A pair of 1/48 Tamiya Corsairs: VMF-214 Greg "Pappy" Boyington F4U-1 numbers #883 and #740

Started by Louis Gardner · 121 ≡ · ↻ 10 months ago · 1/48, Blacksheep, Corsair, Tamiya, VMF-214
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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
    Thanks my friend ! I'm happy to report the way I used the kit supplied antennae to fill the hole worked out perfectly. I didn't have to use any filler at all. I have a good picture showing the results coming up soon.

    Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)
    Thanks buddy ! Please tell QC1 and QC2 that we said hello from both Sandy and I. She was asking about you guys earlier today.

    George R Blair Jr (@gblair)
    Thanks George ! I can only imagine how hot it got inside those planes, especially in the South Pacific. You have experienced this firsthand, so you know. Add in the rain and getting things wet that shouldn't be, is another reason to keep the canopy closed.

    I have been inside some of the Warbirds like a natural metal B-17, and even the camouflaged B-17 and B-24 are downright unbearable in the hot Florida summer time. I have crawled through them from one end to the other, with none of the windows open... believe me it gets pretty close to unbearable inside. There's no insulation in them, other than what is on the sidewalls of the cockpit of the 24's and 17's. The fighters didn't have any insulation at all.

    I know that our M-60's and M-1A1's were also VERY hot inside during the summer months when we were operating them in the desert. I've seen the temperatures close to 120 degrees Fahrenheit inside the tanks, and our tools would be SO hot, you had to wear gloves to keep from getting burned when you were performing maintenance. Not fun. We didn't have air conditioning in our tanks either...

    By the way, your Panther jet looks AMAZING ! Thanks for participating in our group to honor Jim. I'll comment on your headline article soon.

    Brian Mennenoh (@brithebuilder)
    Thanks for the kind words. They are sincerely appreciated.

    Eric Berg (@eb801)
    Thanks ! It has taken me some time to get used to it. I started out many years ago with a Testors Aztek 470. It ended up breaking because it was plastic, and they would no longer honor their so called "lifetime" warranty.

    So I got an Iwata HP-C plus, but it wouldn't do the fine lines I wanted. It's a good airbrush otherwise. I use it a lot to paint aircraft that are a single color, like an overall Gloss Sea Blue Corsair or Hellcat.

    I ended up getting this one you see here. It's a German made Harder and Steenbeck. I think it is called the "Evolution". I can check to make sure if needed. It has the ability to paint everything you would want to, by swapping out the needle and seat, which comes available in various sizes, from .010 to .040 sizes. I use the .010 or .015 for the fine lines you see here between the colors. It takes about a minute to swap out the sets. It is the best airbrush I have ever used.

    The MAC valve is used to adjust the air pressure down even lower. It's also designed to keep a more constant flow of air, sort of like a back up to the regulator I use. You can spay some very fine lines using the H&S when the pressure is low. Having the paint thinned is also necessary. Otherwise it will clog up too fast. Enamels are more forgiving here. You would likely need to use a retarder in acrylics to slow down the drying time.

    Today was a good day. Please stand by as I post up another installment. It's coming up next !

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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    I was able to get the camouflage painting done on both Corsairs today.


    I was able to cut off the forward antenna mast on #883. It sanded down nice and smooth afterwards, and no filler was needed.

    The wing walkways were masked off too. The canopy was done next.


    Once the canopies were masked, I sprayed them using Model Master RLM 70. This is a close match for Dull Dark Green, which is what these Corsairs were painted as when they left the Vought factory. Once they arrived in the South Pacific, anyone's guess is good. They could also be Black, as this color was frequently used to spot paint cockpits in the field.


    I added some masking to the sides of the fuselage, and rudder / fin assembly to partially cover the Intermediate Blue color. Then I sprayed on some Flat Dark Sea Blue, using Model Master enamels. I'm almost out of this stuff... 🙁




    Now the Corsairs looked like this. I also have painted the upper surfaces of the inboard flaps. They are ready to install now. I just didn't take any pictures of them.





    Like a kid on Christmas morning, I took the masking tape off to see how it turned out. This is #740. I had to come back and touch up the demarcation lines in between the Intermediate Blue and the Dark Sea Blue. I did a little touch up on the Flat White also.





    This one is #883 It has the wrap around Intermediate Blue under the nose section, just below the engine.

    This is how the pair of Corsairs look now. Tomorrow I will start adding parts on them, and possibly give them a few coats of "Future" in preparation for adding the decals.

    As always, comments are encouraged. Thanks for stopping by.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Fantastic progress, my friend @lgardner! Both look superb!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    This looks really nice, Louis @lgardner

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    Eric Berg said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Are you using enamels on this project, Louis @lgardner?
    Paint looks terrific.

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    gary sausmikat said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Moving along and all looks great, Louis!

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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)
    John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
    Eric Berg (@eb801)
    gary sausmikat (@gwskat)

    Thank you gents !

    Yes Eric, I am using enamels on these F4U's. I do have some of the acrylic paints, but I prefer the old school stuff hands down. It's mainly because I have had trouble in the past with acrylics pulling up when I taped over them. Enamel seems to "bite" into the plastic and stick much better for me.

