YATC (Yet Another Tamiya Corsair)

[Jim Cox 86]

Hello,

 

I know this subject has been done to death here but hopefully my spin will be interesting nonetheless.

 

Like many of you, I've been a Corsair fan since Baa Baa Black Sheep hit the air wave back in the late 70's. I've probably built a dozen or so corsairs in my life so far.

 

I plan to super detail Tamiya's excellent offering, doing an 'Anatomy' version so to speak. I'll be opening up the fuselage and wings to show all the bits and parts I can. I've always been fascinated with the 'innards'  of the Corsair (F4U-1A in particular).

 

I've spent a good amount of time (and money) over the years collecting any and every reference book/manual available on the Vought F4U, HOWEVER, I do NOT consider myself an expert on every facet or model variant. I am going to stay as true as I can to depict an accurate F4U-1A (early -1A) variant, but I may take a liberty here or there to bring out an aspect that I really like even though as a whole, any one particular BuNo may not have had all the details I hope to model. All that to say, please give me a little leeway when it comes to accuracy.

 

Also, I'm no where near the craftsman that some of you are, but I do intend to enjoy the process, learn and share my adventure with you.

 

Shout out to JayW and Wolf Buddee (and many others) who's work here on their own F4U's has particularly inspired me to begin my own.

 

I've been working on this project for about two months now (I'm very slow), but I've made some progress. I'm trying to keep things well documented with pics (new to me). This is my first time sharing my work, but I'm excited to do so. I'm enjoying the journey.

 

Off to the races...

 

 

Obligatory box art pic.

 

 

Here's a few of the detail kits I'll be using.

 

 

Here's a few pics of the initial progress:

 

Cut out the bits of the fuselage that I want to expose...

 

Mix of Resin, Kit and Scratch Bulkheads...

 

Rear Cockpit Bulkhead details (I plan to have the seat/armor plate removed from the cockpit and displayed separately)

 

Initial paint on cockpit/bulkheads and bits. Mix of Tamiya Nato Green (XF-67) and Yellow Green (XF-4). Produces a nice (I think) ZC green color. Primed in black. This gave the parts some depth. More detail painting to come once assembled.

 

That's a start. I'll post pics of the cockpit assembly next.

 

[LSP_Kevin 32,467]

Welcome aboard, Jim!

 

 

Looks like an ambitious project, and you're off to a great start!

 

Kev

[overcast 11]

Jim it looks like as there is nothing much left of the fuselage. 

 

I like it very much if model aircraft are in a very dirty configuration. May be it sometimes destroy the sleek lines of an aircraft but the more details visible the more interesting it gets for the spectator. Its always a shame if I see the detailed and skilled work to outfit the interior of a heavy bomber only to close it in the end. The tiny windows won't give anything away in the end. I do know that modellers build for their owns sake. To get it as precise as possible. But its sad that everything gets lost in the end. Though your skeleton Corsair will give a lot away in the end. 

 

Though I am more into WW I 1:32 a/c I will follow your build with great interest. You went pretty far already.

 

Best Wishes and stay save

 

Kai

[Landrotten Highlander 797]

Following your detail to see your concept of a 'skeletal plane'.  Have a few ideas of my own, but building experience before tackling such an endeavor.

[Rockie Yarwood 446]

Cool approach! Really looking forward to following along.  

[CShanne 51]

It is looking great so far!  I am excited to see this progress. 

[Jim Cox 86]

Thanks guys!

 

Quick update. I made the radio compartment but didn't take any 'in progress' shots. - just bits of styrene and solder mostly anyways.

 

Note: I have found many different radio installation configurations for the F4U/F4U-1A in photos, books and the parts manual. This is where I took probably the most liberty (out of ignorance). I'm not a 1940's radio aficionado, but it's close to what I found in the Parts Catalog - Corsair, AN01-45HA-4 (1945 version but it's the only one I have). I also used some reference pics from other sources. It's a conglomeration of radios I found and what would look good and fit in the space I had

 

 

 

Here's the near finished radio.

 

 

The radio compartment is not quite complete, but it's a start. The mass of cables to the left will connect to the radio controls in the cockpit.

There will be more wires/antennae/stuff attached once it's installed in the fuselage, but these are the main parts.

 

Looks much better/cleaner in person, these blown up pics don't translate very well.

