F4U-1A Corsair by DocRob - FINISHED - Tamiya - 1/32

[Danstream]

Great looking radial!

Dan

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, Danstream said:

Great looking radial!

Thank you Dan, the raadial engine is like a kit in the kit, you can go overboard detailing it, but I kept it to my desired minimum, as the cowlings will be closed and there is only the frontside to see.

 

Meanwhile, I finalized the wiring . I used 0,3 mm lead wire from PlusModel for the job. The braided Anyz thread just didn't look right. There were four different length of cables, from which I cut nine each. I started to wire the front plugs and the backside of the front cylinders and last the wires for the second row. I used CA glue to attach the wire.
By the time, I decided to use lead wire instead of the Anyz stuff, I already glued the ignition harness to the engine. That made the assembly a bit more difficult and led to the decision to not paint the lead wires. I've seen so many pictures with different colored cables, brown, grey, black,..., so I think I can get away with it.

Some touch ups here and there and the engine can be called done.

On the Eduard.com page you can find PDF manuals for all their products, in this case, I used the manual for the F4U-1A engine set. It proved to be very helpful.

 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

On 10/30/2022 at 2:01 PM, Edwardkenway said:

Yep, that's what I'm going to do, I'd already painted all interior green but, same as you, will repaint the wheel wells.

Your engine looks superb btw

I'm still not decided about the wheel wells, I will try to find some more reference about my plane. As far as I know, not all the -A1 Corsairs had the salmon color applied.

 

Cheers Rob

[Egilman]

2 hours ago, DocRob said:

I'm still not decided about the wheel wells, I will try to find some more reference about my plane. As far as I know, not all the -A1 Corsairs had the salmon color applied.

Just a note brother, most peeps don't have a clue what the wheel well colors were and it's not easy to see once the model is built, heck it's hard to see on the real aircraft... The Navy very quickly went to gloss white and have been that way ever since... (the even retro painted all the existing aircraft wheel wells as well)

Same goes for the interior panels, the salmon color is next to impossible to see on the real aircraft unless you start breaking it down into it's subassemblies... You don't have to put any of it on the bird and be completely authentic... 

There is a story behind the salmon colored chromate though... It was a second layer of chromate over the ZC yellow chromate Vought aircraft normally used... The reason for it was in the early deliveries the corrosion protection was poorly applied... The navy mandated that a second coat be applied to all future deliveries, and, to make sure, the second coat was tinted with red lead.... Hence the "Salmon" color was a mix of Yellow Zinc Chromate with a highly thinned red lead..... As deliveries continued somewhere during mid '43, the requirement for double coating went away and so did the red lead "Salmon" color afterwards being mostly Yellow ZC....

 

All the dash A's and about 2/3rds of the -A1's got the salmon color... And they all had white wheel wells eventually....

 

On a live aircraft your never going to see it, I'm sorry I brought it up.

 

Your work is exquisite, better than I could do.... 

[mtaylor]

From the photos, I'm hard pressed to say that's a kit or that's the real thing.  Just WOW!

[DocRob]

20 hours ago, Egilman said:

Just a note brother, most peeps don't have a clue what the wheel well colors were and it's not easy to see once the model is built, heck it's hard to see on the real aircraft... The Navy very quickly went to gloss white and have been that way ever since... (the even retro painted all the existing aircraft wheel wells as well)

Same goes for the interior panels, the salmon color is next to impossible to see on the real aircraft unless you start breaking it down into it's subassemblies... You don't have to put any of it on the bird and be completely authentic... 

There is a story behind the salmon colored chromate though... It was a second layer of chromate over the ZC yellow chromate Vought aircraft normally used... The reason for it was in the early deliveries the corrosion protection was poorly applied... The navy mandated that a second coat be applied to all future deliveries, and, to make sure, the second coat was tinted with red lead.... Hence the "Salmon" color was a mix of Yellow Zinc Chromate with a highly thinned red lead..... As deliveries continued somewhere during mid '43, the requirement for double coating went away and so did the red lead "Salmon" color afterwards being mostly Yellow ZC....

 

All the dash A's and about 2/3rds of the -A1's got the salmon color... And they all had white wheel wells eventually....

20 hours ago, Egilman said:

On a live aircraft your never going to see it, I'm sorry I brought it up.

On a live aircraft your never going to see it, I'm sorry I brought it up.

 

Your work is exquisite, better than I could do.... 

 

Thank you again Egilman, very interesting informations you are sharing here. I read a lot about the Corsair, but I still learn new facts through your input.
The plane I depict was written off, so apparently no photos exist, which show the primer color. The photos I've seen, all black and white, doesn't reveal anything which means for me, I will build my plane without salmon primer showing. 

 

No need to feel sorry, it's always better to now facts for sure and then decide if you follow this way or if you knowingly make an interpretation.

 

Cheers Rob

 

 

[DocRob]

19 hours ago, mtaylor said:

From the photos, I'm hard pressed to say that's a kit or that's the real thing.  Just WOW!

