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

[Derek B]

That is awesome Jay!

 

 

 

Derek

[JayW]

17 minutes ago, geedubelyer said:

Alot of RAF fighters begain getting black cockpits after WW II. Did USN and Marine fighters go the same way? 

 

Guy - maybe you have something there.  KD431 was a Royal Navy Corsair, and it served well after the end of WW2.  It could very well have been repainted.  

[Oldbaldguy]

No way of knowing if that is the same seat KD431 was born with.  Could have come out of who knows what or it could simply have been painted at some point.  According to Tommy over on his Tailhook site, Navy spec for seats was interior green until after the war with possible exceptions made for some night fighters, of which your airplane is not one.  A roughed up green seat would look mighty fine and very USN-ish.  A black seat would just look weird.

[MikeMaben]

2 hours ago, JayW said:

Second, what is the best material to use for seat belts and shoulder harnesses?  Up to this point, I have been using lead foil from wine bottles, which work OK but not great.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSy8by13Uvk

 

Hey Jay, might have fun with this method.

I used it on my Me109D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by MikeMaben

[Greif8]

Superb sratchbuilding and attention to detail Jay.  Your build is both an inspiration and instructional.

 

Ernest

[Woody V]

10 hours ago, JayW said:

Second, what is the best material to use for seat belts and shoulder harnesses?

I used paper once and found it worked very well. I printed it with a laser printer to get the color and stitching, and being paper, the etch hardware was easy to attach. Once it was glued to the attachment point, I used water to get it to conform. You might want to consider it.

 

[geedubelyer]

12 minutes ago, Woody V said:

I used paper once and found it worked very well. I printed it with a laser printer to get the color and stitching, and being paper, the etch hardware was easy to attach. Once it was glued to the attachment point, I used water to get it to conform. You might want to consider it.

 

Wow! Those switches  They look amazing. What scale is this please?

 

Oh, and the belts look great too 

[JayW]

13 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

Hey Jay, might have fun with this method.

I used it on my Me109D.

Wow Mike - who would have guessed - Milliput belts.  Not clear though how to deal with the buckles.  Not having Milliput, I think I might just go get some and try this out!  

 

4 hours ago, Woody V said:

I used paper once and found it worked very well.

 

Paper.  Why not....  Thanks Woody!

 

I don't know why I chose lead foil for my past efforts.  It's too stiff.

[JayW]

14 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

A roughed up green seat would look mighty fine and very USN-ish.  A black seat would just look weird.

 

Yeah - I think I should have researched more before opening up to the "panel".  Dana Bell volume 8 has a good color pic of a -1D, which has a green seat.  And I'll bet that's authentic.  

[scvrobeson]

Just wonderful scratch work and engineering on the seat frame.  Beautiful stuff Jay

 

 

 

 

Matt 

[Woody V]

14 hours ago, geedubelyer said:

Wow! Those switches  They look amazing.

1/32. They come with the Eduard color PE cockpit set. They are pretty nifty!

Edited March 19, 2023 by Woody V

[MikeMaben]

15 hours ago, JayW said:

Wow Mike - who would have guessed - Milliput belts.  Not clear though how to deal with the buckles.

 

Actually that's the easy part. I'll bet most of us agree that threading belts thru the buckles is a major PIA.

After you've got the belts made and cut to length, place the buckles where you want them and give them

a slight press. Place small rectangles of leftover belt over the center of the buckle to give the appearance

of it being threaded thru. Obviously paint or stain the belts before positioning as they do dry eventually.

I also put a drop or two of dishsoap in the water.

[TAG]

Hi, Jay

 

As always, my gob is well and truly smacked by your textbook usage of a jig to create another showstopping, fully scratchbuilt piece of awesomeness. Good on ya, dude!

 

As for the seat, from what I understand F4U interiors were oversprayed in black only in the post-war period, certainly not in the time frame you are setting your bird in. In fact,  F4U seats were built by a sub-contractor, who painted and delivered said seats in DDG throughout pretty much the entirety of the war, even as Vought (and Goodyear for the FG-1's) shifted from full DDG cockpits in the Birdcages to mainly IG cockpits by the time late -1A's and -1D's started rolling off the line.

 

That being said, there is always an exception to every hard and fast "rule" for this kind of thing so -although infinitesimally small- there is a remote chance Kendrick's seat may have been oversprayed in black. If that's what floats your boat, go right ahead and paint it black, chip that sucker back to IG/silver, and if anyone questions your decision just show them the photo from the KD431 book.

 

Can't wait to see this bird finally come together!

 

- Thomaz

[JayW]

About three months ago I summarily hacked off the nose of my rudder:

 

 

21st Century Toys chose to include that sliver on the rudder rather than the fin where it really belongs (probably for durability reasons....).  Finally - the time had come to re-attach it:

 

  

 

Yay!  Why now at long last?  Because I am finishing off the mid/aft fuselage & empennage skinning.  Note I added a layer of plastic sheet on its aft face (to make up for the lost material from the saw cut).  Here I show the freshly skinned fin:

 

 

 

That tip is begging to be broken off!  I glued/bonded, CA'd it on there really well, but still must be careful.  I'd bet money that the fin tips were commonly damaged, removed, and replaced at the busy Vought and Goodyear factories during the war.  Skinning the fin was not hard; rather enjoyable.

 

Also, the h/stab tips were left to be done, so they were:

 

 

Harder to do - lotsa work on soft aluminum with balsa burnishing stick, pop-sickle stick, and small ballpeen hammer.  And sanding.  

 

Now, the entire fuselage assembly aft of the Sta 186 bulkhead is skinned:

 

 

A significant milestone in this ridiculously long build.   Enjoy that sparkling sheen - this is the last you will see of it.

 

Next is to vigorously clean and prepare the aluminum surfaces for the self-etch primer that goes on next.   Oh so important to tame any paint lifting tendencies, as the great big stars & bars insignia stencils are going to be taped onto the sides during the topcoat application process.  Really worried about that, so I am going to do another round of painted panel tape lifting testing - I have two different brands of etching primer, and then Chuck suggested a while back clear Tamiya X-22 gloss clear (he claimed it sticks pretty well), so I will give that a shot too.  Would love for that clear to magically work - that would mean I would not have to paint on a silver coat during the double hair spray method that must be done, like what was done on the forward fuselage and center wing.  I think I am also, if I ultimately use the primer, going to let it cure for longer.  Maybe a week.  In the hopes it digs into the metal a bit better.  Peter waits on it when he does his skinning work.

 

In the mean time I will do more work on that pilot's seat.  Ta-ta!  

Edited March 20, 2023 by JayW

[JayW]

5 hours ago, TAG said:

F4U seats were built by a sub-contractor, who painted and delivered said seats in DDG throughout pretty much the entirety of the war,

 

Thomaz - any reason to think that YZC is underneath the DDG?  If so, then i will have to do the "double hairspray" thing on the seat.