Excellent work so far!
Tamiya 1:32 Corsair F4U-1A Build
- Thread starter Builder 2010
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- Thread starter
- #82
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
Thanks guys!
Today was mostly a painting day. It started with the wing center section bottom which has white, Interior Green and Intermediate Blue painting. I painted the white first and then masked and painted the interior green, all by the detail airbrush. I find I'm using this gun more and more since the spray pattern is so nice that I can hold parts in my hand while painting without covering myself.
A neat little assembly which will add a lot of hidden interest to the model is the oil cooler/intercooler intake trunk. It was a prominent feature of the early Corsairs. Later models had some of these intakes in the cowl lip.
Each side consists of 8 parts: 5 injection molded and 3 PE. One of the PE pieces will not be seen when the wing is assembled. This is the inlet facing side that will be seen in the wing opening.
This is the outlet side facing into the fuselage and shows that soon-to-be-hidden PE grill.
Lastly, I put together the main wing spar in the wing-folded position. Again it has multiple colors including the wing hinge area in the intermediate blue color.
It took me almost a 1/2 hour to try and match that intermediate blue color. Tamiya calls out A-20, an aerosol pre-mixed color. I don't want to use rattle can paint in the house for areas as big as the plane so I bought some Tamiya bottle paint to try and get a match. The medium blue I bought which I thought would work as a starting point didn't work. I then tried to lighten the Royal Blue, but that didn't work either. I then mixed up some Flat Blue and lots of white (white was used in all the other mixes too), and was getting closer. I was matching this all to the color sheet included in the model. I found that I needed to add a small amount of red since the color was tending to a blue green. Here's the output from all those tests and the one that I thought was the closest as designated by the arrow. I can probably get it a bit closer and then I'll need to scale it up to make a batch for the airbrush. Or... I might buy some Vallejo that's already matched to this scheme. I'm not a big Vallejo fan since it's more temperamental, doesn't thin with IPA and dries much slower.
Tomorrow I have some errands to run and won't get so much done, but I will be continuing with building the wing center section.
Today was mostly a painting day. It started with the wing center section bottom which has white, Interior Green and Intermediate Blue painting. I painted the white first and then masked and painted the interior green, all by the detail airbrush. I find I'm using this gun more and more since the spray pattern is so nice that I can hold parts in my hand while painting without covering myself.
A neat little assembly which will add a lot of hidden interest to the model is the oil cooler/intercooler intake trunk. It was a prominent feature of the early Corsairs. Later models had some of these intakes in the cowl lip.
Each side consists of 8 parts: 5 injection molded and 3 PE. One of the PE pieces will not be seen when the wing is assembled. This is the inlet facing side that will be seen in the wing opening.
This is the outlet side facing into the fuselage and shows that soon-to-be-hidden PE grill.
Lastly, I put together the main wing spar in the wing-folded position. Again it has multiple colors including the wing hinge area in the intermediate blue color.
It took me almost a 1/2 hour to try and match that intermediate blue color. Tamiya calls out A-20, an aerosol pre-mixed color. I don't want to use rattle can paint in the house for areas as big as the plane so I bought some Tamiya bottle paint to try and get a match. The medium blue I bought which I thought would work as a starting point didn't work. I then tried to lighten the Royal Blue, but that didn't work either. I then mixed up some Flat Blue and lots of white (white was used in all the other mixes too), and was getting closer. I was matching this all to the color sheet included in the model. I found that I needed to add a small amount of red since the color was tending to a blue green. Here's the output from all those tests and the one that I thought was the closest as designated by the arrow. I can probably get it a bit closer and then I'll need to scale it up to make a batch for the airbrush. Or... I might buy some Vallejo that's already matched to this scheme. I'm not a big Vallejo fan since it's more temperamental, doesn't thin with IPA and dries much slower.
Tomorrow I have some errands to run and won't get so much done, but I will be continuing with building the wing center section.
