1/18 Scale Blue Box F4U-1A Corsair Modification

[chuck540z3]

Beautiful!  No surprise there.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[JayW]

A small update.  Having some fun here with the surface control components.  In these pictures you will see the pushrods that go from the elevator tube to the wings, and the control stick attach:

 

 

 

The control stick lacks the pistol grip, and is only temp installed.  It's too long and fragile to leave there with all that is left in the cockpit (like 90% of it!).  But I felt I had to at least install the yoke that it attaches to, while the joint is still accessible.  The unoccupied lug you see on it will one day accept a pushrod going aft under the pilot seat, toward the tail of course.  

 

 

 

Here are the aileron pushrods.  Difficult to make because the joints are so small.  The main part is 2 mm brass tubing, truncated of course where they are not seen.  They are situated right behind the "zig-zag" bulkhead like so:

 

 

 

Having fun.  Take care!

 

 

Edited December 4, 2020 by JayW

[Sepp]

Beautiful work. Truly amazing.

[LSP_Kevin]

42 minutes ago, Sepp said:

Beautiful work. Truly amazing.

 

Truly amazing indeed.

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

Love it!  That is some seriously great detailing Jay. The yoke and surrounding detail really is tremendous looking. 

[airscale]

this is a nailed on masterclass

 

such precise engineering, it is reproducing the aircraft part by part in miniature and utterly convincing

 

Peter

[JayW]

I tell you - it 's a privilege and an honor to have such fine and famous modelers comment on my posts.  I really feel the cockpit effort to date doesn't stand up to the engine effort.  But I am trying to make sure that the most visible components are of the best quality I can gin up.  So let us wait and see.  I hope I can live up to your expectations.

 

I have big challenges.  The cockpit surround is comprised of a bottom piece which includes the lower half of the center wings, the top two halves of the center wings, the left fuselage piece, and right fuselage piece.  All these parts provide some portion of the visible inside surface.  Whereas the actual airplane is not like that at all.  Many of the parts I mean to include in the cockpit bridge the boundary, or interface, between two of these pieces.  Which means the installation of a part like that ought to wait until the cockpit surround is assembled together.  Yet, to wait until then will spoil access to install the part!!  So I am left trying to hang a part off one half of an interface, dangling around just begging to be broken off, until such time as the fuselage and wings are joined.  The side frames are good examples, which want to glue onto the fuselage sides, the inboard end of the upper wing pieces, and the lower wing piece.  Needless to say, this sort of complication doesn't lend itself to a good quality build.  That's my biggest challenge.  I think you all can relate.  After all, we do cockpits on one side of the fuselage, then the other side, then the floor, with some parts wanting to attach to more than one thing.  This model is that, and more. 

 

The other challenge, well known to scratch builders, is gauge.  The Corsair cockpit is just filled to the brim with.....stuff.  Look:

 

 

 

Control cables, heater ducts, fuel lines, pushrods, wiring, hydraulic lines to valves and levers, oxygen system.  It's endless.  And alot of that "stuff" is in very close proximity to other "stuff".  The plastic gage of my model is about 0.08 inch typically.  That is the gauge of the fuselage sides for example.  Scale that up to full size and that is .08 x 18 = 1.44 inch thickness.  Of course typical skin gages for an aircraft like the Corsair is 0.06 inch or so, with side frames maybe 1.5 inches deep.  Skin stringers are even less deep.  Well heck - that leaves almost no room at all for the side frames. And absolutely no room for stringers.  If I make proper looking side frames, they will intrude into the space of the cockpit too much, taking with them anything that attaches to them - like the side control panels and various brackets for equipment.  And they will in turn clash with the pilot seat or something else.  Or spoil some other integration in an unforseen manner.  And that is why, when you see my side frames, they will be little more than thin strips of plastic stock.  Oh well....  I have the same problem with the longerons.  They have to be there because many things attach to them.  But they look nothing like they are supposed to - little more than the inner caps glued to the inside of the fuselage.

 

I believe I have just about no chance of getting everything in this cockpit like you see above.  The sequencing and the access issues are just too daunting.  So I'll do all any of us can do which is do the best I can, and concentrate on the most important stuff.  Maybe those pulley brackets are not that important....

 

 

 

 

 

  

Edited December 6, 2020 by JayW

[brahman104]

1 hour ago, JayW said:

I really feel the cockpit effort to date doesn't stand up to the engine effort.  But I am trying to make sure that the most visible components are of the best quality I can gin up.  So let us wait and see.  I hope I can live up to your expectations.

 

I beg to differ Jay!!! I think EVERY aspect of your build has been done with jewel-like precision. I love your engine, but the cockpit work so far definitely compliments it! Don't worry about trying to live up to our expectations, you've already smashed them out of the park!

 

Craig

[JayW]

Work progresses on the messy part of the cockpit which is adding underlying structural members like frames.  But the purpose of this post is to give a big shoutout to Airscale (Peter) for his assistance in fabricating the instrument panel board, and the aux board:

 

 

 

That cool or what?  Decals too, from the Lopes Hope P-51C effort.  The panel shapes are designed by yours truly, where the shapes take into account the heavy gage of the fuselage halves.  So they are not quite to scale with an original part.  But you know that is what we have to do sometimes.  Peter took the dimensions and had photo etch parts made!  Huzzah!  Thanks Peter!

