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

[airscale]

14 hours ago, JayW said:

  I hope Peter is OK with it. 

 

 

Is that supposed to be a joke?

 

I am more than ok with it, I am super happy you made what looks like a real F4U instrument panel out of the bobbins I sent

 

Is the real windshield a flat curved screen? If it is it would be fairly simple to make one that means you don't need to compromise the other parts

 

Fill the old one with filler, sand all the frames off it, put it on a stick and get a sheet of PETG in some boiling water, pull it out and press it into a foam block like a chair cushion to plunge mould the shape

 

that or just warm it & bend it around an appropriate radius if it is truly flat - might try that first so you have the kit one if you need it

 

I know, easy for me to say - you can get in all sorts of trouble messing with transparencies so I don't blame you for leaving well alone

Peter

[JayW]

54 minutes ago, airscale said:

Is the real windshield a flat curved screen? If it is it would be fairly simple to make one that means you don't need to compromise the other parts

 

Peter - yes - it is "single curvature", or close to it.  You perhaps recall that I have made a couple of scratch built windshields already, with good results (P-51D, and P-38J").  Actually very good results.  Both were out of necessity; not the case here.  One of those sub-projects which seemed so scary at first, but ended up better than expected.  Another bonus is that if the task fails, I can fall back on the original part, or at least I could in this case.

 

So I thought long and hard about doing the same with the Corsair, and was part of the reason I did the Rhino model - to see how bad it is, or not.  And it isn't that bad.  Were I to scratch build the windshield, what scares me the most is the aft frame:      

 

 

 

Whatever member I put in there is going to have to have a fairly accurate representation of that varying closed angle which gets the most severe at its uppermost region, and becomes more gentle along the sides.  The equivalent part on the P-51D had the same thing, and somehow magically I dealt with it.  It was so long ago, I don't recall exactly how I did it!!  And of course this member must have a contour that is spot on, so it matches the sliding canopy front frame.  At least I know how to do that - just trace the front contour of the sliding canopy, or the aft contour of the windshield, onto whatever material it's going to be made from.  

 

A more accurate part, fabricated as you describe, would have thin glass, but the framing would bring the inside in almost as much as the gage of the original part.  So clearances would not improve much if at all.  So the purpose for doing so will not really be to improve clearances, but to have a more accurate looking windshield.  And the question then becomes can I make a part that in the end looks better than what I have, which isn't so bad.

 

All that to say - I sound like I am just bitching.  No harm in trying I suppose, so I might.  

 

Honestly - you guys!     As if this project isn't difficult enough already!  No really - keep the comments and suggestions coming.  I love it.

 

Edited January 7, 2022 by JayW

[KiwiZac]

That IP looks dead on, great work Jay!

[brahman104]

Love the IP Jay! I'll have to have a play with the unwrap function in Rhino one day too  

 

Craig

[JayW]

Trying to fight the rut.  Honestly, while I know it is necessary to consider upping my game with some aluminum skinning and scratch building the windshield, I got kind of off track.  But I am back on it now.

 

First - one of the listed items for completing the cockpit and closing up the fuselage with the wing is to finish the "foot troughs".  Recall the F4U-1 series has no floor (the F4U-4 does, I understand).  It has foot troughs for the pilot to rest his footsies.  Sometime after introduction of the birdcage F4U, it became obvious that the pilot seat was going to have to be raised.   It was, and that is why we see the little bubble on top of later birdcages, to allow room for the pilot's raised head.  Well also the foot troughs were modified with add-on raised trough surfaces (as opposed to just re-doing the original troughs).  So that is what I had to do too:

 

    

 

The white "bent up" part is the addition, made from good old .005 thick plastic.  It's thin enough to bend without breaking.  So makes for good sheet metal parts.

 

Finished:

 

 

At least one of them.

 

OK, ticked off the list.

 

Also I took a shot at creating a windshield frame, something I was complaining about last post.  And it worked pretty well actually:

 

 

That frame is backed with brass sheet to give it some rigidity - can you see it?  Also note the windshield "glass" test part.  So I have committed to making a new windshield.  You all will see windshield work very soon, maybe next post.  It is fraught with risk.

 

Recall I was complaining that the coaming is chalk full of items (postulating that they ran out of room in the cockpit proper).  Here is a picture taken from Dana Bell:

 

 

It shows clearly the aforementioned foot troughs, but also the electrical armament switch boxes on the coaming.  Part of many items that clutter that area.  Here they are in the parts catalogue:

 

 

Maybe that was why I got derailed - I didn't want to make those little gadgets....  Well they are made and it wasn't fun.  Take a look at the coaming, complete:

 

 

 

You also see on there the bullet-proof glass mounting fittings, the gunsight mounting fitting, and the select lever for the defroster/defogger system.

 

Loosely dry fit to the fuselage:

 

 

 

 

Note also the instrument panel is now installed.  Yay!  Thanks again Airscale - it fit just fine and looks good!

