John1 Posted March 19, 2019 Share Posted March 19, 2019 9 hours ago, Kaeone57 said: John, LSP, All my stuff is in storage at the moment. If you have the Dana Bell book, check the BuAer #'s to see when the glass was removed on the production line as I do not know off the top of my feeble brain. Also some were painted over soooo more guess work. Wish I had a better answer for you but, that's the Best I can do ATM! According to Bell, the bombing window was deleted somewhat late in the -1A production run, starting with BuNo 50066. Martinnfb and Thunnus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted March 19, 2019 Author Share Posted March 19, 2019 4 hours ago, John1 said: According to Bell, the bombing window was deleted somewhat late in the -1A production run, starting with BuNo 50066. This one is BuNo 17740 so that means that the bombing window was most likely present on this one? Martinnfb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaeone57 Posted March 19, 2019 Share Posted March 19, 2019 (edited) 15 hours ago, Thunnus said: This one is BuNo 17740 so that means that the bombing window was most likely present on this one? Yes. Due to the introduction of removal starting in the 500** BuAer#'s the viewing window would've been present on her as I know after the 17*** came the 18*** just had to do some thinking and now my brain hurts. Whether or not her "V" frame was removed( a weight saving measure IIRC) is up for debate. Nobody goes that far in on Corsairs anyway sooo, I think your good! Lol Alfonso Edited March 19, 2019 by Kaeone57 Thunnus and Martinnfb 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John1 Posted March 19, 2019 Share Posted March 19, 2019 17 hours ago, Thunnus said: This one is BuNo 17740 so that means that the bombing window was most likely present on this one? Correct. Your Corsair was a pretty early -1A, so according to Mr. Bell, it would not have the following bits that were introduced on later vintage -1A Corsairs: Stall warning device (no idea if Tamiya even included this), rudder troughs, 32" radio mast, under fuselage tank/bomb mount, VHF mast, forged tail wheel yoke, "half-round" canopy release, locked center (top) cowl flap and cockpit flare pistol. It would have the landing light still installed. Hope this helps a bit, keep up the great work on your Corsair! Martinnfb and Thunnus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted March 20, 2019 Author Share Posted March 20, 2019 6 hours ago, John1 said: Correct. Your Corsair was a pretty early -1A, so according to Mr. Bell, it would not have the following bits that were introduced on later vintage -1A Corsairs: Stall warning device (no idea if Tamiya even included this), rudder troughs, 32" radio mast, under fuselage tank/bomb mount, VHF mast, forged tail wheel yoke, "half-round" canopy release, locked center (top) cowl flap and cockpit flare pistol. It would have the landing light still installed. Hope this helps a bit, keep up the great work on your Corsair! I don't know any of that stuff is, LOL. Except the cockpit flare pistol and I'm sad to leave that out because I was looking forward to painting it. Maybe I'll leave it as a possible retro-fit? The cockpit on this thing is nowhere near completion. I'm stalled out on the central cockpit assembly... keep pondering "glue then paint" or "paint then glue". It'll be a slow, methodical combination of both approaches as I'm too lazy to be systematic about it. I've got other things on my plate too so I can't devote 100% of my mental capacity to the task at hand. A few hours at the bench and I pushed myself to assemble the HGW seatbelts. I pity ya'll who are brave enough to tackle these intricate sets in the smaller 1/48 scale... no thank you! These weren't too difficult but still took about three hours of work to get them together. I've read that giving them a wash will bring out some stitching detail so I think I'll give that a try after I attach them to the seat and give them a clear coat. Kaeone57, ShotMagnet, LSP_Kevin and 9 others 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 Great work John! The pit is coming along swimmingly. I love the HGW belts. Id say give the HGW directions a look as they call for "balling" the belts up a bit, which IMHO does away with the stiff almost inflexible look they have sometimes right OOB. I like to wash mine to highlight, but the HGW instructions say to gloss coat them first which actually seems to help, then a dullcoat. I like gluing them down to the seats too, for that added bit of realism to get that draped effect VS setting proud of the seat. Kaeone57, Thunnus and Martinnfb 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted March 20, 2019 Author Share Posted March 20, 2019 1 hour ago, Out2gtcha said: Great work John! The pit is coming along swimmingly. I love the HGW belts. Id say give the HGW directions a look as they call for "balling" the belts up a bit, which IMHO does away with the stiff almost inflexible look they have sometimes right OOB. I like to wash mine to highlight, but the HGW instructions say to gloss coat them first which actually seems to help, then a dullcoat. I like gluing them down to the seats too, for that added bit of realism to get that draped effect VS setting proud of the seat. Thanks Brian! Yes, the fabric components were crumpled with my fingers before assembly per the instructions. I'll be gluing the harnesses in and applying a wash next. Kaeone57, Out2gtcha and Martinnfb 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaeone57 Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 17 hours ago, John1 said: Correct. Your Corsair was a pretty early -1A, so according to Mr. Bell, it would not have the following bits that were introduced on later vintage -1A Corsairs: Stall warning device (no idea if Tamiya even included this), rudder troughs, 32" radio mast, under fuselage tank/bomb mount, VHF mast, forged tail wheel yoke, "half-round" canopy