    I wasn't happy with them, but only because the colors I chose looked too dark to me. So it was back to the drawing board. Please stay tuned and I'll show you what I did next.

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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Yesterday was spent mostly with repainting these two Corsairs.

    They seemed way too dark for me, especially when I compared them to several photos, some of which were likely "colorized", but well done nonetheless. To me they just didn't look "Blue" enough. So back to the paint booth we go...


    Here is what they looked like before.

    Here is what the colors looked like afterwards. You can see the obvious changes.

    Here is another picture, showing what the plane looks like with light coming in from the windows. This has a lot of Dark Blue over spray on the Intermediate Blue. This was fixed after the photo was taken.

    I used some Testor's Dark Sea Blue (Flat), in the little square bottle as is for the upper color with no changes to the formula.


    One the sides of the fuselage, rudder / fin assembly, and underside of the outer folding wing section, I used some Model Master Blue Gray, to which I added some Flat White paint to lighten it up.

    Here is what the upper side looks like with my "Ott Light" shining on it. This Ott light is supposed to keep colors as close to true as possible. I'll know more when I take these two outside to photograph on my "homemade base" with PSP planking on it.

    Sharp eyed readers will notice that I have also repainted the wing walkways again. This time, I used a more conventional "Flat Black" color. It will be easy to make it look faded later on.

    The German RLM 66 color was just too light, and it looked out of place, especially with the super dark background to begin with.


    The Corsairs now have a slight sheen to them, which will help during the application of the decals.

    I am much happier now, so I will continue on with adding the landing gear and inboard flaps next.

    Please stay tuned, I will have another update soon.

    Thanks for stopping by, and comments are always encouraged.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Looking even better now, my friend @lgardner!

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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)
    Thanks buddy !

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Looking really great this way, Louis @lgardner.
    Sometimes when RLM66 is to bright, I usually add a bit of plain black to it.

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    David Butler said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Looking really nice! I am at the same spot in my build and I agree that the Sea Blue I used (vallejo) seemed too gray and not blue enough. I'm going to just role with it but I think you made the right call to make your colors more accurate. Nice job on the white undersides as well- I HATE painting with white!

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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
    Thanks John,
    That's a great way to do it ! I probably would have gone that route the first time if I would have known the Dark Blue would end up looking too dark to me. Live and learn. Maybe I will do this on the next set of Corsairs that roll through the Iron Werke shop.

    David Butler (@dbutlr)
    Thank you ! I just went to your build journal and checked things out. Indeed we are very close with our construction sequences. Our colors are also very close in appearance.

    I normally use enamel paints, but when I thin the white too much, it takes forever to get decent coverage. It is times like this when I will simply add a few more drops of paint into the mix to see if it helps. Most of the time it does. I always use white as a base coat for painting yellow. Otherwise this too seems to take forever and a day.

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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Tonight I made some more progress on these two U birds.


    Previously in the Corsair Kindergarten, I assembled the main landing gear sets for 9 Corsairs. Earlier in this build I had painted three sets of them using Flat White enamel. I have one set left over pre painted in White for another upcoming Blacksheep build.

    On the real Corsair, the landing gear was an assembly that was subcontracted by Chrysler. These parts were originally delivered in a Light Gray color, very similar to that which was found inside the engine cowlings. Later as these planes were serviced or overhauled, it was not uncommon to see the interior of the engine cowlings being painted in a Black color. This was probably done to hide the oil stains... as radials are always leaking oil.

    When the engines quit leaking oil you were in trouble... as there was no oil left in the engine ! I'm fairly certain they used a dry sump oiling system though. This is a standing joke and it also applies to older Harley Davidson motorcycles...

    However, they were often painted over using the same color paint as the underside of the plane. Looking at the pictures I have found of both #883 and #740, it appears as if they could have been White. There was not much tonal difference and since they were dirty, it really didn't matter anyway.
    So I went with White on these.


    This leads to to the tail strut assembly. Both 883 and 740 have a shorter tail wheel strut. Some Corsairs were retro fitted in the field with a taller assembly, to make it easier to see over the nose while the aircraft was taxiing on the ground.

    You will see the struts was left in a Light Gray color this time... and I also cut off the arrestor hook. I have not been able to see it in any of the pictures I have seen of these two planes. You can also see the Vought "Salmon" color inside the rear of the fuselage. Vought aircraft were painted like this. Goodyear planes were a shade of Yellow / Green Zing Chromate here.


    The landing gear parts were installed, as were the tires and wheels. Now these two are standing on their own feet (or wheels).


    These last two pictures show how they look right now under my Ott light. The NS Dark Sea Blue and Intermediate Blues are faded enough, yet still looks to be a Blue.

    The decals are next. Hopefully I can get them on these two tomorrow and post up some more pictures... Then it's off to the races with the weathering and dirtying up part, which these Solomon's based Corsairs had a lot of.

    As always, comments are encouraged. Good night, and thanks for stopping by.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 5 months ago:

    Fantastic job so far, my friend @lgardner! Always amazed to read all these details, this time regarding the color of gear legs and cowling innards. The wheels look great on.

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