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

[KiwiZac]

Jeeze, Jay, each post forces me to find new ways to express how awesome this build is and I fail every time. Aspirational and inspirational work.

[JayW]

3 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

The mind boggles - what on earth were the Vought engineers thinking when they came up with some of this stuff?

Agree.  The aircraft is chalk full of rube goldberg contraptions.  Must have been a huge challenge to work on, and a challenge to fly too.  But you cannot argue with its record - it was a profoundly successful aircraft.  Pilots must have learned to love it.  

[JayW]

14 hours ago, wingman777 said:

I’ve owned one of these 1/18 Corsairs and they are huge.

 

Oh huge it will be.  That is why I seriously entertained building the wing folds.  But were I to do that, I would have wanted them to be functional; I would not have been happy with permanently folded wings.  The more I researched it though, the more I realized how difficult (if not impossible) it would be, and I finally punted on the idea.  So now, I have to find room for this beast.  At least it isn't as large as the 1/18 P-38 I have which is just ridiculously large. 

Edited December 4, 2021 by JayW

[KiwiZac]

19 hours ago, JayW said:

Pilots must have learned to love it.  

Going by the accounts of RNZAF pilots I've read they seemed to have true love affairs with the Corsair.

[geedubelyer]

Just staggering as ever Jay. Great stuff. 

[Pete Fleischmann]

Hi Jay.

yes. It’s worth it. 
Amazing and inspiring work. And as such, I suspect there was a little modeling jealousy in play with that unknown modelers comments. 
Thanks for this- it’s amazing.

 

best

Pete

[JayW]

2 hours ago, MARU5137 said:

thrilling and exciting to follow  your Corsair build.

 

Such kind comments - you ain't seen nothin yet!!  If I can restrain myself from ruining this thing, the best is yet to come.

[JayW]

Last post I was headlong into the wing flaps.  Now, both sides are done:

 

 

Next on the docket is landing gear lower strut installation - one of those steps I wish I could do later, but cannot if I'm going to do it right.  It is this that I am trying to duplicate (Dana Bell again):

 

 

That is to say, the lower struts, the brake lines, and the shrink link mechanism. 

 

You may recall some of these 3D print parts from a good while ago:

 

 

 

It was time to final assemble these parts, finally.

 

Recall I made a large fixture to better assure a good straight gear strut installation - and I believe it worked great.  I cannot see any angular error.  Here:

 

 

 

Some close ups:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The brake lines are made from .032 inch diameter solder, the clamps from 3/64 thin wall brass tube, and hardware is Meng nuts.  Man - it's been a while since I showed those 3D print tires we all debated about.  What do you think of the bulged flat?

 

Next post will be the shrink link mechanism - probably the most finicky details I will do on the landing gear.  Until later; thanks for looking in.

 

 

  

[KiwiZac]

Don't mind me Jay, my slack jaw and shaking head are now a common side-effect of reading updates to this thread. In your first photo my eyes were immediately drawn to the wheel wells. Wow.

[JayW]

As advertised, the shrink link mechanisms are complete:

 

 

The lever itself is 3D printed - here is a picture I posted a while back:

 

 

A very fragile dinky little part, and sure enough I broke one off.  So I had to do an excruciating microscopic repair:

 

 

Don't look too close - it isn't real pretty.  That is the third repair I have had to do on some fragile 3D printed parts, and the hardest.

 

Now once the shrink mechanisms were done, I could finally button up the wing halves after nearly 5 months of work:

 

 

 

Always a great milestone!  

 

And once that was done, the way was clear to finish up the last 5% of the wheel wells by terminating the last few hydraulic lines:

 

 

 

 

 

And there she is:

 

 

The belly door awaits, then some dremmel work to make way for carb air and supercharger ducts.  And then - wing/fuselage join and back into the cockpit!!!  

 

Take care, and stay tuned.  Thanks for looking in.

 

[geedubelyer]

Simply beautiful craftsmanship Jay. 

 

Cheers.

[N.H.71]

Can‘t wait to see next post - fantastic! 

 

Cheers,

Nils

[Starfighter]

What a huge amount of dedication - absolutely brillian! 

[dodgem37]

Bravo!  Masterful.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[brahman104]

Incredible Jay! This has got to be on par with a real restoration!

 

Craig