Crimea_River
Marshal
I have a reference stating the bottle equivalent for AS-19 to be XF-18:5 + XF-2:4
For AS-8 - XF-17:5 + XF-8:3 + XF-2:2
For AS-20 - XF-2:10 + XF-55:1
I have not tried these and can;t vouch for them so.....
For AS-8 - XF-17:5 + XF-8:3 + XF-2:2
For AS-20 - XF-2:10 + XF-55:1
I have not tried these and can;t vouch for them so.....
Hi Builder,
You're doing a beautiful job - as a former modeler (who still hopes to rejoin the hobby one day) I'm enjoying all the detailed effort you're putting into one of my favorite kits!
Since you're working the center section of the wing, I thought I'd toss in an extra hint. The outer wing panels were all built and painted by Briggs, a major subcontractor. The center section was eventually built by Willeys, but apparently painted by the three major subcontractors. BuAer thought that the demarcation between the outer panels and center section was too distinctive, and insisted that the final contractors spray a stippled, disruptive overspray of Intermediate Blue along the wingfold break -- you'd especially notice the overspray on the center section when the wings were folded.
Oddly, the BuAer never thought this was a problem with the Blue Gray/Light Gray camouflage scheme!
Anyhow, keep up the great work!
Cheers,
Dana
You're doing a beautiful job - as a former modeler (who still hopes to rejoin the hobby one day) I'm enjoying all the detailed effort you're putting into one of my favorite kits!
Since you're working the center section of the wing, I thought I'd toss in an extra hint. The outer wing panels were all built and painted by Briggs, a major subcontractor. The center section was eventually built by Willeys, but apparently painted by the three major subcontractors. BuAer thought that the demarcation between the outer panels and center section was too distinctive, and insisted that the final contractors spray a stippled, disruptive overspray of Intermediate Blue along the wingfold break -- you'd especially notice the overspray on the center section when the wings were folded.
Oddly, the BuAer never thought this was a problem with the Blue Gray/Light Gray camouflage scheme!
Anyhow, keep up the great work!
Cheers,
Dana
- Thread starter
- #85
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
Thanks for all the wonderful input! While, I'll give that mix a try, I ordered the actual named colors by Life Color from my favorite local hobby shop. I'll mix them and compare it to the Life Color when it arrives later this week. When I was mixing it, I found I need just a touch of red since the blue/white mix seemed to be shading a bit green. One of my pals at the LHS said the color could have been Haze Gray mixed with Sea Blue in the field. The bottom of the center is white, so it would be between the intermediate blue and white line, if I understand your description correctly.
- Thread starter
- #87
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
Building in the inner details of the wings is a lot of fun. First I did some dirtying up of the oil cooler intakes. I again used the Tamiya Black Panel Line wash.
That dirty front lip is hidden behind the fairing that goes on when the wing halves have been brought together.
I glued in the main spar and all the bulkheads and almost screwing it up by gluing the wing bulkhead in before the spar. It goes on top of the spar and interlocks with it. Luckily, the glue hadn't set and I was able to disassemble the errantly glued part and get it right. I then painted all the wheel well interior parts white. I then masked the white and sprayed the interior green on some parts that will never be seen. I didn't spray the exterior wing joint since this is going to be intermediate blue.
Here's the reverse view. There are a suprisingly high number of parts in this sub-assembly.
The wheel well ceilings were painted off the model so I could air brush the interior walls from both directions. I then glued the ceilings into place. Here's the wheel well fully painted before any weathering. The overspray doesn't matter since this section ends up being white.
While there's a ton of detail in the wheel area, what's missing is all the hydraulics. After gluing in the control valve for the wheel door cylinders. The valve and cylinders are there, but no inconnecting piping. So... what to do? The problem is that the valves are glued in place and not easily accessible. I didn't even realize what the valve was when I glue it in place according to the instructions.
I can't get the micro-drills in at that angle. I may be able to get the micro-tubing over top of the those little fitting and put the tubing into the tubes. You can't see these details unless the model is picked up, and I don't want people doing that.
Here's an example of the piping that's missing.
I know I'm going to add some 3D piping to the wing fold area since it is so obvious. Whether I'm going to do it in the wheel well remains to be seen. The detail is all on the back of the main spar and won't be seen looking from the front. I'll take input from all of you to help me decide.
