A Birdcage in Turtle Bay - An F4U-1 Diorama

[Phil Smith]

Excellent work so far. Will be watching closely as this thing is on my to-do list!

[LSP_Kevin]

Lovely work, Chuck!

 

Kev

[MikeMaben]

I think they have a pill for that Chuck

Excellent work in any case.

[Dpgsbody55]

Remind me to buy shares in copper .  Your work looks top notch here, even if most of it is covered up.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Granger Davis]

Watching with anticipation!

[Jboldt007]

a coral / jungle dio for an F4U would be iconic. of course any palm trees would not be viable as they'd be about a metre high to scale! but getting that dusty, gritty look of the coral is a nice challenge. it might be almost white to the eye in the bright south pacific sun. I have the F4U-1A waiting for something like this too. Even with these great photos from 1942 to 1943 there is still debate on livery and colours - which is part of the fun. THe cockpit and engine look great - nice and clean and crisp and everything in the right spot.  Something i have trouble with! The Quinta decals are great to work with because they have a rubbery thickness and are easy to position - i've used future or canopy  glue to affix (albeit i was disappointed with quinta's wood grain prop decals as they curled and could not be uncurled- it seems the larger 3d decals are at risk of this).  Even then some cockpit bits are really tiny or bendy - but again they can be easily repositioned once placed which i really like as my hands are a bit jiggly. 

Is that Pappy Boyinton talking to Lt. Ray in the photos in the link? 

Anyway if you want a good 1/32 head without a hat or helmet check out Hornet Heads or Jon Smith (I've got some through Ultracast which i'm using for a yet to be finished M-109 ground crew scene...).

[Biggles87]

Wow, you’re a fast worker ( she said shyly) I’d still be working on the engine!

The additions to the cockpit make it look like you could just climb in and start her up.

 

John

[dennismcc]

Great project, I really like it when there is a background story to a build, the wartime photos are amazing and there is some fine modelling on display.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[ChuckD]

6 hours ago, Jboldt007 said:

a coral / jungle dio for an F4U would be iconic. of course any palm trees would not be viable as they'd be about a metre high to scale! but getting that dusty, gritty look of the coral is a nice challenge. it might be almost white to the eye in the bright south pacific sun. I have the F4U-1A waiting for something like this too. Even with these great photos from 1942 to 1943 there is still debate on livery and colours - which is part of the fun. THe cockpit and engine look great - nice and clean and crisp and everything in the right spot.  Something i have trouble with! The Quinta decals are great to work with because they have a rubbery thickness and are easy to position - i've used future or canopy  glue to affix (albeit i was disappointed with quinta's wood grain prop decals as they curled and could not be uncurled- it seems the larger 3d decals are at risk of this).  Even then some cockpit bits are really tiny or bendy - but again they can be easily repositioned once placed which i really like as my hands are a bit jiggly. 

Is that Pappy Boyinton talking to Lt. Ray in the photos in the link? 

Anyway if you want a good 1/32 head without a hat or helmet check out Hornet Heads or Jon Smith (I've got some through Ultracast which i'm using for a yet to be finished M-109 ground crew scene...).

 

Thanks for the insight here.  I used a slow setting gel super glue for placing the Quinta stuff, but I think I'll try future or white glue next time as long as there's not a complex shape to form the decal around.  Even the slow setting CA gel set before I got the parts exactly where I wanted them.  In the end, it's more a mild annoyance than anything, but a little more time to get the position correct would be beneficial.  

 

I do have some 1/35 scale heads from Hornet lying around.  Though they're "1/35" they actually look closer to 1/32, so they'll fit just fine.  I've had mixed results sculpting figures in the past, so we will see how that phase goes.  I think I have a 1/32 figure whose legs will suffice for the crew chief, so it'll come down to sculpting the jacket, arms, and hands.  

 

...

 

and then I have to paint them.  Yikes. 

 

I'm glad you brought up the palm tree too.  I've been debating on adding one or two to the layout.  It's a toss up between a visually appealing vertical element to the dio and the utter disdain for the actual scale size of a palm tree in 1/32.  Hmm.  Surely there are baby palm trees, right?  

 

Also, thanks for the compliments and encouragement, gang.  It's really helpful in keeping the steam up.  <3

[ChuckD]

On 11/29/2023 at 9:54 PM, ARay87 said:

https://missingmarines.com/virgil-g-ray/

Some info on the pilot in that picture. Will watch the build with interest. 

Hey, I forgot to ask... How do you know the pilot in the photos is Lt. Ray?  Asking because I'm curious if you have any other background on this photo series.

[ChuckD]

So, it's apparently time for me to buy a lottery ticket.

 

No sooner had I stuck a piece of tape over the Quinta IP, than this happened.  

 

I was trying to mix up a lighter color of green to use for dry brushing when I squeezed my ancient Vallejo white juuuuust a bit too hard.  Man I got lucky; not an errant speck on the unmasked areas.  

 

Anyway, after recovering from that, I went on to finish the cockpit today.  The interior is lightly chipped via the sponge method, then dirtied up a bit with oils and enamels.    The results of the Quinta set and painted wires are really nice.

 

Where the tail wheel would toss up debris and dirt, I splashed dark enamel washes along with some lighter mud tones using the speckling method.

 

Again, the speckling is not nearly as pronounced to the naked eye.  If I had more brain power, I'd get really good with model photography but I only have so much bandwidth and I already spend enough of my days in front of a computer anyway.  So, I'll live with my phone doing it's consumer-friendly best and over-emphasizing the speckling.  

 

The results of the wiring below the IP are pretty solid and I'm happy with them.  They can't be seen much when it's all together, but it still adds quite a bit of visual interest.

 

And, with that it was time to close up the fuse!  This is always a fun milestone of any airplane build.  Don't tell anyone, but it's starting to look like a Corsair already. 

 

The roundish body of the corsair swallows most of the detail I spent yesterday building.  :/



 

And that's it for now.  I'm back to work tomorrow, so I suspect updates will slow down quite a bit, but the next steps are to add the firewall, exhausts and engine.  Then it'll be on to the tail wheel assembly and the wings!  

[ARay87]

14 hours ago, ChuckD said:

Hey, I forgot to ask... How do you know the pilot in the photos is Lt. Ray?  Asking because I'm curious if you have any other background on this photo series.

Lt. Ray is (was) a direct relative of mine. I did a significant amount of research on him a couple years ago. If I recall, in one of Bruce Gamble's books he mentioned the picture is usually cited as another pilot, but that it is actually Virgil. I'll see if I can dig up the source for you. That said, the website I linked earlier has a close up of a pilot in the cockpit of the bird in question, and it sure looks like Virgil to me.

However, per my understanding, the Marine aviators in this campaign did not have assigned planes, and simply flew whatever was working. I completed my first model in 15-20 years as a gift for my father, of a different Birdcage Corsair that Virgil is pictured with on Espiritu Santo during his last tour. 

Edited December 4, 2023 by ARay87

[Kaeone57]

Niiiiceee!!!! Hopefully in your rendering, she'll be a 3 toned as supposed to be but, do as you wish!!

[Phil Smith]

Excellent work.

[MikeMaben]