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

[JayW]

1 hour ago, CShanne said:

but according to the VF-17 books that are out,

 

Yeah - thanks for that.  I have the Lee Cook book on VF-17.  I have not read all of it, but I certainly have seen all the pictures.  This was mostly a land based unit, so I never see wings folded, I never see the raised tail gear (not even the mod kits), I never see flaps down on parked aircraft, I always see cowl flaps out, and I always see the belly door open.  So that's the way mine will be.  

 

I also do not see external fuel tanks - but I have to believe they used them.   

[KiwiZac]

On 11/10/2021 at 10:25 AM, JayW said:

Landing gear update (...)

Jay, I shared this thread with a friend whose reply was "Is it worth it?!" I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that - I see an amazing project with incredible effort expended for what will, no doubt, be a breathtaking model. He, on the other hand, doesn't see the point in all this work put into that kit/toy.

[Rainer Hoffmann]

This is sooooo good, Jay. Those tiny springs, unbelievable 

 

10 hours ago, KiwiZac said:

Jay, I shared this thread with a friend whose reply was "Is it worth it?!" I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that - I see an amazing project with incredible effort expended for what will, no doubt, be a breathtaking model. He, on the other hand, doesn't see the point in all this work put into that kit/toy.

 

Of course, Jay will have to answer if it's worth it. Personally I just wouldn't care whether it's worth it or not as long as it's fun. And it seems, Jay is enjoying himself 

 

Cheers

Rainer

[JayW]

19 hours ago, KiwiZac said:

He, on the other hand, doesn't see the point in all this work put into that kit/toy.

 

So many ways to respond.  I'll give it a try:

 

One - when I lived in Wa State, I was not modeling.  There was frankly, what with a full time job and a veritable geological playground in my midst, not enough time to model.  Too many other great things to do, like hiking, climbing, skiing, bicycling, water sports, etc.  I suspect Kiwi's can relate!  I am retired now, and no longer living in a playground.  So I have more time, and there are not as many fun things to do. 

 

Two - modeling is a hobby, just like so many other hobbies.  One could ask what the point is of any hobby.  Well - I think people do hobbies for fun, relaxation, a challenge.  This site is chalk full of enthusiastic modelers.

 

Three - perhaps he means all that I go through to "make a silk purse of of a sows ear"?  Good question then.  After all, I could just acquire the Tamiya 1/32 F4U-1A which is a marvelous representation of the aircraft, and not have to go through so much scratch building and correcting.  But there is something about this large scale that is appealing, as long as the basic toy is a workable representation of the real thing.  Being nearly twice the size of the 1/32 offerings, one can go into more detail.  The springs I just made are a good example.  I could not do that in 1/32.  Nor so much of the plumbing I am doing in 1/18.  Plus, there are engineering drawings available for this aircraft through Aircorps Library.  Being a retired engineer, I get a big thrill using engineering drawings to duplicate parts in 1/18 scale.  I suspect I would not be doing this project if I didn't have access to the drawings.

 

Four - the challenge.  This work is very challenging.  And there is alot of gratification successfully taking on challenges.

 

Hope this helps.  

 

   

Edited November 12, 2021 by JayW

[JayW]

8 hours ago, Rainer Hoffmann said:

And it seems, Jay is enjoying himself 

 

Ja Voll Herr Hoffman.

[KiwiZac]

6 hours ago, JayW said:

Hope this helps.   

Perfectly! Thank you very much, and I can't wait for your next update.

[Citadelgrad]

8 hours ago, JayW said:

 

So many ways to respond.  I'll give it a try:

 

One - when I lived in Wa State, I was not modeling.  There was frankly, what with a full time job and a veritable geological playground in my midst, not enough time to model.  Too many other great things to do, like hiking, climbing, skiing, bicycling, water sports, etc.  I suspect Kiwi's can relate!  I am retired now, and no longer living in a playground.  So I have more time, and there are not as many fun things to do. 

 

Two - modeling is a hobby, just like so many other hobbies.  One could ask what the point is of any hobby.  Well - I think people do hobbies for fun, relaxation, a challenge.  This site is chalk full of enthusiastic modelers.

 

Three - perhaps he means all that I go through to "make a silk purse of of a sows ear"?  Good question then.  After all, I could just acquire the Tamiya 1/32 F4U-1A which is a marvelous representation of the aircraft, and not have to go through so much scratch building and correcting.  But there is something about this large scale that is appealing, as long as the basic toy is a workable representation of the real thing.  Being nearly twice the size of the 1/32 offerings, one can go into more detail.  The springs I just made are a good example.  I could not do that in 1/32.  Nor so much of the plumbing I am doing in 1/18.  Plus, there are engineering drawings available for this aircraft through Aircorps Library.  Being a retired engineer, I get a big thrill using engineering drawings to duplicate parts in 1/18 scale.  I suspect I would not be doing this project if I didn't have access to the drawings.

 

Four - the challenge.  This work is very challenging.  And there is alot of gratification successfully taking on challenges.

 

Hope this helps.  

 

   

Totally agree. The older i get, the more enjoyment i get from the process.  Ive been struggling to complete my first lsp for about four years.   Sure, i do decide that some efforts are not worth it, but most are.  I get enjoyment out of trying to do the best i can do.   

[Ironwing]

Dude,

 

Worth it or not. Youre giving a master class in how it gets done and your workmanship has entered that rarified place only a few exist in. Im so happy this is working out well for you. This is an iconic work of art. Stay with it...

Best

Geoff

[JayW]

I hope you all are not yet tired of seeing the wheel bays of this monster.  But there is more.  

