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David Hansen

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About David Hansen

  • Birthday 06/17/1966

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Bremerton, Washington
  • Interests
    USN WWII-1980, 72nd, 48th, and 32nd Scales.

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  1. If it were the only F4U Corsair i built then yeah, i wouldn't expend this much effort. However, in my case i build a lot of Sea Blue USN subjects and i've been on something of a never ending quest to find a sea blue that looks appropriate for each of the major scales. I used to be a big adherent/ advocate of altering colours for scale effect and i haven't given that up completely but i am dialing it back a bit...
  2. For many years, modelers have just hosed their models down with 15042 and called it good. However, to me that seemed a little too easy...plus they never looked quite right. I'm not *exactly* a colour nazi, but to me that just seems wrong. It would be like substituting Light Aircraft Grey for Sky on a Spitfire, or Olive Drab for Slate Grey on a Fairey Barracuda. A lot of what was accepted as gospel was based on aircraft restorations or planes that went through significant mid-life overhauls. Through the efforts of people like Larry Webster, William Reece, Gerald G. Elliott, Dana Bell and the Fleet Air Arm Museum we've been able to piece together a more accurate and complete picture of the Early and mid-life of the F4U Corsair...though still with some significant gaps. Given fairly recent developments in historical research, aircraft restorations and the emergence of computer based interpretation and analysis equipment, it's never been easier to peel away the outer layers of the onion and look at these colours more closely. FS 15042 definitely has its place, but Mediocrates' philosophy of, "Meh, Close Enough" just seems to indicate a lack of curiosity. Colours on Navy subjects are more complex and involved which dovetails nicely with the wide diversity of limited-run aircraft they acquired and operated over the years. More tests are ongoing. The final chapter hasn't been written yet. -d-
  3. Well, here we are with the Third and Final act... Replikator did not have a formula for ANA 623. In discussions over on Britmodeller, three different formulae were proposed. While this mixing formula is the most intricate, it matches very well to the Colour chip in the Elliott book and was made using the latest and greatest spectral analysis equipment. XF-55, Deck Tan. Who Knew?? Anyway... not my story. The first thing that hits you is how very dark it is, compared to ANA 606, which i originally thought was just a semi gloss version of 623, and vice versa. I was wrong about that. ANA 606, 607 and 623 are all Sea Blues, but they are all different.... which seems a little counterintuitive, doesn't it? This mix uses a lot of Tamiya XF-17, and the critical element to be aware of is, Tamiya changed their formulation. The original that came in the 23ml bottles had a definite greenish cast, whereas the later offerings in the 10ml bottles are a deep blue. I realize the colour fidelity sucks under a single incandescent desk lamp, but here is a side by side comparison of the three mixes evaluated so far... I also came up with this "brilliant" idea of piecing 3 different cowling segments together, to make the differences more evident... This all started as a test to determine how to make a semigloss sea blue (ANA 606) for my "Norfolk Scheme" F4U-1 but from there it wandered off the reservation into the quagmire of ANA 623 Gloss Sea Blue. Folks over at BM seem to think the ANA 606 suggested by Replikator is too blue. The Tamiya AS-8 is too light and too grey (though i feel its suitable for a worn and faded 4 tone scheme). Pending receipt of a suggested formula for mixing some ANA 606, i feel that what i came up with is still acceptable, and it *may* be suitable as a Gloss Sea Blue 623 for models in smaller scales, or for depicting a heavily worn 623. What hits you is how dark the 623 is, but in theory, the insignia blue is even darker. Not sure when i will put the 623 blend to the test but for right now my curiosity is largely satisfied. I am hoping to have another formula to try out for ANA 606 once the mighty birdcage comes out of the primer phase. It's worth noting that Sea Blue as a rule, photographs terribly under indoor lighting conditions that most model clubs and contest venues have. You really need to evaluate these colours outdoors in daylight to understand what your end result looks like. This whole experiment may have gone full circle.... or perhaps it represents a complete turn of a helical spiral. All i can say is i seek knowledge, and its bastard son truth. Before i forget: the 2 other suggested mixes for ANA 623 were: XF-50, Field Blue (straight from the Bottle) and 1 part XF-17 Sea Blue 1 part X-16 Gloss Purple Both of these will dry flat. Modelers may choose to go the conventional route and apply a gloss coat last. However, i think i've acquired enough experience to say with confidence that you can dump Mr Super Clear GX112 into the paint and it blends just great, but be prepared to also dump in a lot of thinner to compensate. This means the paint will be less concentrated and it will take longer to build up the requisite coverage, but it is very fast drying. That's all for now, kids!
  4. And now, Part 2... I painted the cowling upper and lower segments with more Replikator ANA 606, and then fit the parts on my F4U-1 Engine and put the Birdcage Prop on. Dark Sea Blue is hard to photograph under the best of indoor lighting conditions, much less mine. The next thing i did was pant up another set of cowling parts the same way, only this time i decanted Tamiya AS-8 from the can, mixed it with Mr Leveling Thinner and shot it through my trusty Iwata... The upshot is, the Tamiya AS-8 is lighter and greyer in tone than the mix derived from the Replikator formula. In other words, it seems to resemble Non Spec Sea Blue quite well. I think it would be very suitable for the fuselage and leading edges of wing and tails for 4 tone paint schemes, but not suitable for an overall glossy sea blue aircraft. Tamiya specifies AS-8 overall for their F4U-1D kit, which in my view looks a bit too light. None of the photos are great, but perhaps this one shows the contrast, best... For an additional test i think i will re-apply AS-8 to the leading edges of the Corsair stabilizers to see how it looks. There will be one more sea blue formula to test but that will be in a couple of weeks. Until then- Party On, Wayne....
