1/48 Tamiya F4U-1 ”Birdcage” Corsairs……………

Started by Louis Gardner · 175 ≡ · ↻ 3 years ago · 1/48, Birdcage, Corsair, F4U, Tamiya
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    Erik Gjørup said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    P-51, TBF/TBM Avenger, P-40, B-25, B-25.

    Did I impress your cat Louis? (I do not have any, so no cat to impress here @lgardner)

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    Louis Gardner said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    Erik, @airbum
    You were correct with your identifications... 🙂 Very impressive indeed.

    Earlier this morning I removed the tape that secured the sliding portion of the canopy in place. The glue seams will look good once a coat of paint covers this area. Here's how it looks at the moment.


    I am very happy with the home made wind screen. If you look even closer, you will see the head rest has been removed. I need to confirm if this plane had one or not. I need to do some touch up painting where some of the Dark Blue overspray ended up on the armor plate, and part of the seat. By removing the head rest, it will make things much easier.

    Stay tuned for future updates. Hopefully later tonight I will have something to post on here.

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    Louis Gardner said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    Marcus, @mvtb
    Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate this and yesterday was a day I will never forget. I consider myself very fortunate to have been offered this chance of a lifetime... (at least for me anyhow).

    Spiros, @fiveten
    I agree with you that any day at the airfield is a good one... It is a good idea to keep chocolate nearby, especially when it is time for your judges to not only examine, but to test fly your latest builds ! Chances are you are at the airfield right now as I am posting this. You my friend are the lucky one... and have earned your living as a fighter pilot, plus you have a wonderful family. That is the stuff of dreams. I am honored to have you as a friend.

    John, @johnb
    I consider myself to be very fortunate, as we have a very nice aircraft restoration shop not too far from my home. Over the years I have become friends with the guys who work there, and they have been kind enough to allow me to get so close the these National treasures. For that I am thankful. I hope the rest of this brand new year follows along with how yesterday was. Doing something like sitting in one of these aircraft is truly a blessing, and it's like going back in time.

    Thank you everyone for the compliments and kind words.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    The windscreen looks nice, Louis @lgardner!
    I always have oversprays 🙂 ...touching up has become a second nature...

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    Erik Gjørup said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    That is one great vac. . . pulled screen you made there. Glad that my recognition skills are not that bad (actually every time we watch a movie and a plane appears, I ask my girlfriend what it is - and ditto back, so we do train now and then 😉 )

    A thought I had on the pulled windscreens of my own was to sand the detail off, and let the paint make up the frame. Perhaps just mark the center of each frame by maning a scribed line in the mold? That would work with painted tape frames I think. The idea hereby passed on.

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    Louis Gardner said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    Spiros, @fiveten
    It seems that I always end up messing something up, and I don't remember ever building a model and getting it perfect on the very first attempt.

    Erik, @airbum
    Thanks for the compliments on the pulled screen. The canopy frames are there, they just don't show up hardly at all in the pictures. I will do something a bit different when I make a more permanent mold. Your aircraft recognition skills are very good too.

    Please follow along and I'll explain the little bit of progress I have made over the past few nights.
    I did some research, and according to Dana Bell, this Goodyear Corsair should not have had a head rest when it was originally built. This is an early Corsair, the 16th production Goodyear F4U from their assembly line. The headrest was added starting with the 51st Corsair. Nothing says that one couldn't have been added later though, after it left the factory floor. A lot of times these older planes were upgraded to the newer more current standards.
    So I used some liquefied styrene and filled in the hole in the armored plate. I filled in the gaps along the armor too.



    I also filled in the open step that is present on the inboard flap. I will sand these down to shape and have them ready for the next early Corsair project.

    I masked off the sliding canopy...

    And sprayed it Dark Sea Blue.

    The areas where the scoops were removed were touched up. Here's how the Goodyear Corsair looks with these scoops removed. You will also see the antennae mast is now installed. I shortened it to where it is slightly longer than 3/4 of an inch.

    The NAS Jacksonville plane turned out pretty good too. Once I spray on a little of my home brewed clear, it will blend in even more.

    Here's a close up showing the instrument panel on the NAS Jacksonville plane. I am very impressed with just how nice these aftermarket panels are. You can actually read the instruments !


    I decided to paint the wheel hubs using a flat aluminum color. Originally I had them painted Light Gray, and they matched the landing gear struts. Even in a color picture it's hard to tell this has been done. IT's next to (if not) impossible to do using a black and white picture.

    The inner portion of the wheel was also painted. The brake hub assembly was left in the Light Gray color.

