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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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Greg Kittinger said 5 years, 4 months ago:

Go Iron Werks go! I'm along for the ride as usual...
George R Blair Jr said 5 years, 4 months ago:

Both builds look great. I am really intrigued by the salmon interior color. In my ignorance I had no idea that such a color was used on American planes. Very cool looking.
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 3 months ago:

Thanks gents for the compliments... 🙂

Today I managed to get some more work done on these two...

The fuselage halves are assembled and elevator / stabilizers installed.

I did some very minor sanding along the seams and added a little filler on the turtle deck just behind the cockpit. I think I caused this problem when I trimmed the part from the plastic tree.

The IP looks very convincing now that it's installed and the cockpit is complete. This is a very nice upgrade over the kit parts.

Then I built up one wing.

I took my time and made sure the wing fold gap was nice and tight. I first glued the upper wing halves together, and the one lower halves got the same treatment and ended up being one peice. This allowed me to work the seam from both sides.

Now there is not a gap. When I build the other wing, I'll take some good pictures of how I did this. A picture is worth a thousand words...

Once the wing dried, I glued it in position...

Getting closer !

As usual, comments are encouraged.
George R Blair Jr said 5 years, 3 months ago:

Sealing up wing folds can be tricky. It looks like you have broken the code on how to do this. Looks great.
Erik Gjørup said 5 years, 3 months ago:

That upgraded cockpit is really nice. Looks like it is rather mindboggling to assemble that wing. I might steal your concept and start my future builds simultaneously, (ironwerks fashion) but I really do not know how to keep them apart as it is.
Don Mk1a said 5 years, 3 months ago:

I like this thread, I'm picking up a lot of good ideas.

With regard to parallel building, I can't do it at all. It's too confusing for me. Maybe an age thing, lol.
Jeff Bailey said 5 years, 3 months ago:

Hey, Brother CDAT, @lgardner

Great thread! I just found this since I now only spend about 10% of the time I used to spend here - before Billie got ill. Anyhoo ... I'll be following from now on!

I really love the whole F4U series, and have for decades. I asked Dad if he ever flew one, but he said no - he'd only taxied a couple to re-park them. He called them real "Hot Rods." I think that's pretty high praise since he had flown the F6F many times and it's a pretty capable aircraft.

Great thread so far, Buddy!
Jeff Bailey said 5 years, 3 months ago:

Also, I really like the results of your wing cementing "No Gaps" procedure. That first photo makes it look as if it had been moulded that way ... not 2 separate pieces.

Outstanding work & accompanying narrative, mi Amigo!
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 3 months ago:

Hello George, @gblair

I simply took my time with it and glued the upper wing halves together. I glued the outer wing sections on the lower center wing next, and allowed these three components to sit overnight. This allowed me to look at both sides of the wing fold joint, and get things nice and tight with no gaps at all. I still plan on posting some pictures of the procedure when I build up the other Corsair's wing assembly. It worked out perfect, and is nice and strong. No need for additional bracing so far... I accidentally dropped the F4U and it survived intact. So far so good.
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 3 months ago:

Hello Erik @airbum
The wing isn't too hard to build using the method I described above. Taking your time to get the gaps taken care of is the trick. It also paid off to allow the parts to dry overnight. Once I post some photos of how I did it, you will see what I mean...

"Iron Werks" style isn't that hard to do. I keep the models separated in individual boxes. I have individual building notes that go with them too, such as the colors used, type of canopy and tire tread style, leading edge spoiler or none, type of propeller, etc... This comes in very handy... Otherwise I don't think I could do it !

This style of building comes in handy when it's time to paint items suck as engines, cockpit parts, props and so on. I try to spray the color I have loaded in the air brush on the various kits I have going underway. Spraying Interior Green on multiple kits will keep you busy for a while !
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 3 months ago:

Hey Jeff @mikegolf
Always good to hear from you. The Corsair happens to be my all time favorite plane... It sounds like your Dad had a lot of "stick time" in numerous types of planes. I'll bet taxiing the F4U was harder than flying it. The pilot couldn't see over the nose, so they swung the plane from side to side to see what was ahead of them. When the plane was going in one direction, the pilot would look out over the opposite side to "see" what was ahead of him.

If you have ever seen one doing this you will know exactly what I'm talking about. The pilot used the rudder pedals to steer the plane.

Unfortunately sometimes the pilot would accidentally hit the landing gear retraction lever with his foot when doing this. It was located in a position where the pilot's foot could make contact with the lever on the early Dash 1's. So they ended up installing a "safety clip" over the retraction lever to keep this from happening. It would be a bad day if the landing gear retracted, while the plane was moving on the ground. That big prop showed no mercy...

There's no such thing as gravity... The earth sucks.

Sorry to hear about Billie... I'll keep her in our thoughts and prayers. Hang in there buddy.
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 3 months ago:

Today I did some more work on the F4U's.

I installed the landing gear doors, and added a set of resin flaps. The lower fuselage window was also added.

I wanted to eliminate the step opening on the Starboard side inner flap. Plus I wanted the flaps raised, So the resin parts were a win / win. I used a set made by Ultra Cast. They fit very nice.

I installed the tail wheel doors. Then I stuffed the inside of the fuselage with foam rubber to protect the "Salmon" color while painting the exterior.

While I was installing some clear parts, I added the windscreen and armored glass. Here you can see how nice the IP looks. I'll be getting some more of these I think.

Finally I sprayed the walk way areas using Flat Black, and added the antennae masts.

Getting closer... with a little masking, this one should be ready for some Gloss Sea Blue.

as always,
comments are encouraged.
George R Blair Jr said 5 years, 3 months ago:

Cockpit looks like you could sit in it. The sea blue will really make the cockpit, and rest of the plane, look great.
Jeff Bailey said 5 years, 3 months ago:

It's a real beauty, Buddy!

You wrote: "I’ll bet taxiing the F4U was harder than flying it. The pilot couldn’t see over the nose, so they swung the plane from side to side to see what was ahead of them. When the plane was going in one direction, the pilot would look out over the opposite side to “see” what was ahead of him."

That's exactly what Dad said. That loooong nose caused a lot of vision issues on the ground! I hadn't heard about the landing gear retraction lever ... that the gear could fold while taxiing would be an awful thing to happen! It'd downright ruin your day!

Well, I'm off to the horse-pistol to see my Sweetie. Keep up the great work, BFAM!
Louis Gardner said 5 years, 3 months ago:

Hey Jeff, @mikegolf

Here's a picture that shows the landing gear retraction lever in an early Corsair. Notice how close the pilot's foot is next to it when the right rudder is applied ... and how this particular plane has been modified. It now has a metal bracket that will help keep this from happening. Even still, it's awful close to his foot !

I noticed this is Dana Bell's book on the F4U. It's in Volume 2. You can read part of the caption in the photo...

Hope things go well at the "Horse Pistol"...

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