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

[BiggTim]

Holy sheepdip... that looks awesome!!

[Rocat]

What an amazing work...your skills are really impressive!

[dodgem37]

Solid work there, Jaybo.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[JayW]

Greetings!  Work continues on the aft landing gear bays, and now I can say I have all four sides on both wings, with the completion of the outboard ribs.  The tops too, with the LH wing stringers pretty much done, and the RH wing stringers not far behind.  Pictures:

 

First here are the two outboard rib assemblies - they are heavily stiffened:

 

  

 

The research and the layouts took more time than the making, as usual.  I worked very hard to get the upper and lower contours to match the wing, and they do quite well.  Each rib has an electrical box, a pulley bracket for the wing lock-pin indication system, and hydraulic tube penetrations.  Soon they will also receive gear door hinge fittings.  All of this is of course made from various plastic stock. 

 

Installed:

 

   

 

 

Note the LH one has the cable run for the lock-pin system.  A first class PITA.  RH side to follow.

 

Here are a few pics of the wheel well with the upper wing dry fitted, to give an idea of the progress:

 

 

 

 

Alot of plumbing and wiring remain, and I can only do about 75% of it, the remainder must wait until the upper wings are attached to the lower wings.  And that is down the road some, for sure.  

 

Next post you will see that plumbing and wiring.  Thanks for looking in.

Edited October 12, 2021 by JayW

[LSP_Kevin]

Nice work, Jay. Just amazing how much work you're putting into this build.

 

Kev

[JayW]

Plumbing the wheel well - pretty hard work.  First this shot:

 

 

You are looking aft under the wing.  You see the rear spar, and two large lines.  One is a fuel line leading to the outboard wing leading edge aux fuel tank.  The other is a sheathed electrical wire bundle.  Both were made from 1/16 inch dia solder.  Those two items were the hardest part of the wheel well plumbing.

 

Now I will show you all four corners of the aft wheel well, upside down, plumbed as much as I can for now (I'll finish it when the upper wing half is joined with the lower).

 

 

 

 

 

The upper wing is just dry fitted.  Lots to do before it gets permanently installed. 

 

A word on that fuel line - it connects the outboard wing aux tanks to the fuel control unit on the cockpit floor.  Birdcage Corsairs, and most of the -1A's got this, but it was phased out soon as the dual center wing pylons were introduced (late -1A's and all 1D's).  Also restored Corsairs don't have it either.  So it's just about impossible to see pictures of it, and the drawings leave much to be desired.  So I had to guess some.  

 

This is a milestone though.  Next I will either fix up the leading edge intake grills, or make the forward ribs, or make the flap support fittings.  Haven't decided yet.  I am going to do everything I can before installing the LG struts, to minimize the odds of damage.  At that point I can join the upper and lower wing halves.  Stay tuned!   

Edited October 16, 2021 by JayW

[brahman104]

My God Jay! Those bay photos have got to be some of the most realistic modelling I think I've ever seen (On par with Peter's IPs!) The tubing and subtle colour variations going on in there are absolutely exquisite!

 

I wish I had more words to do justice to what you have just posted......

 

Craig

[Rainer Hoffmann]

Wow, I'm blown away. If you hadn't included the background in the images I would have thought those photos were of the real gear bays. They don't only look absolutely realistic, they are!

 

Cheers

Rainer

[JayW]

Hey thanks all for the gracious compliments and words of encouragement!  To pan back just a little - what am I doing here.  The goal here is to button up the inboard wing sections so that the center section can be joined to the fuselage.  Then and only then can I finish the cockpit, and begin what will be the defining activity of this entire build - which is the engine compartment.

 

Soooo - things have to be done to support buttoning up the inboard wings:

 

1.  Aft gear bays (in progress)  

2.  Forward gear bays, including gear strut install (to do - hopefully last)

3.  Leading edge intakes - redo (in progress)

4.  Flap supports (to do)

5.   Supercharger intercooler and leading edge support rib install (to do)

 

Item 2 - the forward gear bays - is the one I am most excited about.  But it needs to be delayed as much as possible so as to minimize the risk of damaging the gear struts.  So I won't do that yet.  Item 1, which the last few posts have been on, is on hold until the wings get buttoned up and I can finish the plumbing in there. 

