Scratch build Boeing F4B-4 (1 Viewer)

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Tail wheel:

It turned out to be one of those items I just couldn't replicate as seen in the b+w photos. I first cut out some plastic that closely resembled the photos. Then I used a heat gun ( hair dryer ) in attempt to bend the plastic to that of a fork.

Unfortunately I didn't have either enough heat or the plastic I used wasn't suitable for the task.

In the end, I followed Westburg's outlines in his drawings. It was sort of a compromise between the two worlds.
 

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Last edited by a moderator:
Wow. I don't know what happened to my previous post #252. I tried editing out the duplicate photos without success. Sorry about that guys.
 
Moving forward: I used a handkerchief for the tail wheel covering. It was first glued on using lots of CA, followed by painting it a dark tan/brown. Since the majority of my photo sources are in b+w, I could only guess that leather was used & that was what I sought after.

I used a strip of Flite Metal embossed with simulated rivet fasteners to cover the gap between the rear fuselage & the tail wheel housing.

A little bit of artistic license was used and I left the strip in its polished aluminum finish.
 

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I finally arrived at the stage of covering the wings. As near as I could ascertain, the underside of the upper wing & both sides of the lower wing were covered & painted in silver.

Because silver has excellent UV reflective qualities & therefore helps to protect the fabric from sunlight exposure, it is considered a prime base for many fabric covered surfaces. So I went with that.

In this case, I used an iron on heat shrink silver Solartex ( it's no longer available).
 

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Chrome yellow Solartex was used for the top wing. As seen in the first photo, the Solartex came close to matching the painted chrome yellow ailerons but not close enough. So in the end, I painted the top wing the same chrome yellow that was used on the ailerons.
 

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I tried all manners of rib stitching from cutting threads to glue drops. I watched YouTube videos, visited various modeling sites & consulted with fellow modelers, all without success. So I just added the tape. In the end, it seems to work out well….
 

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