 

I don't know when you will see the IP.  Might be a while.  In the mean time I have been plugging away with the frames and some bracketry in the cockpit area:

 

 

Looks like a gutted whale with exposed ribs.....   Note how I have extended some frames into thin air.  I either do that or break them up at the join lines for the lower fuselage and wing part.  I elected to not break them up.  This is not much fun.

 

I will post again when I have done about all I can before going on to the center wing, as I described earlier.  There is a method to the madness, I promise.  

[Cees Broere]

Wonderful work Jay,may I ask how you attach those details on an already painted surface?

[dodgem37]

Great work, Jay.  Fantastic detailing.

 

Be careful here.  This looks like something to break just waiting to happen.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[JayW]

8 hours ago, Cees Broere said:

Wonderful work Jay,may I ask how you attach those details on an already painted surface?

 

Ah, but the surfaces are not painted.  In every case I have scraped off any paint.  The person who invents an adhesive that adheres well to paint, or invents a paint that accepts adhesive well without becoming separated from the painted surface, will be our hero and will also make alot of money.

 

8 hours ago, dodgem37 said:

Be careful here.  This looks like something to break just waiting to happen.

 

Exactly Mark!  I am not enjoying this part of the build mostly for that reason.   As I have attempted to explain, I don't have much choice.  I am pretty good at repairs, but we all know the model is never improved after a repair!    

[easixpedro]

Jay, I can only offer a proverbial doffing of the cap to you. Your work is beyond compare.  I just wrapped up building the OOB engine in my Airfix Hellcat and was about cross-eyed with fitting the KIT provided exhausts. I don't know how you pull it off from scratch?! It just makes all this work, THAT much more spectacular!  Thanks for sharing your incredible work with us mere mortals!

-Peter

[JayW]

All - I can no longer avoid some decal applications to cockpit parts, so I am ginning up some decal designs.  For those of you who have experience making your own decals, what is your favorite decal paper?  I have always used the only thing my LHS carries which is Testors white or clear inkjet paper with Testors 9200 spray bonder.  I am not totally satisfied with it - it doesn't stick all that great even to gloss surfaces.  Even with a final spray of flat coat or semi-gloss after application and microsol/microset, sometimes I get peeling.   

[JayW]

Happy New Year LSP friends.  I have managed to put in at least a little time on the Corsair project every day or nearly so.  And it's time to post something so that y'all don't think I have just given up.  Progress seems slow.  But here's the thing.  I am scratch building a cockpit in 1/18 scale - the most complicated cockpit I have ever attempted (second toughest was my P-38), mostly due to three things (sorry if I sound like a broken record).  One, the Corsair doesn't have a floor, which exposes a ton of detail in the bottom of the fuselage that would otherwise be unseen (and unmodeled).  Two, the cockpit walls of this model are on five different parts (left fuselage, right fuselage, lower fuselage, upper wing half LH, upper wing half RH), making attachment of components challenging.  And three, the Corsair is chalk full of rube-goldberg gizmo's.  And it is those gizmo's that take alot of time and effort.  They also leave me wondering just how far I need to go.  When I look at some of the cockpit efforts you guys have done (talking to you AirScale), I feel the need to shoot for the moon.  Yet other smaller 1/32 efforts leave stuff out yet still look very convincing.   

 

First - it is time I selected the aircraft I will model (the Bu number).  Why?  Because I am constantly having to decide what configuration part to make.  Like all warbirds, and especially the Corsair given its teething issues early on, and all the other improvements it received over time, things changed.  So here it is:

 

 

 

This is VF-17 (the Skull and Crossbones Squadron, or the Jolly Rogers) F4U-1A Bu No 55995, Vought line no 1636, #29.  The pilot was Ira Kepford who was a rather famous and successful Navy pilot.  

 

I like this aircraft because I can duplicate the paint scheme and make decals relatively easily, plus it represents a fairly famous (or notorious) unit.  And it is indeed a -1A with the partially framed canopy which the model came with.   Many have modeled this aircraft, so lots of info out there.  When the time comes, I will be challenged with the triple colored paint (light gray bottom, light blue middle, darker blue top) that all Corsairs had at that time.

 

Ok, the cockpit.  I have had a bit of a decal disaster.  Many months ago I purchased yet another set of Model Master decal papers, only to use one sheet leaving several more sheets for the next project.  Well - with time for some reason the decal one creates on this paper loses its ability to slide off the backing.  Even if I increase the soaking time.  Here are the decals I have made so far for the cockpit:

 

 

I mean, they are very representative of the actual placards in the airplane.  But when I cut them out and attempted to apply, they would not free themselves from the backing, and self destructed.  GAH!!!! So, I am fed up with the Model Master decal kits.  And I am going with another brand "Expert Choice" by BareMetalFoil.  Still waiting for them in the mail, and that is holding up some of my progress.

 

In the meant time work progresses on the LH side to include the forward LH auxiliary panel and the side console (shown with the failed decal sheet before failure):

 

 

 

Positioned on the LH sidewall:

 

 

For these parts, I spend hours and hours researching their details, deciding how to build them up and with what materials, and laying them out on paper usually about 4x size.  The actual fabricating of the parts takes less time than all that research work!  

 

Anyway - not too impressive I know.  That side console you see there is going to get ALOT more complicated.  I think you will like it.  I really have a tiger by the tail with this cockpit.

 

Hope to post more progress soon.  Take care, and stay healthy.

 

 

 

   

Edited February 16, 2021 by JayW