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

[Jim Cox]

Impressive progress Jay! Loving the details

[CShanne]

I think someone said something like this before, but it is worth saying again, if not for the back ground in some of those photos, I would think they were of a real plane!

[Out2gtcha]

Lovely!  Really realistic work for sure. 

[chuck540z3]

Pretty sweet Jay!  The colors, the cables and the clutter (3 C's?) look like the real thing, which of course is the whole point!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[mattcour]

Superb modeling! Fantastic work, with all the care given to details and accuracy.

[JayW]

It's been a couple of weeks.  And I have made some progress.  First, to preclude breaking off that LH rudder pedal I made a cage of sorts that will be so helpful once I begin the wing work that must be done before I close out the cockpit:

 

     

 

I REALLY don't want that pedal to break off.  

 

I have been working on the LH side of the cockpit since the first of the year.  You guys and gals must be sick of it by now (I am).  To basically finish off the LH side of the cockpit, what remained was a florescent light for the side console, mounted sort of near the pilot's left shoulder, the engine quadrant, and the flap control unit.  The engine quadrant was the toughest.  I had a wonderful drawing to help me:

 

 

This is a pretty dinky engine quadrant, especially in 1/18 scale.  At 1/32, it is practically microscopic so congratulations to all those out there doing 1/32 Corsairs!  Here is my scratch built engine quadrant:

 

 

 

 

There are some 50 little parts there, all in an effort to show side plates with stencils, four handles, the easily seen innards, and a throttle micro-switch box.  I had a nice little decal for the supercharger handle (the black ball-shaped one), saying "SC", but I discovered it sticking inside out to one of my fingers, so it's ruined.  You can see the mixture handle has its "M" decal, not ruined.  I will consider adding the "SC" later on. The one pointing to the left is the prop pitch lever, and the tall silver one is the throttle.  

 

The flap control mechanism just behind the instrument panel (if it were there) was a pain mostly do to limited access.  I have no pictures of the details. 

 

So here is the basically finished LH side of the cockpit:

 

 

And a few more shots, for those few of you who have not yet grown bored of this:

 

 

 

Ok, I will put that side of the fuselage away for a while.  Next, I am going to do some lathe turning and end milling before the weather gets too warm for my poor little electric motor on the lathe, which easily overheats.  Here is my layout of the main landing gear wheels/brakes/tires:

 

 

"What?" you say?  All will become clear next post when you see some machined parts made from brass and acrylic.  Some of you have already seen what I did with the P-47, P-38, and P-51 projects where I did some version of this.  

 

Then, I will tackle what I can on the RH side of the cockpit, which has plenty of clap trap too.  

 

Happy spring!  Stay tuned.

[geedubelyer]

If you cropped that labelled image a little tighter on the left hand side to remove the white plastruct from view I'd defy anyone to tell it from a real warbird restoration thread.

 

Ultra realistic Jay.  

[CShanne]

49 minutes ago, geedubelyer said:

If you cropped that labelled image a little tighter on the left hand side to remove the white plastruct from view I'd defy anyone to tell it from a real warbird restoration thread.

 

Ultra realistic Jay.  

When I first looked at the picture I did not notice the white, so I was totally sold that it was the picture of an actual cockpit.  So much so, that I am using his thread for help in trying to detail my 1/32, obviously not to the skill that Jay has shown, but I hope maybe 20% of what Jay’s looks like.  It really is amazing work to see. 

[JayW]

On 3/18/2021 at 7:36 AM, geedubelyer said:

If you cropped that labelled image a little tighter on the left hand side to remove the white plastruct from view I'd defy anyone to tell it from a real warbird restoration thread.

 

Well here ya go!!  

 

 

Hey the ultimate compliment is one that alludes to realism - something we all try to attain.  Thanks.  Actually it will get a little better as the last 5% or so gets in there (the foot trough, the hand pump handle, finishing the cable runs and hydraulic lines, etc).  I now have the challenge of doing same to the RH side of the cockpit which is every bit as busy as the LH side.  And I have the additional challenge of trying to get the right radio equipment in there (which dominates the RH side).  My information is not complete. 

 

  

[scvrobeson]

Come on, that's got to be a full-sized Corsair that you're using for the photos.  That cockpit looks incredible.

 

 

 

Matt 

[LSP_Kevin]

1 hour ago, scvrobeson said:

Come on, that's got to be a full-sized Corsair that you're using for the photos.  That cockpit looks incredible.

 

 

 

Matt 

 

Exactly my thoughts, too! Superb work, Jay.

 

Kev

[airscale]

4 hours ago, JayW said:

 

Well here ya go!!  

 

 

Hey the ultimate compliment is one that alludes to realism - something we all try to attain. 

 

 

 

Whaaaaat! that is an unbelievable shot - especially given you don't cheat making your own PE or 3D parts it's even more difficult to comprehend what and how you have achieved this Jay

 

I defy anyone to tell this from the real thing - simply incredible

 

Peter

[JayW]

Thanks for the complements on the cockpit guys - You know how hard that is.  Peter - you are who I think of when talking realism.  Confusion about what are pics of the real aircraft versus what is your scaled effort is just routine following your builds.

 

Alright let's dig into the wheels/tires/brakes.  This requires lots of machine time on the mini-lathe while my garage is still chilly (or at least not hot).

 

I am going to go through how I machined the inner wheel half from a chunk of machining brass.  This part (in red):

 

 

 

That of course is a cross section.  It will be mostly covered by the brake drum in the end.  But some of it can be seen either looking directly at it from the outside, or inside through the spokes.  This part is more simplified in shape compared to the real part:

 

 

 

I can't machine that curvy shape you see above. 

 

At the risk of boring y'all to death, I am going to take you through the blow-by-blow on this part; I won't do this for the others.  Here is the machine plan for my inner wheel:

 

 

The sketches show a piece of round brass bar chucked on a lathe, with machining steps sequenced and shown and dimensioned.

 

Here is the part after steps 1.0, 1.1, 1.2,and 1.3 are completed:  

 

 

The outer diameter, the axle hole, and the outer face are established.  

 

Next, steps 2.0 and 2.1 are completed.  2.0 is a very difficult counterbore .145 inch deep for the brakes:

 

 

 

 

Now the basic lip of the rim has taken shape in addition to the cavity for the brake disc stack.

 

Next steps 3.0 through 3.2 are accomplished:

 

 

I will note the piece of brass stock is considerably longer than the final part.  But some of these cuts require elbow room to keep the cutting tools clear of the whirring chuck jaws.  I learn this stuff the hard way...

 

At this point the part must be removed for the lathe and flipped 180 degrees, and re-chucked, so I can machine off the back.  So steps 4.0 through 4.2 are accomplished:

 

 

Much material was removed.  

 

And the final machining:

 

 

You see two parts, one of them basically complete with holes end-milled into it (eight of them).  The other part is what you saw during the machining operations.  And you also see about 75% of the shavings from all that machining.  The rest is on the floor and needs to be swept up.

 

A close-up:

 

 

I'll file on it a bit more, but that's about it.  Then it will get some little bonded-on plastic ribs before it gets assembled with the other parts.

 

Next is either the outer rim or the brake drum or the tire.  According to my whims.  Having fun, stay tuned!  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by JayW

[RLWP]

Those early Unimats are great lathes

 

Richard

[chuck540z3]

Holy crap Jay!  Incredible!  I have to admit I’m not all that surprised.  

 

Cheers,

Chuck