  5. Doing some more experimentation, to determine the best Glossy Sea Blue for an FG-1A. This experimentation is an outgrowth of preliminary testing done on El Corsair Grande Numero Tres, Electric Boogaloo. There are a couple of options i want to evaluate for a suitable Glossy Sea Blue. This is the first. I've mixed a batch of Glossy Sea Blue (which is ANA 623 if i'm not Mistaken), but starting with the formula for ANA 606 Semigloss Sea Blue and making it glossy by dumping a bunch of GX-114 Super Clear UV Cut into the mix. My lighting is terrible, so i wrote down the formula for those of you that wanna duplicate my tests. It's the whole "Scientific Method" thing, i guess... As something of a control, i prime the grey Tamiya pieces with my customary mix of decanted white surface primer, tinted with yellow green and thinned with Mr Leveling Thinner. One of the neat things is you can use those clear, gimmicky cowling parts to experiment with colours on. The paints had zero trouble mixing well with each other, and once i added enough thinner, they sprayed beautifully. The first discovery was dumping in the Super Clear gave the paint a beautiful, semigloss finish that i had trouble attaining by spraying a clear semigloss over flat Tamiya paint. It was as if the Tamiya paint was laughing at me as i applied coat after coat of semigloss on. i will paint the rest of the cowling with this mix.... maybe the Cowling Flaps. Next, i will run a similar test using decanted Tamiya AS-8. Finally, another mix for ANA 623 has been suggested over on Britmodeller so i will test that one as well. All in the name of Science!* *interpretations will vary.... -d-
  6. Today was Propeller finishing day (i hope!) Up next: Troubleshooting the windscreen...
  7. Bonus points for not painting the stainless steel dishpan interior green..... something i've been seeing on a lot of Airfix F6F Hellcat builds.
  8. OK folks, here's an update. Today was Propeller Day... once the clear coat is dry, decals will come next. -d-
  9. There are a lot of ways you could go about it, to include the Mig AMMO Brand walkway stuff. I definitely think it would work in 24th scale and *probably* 32nd. I saw it on a 48th scale Tomcat once, and it looked a bit too coarse for my tastes. It *does* however look like it was applied directly to either the bare metal, or whatever zinc chromate primer was applied to the center wing section, before the camouflage colours were applied. With my models, i've always done it with paint.
  10. Is it just me or do both crew appear to be saying, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"?
  11. I'm thinking it will add a lot for my Birdgage. At a minimum it certainly amplifies the claustrophobic effect you could get from flying one of these early ones.
  12. it mainly serves as a venue to try out my comedy material.....
  13. I'll just confine my comments to the upper wings. As i understand it, the leading edges were painted back to the first 5% of chord with Non Spec Sea Blue, which of course has a tendency to fade. Not as well known, but Semigloss sea blue is *not* simply non spec sea blue with semigloss dumped in. No siree. It's a different hue. Because its a semigloss, it's going to be slightly darker to start with, and it was actually a darker colour. So, my guess is you're looking at Semigloss Sea Blue which has held up *better* to the elements than the non spec sea blue in other regions have. The walkway lines that run along the forward spar, then outline the machine gun access hatches were only 1" wide. They can be very hard to spot in photos. My understanding is they were standard kit when the plane rolled out the factory door, but in all likelihood could be overpainted when the plane went through re work. It's possible also the Corsairs delivered to the Fleet Air Arm in Slime and Sewage did not have them. On my models i prefer to add them to break up the otherwise monotonous expanse of those big wings. The anti skid walkways that run chord-wise, i'm certain were standard fit coming from the factory, but they can be obscured with dirt, oil, boot prints, etc. Its possible they were painted over but i kind of doubt it. Grumman liked to use a big piece of emery paper, bonded to the inboard upper wing surfaces, but i think Vought must have used something maybe like pummice powder, mixed with a form of epoxy, because in some photos you can see it starting to wear away, exposing the metal underneath. Vought stuggled with ways to reduce parasite drag on the upper wing surface, but the walkway configuration remained unchanged until the postwar years, where you start to see some pretty obvious variations. Interestingly enough, you do not see anti skid walkways on the later F4U-4, -5, AU-1 or F4U-7. The inboard wing roots came in for a lot of abuse, partly on account of the angled surface and partly because access was regularly needed to the Coffman starter, oil, and hydraulic filler ports. A big reason why Corsairs are so over engineered is because of the center wing section, that used multiple layers of aluminium skin to provide the requisite strength in key areas. That particular region of the plane had some of the thickest laminated skins to be found on the entire aircraft, so it seems wear and corrosion was not a huge concern. Just some food for thought. I do agree that you are looking at worn away paint on the spring loaded foot rests near the cockpit.
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