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

[Thunnus]

That engine is sublime!  Every component seems to be accounted for, which is amazing.

[Oldbaldguy]

I think the photos of the 1:1 airplanes above are of Royal Navy Corsairs, so colors and maintenance procedures and other dogs and cats things will differ from the Navy/Marine airplanes in the Pacific.

[Woody V]

On 9/19/2022 at 10:09 AM, JayW said:

 

 

 

 

I know I'm late to the party with this, but I'd be willing to bet that is is some kind of putty.

[JayW]

4 hours ago, Archer Fine Transfers said:

I know I'm late to the party with this, but I'd be willing to bet that is is some kind of putty.

 

I agree 100%.  Drag-inducing putty.  If I were Hedrick and I was looking for every bit of speed I could get, should I get caught low and slow, or need every mile of range for those missions where I make it back on fumes only, I would not have been cool with it.  Only thing is - Hedrick seemed to never be caught low and slow.

 

This aircraft, as AFT's picture shows, has an extra-messy taping application including apparently putty or sealant.  I don't know how (or if) I am going to replicate it.  Accepting suggestions.

 

So yes, I did decide on including the tape, leaving off the forward most strip (many pics I see have that strip left off):

 

 

 

Looks too clean, I know.  But I haven't even weathered the main forward fuselage yet, nor given it the final clear coat.  So it will look more convincing shortly.  I settled on good old Tamiya yellow tape, cut to proper width and painted with Tamiya white primer.  It competes as the thinnest material I could fine, and it is easy to deal with as long as it is applied before the white paint gets too cured (it will flake as the tape is flexed or cut if I wait too long).  I bought some "surgical" paper tape - although it was quite thin (good), I didn't like the texture even when painted over (bad).  I went away from the Tamiya white vinyl tape I posted about a while back - it was too thick (bad).  I could have used Mr. Surfacer plus white paint, but compared to the ease of using the Tamiya tape (good), I chose not to do such a difficult masking job (bad).  Thank you all for the suggestions!  Love this site.

 

The next post, I have decided, will show the results of decals, stencils, and Flory wash on the forward fuselage and center wing.  I was going to put it away and begin whole-hog on the aft fuselage, but just didn't feel right leaving it only 98% done.  When I put it away, it will be 100%.  BTW - if anyone has any ideas how to treat a decal that has been applied over a chipped area, let me know.  In reality the decal today was a stencil in 1944, and it would have been worn away same as the surrounding paint!  Hard to chip a decal, ESPECIALLY a small one.  Ideas?

 

So the aft fuselage - the next big project.  There are big challenges two of which are:

 

-  The wheel well and associated parts (tail wheel operating mechanism, arresting hook operating mechanism, tail wheel door operating mechanism, elevator tube and associated supports, and rudder cables and associated cranks and supports)

 

-  Skinning (including the tail cone and fillet fairings for the fin/rudder and Hstab/elevator).  I don't even want to think about how I am to skin the tail cone! 

 

The tail wheel bay requires a quite involved Rhino digital integration layout - my fifth.  Previously I had done same for the main gear bay, the windshield area and surrounding cockpit, the engine compartment, and the engine accessories compartment.  All were giant efforts, very time consuming.  This fifth one will be too.  And I will start with that (actually  have begun already).  I will keep you updated on it.

 

 

Edited September 28, 2022 by JayW

[SwissFighters]

Hi Jay, as always your work is exemplary and quite inspirational and I love following along. Thank you so much for sharing. Perhaps one things to consider is what happens to the tape over time? If I think about old books or boxes I have taped up over the years, or any application for that matter, the masking tape invariably dries out, shrinks, lifts, discolours, does all sorts of terrible things. The adhesive stays stuck to the substrate and dries out (and you cannot get it off without serious chemicals) and the paper falls away. Maybe I'm dramatizing a bit and perhaps the paint you applied will deal with it, but given we all hope this model will be around for decades, I just think the masking/Tamiya tape solution won't stand the test of time.Just something to consider...

[chuck540z3]

"Hard to chip a decal, ESPECIALLY a small one.  Ideas?"

 

Yes, and it's easy.  Don't chip the decal, but dry brush some of the underlying paint over it.  Eg. Chromate Green/Yellow dry brushed over an area where this color is prevalent underneath.  Maybe some blue as well.

 

Oh, BTW, your work continues to be fantastic Jay!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited September 29, 2022 by chuck540z3

[JayW]

2 hours ago, SwissFighters said:

Hi Jay, as always your work is exemplary and quite inspirational and I love following along. Thank you so much for sharing. Perhaps one things to consider is what happens to the tape over time? If I think about old books or boxes I have taped up over the years, or any application for that matter, the masking tape invariably dries out, shrinks, lifts, discolours, does all sorts of terrible things. The adhesive stays stuck to the substrate and dries out (and you cannot get it off without serious chemicals) and the paper falls away. Maybe I'm dramatizing a bit and perhaps the paint you applied will deal with it, but given we all hope this model will be around for decades, I just think the masking/Tamiya tape solution won't stand the test of time. Just something to consider...