Thank you Mark, I'm blushing. There could be done a lot more to detail the engine, but today, I added the cowlings and only little will remain to be seen of the engine, so it's sufficient for the purpose.
One of my main goals and driving forces into modelling is replicate materials, being it metals, wood, cloth, leather or plastic. To me it's absolutely satisfying to let plastic look like something else and I try to hone my skills for that with every build.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The engine got assembled, got some touch ups and was installed into the fuselage mounts. The assembly with all the cowling rings and myriads of exhaust tubes need careful alignment to get it right. Following the manual is advised here.
 

This is what remains visible (looks better in real life, but the picture needed to be badly exposed)

 

 

Luckily the only loosely fitted side cowlings sat in their places with only minimal gaps

 

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

With the Covid and it's side effects more or less gone, it's time to get back on track and do some sports. Boy was I missing that. I'm still a bit weak, but today I thrashed my powerless bones into the Atlantic and had a good swim. A bit uncomforting were the Barracudas in huge quantity and different sizes. I don't mind the small ones, but don't like the cold stare of the larger ones.

 

Back to the Corsair. There will not be too many updates until something interesting happens. I have to admit, building and painting of the inner and outer sections of the wings bore me a bit. I have to take care to not make mistakes, where there are so many options considering flaps up or down, wings folded or not,...
@Egilman luckily pointed out, that the wings of a Corsair only fold simultaneously, so gone was the one wing up option. The wings will not be folded, as my plane is land based.
 

I finished all the assemblies for the wheel wells and inner wing parts, after painting tons of parts. 

 

...and glued the wing roots and fuselage bottom to the rest of the fuselage. I think only Tamiya can produce so many strangely shaped parts to fit and lock into place with a tiny little snap. 
On my last Tamiya build, I used Microscale's Micro Mask for the exhausts and it took hours to peel that off, horrible stuff. This time, I inserted a small piece of Kabuki tape to the inside of the fuselage to cover the exhaust opening. This can be pulled off with tweezers after painting.

 

 

The wheel wells itself are very beautiful rendered oob.

 

 

Cheers Rob

 

 

 

@Egilman

[CDW]

That really is a great OOB wheel well from Tamiya. The Corsair is the one 1:32 Tamiya kit I do not own yet, but your build may tempt me into one of my own. Beautiful progress so far, love your work on it.

[Canute]

Rob, the bird is looking good. All you need in those wheel wells is a little grease, oil and tire shards. Tamiya makes some beautiful aircraft. 😄

[NavyShooter]

That is amazing work!  I wish I could do half that good!

[DocRob]

19 hours ago, CDW said:

That really is a great OOB wheel well from Tamiya. The Corsair is the one 1:32 Tamiya kit I do not own yet, but your build may tempt me into one of my own. Beautiful progress so far, love your work on it.

 

You should do yourself the favor, it's an amazing kit and gives you the feeling, there is not a lot of headroom for improvement, at least in plastic. I think no other company would it made so easy to build such a complicated airframe with all the included details. Cockpit and engine are kits in their own.

There is a reason, it's my second one albeit with nearly 15 years between the builds. That from me I really hate redundance .

 

Cheers Rob 

[DocRob]

19 hours ago, Canute said:

Rob, the bird is looking good. All you need in those wheel wells is a little grease, oil and tire shards. Tamiya makes some beautiful aircraft. 😄

 

Thank you Ken, I will dirty the whole plane during the weathering stage of the paintjob. Everything should blend in perfectly, therefore, I want to have the complete picture.
These Tamiya kits are amazing. When I started the Corsair, I bought their P-51D, although I have one from ZM in my stash. With my experiences concerning ZM's TA-152 in mind, there should be a quantum leap to the Tamiya level. Oh, there is a Mosquito snoring in it's box, along a lot of extra goodies.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

9 hours ago, NavyShooter said:

That is amazing work!  I wish I could do half that good!

 

Thank you Brad, you would wonder, what you could achieve with such a great kit. 

 

Cheers Rob

[Old Collingwood]

Really nice work.

 

OC.

[DocRob]

Not much to say, but praise the engineering of the wheel struts, a sturdy construction, despite the multiple parts used. There is a steel rod inserted into the main strut and Tamiya even depicted the brake lines, phenomenal. I use Brassin wheels, as I don't like rubber tires. The resin parts fit perfectly to the plastic, with only the small hole for the break line needs to be drilled out with a 0,5 mm bit.
The best, the wheel struts are removable for painting. I don't know, why I used the SAC replacement on my first Corsair build, there is absolutely no need for.

 

 

Cheers Rob

[Danstream]

Amazing level of details. Following silently.

Cheers,

Dan

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, Danstream said:

Amazing level of details. Following silently.

Silent or not, thanks for following Dan.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Phew, almost done with the build. I build and painted all the flaps and there are a lot, thanks to the bent wing design and folding wings. All flaps are up, like I've seen on pictures of parked Corsairs. I also painted all the landing gear parts and covers, but these will be attached after painting the fuselage and wings. The outer wing parts are not glued in place for now.
Some more details to add and then, it will be painting stage.

 

 

Cheers Rob

[Javlin]

She's looking good Rob.Kevin

[DocRob]

On 11/14/2022 at 2:47 AM, Javlin said:

She's looking good Rob.Kevin

Thanks Kevin, this time here, as we are double forum users .