 

Landing gear doors - these are items that are best installed late in the game.  To keep out of harms way.  Also true of the landing gear struts, for the same reason.  But sequencing is a real puzzle with this project.  As I have lamented before, in order to finish the cockpit, the center wing assembly must be installed to the forward fuselage.  But to do that the upper wing parts must be installed to the lower wing part.  But I need access from above and below to install the gear struts, and the landing gear doors plus actuators and plumbing.  So that work must be done before buttoning up the upper and lower wings.  Hence - you will see landing gear doors installed now, just begging to be broken off as I continue work on the fuselage, soon.  I must therefore create some sort of protector shield for them - a project coming very soon. 

 

OK - recall the LG doors are 3D print items as are their forward hinges.  The aft hinges are easy details that I could scratch build.  Here is one of the four doors - resplendent in its final finish, grime, and leaking hydraulic fluid:   

 

 

Installed they look like this:

 

 

Can you imagine, as I can vividly, breaking off one of these?

 

Recall this picture of a real Corsair - this is the look I wanted to simulate in the wheel bay:

 

 

Here is what I have at this point, with the addition of the door actuators and black flex hoses:

 

 

I still have some hydraulic lines looking for a place to terminate - that comes after the upper wing parts are permanently installed; in the next few weeks I think.  So you be the judge....   

 

Some more shots of the aft wheel bay to date:

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

That last one shows some unintended overspray from painting the bottom of the wing.  Masking is pretty tough from now on.  My solace is that Corsair wheel bays appear to have suffered from paint overspray anyway! 

 

Ok that is the RH side LG door effort.  Now for the LH side.  Gonna take a while - this is painstaking work from beginning to end.  But it's coming together.

 

Next steps include prep and installation of the inboard and mid flaps, flap hinge fairings, and the flap gap doors.  Also it hurts me to say I have to install the lower LG struts including the brake drums and torque links, to allow completion of the brake lines and the shrink mechanisms, both of which require access from top and bottom to complete.  Another sequencing nightmare.

 

Stay tuned - exciting stuff coming your way. 

 

Edited November 21, 2021 by JayW

[LSP_Kevin]

Beautiful and exacting work as always, Jay. The thickness of that kit's plastic is quite scary, though!

 

Kev

[JayW]

1 hour ago, LSP_Kevin said:

The thickness of that kit's plastic is quite scary, though!

 

So true Kevin.  It enters into so much of what I am trying to do.   

[JayW]

OK, steadily working toward finishing up the center wings.  Next are the flap installations (inboard and mid flaps).  Flaps are going to be up on this beast, as that is the way they almost always are with the aircraft parked on the tarmac.  Nothing special here, top side:

 

 

The rivet dimples were missing from the larger inboard flap, yet are already there on the mid flap.  So I drilled the hundred or so drill starts per flap.

 

It is the bottom side that was more interesting.  I don't know about the Tamiya kit, but other F4U kits that offer flaps up or down as an option mess up on the "flap gap covers". 

 

Flap gap covers you ask?  The Corsair has "drop hinge" flaps.  That is to say the hinge line is below the lower contour of the wing.  Mustangs, BTW, also have simple hinge flaps, but Mustang flap hinges are inside the wing contour.  So drop hinge flaps, when deployed, not only rotate (50 deg at full down for the Corsair), but translate aft relative to the fixed wing.  This creates a gap between the nose of the flap and the aft edge of the fixed wing, a gap in which air flows through, making the flap a more effective slow speed devise.  To "clean up" the gap, hinged doors are provided that rotate inside the wing as the flap deploys, by way of slaved mechanisms.  Here:

 

 

That picture compliments of Dana Bell volume 7.  Note how the flap gap covers are right on the lower wing contour with flaps up, providing a smooth uninterrupted surface.

 

Without those covers, the gap is rather messy and not conducive to good air flow, as this picture of a Corsair fixed trailing edge shows:

 

 

 

All those blue ribs need to be covered with flaps deployed.  Picture compliments of Vultures Row Aviation.

 

So what of the mess-up?   This toy, and also the 1/32 Trumpeter Corsair I built a while back, provide for flaps deployed or flaps up, but the flap gap covers are always in the flaps deployed position.  So if the modeler chooses flaps up, he/she is left with a big gap in front of the flaps on the lower wing surface, which isn't supposed to be there. 

 

21CT:

 

 

Trumpeter 1/32:

 

 

That isn't right.  So I set out modeling flap gap covers that are in the proper position.  And at the same time, I created hinge fairings that the toy is missing entirely (but Trumpeter, as you can see provided after a fashion).  

 

Here:

 

 

 

Just stiffened plastic sheet stock for the covers, and whittled down plastic block for the hinge fairings.  If it looks like the edges overlap, that is because they do.  I don't know why, but that's the way it is supposed to be.

 

Now for the other side.  And then it is on to the landing gear lower struts, the brake lines, and the shrink mechanisms.  That will be rather involved, but a big milestone.  And then, the wings get buttoned up - a huge milestone.  Stay tuned!  

Edited December 4, 2021 by JayW

[frank83]

That's so spectacular!!

[wingman777]

I’ve owned one of these 1/18 Corsairs and they are huge.  I thought very seriously about super detailing it but your landing gear bays are the most realistic I’ve seen on any kit in any scale.  Great scratch building and superb attention to detail!!!

[Oldbaldguy]

Watching this build evolve is a lesson in how complicated the real Corsair was.  I cannot imagine what it must have been like to be an 18 year old who didn’t want to be there to begin with trying to work on all this stuff out in the boondocks in the middle of monsoon season on some island in the Pacific.  The mind boggles - what on earth were the Vought engineers thinking when they came up with some of this stuff?