Bstarr3

Thank you, indeed it was!

This was a really quick (for me!) build. I wanted to do something unique with the Revell FW-190 I had in the stash. I found this "Captured Butcherbirds" decal set from Keraya, and used the ICM figure kit "a photo to remember" to complete a little vignette. This was a F8 model, captured in early 1945. It was then disarmed and repainted, to be used as the fun plane of Maj. Jim Dalglish of 354th FG.

As a tinnitus sufferer, all that riveting with no hearing protection is painful to watch!

Obviously something that has radially symmetrical weight, like a flying saucer, would be the perfect test case. Airplanes have a balance point though, and if you carefully situated the magnet around the balance point, it seems like you could do one strong magnet in the middle for a floating display. This is for sale on Amazon for $60. God knows I've spent more than that on things for this hobby before. I might just have to try it out.

I went ahead and used the screw that Tamiya supplied for my in-flight corsair, but I'll be experimenting with magnets for sure for future in flight builds. I'd really like to figure a way to do a true floating in flight display with repelling magnets, but that would probably be hard to get the balance right. The payoff would be awesome, though.

Thanks Thanks all! My RFI is up with more pics and a couple videos of the working prop. I must say I'm very pleased with the way it came out. Thanks for following along!

Thanks all. I shot a couple videos to demonstrate the working propeller. A studio shot and and outdoor one:

Due to an unanticipated move, this is the only build started and finished in 2023 for me. But it was a lot of fun. The Tamiya kit is magnificent. I added HGW harnesses and wet transfers, barracudacast resin wheels, and a little magic with a small DC motor. Paints are Mission Models primarily. This is just after takeoff from the crushed coral runway at Henderson Field.

This project is finally finished! Here are some finished pics.

Some more "basic modeling skills". Unfortunately during all its time upside down on the painting jig, the antenna mast on the vert stabilizer got snapped off. So I drilled a hole, shaped a new one, and secured it with a pin instead of just a butt join.

Here's some real modelling nerdery that will be appreciated here: I had originally planned to have the switch for the battery pack accessed from the top of the nose, where there's a panel that snaps into place perfectly without need for glue. However, it's also where the antenna mast attaches, and although that part fits without glue just fine, I didn't want to have to remove it multiple times to access the switch. As luck would have it, a panel below happened to fall off, and revealed itself to me as the perfect solution to the problem. I affixed it with magnets to make it removable. The panel itself wasn't deep enough to accept a magnet, so I glued a piece of steel photoetch to it, which holds the magnet on the fuselage side well enough. I then affixed the battery holder to the firewall with epoxy putty, arranging it so that the switch is accessible from underneath, and I can still remove the upper panel to replace the 2032 battery when needed. Prior to affixing everything, I had to fire it up for a test run:

This looks great! I’m excited to see how this works out with the lighting

Beautiful work! I wish I’d put in the effort to do plumbing on my gear bays. It always looks so good to get all that piping in there and you did a very clean job of it

Undercarriage: Propeller: Fuel staining. Also interesting note about the nose art, this came with HGW wet transfer set as a two piece decal/transfer. First a white outline, then the colored part to go over it. The outline went down fine, but the color overlay is (of course) the only transfer that completely failed to work, and it was destroyed in the process of removing the film. So, I hand painted it: Hey, remember this guy?

I'm glad I checked in and found this thread - I'm also planning this Corsair in flight, and I thought I had a decent engineering solution, utilizing the screw mount that Tamiya included for their stand. I hadn't even considered using magnets but now I'm rethinking my plan and seeing if magnets might work better.