    These Corsairs were built using either color. If the wheels were unpainted, they would have been a dull aluminum color. It depends on which manufacturing lot the wheels came from... Some were unpainted aluminum, while others were Light Gray.

    Later on when the "Three Color" scheme came out, you could find the wheels painted white too. I think this is because the same wheel and tire assembly was also used on the F6F Hellcat.

    Finally, I filed (and sanded) the liquefied styrene on the armor plate after it had dried several nights.
    Then the cockpit paint was touched up. Here you can see the the green paint has not yet dried when I snapped this picture.


    Getting closer... as always, comments are encouraged.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    Louis @lgardner, what a progress!
    Those Corsairs look better and better.
    Nice touch the deletion of the headrest, as well as the aluminum rims.
    Looking forward to your next steps!

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    Eric Berg said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    Louis - That vac canopy you made is very impressive. Great technique. And thanks for the paint info regarding the Corsair wheels. Your bird is looking good!

    Was it Cutting Edge that once tried the idea of die cut canopy frame tape you could paint? I recall it didn't work very well.

    And what air museum or field did you take those photos of yourself have a field day in those cockpits? Must have been a real blast!

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    Erik Gjørup said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    That fine thin edge on the windscreen is gonna be fantastic! - as for the rest, well, pure usual standard from the IronWorks 🙂
    (Usual standard, meaning thorough research, changes to make it authentic, no shortcuts etc etc)
    Well done!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    Absolutely wonderful, Louis.
    You spent your time very well on these birds.

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    Louis Gardner said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    Thank you gentlemen for the compliments.
    Spiros, @fiveten
    Your wait is over as I am posting the update now... 🙂

    Eric, @eb801
    This information on the wheels was helpful when I ran across it in Dana Bell's books. I was very fortunate to get to sit in the various cockpits, it was something that I have wanted to do as long as I can remember.

    Erik, @airbum
    I am very happy with the home made wind screen. I want to build this one with the sliding canopy closed, so the fine thin edge will likely not be seen. But if I were to pose it open, that would give it the full benefit. I can see myself making more of these... And a dedicated master pattern is in the works.

    John, @johnb
    Thanks for the kind words. Stay tuned, here we go !

    I try to make my builds as accurate as I can when I build them. Needless to say, I am very happy with how these two are looking now.

    Last night I made some very good progress on the Goodyear plane, and blended in the clear topcoat of the NAS Jacksonville F4U.
    I used another Tamiya windscreen in the stash, and masked it off. Then I carefully removed the homemade masks and applied them on the replacement home made windscreen. Next I masked off the cockpit and sprayed on some Dark Sea Blue.


    Following this, the next step was to spray on my home brewed clear flattening agent. I gave the Goodyear Corsair a few light coats, and blended in the touched up areas.

    Once I was happy with how it was looking, I went on to the NAS Jacksonville Corsair and started spraying it. This one was a lot more tricky to blend in, but I managed. Now you can't tell the little tiny scoops were ever there in the first place.
    We haven't seen or heard anything from Nick P lately ... @misfitnick
    but it would be nice to see what he says about the scoops now.

    It was a lot of work, but I'm glad it's now done. I was very happy with the end results.

    After cleaning the airbrush, I removed the masking on the sliding portion of the canopy. The results are fantastic ! The lines are spot on and very crisp. I also dug out a seat belt harness decal from the stash to add on the pilot's seat.


    Here's how the replacement canopy looks after it was unmasked. You can also see how nicely the clear coat was blended in. If you didn't see this for yourself, you wouldn't know this was touched up.

    Here are the two Corsairs sitting side by side... perched on top of a Hobby Boss Birdcage F4U-1 "late" kit box... 😉

    I'll call the NAS Jacksonville F4U done now, ready for inspection. The Goodyear plane still has a little bit of work left to do, but now it's much closer to being done.

    As always, comments are encouraged.

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    Eric Berg said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    Have you dived into that Hobby Boss Corsair yet? How does that kit stack up compared to the Tamiya kits?

    Your NAS F4U looks terrific.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    Congratulations on your NAS Jacksonville one, Louis @lgardner!
    It looks absolutely amazing!
    And the Goodyear one is not far behind. It too looks gorgeous!
    Those canopy lines are among the cleanest I've seen.
    I also liked very much your flattening home made clear.
    Well done so far my friend! Those are such cool looking models!

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    Erik Gjørup said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    Great stuff - very nice Louis (@lgardner)

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 years, 10 months ago:

    Both Corsairs are looking outstanding, Louis. @lgardner
    You can be really proud on these birds.

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