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.

Another alternative:

Here's the result of some weathering on the underside. I did a 'sludge wash' with AK paneliner for blue/gray camo to pick up rivet details and give some slight modulation to the blue gray color. On the landing gear bay I chipped through the light grey to show some salmon primer underneath. Then did some oil and mud staining with oil paints. I airbrushed some thinned Tamiya smoke as a first layer for exhaust staining then went over with oils. My first pass was too dark based on reference photos, so I wiped that off (great thing about weathering with oils!) and went back over it with more greys, tans, and whites, with a little bit of black. Then finally went over it with some pastels after a flat coat. And added some additional oil staining along the gravity dependent areas on the main engine panels. You know what they say about the R-2800 - "if it's not leaking oil, then it's out of oil!" I tried to make all of my staining effects the way they happen in real life: getting an area dirty, wiping it clean, and dirtying it up again. I fear that I may not have demonstrated enough restraint on gun staining: And finally, a last look at the unmasked portions of the underside. I always love the look of those recognition lights:

Yes, thanks, the paint booth is homemade. I modified these plans, made it out of 3/4 finished plywood and a bathroom exhaust fan. Note that a lot of noise is always made of the type of fan used in these applications, and potential fire/explosion hazard if paint fumes catch a spark from the fan. This is not the recommended type of fan, and I have used it for 5+ years with no issue, much of that time spraying MRP.

Here's some paint on, and the results of the two-layer chipping. As I said, I'm using Mission Models paint for this project. It is finicky to work with, compared to "pour it out of the bottle" ease of MRP. But it's so great to be able to spray at my bench without a vent hood or mask. I have my spray booth, but don't have the external ventilation hooked up yet (planning to vent it into the attic here in the garage). When you get the thinning dialed in with their thinner and polymix additive, it really does spray nicely. It's just an added step that's sometimes a pain. On the upper surfaces, you can see where I did black basing, and used white instead of blue-gray for my marbling coat over the fabric areas. Then sprayed some lightened blue-gray over those panels as well. Chipped pretty extensively on the wing root area, especially on the port side. This Corsair is part of VMF-213 on Guadalcanal in July of '43. Although not as dire as things were in late 1942, this was still an austere airfield, and the planes were in a high rate of operational use, so things got dirty and weathered. Also at this point, the three tone camo was in effect, even though planes using the old two-tone camo were still being used. I have seen photos of planes - though not this one - touched up with whatever paint was available, so I used some artistic license and sprayed a little intermediate blue in a few high wear areas to indicate repair. I tried to mess with the Tamiya decals for a few seconds, before deciding to spray on the walkway lines and anti-skid.

That sounds like an amazing week! I'm right there with you on the combination of history, artistic drive, and manual manipulation. That's what makes it such a great pasttime for me.

This is great work, Chuck! Beautiful detailing and weathering on the cockpit and engine so far. I love this kit and you're doing a great job with it. Re: no one ever seeing it, I consider our work to be like a sand mandala that the Buddhist monks do. It's the work that you're after, sometimes more than the finished product. Now, of course, we don't throw ours in the trash when we're finished, but it's definitely (for me at least) a case of the journey, not the destination.

Thanks! Love your username . My wife likes models because they're cheaper than other hobbies I could or used to be into, like cars (1:1 scale)

Finally some photos of plastic! Here is the finished engine. Remember, inside of gear reduction housing is a small DC motor attached to the propeller spindle, so we will have an actual spinning prop on this bird! Did a little scratch building on the canopy, added some framing and a canopy release handle: Did the two layer chipping technique here, using MRP for both the metallic and the ZCY: I am using mostly Mission Models paints for this project, but I felt like the MRP is a little sturdier in response to future chipping layers, so I knew that, even though it's harder to get a good chipping effect with this paint, I had no concern that it would ever chip through to bare plastic, which I have had happen with MM.

I'm back!! It took much longer than I wanted to get the new workshop space set up, but I finally did. Great spot in the detached garage, and now that it's less than 1,000,000 degrees in Texas, I can use it! (Plan to put a minisplit AC in before next summer). First a couple pics of the new work space: I've been updating my progress on Instagram, but I will get some of the photos in postable form for on here and let you all know where we are. Getting close to finished!

This is really impressive work, Pete. Love the detail! I've also been catching up in the general discussion thread on your exploits with the L-39 - very cool.