Tamiya F4U-1 Birdcage Corsair

[LSP_Ron]

Looks very nice indeed.

[BloorwestSiR]

Ok, I dunno if that's "accurate chipping", but that looks absolutely fantastic. Holy smokes!

 

I think when I do this, I'll get a toothpick and pick some chips out of it then follow up with the sanding as you have done after the paint has cured for a day or so....BTW how was this sanded? With what?

Thanks Shaka. I think a combination of chipping and sanding might be the better result.

 

I did a bit of chipping but mostly I very lightly sanded using a worn 800 grit sanding stick. I used it wet to further minimize the roughness. I would lightly sand it a couple times, wipe it off and check my progress and then continue.

Edited December 17, 2016 by BloorwestSiR

[BloorwestSiR]

Um... well, there wasn't a huge amount of foot traffic on the outer wing panels, but the leading edges of the wings had a wide variation of paint erosion; depends where the plane was based. There was also repainting done to the outer wing leading edge panels, since the 63-gallon wing tanks had a lot of problems with leakage and there were mods done in the field, to try and correct the problem. You'd probably find paint scratches around all 3 fuel filler caps too.

 

-d-

Thanks David! It's definitely easier without the flaps, rudder and tailplanes in the way.

 

The main reason I wanted the outer wings on was so that the upper grey would be consistent along with any scratches doing the leading edge.

 

Thanks for the info on the wing tanks. Did the gun bay doors get scuffed/scratched up?

 

I'll be painting on the walkways as I find the results better vs. decals.

[BloorwestSiR]

Thanks John, Peter and Ron!

 

I never thought I'd enjoy all this weathering.

 

Back to the build. I masked off and painted the wing walks along with the black walkways. I used Tamiya rubber black followed with a bit of Dark Grey.

 

 

I sprayed this fairly lightly especially over the areas I had previously sanded. I then gave it a quick sanding to match the rest.

 

 

 

Then I repeated the same steps on the other wing:

 

 

 

An overall view:

 

 

One mistake I need to fix is the outer wings need the lower sides repainted. I did them in the Blue Grey but they should be Intermediate Blue.

[Shaka HI]

Awesome!

[LSP_Ray]

I like the yellow chromate; looks much more realistic!

[BloorwestSiR]

Thanks Shaka and Ray!

 

A Christmas update on the Corsair. I've repainted the lower wings in intermediate blue. I also painted on the Star insignias.

 

 

I also assembled and painted the landing gear legs.

 

 

I've given them a wash to bring out some of the details.

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Carl

[Uncarina]

Carl,

 

Wonderful work! I like the slight fade on the wing insignias.

 

Happy Holidays, Tom

[Anthony in NZ]

Always love your work Carl, this Corsair is no exception. Love how the YZC shows through like wear rather than chunks of paint fallen off.....nice one

[Shaka HI]

Very nice, Carl. And I notice the fading on the markings,too. Merry Christmas, buddy.

[Guest]

Its just plane amazing my friend !.......Harv

[Guest Peterpools]

Carl

Amazing work. The Stars look perfect and I can't wait to see how the gear turns out

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[David Hansen]

I'm a bit late in responding. Carl asked me about weathering of the outer wing panels.

 

The rectangle shapes that have the numbers "1"  "2" and "3" are actually ammunition boxes, and they are fully removable from the wing. I believe they are loaded outside of the plane and then "dropped" back in place. These things are pretty heavy when loaded so i masked off each one individually and did random greasy handprints with gray pastel, then i clear coated them to seal in the pastel. These boxes were often swapped in location, leading to some weird looking insignias on the upper left wing (The white bar extends onto the ammo boxes).

 

If you can get a hold of the Volume 2 of Dana Bell's Corsair book, on the back cover there is a very nice colour photo of a mechanic on the upper right wing of an FG-1D. You can clearly see the circular scratches made by the cranks on the bayonet locking pins.

 

The long, narrow doors are hinged at the front and most of the wear would be on the Hartwell fastener and on the back end where people grabbed onto them to lift them in place. The weird, trapezoidal door was hinged at the front end, but it was also hinged sort of in the middle as well. Again, it's held in place with those crank-type bayonet pins.

 

There will probably be a lot of greasy handprints around the machine gun blast muzzles too. The gun ports were taped over regularly to keep them clean on the ground, and i believe the tape was  removed before flight. So, there will be residue from previous tape and clear nitrocellulose dope used to glue them in place.

 

Last, although its too late to do anything about it, i like to mask off the fabric covered parts of the wings and spray them a slightly lighter shade of the camouflage colour. Same goes for the elevators, rudder, and fabric covered segments of the flaps. The ailerons were painted fabric laid over a plywood skin, and from what few photos i have to go from, they seemed to lighten up a little bit too.

 

-d-

[LSP_Ray]

That is looking really good, Carl! The YZC looks good in wear mode, and the landing gear are fantastic! The insignia turned out great, too!

[monthebiff]

That is looking spectacular Carl, as ever your insignia masking skills give such good results.

 

Regards. Andy