Dark Blue Killer - Tamiya F4U-1D Corsair

[John1]

So, moving on to the final steps here.   I'm back to the outer wings.   Mounted the HVAR's.  For some reason, they didn't fit very well into the wings.  I had to cut the mounting stubs short and widen the holes in the bottom of the wings.  Not the end of the world and given that Tamiya is usually dead on with their fit, I'm guessing somehow I screwed up this step.  Once installed, I noted that the HVAR's pretty much blocked all my nice gun residue on the bottom of the wings but heck, at least I know it's there.

 

After that, I decided to replicate the heavy soot on the .50 MG ports.   I noticed that many carrier based Corsairs at this stage of the war had their MG ports taped up with what looked like regular, old-school packing tape.   See below (another great picture from Dana Bell's book):

 

I wanted to replicate what these taped up muzzles looked like after a few thousand .50 cal rounds blew through them.   Again, another awesome pic from Dana's book:

If you squint, you can make out a few bits of packing tape still present.  This great pic also shows some of the restrained weathering on the wing leading edge I'll be trying to replicate later. 

 

So I ended up using a combo of paint, pastels and radome yellow painted masking tape (cut into very small bits) to replicate all this.  I'm not done yet but I think it's a good start.  Here are a few pics:

 

 

 

Nice gloss on this section of the wing.  Unlike the upper wing roots and areas around the MG doors, these sections woudn't have seen much weathering.   You can still make out some MG/rocket soot on the outboard flap though. 

 

A few shots of the leading edges.  Overall, I'm generally pleased with the current look but I'll be going back to tone down the tape just a bit. 

 

 

 

Again, this is still a work in progress.  Thanks for looking. 

Edited December 20, 2018 by John1

[Out2gtcha]

Great work! The gun ports look awesome

[LSP_Ray]

Wow, really well done! Weathering is terrific!

FYI as I recall the flat panel on top of the cowl was called out in the factory drawings.

[John1]

On 12/12/2018 at 6:02 PM, Jennings Heilig said:

 

BTW, don't forget to add that little extra bit of white on the RH edge of the big "9" on the side of the fuselage there John.  It's mentioned in the instructions.  I have no clue how on earth I missed seeing it in the film of her taxiing by the camera, but by the time I did the decal was already printed.  Plenty of extra white decal there you can use for it.

 

 

Finally got to taking care of this.  No idea how Fundekals even caught such a minor detail like this but it shows their commitment to accuracy.   I also was able to complete the forward landing gear covers.   I (again) owe a great deal of thanks to "1to1Scale" who was truly kind enough to send me a couple of decals I was missing.  With those decals (the oleo servicing placards) I was able to finish the markings applied to those LG covers.   I also used the Fundekals "Enclosure Release" decal for the canopy.  It seems to be more accurate than the one included on the Tamiya sheet.    It's slow going, but I'm getting there.  Next up will be installing the outer wings.

 

 

Canopy is just dryfitted in place.  Still need to add some interior details to it.   Note that "pebbly" finish on the national insignia is just a weird reflection.  It's not actually present on the model!

 

Forward landing gear covers in place and properly marked.  Thanks again 1to1Scale!!!  For some strange reason, the aircraft number was only painted on the left door and cowling.

 

 

That's it for now.  Thanks for looking. 

[BloorwestSiR]

Wow! Looks great.

 

Carl

[John1]

Just wanted to add one bit of advice - if you are painting around the clear parts, make sure you do a good job of masking!!  I neglected to mention in my last post above but when I pulled off all the masks, I found to my horror that the interior of the windscreen was partially covered in Dullcoate!  For a few minutes, I thought the kit was ruined.   After I was done with an epic swearing spree, I decided to try to repair this without ripping off the windscreen assembly.  Using surgical tweezers with the tips covered with tape to avoid scratching the clear plastic, I was able to reach inside and delicately remove the armored glass that had most of the Dullcoate.    I then used Novus's two part plastic polish (can't say enough about this stuff).   

 

 

Polish 2 is a fine scratch remover, with a microabrasive suspended in the compound.   Using a high quality cloth and a few drops of this stuff, I was able to get the flat coating off.   I then went in with Polish 1, which is a high quality finishing polish to fully restore the clarity and shine of the piece.   Ever since I've found this stuff, I'm now using the finishing polish in lieu of Future.  It really enhances the transparency of clear plastic parts and minimizes dust build up. 

 

There was a bit of dullcoat on the windshield interior as well.   I ended up using a small bit of fine cloth, wrapped in tiny ball and held in place with fine tip locking tweezers.   Going very slowly and using the two steps above, I was able to remove all the remaining Dullcoate.   Just needed to frequently replace the cloth and take my time.   Thankfully, all the areas that got hit with dullcoate were accessible.  

 

Took me nearly two hours.    The moral to this story is - TAKE YOUR TIME MASKING!!

 

This update has been brought to you by the fine folks at Novus! 

 

 

 

 

[John1]

Completed the outer wings.  Added the navigation and ID lights.    Finally found a close up picture of the navigation lights (thanks Jennings).  It appears that the interior is flat black and a clear plex cover goes over.   The framework is clear and simply shows the black painted surface that it's screwed into.   