 

Those huge thumbnails show me I have a bit of fine tuning left to do on those switches.  After that, I believe I will be turning to the gun sight, which I will turn on the lathe.  Then it is on to the bullet -proof glass.  Stay tuned folks! 

 

Edited January 20, 2022 by JayW

[easixpedro]

Amazing as always. Never ceases to amaze me…your ability to replicate small bits is every bit as good as Peter’s. Looking forward to seeing how you tackle the windscreen too!

 

As for the armament switches, I’d like to imagine it was an effort to make it easier on the pilot, like HOTAS in the 4th Gen fighters. But I know better, and you’re likely right, they just ran out of space…

-Peter

[wingman777]

This just keeps getting better and better....the cockpit looks so real it makes me want to crawl in and shut the canopy.

[LSP_Kevin]

Fantastic work, Jay. That cockpit looks so real!

 

Kev

[JayW]

18 hours ago, easixpedro said:

As for the armament switches, I’d like to imagine it was an effort to make it easier on the pilot, like HOTAS in the 4th Gen fighters. But I know better, and you’re likely right, they just ran out of space…

 

Oh to be in the engineering rooms at one of the major aircraft manufacturers during the war years!  I am a veteran of those kinds of rooms - great big, no cubicles - just a vast smoky space filled with drafting tables and engineers and drafters in white shirts and thin ties, with a stern supervisor up front surveying the room.  Working around the clock responding to inputs from the field, and from the shop floor.  VF-17 served as a major provider of inputs for improvements to the F4U-1 and 1A.  I believe they were directly responsible for many of the major and minor design changes and mods.  And there were many.  It could be that they were instrumental in the cockpit arrangement, maybe those gun switches on the cowl.   

[Rocat]

Wow. Stunning work.

[JayW]

Modest progress, with much hand wringing.  First, the coaming (or cowl, or cowling) is now final installed.  It didn't fit perfectly, so lots of fiddling with it was required.  Second, work has begun on the windshield frame.  I have been oh so nervous about the windshield frame.

 

So why replace the windshield?

 

 

 

  

 

Several reasons:

 

1.  The framing is too narrow, and the longitudinal posts are mislocated.  

2.  It is kinda thick (.06 inch), and clearance with the bullet-proof glass and a couple other things on the coaming are a problem.

3.  Some crazing exists on the front surface - just visible in the above pic.

4.  The "screw heads" on the frames are just awful, as if it were put on a drill press, and  the drill starts all made from directly above as opposed to normal to the contour.  Ugh!!

 

So it's job now is to be a template for various windshield parts that will be scratch built - the .015 inch thick glass, and the periphery framing.  However, it lies in reserve in case it all goes wrong.  No guarantees yet.

 

I already made the brass/plastic aft former; you saw it last post.  Here it is bonded to the fuselage, and securely taped to the canopy, which it must match closely:

 

 

 

I have been as cautious and patient as I possibly can be doing this - it has to be right, and it is not easy to do.  You also see the first of two longitudinal (or diagonal) internal posts.  Once they are in place the tape and canopy can come off.  A closeup of a windshield post:

 

 

 

This is the first time I have included the nuts of the many many phillips head #10 screws that attach windshield glass to frames.  Just .8 mm Meng nuts, cut short to make them almost small enough.  Those on a strip of .02 x .04 plastic stock.  It scales pretty nicely.

 

And here it is - the windshield frame:

 

 

 

It is as fragile as it looks - it won't be strong until the glass is bonded in place.  Note the diagonal posts are bowed a bit - that is on purpose.  That gives a better chance of them actually contacting the inside of the windshield "glass".  There will be no bond there - too much risk of smearing glue or epoxy or CA on the glass surface.  Unless I can pull a rabbit out of the hat some way....

 

Note also that the Mk VIII gunsight has been installed.  It wasn't very hard - just plastic tube and rod stock.  A close-up:

 

  

 

Too close!!  The F4U-1A didn't use the government issue reflector that normally sits atop the gunsight.  Instead a Vought designed reflector is attached to the bullet-proof glass.  I highly suspect the reason has to do with the stuff they did to raise the seat.  The original reflector must have been too low once the seat was raised....

 

Anyway - I have some reason to be hopeful with the windshield.  My .015 "test glass" actually fits fairly well over the framing:

 

 

So next post is going to be all about the bullet-proof glass.  It's time has come.  It is attached to the coaming and the windshield aft former, both of which are now installed.  And it's got to go in before the windshield "glass" due to access.

 

That's what you'll see next.  Whew - stressful.

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by JayW

[LSP_Kevin]

Brilliant work, Jay!

 

Kev

[Maybach_man]

if you find you need to glue the transparency, try Mig ultra glue

[shark64]

top notch modeling going on here.

[JayW]

7 hours ago, Maybach_man said:

if you find you need to glue the transparency, try Mig ultra glue

 

Thank you - I will look into that.