Tamiya 1:32 Corsair F4U-1A Build

Getting near the finish line. I put liquid mask on the windscreen and stuffed some wet tissue up underneath so I could air brush the flat clear on the entire plane. I also wanted to hit the pilot since he has a bit of a sheen that I didn't want. But before I did that I also put liquid mask on those cool, clear goggles so they wouldn't get totally fogged. After the flat spray, I went back and did a very minor additive to the exhaust stains with some flat black and my new Badger 200 detail gun. I then took a bunch of pictures. Note: all the complex decals laid down beautifuly with the MicroSol and MicroSet. I also airbrushed powder stains on the wings (maybe overdid that a bit).











I repainted the wheels as you might see in the above. The "Flat Aluminum" I was using out of a Tamiya Jar of that name seemed very dark. I found another bottle and it was much, much brigther. I suspect, the former was a mix I made to simulate galvanized steel. I also used the black panel line enhancer on the wheels to give the castings more relief.

I brought the model back to the panavise and finished up all the wing joint stuff. I had three lines that needed connecting to the outer wing, and then add the outer flap actuating rod. Due to my constant messing around with that errant wing joint, the wing position changed slightly, and the rod was a bit too long and needed so custom fitting. It wasn't Tamiya's problem. It was definitely mine. And, although I tried, one of my pre-fit lines had fallen off. It took me 20 minutes to get another wire into those tiny holes. And to make matters worse, I had no more 0.011" carbide drills. I have ordered more and I'll have them in a couple of days, but I won't need them anymore. I was able to finally get them all fit and repainted Rubber Black for the flexing ones. I retouched all the paint, did a bit of weathering and the wings joints are finished. Of all aspects of the Corsair and this model, the intricacy of the wing joints is one of my favorites. Having the flaps split and having them lying on a curve adds to the complexity. Tamiya did a great job engineering this. The Avenger's flaps are all contained on the fix-wing portion so the swing joint is much less involved.



Getting down to the last parts:

The prop consists of three separate blades, a two-piece hub, the hydrodynamic piston cover and a polycap to hold the prop onto the propshaft. I glued all together and then filled the little gap that exists. Tomorrow, I'll sand the filled joint, paint and finish the prop.

While I'd love to have a chrome dome, this particular plane had a red hub and red dome.



Making the prop blades separate alllowed Tamiya to mold them almost joint line free. There was almost nothing to clean up except for this joint.

Last up was the bomb and bomb rack. After assembling, I airbrushed both Olive (Bomb) and Insignia White (rack). I then shot the upper surface of the bomb to accept a large decal with all the bomb's specifications. There's still some detail painting on both pieces and some PE propellors for the front and rear fuses.



Tomorrow the bomb will be finished and installed, and the prop will be ready to go also. That leaves the antenna and pitot tube. After that, I think it's done.

Is there any detailing left for scratch building?????

Nice work besides the re-re-rebuilds. I was one of those who thought it impossible to spill TET until last month when I upended half a bottle. Luckily the spill was away from the plastic

Impressive details in that wing fold.

I agree - very nicely done. Just compared it to some detail pics I took, and it's spot on !

Corsair is nearing completion and looking very good!

Thanks a bunch guys! The only things that are scratchbuilt are the hydraulics and engine wiring/piping. That's it. Tamiya really did a great job on this one.

So... Then there were none...



The bomb is now hung below the pilot where it belongs (although I didn't weather the hanger yet), the prop is almost finished and will be tomorrow. The antenna is in place and will be rigged tomorrow. And the last tad that goes on are the wing tie backs and the pitot tube. The version I'm building "Big Hog" has a very simple antenna rig. I even got the three rear-view mirrors hung from the front edge of the movable canopy. Took a couple of pics tonight with the canopy in place. The prop is not fully on. It has some final finishing and decals to go on.



What really helped the photos is that piece of backdrop paper. My lighting is very, very simple; just a big two-tube, Costco LED shop light. It comes through a bit towards the yellow end of the spectrem and I correct it in Apple Photo Preview.



I really don't like the red prop hub, but that's what this plane flew. I've got the painted and clear cowls so I can change off. I like the clear because that engine needs to be seen. It was too much work to hide. It's bad enough that you'll never see that beautiful cockpit again.

And I know y'all want to see another plastic build, but you'll have to be patient. I'm onto my next structure for my railroad. This one is a selectively compressed Victorian structure that still exists in the Bronx, NYC. It was a picture in the New York Times which I found online and drew it up in SketchUp. This model will be truly 21st Century: laser cut parts and what's not are 3D printed. There will a little bit of crafting work to do, but not much.