To replicate this, I painted the interior of the frames flat black.  I also used a very short section of sanded rod to replace the very small bulb that Tamiya had molded into the wingtip.  It should have been bigger but there isn't enough room inside the clear cover.  Note - not sure why it appears that the leading edge of the navigation light cover is black, it's not.  Just some weird optical effect. 

 

 

Next up, it's time to finally install the folded outer wings.  First off was to add a couple of hinged panels (never noticed these before).

 

Next was to add the outer wings.   Typical Tamiya, they just slide down the spar and pretty much click into place.  No glue required!  Not a bad thing and if needed, I can always remove the outer wings for transport of the model or storage. 

 

One note - there is a fair amount of weight on these spars with the wings installed.   Really need to be careful with handling the model at this stage.   If you ever end up breaking the connection, you are pretty much done.  Will be next to impossible to repair, given the small size of the hinge and the load it's bearing.   Tamiya provides two support rods that were used on the real thing when the wings were folded. These are a bear to install but I highly recommend that you do.  They help keep the outer wings rigid and minimize (a bit)  any flexing that could damage the hinge. 

 

Some pictures:

hard to see in the pics but I added a bunch of scrapes and a black wash to those support struts since they would have been banged up quite a bit during normal use. 

 

 

 

Couple of notes - I'm going to tone down the gun dust a bit.   Looked great at first but after looking at the pics, it needs to cleaned up a bit.   No biggie.   Also will be adding some hydraulic and electrical lines in the wingfold.   Going to be a pain to do these since  you can't really put the model on it's side or upside down now.    Anyway, that's it for now, thanks for looking

Edited December 30, 2018 by John1

[JayW]

Oh man what a fabulous looking Corsair.

[Out2gtcha]

Wow, that looks terrific! I like the look of the missiles on the folded wings.

[John1]

Thanks for the compliments guys.   Just doing some weathering and starting work on the props so really don't have any pics to post quite yet.   

 

One question I did have, I'm pondering adding the radio antennas to this kit but have never done this before.   I was hoping I could replicate them from really fine stretched sprue.   Anyone have some tips on how to do this? 

[Vandy 1 VX 4]

I would recommend using some smoked monofilament line from fishing tackle shop. or from the craft store for sewing

[John1]

Jennings - is invisible thread the same thing as EZ line?   I might give it a shot.  For some reason, I've always failed completely when it comes to antennas.   Do you guys drill out the receptacle in the tail or just measure closely and glue?    Random question - I never understood how apply heat could tighten a line.   From what I recall from college physics, heat expands a substance, how come it's the opposite with this stuff?

 

Anyway, getting back to the model, I've completed the prop (fun fact - the Corsair had the largest prop of any WW2 single engine fighter, it was close to 14' in diameter and one Corsair pilot achieved a kill when his guns froze and he used his prop to saw the tail off of a Japanese aircraft).   The construction was pretty basic, just took a while to get the paintwork done.  I first sprayed the tips white, then yellow (yellow never seems to look right applied over unpainted plastic), then masked the tips and shot everything gloss black.  I also painted the tip of the prop hub white since that's what My Nell was rocking when photographed back in 45.  Once I applied the decals, I sprayed everything a semi-gloss overcoat, since that's how the real thing was finished.   Lastly, I added a bit of weathering. I kept the paint scratches to a minimum since on a carrier deck, you aren't going to have any rocks / coral bouncing off the blades.   For a land based Corsair, I would have gone much heavier.  Here's an example of a Corsair at the opposite end of the spectrum.

 

 

I also started doing some weathering.  I applied some brownish-black pastels to the wing root area to replicate scuffing from the maintenance crew's boots.  I also started using a new trick.   Got an artist's grade silver pencil and have been using that to replicate fine sratches and individual rivets.   I'm pretty pleased with the results.  Only trick is to make sure you keep it sharp.   Here are some pics.

 

I toned down the weathering around the MG ports a bit.  Still tweaking this..

 

 

Some overall shots showing the weathering.  Again this is very much a work in progress.  I need restrain myself since these aircraft weren't beat up as much as their land-based brothers.   Again, keep in mind that I'll be toning down the MG soot some more. 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now, thanks for looking!

[Fvdm]

John, heat can also shrink substances. Heat shrink tubing for instance. Also some plastics can shrink when heated. This phenomenon is called Negative Thermal Expansion. 

 

Your corsair looks great. 

[jep1210]

Dang, this is a great build. That Fundekal site has had me distracted for two days now. That's some great interesting info. Of course now I'm eyeing a Tamiya F4U on Sprue Brothers, thanks pal.

[John1]

Thanks for the compliments guys.  JEP1210 - yeah, the Fundekals site is a real time sink.   I've spent a lot of time there reviewing all their instruction sheets.   All very interesting and informative.

 

Jennings - meant to ask you:   On the instruction sheet for those decals, you have some great color shots of My Nell III and some other aircraft from that unit.   Looks like they were clipped from a video.   Any chance you have a link to this video (assuming it's out in the public realm)?  I'd love to see it.

 

One thing I forgot to mention in my last update -  I sprayed the top of the engine cowling with dullcoate.   Have no idea if My Nell had a painted flat blue anti-glare panel or if it just weathered to a flat finish but the reference pics I've seen show this area looking pretty flat.   Previously, it was way too shiny.    May not be that apparent in the pics above but it's pretty noticeable in RL.  I'm very happy with the way it looks.