see one of the little round plates has shifted! Hell. Easy fix.... Next post you should see efforts toward the forward row inter ear deflectors, and some spark plug wiring. I can tell you - the spark plug wiring is going to be a challenge. Stay healthy! Oh, BTW - I am about fed up with 5-minute 2-part epoxy for bonding non-plastic details. This harness is soooo fragile. Look at it cross-eyed, and a part falls off it. What is a good alternative for things like acrylic, brass, and aluminum? Note I do not want something that bonds instantaneously - I need a little time to position the part correctly!

Just outstanding wheel wells Wolf!

Wolf - Fundekal is out of the radial engine logo decals (the sheet includes 1/18 scale of all things). Would you happen to have this?