 

 

[Out2gtcha 36,388]

Excellent build so far!  Im not normally a panels open kind of guy, but this is indeed very interesting. Looking forward to more progress!

[Dpgsbody55 2,244]

Great looking build.  We can't have enough Tami Corsairs here IMHO.  Keep up the good work.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[JayW 2,491]

Jim - nice going!  Be advised that the radio compartment you are modelling is for the -D, mostly.  If you look at the parts listing for figure 430 above, you will see that it replaces a previous configuration at Bu No 49760, and continues from there.  That aircraft (Bu No 49760) is line number 2225.  -D's began at Bu No 50350 (line number 2815).  -1A's began at Bu No 17647 (line number 0950).   So of the 1865 aircraft that were F4U-1A's, the first 1275 or so got an earlier config.  The last 590 of them got what you have there in fig 490, and the -D's got the same thing. 

 

I looked for the previous config in the Part Catalogue, and it isn't there!  Also the engineering drawing for the earlier configuration (Drawing VS-17490) is unreadable from my source anyway (AirCorps Library).  The Dana Bell pictorials describe radio changes at the factory, but do not include the line numbers where they took place.  But it appears to me that field modifications were common, so who knows what aircraft had what radios.  I would think that land based aircraft (almost all -1A's were land based) would have different radio sets than carrier based aircraft, but I don't know for sure.   

 

All that said, you are doing a F4U-1A.  Fig 430 covers the later -1A's and the -D's, but not the majority of the -1A's.  I wish I could relay just what the differences were, but the trail has gone cold for me.  I will not have this issue with my 1/18 -1A (line number 1636) which would get the earlier config radio sets, as I do not intend to model the radio compartment.  But I do have some decisions to make in the cockpit RH side where the radio controls are.

[Jim Cox 86]

20 minutes ago, JayW said:

Jim - nice going!  Be advised that the radio compartment you are modelling is for the -D, mostly.  If you look at the parts listing for figure 430 above, you will see that it replaces a previous configuration at Bu No 49760, and continues from there.  That aircraft (Bu No 49760) is line number 2225.  -D's began at Bu No 50350 (line number 2815).  -1A's began at Bu No 17647 (line number 0950).   So of the 1865 aircraft that were F4U-1A's, the first 1275 or so got an earlier config.  The last 590 of them got what you have there in fig 490, and the -D's got the same thing. 

 

I looked for the previous config in the Part Catalogue, and it isn't there!  Also the engineering drawing for the earlier configuration (Drawing VS-17490) is unreadable from my source anyway (AirCorps Library).  The Dana Bell pictorials describe radio changes at the factory, but do not include the line numbers where they took place.  But it appears to me that field modifications were common, so who knows what aircraft had what radios.  I would think that land based aircraft (almost all -1A's were land based) would have different radio sets than carrier based aircraft, but I don't know for sure.   

 

All that said, you are doing a F4U-1A.  Fig 430 covers the later -1A's and the -D's, but not the majority of the -1A's.  I wish I could relay just what the differences were, but the trail has gone cold for me.  I will not have this issue with my 1/18 -1A (line number 1636) which would get the earlier config radio sets, as I do not intend to model the radio compartment.  But I do have some decisions to make in the cockpit RH side where the radio controls are.

 

Thanks Jay!  I'm using the AirCorps Library manuals as well. I hadn't notice the parts listing you pointed out. A LOT of reading/studying to get it right but, it's hard to determine some things exactly. Oh well, I'm going to have to live with a slight accuracy. What I'm attempting is quite ambitious for me, I wish I had your mad skills (and tools). I'm sure you'll notice other inaccuracies as I go; gonna get as close as I can though. Maybe one day I'll attempt the 1/18 Corsair (ordered one from eBay). I'm having a great time following your thread - very inspiring.

[Jim Cox 86]

Here's the cockpit so far. Since I took these pics I've gone back in and added more tubing/wiring/straps etc. but I wanted to give a quick update...

 

 

 

[Brett M 1,866]

 Holy cow.....looking good!

[JayW 2,491]

Jim!!!!  What an amazing effort on that cockpit.  Very convincing and inspiring.  You of course know where I am coming from.  I can only hope to come close to that on my 1/18 effort.

[zaxos345 495]

Amazing work so far!!!!

 

John