I drew these parts in SketchUp and exported them as STLs which are 3D printable. It makes the building possible since making those ornate eyebrows very doable as well as the cornices and corbels. Scratchbuilding them and making resin castings was a possibility, but it wouldn't have been easy.

After this building, I'm going to do another super kit....possibly and SWS Skyraider, one of the new 1:32 bombers out there, or maybe one of the new Landing Assault Carriers like the Wasp, new Essex or Iwo Jima. Stay tuned. But there will still be one more report tomorrow when the Corsair is finished.

Good stuff. I would love to do artistic things to create cockpit innards but alas, the artist in me resides in someone else

I don't know… a lot of the stuff I'm dong now was stuff I've never done before. I didn't super detail models. I just started scratch-building in my 60s. Never designed for 3D or laser cutting, nor resin casting. Only recently learned to build in brass, even though I taught literally thousands of people to solder in the 1970s. I'm still not so hot at advanced weathering, and who knows, I might work on that too. You really don't know what's possible until you actually start doing it. I had never done a multi-color scheme freehand until this model. And luckily, I had that scrap fuselage to practice on. If I didn't have that, I probably would have used cardboard. So… for what it's worth. Build some cockpits and we'll tell you how good you are.

Here's an example. My youngest daughter on the left(slighter better at art than daughter #1) and me on the right

If I was you, I'd have your daughter build the cockpits. And, if your drawing was signed, Picasso, it would be worth a fortune.

Corsair turned out great and the building looks like it will be a stunner as well.

No help for you Geo....

Great work so far!

Thank you for the comments and thanks for paying attention!

As promised, the model is finished! After painting the semi-gloss black on the prop blades yesterday, I spray the Testor's One-Coat Clear lacquer to prepare the blades for the decals to come. The finish on the blades' front was fine, but the lacquer out-gassed on the blade backs and bubbled. Those bubbles dried that way and made a mess. I let it dry overnight and worked with wet/dry abrasive cloths from 3200 to 8000 grit to restore the surface and then re-shot the black. After that dried, I put on the decals including the yellow decal tips. That needed a lot of setting aids since it needed to wrap around the edges a bit. When it dried well I touched up the edges with Tamiya yellow which matched the decal yellow perfectly.

While all this was drying I added the antenna wire using fine-gauge E-Z Line. I put a small phosphor bronze pin at the base of the antenna mast as a belaying point for the antenna wire. On the "Big Hog" version, there is a single antenna from the top of the rudder to the base of the mast. And then there seems to be a solid fitting just below the rudder tip that also taps into the wire. I used a small piece of Albion brass tubing as the top insulator (painted white) and a piece of thin guitar string as the tie-in. Thin CA holds it all together. E-Z Line is great since you can bump into it without any damage. Try that with stretched sprue.

I put the prop on, and it was done. Oh... and I picked out some details on the bomb rack with the panel line highligter. The sliding canopy just kind of sits over a couple of tiny pins and it's not very secure, but I didn't want to glue it with anything too agressive, so I just added a couple of dots of MicroMark Pressure Sensitive Adhesive to keep it from popping off. I did shoot the plane with the Canon and then used focus stacking software (Zerene Stacker) to merge many images focused at different points on the model to create a totally focused image from front to back. It generally takes 5 to 8 exposures focused at differing points moving rearward to give enough focal spots to make a complete image. If I had more lighting, I would just stop the camera down its smallest aperture, but I just have an LED shop light hanging overhead.











Here's the baby sitting next to my other 1:32 plane, the Avenger. I've talked with my LHS and I'm going to display the Corsair there for a while so others can see it. This picture was taken with the iPhone with flash so you get that harsh shadow behind each model.



So... to sum up, what are my thoughts about the model and what, if anything, did I learn new.

The Tamiya model right out of the box is a very complex and satisfying build. I added hydraulic lines and engine detailing, not because I had to, but because the scale and detail of the basic model made it fun to add to it.

I attempted and was successful in hand air brushing the 3-color demarcation line without resorting to any masking whatsoever. That was new for me.

I furthered my skills at detailing radial engines which I really get a kick out of.

I finally built the plane that was so beautifully detailed in my F4U Corsair Book that I had for years and years.

Found more uses for the Molotow Chrome Pen.

Furthered my skills in handling exhaust staining.

And lastly, had a blast building that amazing cockpit that no one else can see. Luckily I have all those pictures. Even if you're not going to post everything you do like I do, you should capture your builds photographically becasue it's just fun to go back and see what you actually did.

Very nice job, a great build to follow

Wicked!

Nice build and nicely summed up. You forgot to add that you learned not to pick up a model by the engine.