release, locked center (top) cowl flap and cockpit flare pistol. It would have the landing light still installed. Hope this helps a bit, keep up the great work on your Corsair! IIRC, regarding the flare pistol, it wasn't removed entirely but it's exit firing hole underneath was cloth and dope lined and if "it" needed to be fired was fired out of the cockpit instead. The gun was left in to sort of "plug" the hole until they relocated it later on and at first a wooden plug was inserted until the entire assembly was removed later on. IIRC it was also one of the issues similar to the lower windows "problems" alowing carcinogens into the cockpit from the exhaust fumes coming into the cockpit. @John1 the rudder troughs, what do you mean by their removal? All Corsairs were floorless until the -4 introduced a floor so the troughs remained till then. Corsairs are So Much Fun! Lol All this info is off the top of my feeble brain sooooo, references are in order. I have limited access to the internet ATM and even to view, sign in is a chore! If I had better access I'd search for you but then I'd have to send a you a bill! Lol John (Thunnus), Do yourself a favor and get the Dana Bell book(s), it's SO worth it! Alfonso D.B. Andrus, Martinnfb and Thunnus 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaeone57 Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 (edited) Also Corsairs had wrap around Cowl flaps for quite some time and you must check pics of the aircraft being modelled to see if the top 3 were sealed shut or not. VF-17 worked on alot of the solutions early on before leaving stateside with Vought to solve alot of the issues and the leaking problem which made most units seal these was 1. 17740 has its top 3 Cowl flaps sealed and a makeshift field made cover(IIRC) so this does not apply to her. People saying the Corsair was not a "good" Carrier handing aircraft have been saying this based on following suit with what has been wrongly stated for years. VF-17 proved the Corsair before leaving the States to the PTO but due to logistics on spares aboard the fleet for the Corsair they became land based as they did not want to transition to F6F Hellcats as the Loved the Corsair that much! Ooops, rant over! Remove all this if you wish! LOL Alfonso Edited March 20, 2019 by Kaeone57 Forgot to add something, I'm an idiot JeepsGunsTanks, Thunnus and Martinnfb 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted March 20, 2019 Author Share Posted March 20, 2019 Alfonso... thanks for the clarification about the flare pistol! About the "rudder troughs"... could it be in reference to the "plates" on top of the foot supports? I noticed that the F4U-1a kit has plates that are glued on top of the foot supports while the Birdcage kit does not. My F4U-1a Birdcage F4U-1 Build jgrease, Martinnfb, D.B. Andrus and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaeone57 Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 GORGEOUSNESS X INFINITY!! Ok, for the answer to your question. No those "plates" are correct as that adds the 7" increase in cockpit height, which Tamiya should be commended for(insert clapping emoji here). I would say measure them to see if they scale out? Not clear on what John1 means by removal of the troughs? Gorgeous paint work! Alfonso Thunnus and Martinnfb 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted March 20, 2019 Author Share Posted March 20, 2019 FYI ... that birdcage cockpit isn’t my work... found it by google. I caved and ordered the Dana Bell book from Amazon. The seller was.... Dana Bell himself, which I thought was pretty cool. I bought Volume 2 which should cover my F4U-1a. Martinnfb, Out2gtcha and Kaeone57 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John1 Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 7 hours ago, Kaeone57 said: IIRC, regarding the flare pistol, it wasn't removed entirely but it's exit firing hole underneath was cloth and dope lined and if "it" needed to be fired was fired out of the cockpit instead. The gun was left in to sort of "plug" the hole until they relocated it later on and at first a wooden plug was inserted until the entire assembly was removed later on. @John1 the rudder troughs, what do you mean by their removal? All Corsairs were floorless until the -4 introduced a floor so the troughs remained till then. John (Thunnus), Do yourself a favor and get the Dana Bell book(s), it's SO worth it! Alfonso Hi Alfonso, I'm just going by Dana Bell's book. As I read his summary of design changes, the flare pistol wasn't added until 50040 and later BuNo's. If correct, 740 never would have had it in the first place. With regard to the rudder troughs, again, I'm just going by Dana's info, in which he states that starting with 17930, rudder trough superstructures were added. Not exactly sure if that means they weren't present at all prior to this? I'd assume there had to be something to support the pilot's feet.... To anyone with even a passing interest in the Corsair, I can't highly recommend both of Dana's books. Indispensible references and quite reasonably priced. Now if he'd just finish the series one dedicated to the -4/5/7! John Martinnfb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted March 21, 2019 Author Share Posted March 21, 2019 I've got Mr. Bell's Volume 2 on the way so I'll have that in my hands soon. The seat belts have been glued into place. I gave the seat a light gloss coat and then a dark brown wash to dirty the harnesses up and yes, the stitching did get highlighted as advertised. One of the sub-assemblies that have been painted. They are hydraulic bottles of some sort. ShotMagnet, TAG, N4521U and 12 others 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jep1210 Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 This just keeps getting better. Martinnfb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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