Dark Blue Killer - Tamiya F4U-1D Corsair

[Uncarina]

It looks great John! 

 

Cheers,  Tom

[LSP_Kevin]

Terrific work, John!

 

Kev

[Gerhard]

I dont have words!!!  Brilliant!!!

[John1]

Thanks for all the compliments, it means a great deal coming from this crowd.  I've seen the other models on this forum, I don't even come close to the talent on LSP!

 

Anyway, I was able to get a bit of work in this week.  First up - while studying Dana Bell's two books on the Corsair (BTW, these are mandatory for anyone building a Corsair kit or just someone who is into F4U's, they are truly brilliant books), I noted that the later versions were fitted with an emergency bomb release on the left side of the cockpit.    See the below pic from Dana's book:

 

 

I figured I'd add this to my cockpit.   Took all of 5 minutes.  

 

Looks pretty rough right (my crappy photography skills don't help either)?  You are correct! 

 

BUT - as I noted in the beginning of this build, my outlook is to focus on what will be seen when the model is complete.   In this case, the jettison lever and it's linkage is on the side of the console, next to the pilot's seat.  You'll only be able to see this when looking into the cockpit from a limited angle, nearly straight above.  From any other angle, you will only see the top of the rod and the knob.  I know some folks (god bless them) would go to town on this part but for me, this will work just fine!

 

Moving on, I've pretty much wrapped up the cockpit assembly.  I added some additional sprue wiring under the consoles and in the lower section to busy things up.  I also noticed that once assembled, you will be able to see into the aft fuselage a bit.   I quickly hand painted the area with yellow zinc chromate.  Looking at references, there was a shelf immediately behind the pilots back armor which had all the radios mounted.   I wanted to show something more than just a YZC compartment so I very quickly built the shelf and a generic radio.  Again, it's a horrible job but given the angle of viewing, it will do a nice job of replicating a radio.  Trust me folks!   Here are some pics of the completed cockpit, see if you can find the bomb jettison handle!

 

 

Note the face of the radio and shelf peeking through the opening.   

 

 

 

That's it for now.  Thanks for looking! 

Edited September 15, 2018 by John1

[LSP_Kevin]

Impressive work, John!

 

Kev

[Uncarina]

Very meticulous! Your attention to detail is inspiring.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[MikeMaben]

 

Looks fine from here John  

 

 

[John1]

One thing I mentioned was trying to recreate the clutter of the Corsair's cockpit.  By the time the -1D was introduced, the Navy was focused on one thing only.  How to produce these as fast as humanly possible.  New equipment was simply bolted into whatever space was available.  There was absolutely no consideration for ergonomics or aesthetics.  Compare this cockpit to an FW-190 and you'll see what I mean.  The only focus was on building these by the thousands and getting them to the "sharp edge" so they could kill the enemy.    This pic from Dana Bell's book illustrates what I'm talking about:

 

 

Note all the electrical wiring, some of which is simply run over the cockpit side console and is blocking access to some of the controls.  Also note that the side consoles didn't even butt up against the cockpit walls.    Again, aesthetics and ergonomics were not exactly a priority here!   Here's my initial work for the fuselage side wall.   Note that I didn't run the electrical cables very far, once under the side console, they are completely out of sight.   I still need to add some more but I'm pretty content with the way things came out. 

 

 

 

Just realized that the side wall is a bit out of focus in these pics.  My bad...  I'll try to get some better pics up but trust me, it looks "ok".   As always, thanks for looking.

[John1]

While looking through Dana Bell's book, I came across this picture.   It's shows the rocket control panel that was fitted to -1D's.   

 

For some reason I overlooked this shot when I was doing the cockpit.   I figured I'd have to scratchbuild this but while looking at the Tamiya parts, I realized that they actually included it.  It just wasn't referenced in the instructions.   It's on sprue R, I think it was part 44.  

 

So anyway, I added this to the cockpit sidewall.

 

I also added the instrument panel glareshield.  Only modifications was some sprue electrical lines for the two armament control panels mounted on top.  I'll probably add the gunsight later in the build to avoid it getting broken.   Once done with my mods, I painted it a very dark grey.  I typically avoid using straight black for any parts.   It just doesn't look appropriate. 

 

Lastly I dryfitted the cockpit into the fuselage side to see how everything looks / fits.  So far, so good. 

 

 

[John1]

Cockpit is 95% done.   Time to move aft.   Here I find another example of how awesome Tamiya is.   Most outfits (who I've mentioned before) would pretty much just provide an empty void for the tail wheel bay, maybe at best add some ribs to the interior and call it a day.  Not these guys.   16 parts in total.   They even take the time to replicate the inside faces of all the access panels and provide covers so you don't see the tabs from the horizontal stabs sticking out.  Impressive....  

 

All I did was shoot the entire assembly with Model Master Yellow Zinc Chromate and then used a dilute wash to replicate the grime that is typically present in these spaces.   Still looks too clean, I'll go back and add some more gunk.  

 

I'm really enjoying this build!

 

 

 

 

 

[Uncarina]

So far so great John! Makes me want to build another one.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[JayW]

Hey John - what a great start!  I have a 1/18 Corsair (a 1A I think) that I will dive into one day.  Are you aware of Air Corps Library?  This amazing website has engineering drawings of a large assortment of WW2 aircraft, including the F4U series.  If accuracy is your aim for the particular aircraft you are building, then join up and start digging into the Chance Vought drawings.  It takes the guess work out entirely, except what mods might have been accomplished post delivery.  Just google air corp library. 

[JeepsGunsTanks]

@JayW

Did someone make a 1/18 scale Corsair kit, or are you going to rebuild the big, toy by I think it was 21st Century Toys, before they went under? They did a bunch of 1/18 scale toy planes and tanks, decent detail for toys, but not great. 

[JayW]

"Did someone make a 1/18 scale Corsair kit, or are you going to rebuild the big, toy by I think it was 21st Century Toys, before they went under?"

 

JeepsGunsTanks - I acquired a 21st Century Toys Corsair a while back, and mean to make it the best that it can be.  Did same to a P-51 (Miss Velma), and a P-38 (Lucky Lady) - both of which I published articles on LSP if interested.  Currently doing same to a P-47 - each project has taken literally years to complete.  Access to engineering drawings has been a huge benefit to adding accuracy to these platforms.  What I like about the large scale (as opposed to 1/32) is that you can go to another level of detail, like bolt heads, small mechanisms, wiring, and other small things that I just could not do in a smaller scale.  What I have to live with are the inherent basic (un-fixable) inaccuracies of what are really just expensive toys.  But some are better than others in terms of accurate shape, and the Corsair looks like it will work out really well.  We'll see one of these days.  Meanwhile, John has a MUCH better chassis to work from - let's see what he can do in 1/32!   

[Out2gtcha]

1 minute ago, JayW said:

Did same to a P-51 (Miss Velma), and a P-38 (Lucky Lady) - both of which I published articles on LSP if interested.  Currently doing same to a P-47 - each project has taken literally years to complete.

 

 

All of which are most excellent!!