 

This short post then is on item number 3 - leading edge intakes.  Why now?  Well first I am not happy with them, and second, they provide an excellent locating feature when joining the upper wing halves to the lower, as I continue to dremmel away all the other locator pins.  So the sooner I get them done, the better.

 

Corsairs whistle, apparently.  During WW2, some Japanese purportedly called the Corsair "whistling death".  The whistle was caused by the leading edge intake vanes, shown here (Dana Bell volume 7):

 

 

The vanes are on the left.  They direct cooling air to a supercharger intercooler inside the wing leading edge by the side of body.  This intercooler and its ducting will be a major element of my engine compartment build sometime in the future.  The oil cooler drum is on the right.  This leading edge opening just HAD to be a high drag item - it's a helluva interruption to the basic wing cross section.  But hey - who can argue about the awesome speed of the Corsair.  And, this feature is one of the things that makes a Corsair a Corsair. 

 

Here is the 21CT (or Bluebox) effort at this feature:

 

 

OK - the edges of the opening are sharp cornered, and in actuality they have blunt winglike cross sections.  So some sanding and filing are in order.  Also, the vanes look stupid.  As can be seen from the Dana Bell photo, those vanes are merely thin-gaged curved sheet metal in a sheet metal box.  I can do something like that.  As for the oil cooler - I am going to leave that alone.

 

Here is the LH side detail, with reshaping of the edges done, and the back ground away to make room for better vanes:

 

 

 

And with vanes installed:

 

 

 

As is always the case, it seems, the layout work took the longest.  The vanes are thin plastic sheet (except one which is ground down aluminum tube stock), carefully cut to shape so as to fit tightly in the box.  You may notice - "Hey Jay - that third one from the left sticks out too much."  To which I would say "nope - it's supposed to be that way."  I don't know why, but one of the vanes protrudes forward more than the rest.....

 

On the wing:

 

  

 

That I can live with - alot better than before.  And with paint it ought to look pretty good.

 

Til next time - probably flap supports.  Thanks for looking in.

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2021 by JayW

[LSP_Kevin]

Nice update, Jay!

 

Kev

[Citadelgrad]

Humbling to see such photorealism, Jay.  Amazing techniques and abilities. 

Edited October 19, 2021 by Citadelgrad

[Maybach_man]

Newbie trying to learn..... Awesome detailing and building. Is there any particular reason you didnt make the vanes from thin metal sheet rather than plastic?

[JayW]

43 minutes ago, Maybach_man said:

Is there any particular reason you didnt make the vanes from thin metal sheet rather than plastic?

 

Only that styrene is my default material normally - just personal preference.  For me it is usually easier to bond parts together using liquid glue than CA or epoxy.  That means plastic.  And, plastic cuts to size more easily.  In this case, there was no reason not to use thin gage evergreen sheet.  BTW, the first vane (the most forward and inboard one) is so small and has such a tight radius, that I elected to grind down a small section of 1/4 inch diameter aluminum tube.  I wasn't confident I could form that tight a radius on plastic sheet.  The others have a more gentle curve.

Edited October 20, 2021 by JayW

[N.H.71]

Hi JayW 

I can follow your arguments very well. However I sometimes prefer using the aluminium sheetmetal from Tealight candles. Easy to cut with a pair of scissors but thick enough to keep shape.

 

best regards 

Nils

[JayW]

I actually had planned on doing some hard work on the flaps - to show them in the fully deployed position.  It would be quite a task, since there are three flaps per wing, all with different hinge lines, causing them to splay away from each other when lowered, exposing the end ribs and connection stuff.  And the hinges would need to be made too.  Correction above - there are two hinge lines.  One for the inboard flap, and one for both mid and outboard flap.

 

But, I have yet to find a period photo of a parked Corsair with flaps down.  Plenty of photos of Corsairs landing, or pranged, where flaps are down.  And I have seen a couple of shots of modern restorations parked with flaps down.  I think I might just have my flaps stowed, save me some work.

 

Any of you Corsair fans out there ever seen period photos of parked Corsairs with flaps down?  

Edited October 22, 2021 by JayW