That dirty front lip is hidden behind the fairing that goes on when the wing halves have been brought together.
I glued in the main spar and all the bulkheads and almost screwing it up by gluing the wing bulkhead in before the spar. It goes on top of the spar and interlocks with it. Luckily, the glue hadn't set and I was able to disassemble the errantly glued part and get it right. I then painted all the wheel well interior parts white. I then masked the white and sprayed the interior green on some parts that will never be seen. I didn't spray the exterior wing joint since this is going to be intermediate blue.
Here's the reverse view. There are a suprisingly high number of parts in this sub-assembly.
The wheel well ceilings were painted off the model so I could air brush the interior walls from both directions. I then glued the ceilings into place. Here's the wheel well fully painted before any weathering. The overspray doesn't matter since this section ends up being white.
While there's a ton of detail in the wheel area, what's missing is all the hydraulics. After gluing in the control valve for the wheel door cylinders. The valve and cylinders are there, but no inconnecting piping. So... what to do? The problem is that the valves are glued in place and not easily accessible. I didn't even realize what the valve was when I glue it in place according to the instructions.
I can't get the micro-drills in at that angle. I may be able to get the micro-tubing over top of the those little fitting and put the tubing into the tubes. You can't see these details unless the model is picked up, and I don't want people doing that.
Here's an example of the piping that's missing.
I know I'm going to add some 3D piping to the wing fold area since it is so obvious. Whether I'm going to do it in the wheel well remains to be seen. The detail is all on the back of the main spar and won't be seen looking from the front. I'll take input from all of you to help me decide.
Crimea_River
Marshal
I'd kick myself if I didn't put it in. While holes are preferred, they aren't absolutely necessary as you can place a small dab of CA glue on the fitting and attach the pipe to it directly. The trick will be to find a way to hold it steady while the glue sets. I have found solder or lead wire to be the best material for such lines as the bend easily without stressing the joints.
Great work so far!
- Thread starter
- #91
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
Based on your input, I did decide to go ahead with the hydraulics.
Today's output was a mixed bag. I got the upper center wing skins fitted out and joined to the lower skin. Got the lower skin bottom all fitted out with a couple of hiccups. Then I decided, fatefully, to start working on piping all the wheel well hydraulics. And just at the end of the day, when putting too much stress on the wing trying to get the last stubborn brass fitting on the gear door valve, I broke off the folded wing spar. And this is not going to be an easy fix.
So let's begin at the beginning.
On the bottom of the upper wing skin there are three parts on each side: the intercooler face at the wing root, the ceiling of the forward wheel well and the reverse curved fairing that contains the flaps. You have to constantly pay attention to whether you're building a "flaps up" or "Flaps down" version since there are different fairing parts in the flap area. I'm building "flaps down".
Here's a CU of the intercooler. and the duct leading to the carburetor.
The intercooler was supposed to be Tamiya Metallic Gray so I mixed up some Life Color dark sea gray and Tamiya chrome silver. And of course, none of this is even remotely visible in the finished model.
The top wing was joined to the bottom and, of course, it fit like a glove.
The leading edge fairings for the cooler inlets went on nicely and the innards look pretty good. If you were able to peer through the louvers, which you can't really do very well, you would be able to see the intercooler facing. But I know it's there.
On the wing bottom there were several little bits and pieces. In the center is a vented hatch which is purposefully held in a slightly open position. Next to it are two reward facing hooks, the purpose of which I have no idea, possibly catapult use... I got one glued in and the other when manipulating it took off and supposedly disappeared. I thought about scratch-building another, but it was a bit delicate and didn't look too promising. So I got the next tiny part, the fairings that will over so actuator or another. I got one glued in and was gluing the other side in, and noticed the first piece, which I thought had set enough, had disappeared. And it was really gone. This piece was a little more straight forward so I did scratch-build another out of a piece of sprue.
