Earlier today I finished up the excellent 1/48 scale Tamiya Ki-61 Hien "Tony" kit, and the bench was momentarily cleared...but not for long. I have a few other projects that still need to be finished, but a good friend of mine has asked that I start building up a few Corsairs. These are for you David... @dirtylittlefokker

Since this is my favorite all time plane, it didn't take too much convincing to start work back up on them again.

I had some work started on these two models previously, so I'll begin posting up pictures of how these two look as of now and will go on from there.

It all started when I saw this photo of an early F4U that was practicing landings at NAS Jacksonville during the War. It was love at first sight...

Fast forward a year or so after I saw this picture online, and this excellent book was new on the market. It was the first of a series by Dana Bell on the F4U. This book is something that every die hard F4U Fanatic needs.

As I was looking through the book for the very first time, I ran across these pictures inside. The caption is wrong, since these planes are from Jacksonville NAS.

I knew right away that I would have to somehow, someday build a model of this plane... It's an overall Dark Sea Blue painted birdcage variety. As luck would have it, Barracuda Cals came to the rescue and released this same plane as a decal option. I immediately made a purchase...

Here's a few pictures showing the overall Blue F4U.


Another plane jumped out to me that is pictured in the book.

After corresponding with Jim Sullivan, I decided to build this FG-1 up too and started scrounging decals for it. This one is a Goodyear built plane, and it is shown with a lighter colored cowling and a large "Black 2" shows up nicely against the light color.

I have quite a collection of new / unbuilt Tamiya F4U kits in the stash. I also have a lot of decals for various Corsairs. This build of two F4U planes might evolve into something more, or it may just remain "as is" with only two builds from the "Iron Werks".

Time, outside influences as dictated by full scale "Life" happenings, and your responses will tell. I'll base this build journal on the feedback received.

These are the 3 different Tamiya kits that I have multiples of each type in the stash.

I hope that you will follow along with me on this build. And I sincerely thank you David, for taking the time to post up all of the wonderful F4U's in your daily series. Now this doesn't mean that you are off the hook with posting up pictures of my favorite plane... but you can take a little break and post them up every "other" day for me 🙂

As always,
"comments are encouraged".

Thanks

Well, Louis, I knew if I kept at it I’d tempt you. In actual fact i’m certainly not finished with this theme; I have some more great Bentwing photos coming up soon on ‘On This Day...’

I’m right on board with this build - my absolute favourites are the three colour Corsairs, something about that plane in that scheme just talks to me. That said, the ‘FG-1’ is a really unusual subject and ought to be a show stopper when you’ve finished.

Already loving this thread; great photos, beautifully painted profiles, iconic models. And the patented Gardner ‘Iron Werks’ to look forward to. Like Christmas in Spring.

As FG-1{s go, this is probably more my style as a modeller...

Less the Tamiya “fall together” qualities and more the Leigh-Smith “fall apart” treatment.

Looking forward to seeing these take shape.

Full ahead and damn the torpedoes...

I mentioned that I was going to post up the progress made on the models in my first posting. So these pictures will show you the work that has already been done, as well as some of the additional resin parts I have obtained over the last few years.

To begin with, the interior of the fuselages were painted using "Interior Green". I painted the interior of the tail wheel area and rear fuselage in this color also on the Goodyear plane.

The Vought plane will have this location painted using "Salmon". Since the Vought plane was refurbished by the Navy later in the War, the cockpit was most likely was painted using "Interior Green" as well. It was noted that the cockpit sidewalls would have been black above the consoles.
That still has to be painted.

This is the Vought plane.

The cockpits have been assembled and a base coat of Interior Green was sprayed on them. More detail painting will be done.

I might go back and add some "Salmon" color to the "Hell Hole" area on the Vought cockpit. I'm still undecided about this however.

The engines have been assembled and painted.

Ditto for the main wheels. The center hubs have not been painted in the correct colors yet...

The propellers are ready to install once I get to that point.

Here's all of these parts combined for one of the planes.

and a picture showing these parts together for both Corsairs. "Iron Werks" style... even though it's not a Grumman plane.

I have painted the cowling in an "Yellow Orange" color... but after closely studying the original B&W photo closer I think this could be wrong. If you look at the original B&W picture, the propeller tips are a different shade than the cowling is. This indicated to me that the colors were different.

I'm going to guess and say the cowling "could" have been left in unpainted with top color blues, and might simply been left in a yellowish green "Zinc Chromate" color. So this cowling will get re-sprayed... The interior color will remain the same. It's a light gray.

I started collecting resin parts. This is what I have on hand at the moment. I picked up 3 sets of flaps.

This will allow me to pose the flaps easily in the "raised" position, and also eliminate the pesky boarding step at the same time. I will definitely be using one of these sets for the Goodyear Corsair, since I want to replicate the original B&W picture as close as I can.

The flaps are raised on the Goodyear plane in the photo. I may keep the other two sets for future F4U builds and have them dropped on "485".

I also picked up a set of "smooth" tires for the Goodyear plane, and a reinforced "Turtle Deck" area in resin. This last part will most likely be saved for another future F4U build... unless I decide to add some more planes during this journal.

The wheels are also made by "Ultracast" out of Canada. They look pretty nice.

as does the resin Turtle Deck which is made by Vector.

This last picture shows the latest F4U addition, and it's the Yahu instrument panel located in the bottom right hand side of this next photo.

I have yet to decide on which plane I will use this part on. I'm leaning towards "485" since it will have the canopy posed in the open position.

There you have it... all of the progress done so far with these.

As usual,
"comments are encouraged".

Thanks for looking.

Ok - not a 109, but I shall stay tuned on this one too 🙂
Keep 'em comin'

Thanks gentlemen for the kind words of encouragement. I hope that I don't disappoint you guys.

Tonight I discovered a little setback. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Enough said.

I'll have to mix up some more.

As usual comments are encouraged.
Thanks

“Ok, so not a 109” - I live for those comments. Well done, @airbum

Today I finally got around to spraying a little paint on these two... They have been neglected for way too long.

The "Salmon" color that I custom mixed a while ago was sprayed on the inside of the rear fuselage on the Vought plane.

The lighting is affecting how the color looks.

The Goodyear plane received the same treatment, but I used a different color. This is a "Yellow Green" Zinc Chromate color that I also custom mixed.

Here again the lighting is affecting how this color looks. In these pictures, it appears to be more of an interior green, but trust me it's not.

This last photo shows the difference between the greens used on the Goodyear plane.

I hope to get more work done on these two very soon...

Thanks for looking.

As always, comments are encouraged.

I like Corsairs and I like this build. Keeping an eye on this.