 

My thoughts - I'm getting pretty old myself.  Not sure how many "decades" I have left!     This tape will get sort of hermetically sealed with a final topcoat of dull clear.  I dunno - that may solve it, or not.  If it doesn't, and some or all of it peels away and falls off, well then it will look more like some of the aircraft in the field, where the same thing happened!   And, if some residue remains, so much the better.

 

So SF - I take it you would suggest some sort of paint application?  Mr. Surfacer plus white paint has been suggested already.  I have not done so, as the masking would be pretty difficult.

Edited September 29, 2022 by JayW

[Gazzas]

Looks great, Jay!  Really enjoying your process and learning about the bird.

[SwissFighters]

10 hours ago, JayW said:

 

My thoughts - I'm getting pretty old myself.  Not sure how many "decades" I have left!     This tape will get sort of hermetically sealed with a final topcoat of dull clear.  I dunno - that may solve it, or not.  If it doesn't, and some or all of it peels away and falls off, well then it will look more like some of the aircraft in the field, where the same thing happened!   And, if some residue remains, so much the better.

 

So SF - I take it you would suggest some sort of paint application?  Mr. Surfacer plus white paint has been suggested already.  I have not done so, as the masking would be pretty difficult.

Yes, I think the sealing would certainly help.
What about aluminium foil (kitchen foil)? It is very thin (but I think different thicknesses are available) and can be glued quite easily with sizing glue (which if left to dry properly before sticking in place lies down very flat and has virtually no thickness to it). The foil can pressed into whatever surface contours (panel joints etc) you want, or not, as required. It certainly would be robust. Just needs proper priming I guess, prior to painting. I used foil to simulate layered joints on the internal rubber fuel tank in the P-51D and think it could be applied here as well. My sequence would be: cut strips to width but longer than needed, sand or prime foil, clean up non-primed surface, apply size and let dry, paint colour (hopefully catching foil edges with paint), apply to aircraft, touch up. Maybe way too fiddly, I'm not sure. Of course you would want to see if the foil provides the correct effect in the first place. Just thinking out loud Jay! Thanks again for sharing and responding. Tony

[JayW]

I have had a winning streak on this build.  Very little has gone wrong of late.  I think breaking off gear doors has been the worst of it, and that has been a while.

 

So the winning streak is broken - I got the dreaded paint lifting yesterday while painting with stencils:

 

 

 

The self-etching primer clearly has failed me here.  Four coats of paint are gone (primer, bare metal alum, YZC, and medium blue) plus the semi-gloss clear coat over the chipping.  Not to mention two hairspray layers.  Odd that the lifting is in roughly symmetrical places and nowhere else.  

 

OK - this is not going to enhance the quality of the model one bit.  How am I going to fix that as though it never happened....any masking is liable to cause more lifting.  Well, I intend to take every advantage of the messiness one finds in just about every photo of a South Pacific bird - my fix probably will be a bit messy.  And, it is good that the lifting seems to be only in the medium blue area.  It is bad however (very bad) that one of the white letters is affected. 

 

Also, when the aft fuselage is joined, masking is going to take place in the same area and more lifting may occur.   So I am just not sure what to do and when to do it.  I may just punt - leave the damage there until the fuselage join happens and deal with it then.... 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by JayW

[Gazzas]

OH no!  That self-etching primer...   I honestly think it's all BS...  it always fails me.  I think I'm going to decant some automobile primer next time I have metal parts to paint.

[LSP_Kevin]

4 minutes ago, Gazzas said:

OH no!  That self-etching primer...   I honestly think it's all BS...  it always fails me.  I think I'm going to decant some automobile primer next time I have metal parts to paint.

 

Yeah, Mr. Metal Primer is junk in my opinion.

 

Kev

[JayW]

2 hours ago, Gazzas said:

I think I'm going to decant some automobile primer

 

Isn't that self self-etching as well?  

[Gazzas]

7 minutes ago, JayW said:

 

Isn't that self self-etching as well?  

 

Perhaps.  I don't know.  But at least it will be something that might be dependable compared to what we know isn't.

[Oldbaldguy]

Not sure it’s as big a deal as you think.  These airplanes were patched and spot painted into oblivion already.  A little careful touch up and some weathering and goo and yer good to go.  I can tell you from experience, btw, that nothing sticks to aluminum if it isn’t clean and free of anything oily, fingerprints included.  Did you perhaps get a tight grip on your model there when barehanded at some point?