Then I found the missing hook. I put it on and added the outlet fairings from the oil cooler housing. Lastly, there was a triangular brace in the opening where a bottom window is placed which I glued in and then glued in the bottom window. The kit has masks, although they are not die cut and you have to cut them yourself. They're made from the material that Tamiya uses for their wonderful masking tape and it's slightly deformable. All of this gets painted Insignia White.
The above also shows more fairings for the "Down-position" for the flaps.
This brings me to the wheel well piping. I found that one of my Albion fine brass tubes is has the right O.D. for my finest gauge of solder. And this same tube kind of fits onto the nubs representing pipe fittings on the valve, except for the top position. I had to cut this off so the tubing will fit on the narrower stem.
I got 11 out of 12 fitting in place and was fussing with the last one. It was one that would go over the top stub which was just a bit oversized and I was pushing a bit too hard and didn't realize what else I was putting pressure on. It was the folded outer wing spar. And this is a bad place for a break. There's very little surface area for gluing, and similarly, there's not much material to drill and pin. My first attempt to pin the hydraulic actuating arm and got it pinned, but then it broke below the metal reinforcement. I then drilled the main part for a pin, but it's a bit misaligned.
This is getting messy and I'm contemplating what it would take to rebuild the joint entirely in brass. There's also another possibility which is to have one wing up and one wing down. That's not a terrible thought and I have entertained it before. If I don't make the entire thing out of brass, I could make that actuating arm out of brass and marry it to the plastic parts. All of the lugs and fitting could be brass since I've been doing stuff like this fairly recently. In fact, if done correctly, you could almost make the wing fold functional. Stay tuned...
Today's output was a mixed bag. I got the upper center wing skins fitted out and joined to the lower skin. Got the lower skin bottom all fitted out with a couple of hiccups. Then I decided, fatefully, to start working on piping all the wheel well hydraulics. And just at the end of the day, when putting too much stress on the wing trying to get the last stubborn brass fitting on the gear door valve, I broke off the folded wing spar. And this is not going to be an easy fix.
So let's begin at the beginning.
On the bottom of the upper wing skin there are three parts on each side: the intercooler face at the wing root, the ceiling of the forward wheel well and the reverse curved fairing that contains the flaps. You have to constantly pay attention to whether you're building a "flaps up" or "Flaps down" version since there are different fairing parts in the flap area. I'm building "flaps down".
Here's a CU of the intercooler. and the duct leading to the carburetor.
The intercooler was supposed to be Tamiya Metallic Gray so I mixed up some Life Color dark sea gray and Tamiya chrome silver. And of course, none of this is even remotely visible in the finished model.
The top wing was joined to the bottom and, of course, it fit like a glove.
The leading edge fairings for the cooler inlets went on nicely and the innards look pretty good. If you were able to peer through the louvers, which you can't really do very well, you would be able to see the intercooler facing. But I know it's there.
On the wing bottom there were several little bits and pieces. In the center is a vented hatch which is purposefully held in a slightly open position. Next to it are two reward facing hooks, the purpose of which I have no idea, possibly catapult use... I got one glued in and the other when manipulating it took off and supposedly disappeared. I thought about scratch-building another, but it was a bit delicate and didn't look too promising. So I got the next tiny part, the fairings that will over so actuator or another. I got one glued in and was gluing the other side in, and noticed the first piece, which I thought had set enough, had disappeared. And it was really gone. This piece was a little more straight forward so I did scratch-build another out of a piece of sprue.
Then I found the missing hook. I put it on and added the outlet fairings from the oil cooler housing. Lastly, there was a triangular brace in the opening where a bottom window is placed which I glued in and then glued in the bottom window. The kit has masks, although they are not die cut and you have to cut them yourself. They're made from the material that Tamiya uses for their wonderful masking tape and it's slightly deformable. All of this gets painted Insignia White.
The above also shows more fairings for the "Down-position" for the flaps.
This brings me to the wheel well piping. I found that one of my Albion fine brass tubes is has the right O.D. for my finest gauge of solder. And this same tube kind of fits onto the nubs representing pipe fittings on the valve, except for the top position. I had to cut this off so the tubing will fit on the narrower stem.