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I have two firsts to report, one being only a little thing. I did an inside and outside masking job with the Corsair's canopy. The plastic was so clear, I skipped my usual bath of Pledge.
The second 'first' was, the HGW kabuki masks were really fitting, something I haven't found, despite having used lots of their masks. They never fitted. Very often I was dissatisfied with HGW products, like the super fragile wet transfers, their super sets for WNW kits, in my case for the Hansa Brandenburg, which was widely unusable and yes, the never before fitting masks. I take it as a good sign and hope for the best with many other HGW products, I have in my stash.

 

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Poco a poco - step by step - I'm nearing the finish line construction wise. I masked and painted the protective glass and the inside of the canopies. The rear part of the canopy got the mirrors glued in before painting. These are made from silver PE, so i masked the reflective sides with a piece of Kabuki.
You have to decide while building, if the canopy should be posed open or closed and there are different fuselage parts supplied for the area behind the cockpit. I opted for open and that leads to a gap with the canopy part slightly tilting forward. Because of this, I will paint the fuselage with a Kabuki tape masked cockpit, not using the canopy part as a mask, like I planned first.

 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[Egilman]

Your last pic reveals the problem....

 

Your canopy is sitting too high in the back, it is raised by the top of the fuselage, that is why it's not lining up correctly.... need to either shorten the canopy at the rear or cut back the fuselage in that area... It is supposed to be flush...

 

Look at the cockpit coaming at the rear of the canopy, it is obviously too high, the bottom edge of the canopy should match the line of the track.........

 

Beautiful work on the cockpit masking my friend...

Edited November 17, 2022 by Egilman

[DocRob]

48 minutes ago, Egilman said:

Your last pic reveals the problem....

 

Your canopy is sitting too high in the back, it is raised by the top of the fuselage, that is why it's not lining up correctly.... need to either shorten the canopy at the rear or cut back the fuselage in that area... It is supposed to be flush...

 

Look at the cockpit coaming at the rear of the canopy, it is obviously too high, the bottom edge of the canopy should match the line of the track.........

 

Beautiful work on the cockpit masking my friend...

 

Thank you Egilman, the canopy is sitting too high at the backside by purpose. Tamiya supplied two different sets of fuselage parts for behind the cockpit. The one I chose is for the opened canopy, which I will build. The other supposedly less high is used for the closed canopy option.
I only had hoped, I could use the canopy itself for masking the cockpit, but that is no mor an option with these gaps. 

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I'm actually preparing and planning my paint sequence. In order to do so, I will apply a lot of wear to the wing roots and like in the real world, I sprayed some dark aluminum on followed by a coat of hairspray. Next will be primer color, then chipping through the primer onto the aluminum, then sealing everything under a protective gloss coat, pre shading and -mottling, hairspray again and then the tri tone camo with all the galore. That's the plan at least and I hope, I don't paint myself into a corner .

 

 

As a side project the propeller got treated similar. First dark aluminum, then hairspray, then yellow for the tips, hairspray again. Next will be masking the yellow tips off and apply some Nato black.

 

 

 

It's hard to say, but sometimes I hate the precision of Tamiya kits. Why, for example with the landing light, the fit is so tight, that my very cautiously applied Contacta Clear splashed a bit, when the clear part snapped in, bummer. Now I have to find a story, why this soiling happened with the real one.
For the multiple lights on the Corsair, I use my trusty Uschi van der Rosten chrome pigments, which give a very realistic shine for the reflectors. I also tried Molotow's chrome markers, but they failed again.

 

 

The formation lights got the same treatment, except for the clear colors applied before.

 

 

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

The next step after letting the hairspray thoroughly dry on the aluminum coat was to apply the primer color, interior yellow-green and let dry again.

 

 

Then it was chipping time. I dampened the area with water, applied with a flat brush and let it soak for some minutes. After that, I used the same flat brush and abrased the interior green, emphasizing panels and areas of heavier wear. In some areas, I used wetted sandpaper as an addition. This may look like a bit overdone, but there will be pre shading on top, followed by the surface color, which will largely reduce the effect, as it only shows in later to chip areas.
After drying, I will save the primer chipping with a gloss coat and proceed with pre shading.

 

One question remains, were the middle flaps made by aluminum or cloth coated?

 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[Egilman]

6 hours ago, DocRob said:

One question remains, were the middle flaps made by aluminum or cloth coated?

On a production corsair nothing was cloth..... All aluminum.....

[Landlubber Mike]

That looks great Rob!  I haven't yet tried the hairspray chipping method yet.  How does the water end up stripping/chipping off the layer on top of the hairspray?  Is it because the paint doesnt have a chance to fully cure on top of the hairspray so it flakes off?

 

Also, if you don't mind, does it matter what paints you use for the bottom coat and chipping coat?  I saw one modeler building a Japanese aircraft who used Tamiya enamels for the base aluminum coat, then applied a chipping medium and a follow on coat of something other than enamel.  I think he said something about the enamel being a stronger paint for the chipping effect, but could be mistaken.