I got 11 out of 12 fitting in place and was fussing with the last one. It was one that would go over the top stub which was just a bit oversized and I was pushing a bit too hard and didn't realize what else I was putting pressure on. It was the folded outer wing spar. And this is a bad place for a break. There's very little surface area for gluing, and similarly, there's not much material to drill and pin. My first attempt to pin the hydraulic actuating arm and got it pinned, but then it broke below the metal reinforcement. I then drilled the main part for a pin, but it's a bit misaligned.
This is getting messy and I'm contemplating what it would take to rebuild the joint entirely in brass. There's also another possibility which is to have one wing up and one wing down. That's not a terrible thought and I have entertained it before. If I don't make the entire thing out of brass, I could make that actuating arm out of brass and marry it to the plastic parts. All of the lugs and fitting could be brass since I've been doing stuff like this fairly recently. In fact, if done correctly, you could almost make the wing fold functional. Stay tuned...
Crimea_River
Marshal
Shame about the mishap. I have neither the tools nor experience for fabricating tiny brass parts so will watch with interest if that's the option you go with. My only choice would be to make the wing unfolded.
- Thread starter
- #94
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
As you'll see, I decided to try and fix the broken wing. I have made miniature hood hinges form 1:24 scale model cars so I could maybe do it in brass, but it was a fall back position.
The first thing I did today was photograph the hinges from both sides, import it into CorelDraw and draw the 1:1 scale parts for the hinge directly over the scaled pictures.
The parts are very small, so before getting into a jewelry project I decided to see if I could get the plastic parts together using metal pins of varying sizes. For the main joint I used 0.022" phosphor bronze, and for the fold actuating strut I used a piece of 0.010" guitar E string. I'm pretty good at drilling tiny holes in the middle of tiny rods. I use a very sharp dividers pin to make a mark in the center of the part and then drill it with the carbide drills. This time, I just spun the drill back and forth in my finger tips instead of putting it in a pin vise. I found I could control it better and not put too much stress to break the drills.
This actually held pretty good. The junction is pretty munged up with CA, but the intermediate blue will hide some of it.
With the hinge fixed, I got back to putting in the wheel well piping. I got that last ferrule into place and then, using thin solder (about 0.022), I put the 6 lines to the control valve. The two center lines come and go to other parts of the airplane so I drilled holes in the wheel well sides and fed them through. The top and bottom lines on both sides go to the tops and bottoms of the door operating cylinders. These are put onto the doors first before you glue the doors on so the piping can't be completed until doors are in. I'm not so sure how well this is going to work and I'm going to see if the cylinders can be installed before the doors so I can paint the entire bottom before the doors go one.
There are number of other electrical wires that pass through the wells, but I'm not sure I'm going to install them. That being said, the main gear actuating cylinder will have lines going to it.
Next up was the wing fold detailing. It's a very complete model just with the plastic. I sort of painted myself in the corner by putting in some oversize fittings that impeded putting in the parts that came later. It's hard to figure out where these pipes should go before the rest of the parts are in place, and then it's too difficult to put them in so you have to get a head start.
For the fold area, I did smarten up a bit. I put the piping on the fittings BEFORE gluing them into the wing. And I held the wing with a quick clamp that was in turn held in my Panavise which kept my clumsy hands away from those delicate wing spars so I wouldn't break them again.
It was those two fittings that got in the way. This is a critical part in the airplane. It's the hydraulic cylinder that moves the pin into the wing lock that prevents the wing from folding up again when the plane's in the air. It has a line on both ends since it's a double-acting ram.
Another hydraulic cylinder that goes in is the flap actuator. I broke off the piston rod on this one so I made another with a piece of 0.022" phosphor bronze. I flatened the end and then bent it so it would wrap around the little pivot.
Here's all the hardware set into the fixed wing portion of the wing fold. There's also a valve body that goes into the folded wing area and piping associated with it. It's basically a swivel that permits the hydraulic lines to pivot around the wing-fold hinge line to get the fluids to the ailerons which are also hydraulically assisted.
You can see the fitting mashed over the side with the addition of the flap actuating lever.
The next milestone step was the joining of the wing to the fuselage. Like other steps, this one went together very well. I put the thin cement on the outside of the joints and just let it wick in. Any surface inperfections that this causes will be hidden by the paint.
I'll have one more work day on Monday to start work on main landing gear and then we'll be off to our son's house for Thanksgiving.
The first thing I did today was photograph the hinges from both sides, import it into CorelDraw and draw the 1:1 scale parts for the hinge directly over the scaled pictures.
The parts are very small, so before getting into a jewelry project I decided to see if I could get the plastic parts together using metal pins of varying sizes. For the main joint I used 0.022" phosphor bronze, and for the fold actuating strut I used a piece of 0.010" guitar E string. I'm pretty good at drilling tiny holes in the middle of tiny rods. I use a very sharp dividers pin to make a mark in the center of the part and then drill it with the carbide drills. This time, I just spun the drill back and forth in my finger tips instead of putting it in a pin vise. I found I could control it better and not put too much stress to break the drills.
This actually held pretty good. The junction is pretty munged up with CA, but the intermediate blue will hide some of it.
With the hinge fixed, I got back to putting in the wheel well piping. I got that last ferrule into place and then, using thin solder (about 0.022), I put the 6 lines to the control valve. The two center lines come and go to other parts of the airplane so I drilled holes in the wheel well sides and fed them through. The top and bottom lines on both sides go to the tops and bottoms of the door operating cylinders. These are put onto the doors first before you glue the doors on so the piping can't be completed until doors are in. I'm not so sure how well this is going to work and I'm going to see if the cylinders can be installed before the doors so I can paint the entire bottom before the doors go one.
There are number of other electrical wires that pass through the wells, but I'm not sure I'm going to install them. That being said, the main gear actuating cylinder will have lines going to it.
Next up was the wing fold detailing. It's a very complete model just with the plastic. I sort of painted myself in the corner by putting in some oversize fittings that impeded putting in the parts that came later. It's hard to figure out where these pipes should go before the rest of the parts are in place, and then it's too difficult to put them in so you have to get a head start.
For the fold area, I did smarten up a bit. I put the piping on the fittings BEFORE gluing them into the wing. And I held the wing with a quick clamp that was in turn held in my Panavise which kept my clumsy hands away from those delicate wing spars so I wouldn't break them again.
It was those two fittings that got in the way. This is a critical part in the airplane. It's the hydraulic cylinder that moves the pin into the wing lock that prevents the wing from folding up again when the plane's in the air. It has a line on both ends since it's a double-acting ram.
Another hydraulic cylinder that goes in is the flap actuator. I broke off the piston rod on this one so I made another with a piece of 0.022" phosphor bronze. I flatened the end and then bent it so it would wrap around the little pivot.
Here's all the hardware set into the fixed wing portion of the wing fold. There's also a valve body that goes into the folded wing area and piping associated with it. It's basically a swivel that permits the hydraulic lines to pivot around the wing-fold hinge line to get the fluids to the ailerons which are also hydraulically assisted.
You can see the fitting mashed over the side with the addition of the flap actuating lever.
The next milestone step was the joining of the wing to the fuselage. Like other steps, this one went together very well. I put the thin cement on the outside of the joints and just let it wick in. Any surface inperfections that this causes will be hidden by the paint.
I'll have one more work day on Monday to start work on main landing gear and then we'll be off to our son's house for Thanksgiving.
fubar57
General
Great recovery
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Very nicely done
Crimea_River
Marshal
Glad you got it fixed. Hope the pins survive the added weight from the wing.
- Thread starter
- #99
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
Thanks guys! I think the pinned joints are actually stronger than the native plastic. If they ever want to make a scale operating hinge out of plastic it would have to be an engineering plastic such as Delrin. It could also be a brass lost wax casting, but styrene wouldn't work. It's just too weak.
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Great work! I've got this kit in the stash but I don't know when I'll get to it! Will definitely use your build as a reference when I do!
