My first three photos show the real aircraft at the Reno, Nevada
air races in 1967. In 2006 I scanned-in several hundred 1960's and
1970's air race photos for Pylon Dave Jones of Tulsa,
Oklahoma/USA. I put all of the photos onto a CD and gave Dave a
copy.
I have some CD's for sale at USD $20.00 + "s/h" to any place on
earth. (Ed - contact Rodney direct via email -
fox77@mindspring.com)
The Model
I was at the local "Wal*Mart" store in Cortez, Colorado/U.S.A.
last summer shopping with my wife. I went looking around in the toy
department. Lo and behold, there's a 21st CENTURY TOYS "F4U1A/D
CORSAIR" on the shelf. I opened up the box, and it looked "A-OK,"
especially for a "ten dollar" price tag in American money. I raced
over to the check-out counter and paid for the model, then took off
out of the store and hid the model in our car. I did not want my
wife to know that I bought "ANOTHER MODEL." (Ho hum........ you know
what I mean!!!). I went back into the store and met up with my
lovely lady, who never knew to this day that I bought the model. Of
course, she has seen the finished model and her comments were:
Another model...what are you going to do with it............Honey, I
said...well....da da da.......I forgot!!!
Over the past two decades, I have built 16 Corsair models. I told
myself that this one which is #17 will be my "Very Last Corsair."
Construction
This model comes with a set of screws and some plastic plugs. You
just put the parts together, screw in the screws and push in the
plastic plugs................presto...........you are
finished..............ALMOST. I also applied super glue where
necessary.
The kits' main landing gears are not very accurate. I had a spare
set of my cast resin F2G main gears, so I used them instead of the
kit struts. I did not make the gears 100% accurate like I did on my
1/32 scale FG-1A Corsair, which is on this web site.
I used some blue wire for my ignition wires, then attached them
to some pre-drilled holes in the kit's engine.
The racer had a spinner, so it was scratch-building time. I
glued the kit's drop tank together and then cut off the end. I could
not use the kit blades, as they were the wrong shape. I had several
left over cast resin F6F Hellcat blades, and an extra 3 blade
Hellcat hub. My spinner is not a perfect match to the photo, but I
really don't care..........it looks ok to me and that's all that
counts.
I added a spoiler to the right wing and closed up all 6 gun ports
and re-scribed in the round panel lines and added some rivet-like
pin holes.
My next job was to revised and upgrade the tail wheel area and
change the door hinges. I used some left-over F2G cast resin tail
wheel parts. I bent a .025" diameter round styrene rod for the
"tie-down" bracket. Then I re-positioned the tail wheel.
The Cockpit
In 1996, I purchase a 1/32 scale photo-etch Eduard Corsair
cockpit set, (32 021 F4U-1D Corsair) but never used it in my F2G
Corsair's. It worked out just fine for this model. One photo shows
the kit seat with two of my home made seats and Eduard's photo-etch
unit. I used one of my home made seats.
The Front Doors
For some "screw-ball" reason, 21st Century followed in Trumpeters
footsteps when it comes to the main landing gears front door covers.
These two photos relate the problem and how I fixed them. (Again, I
refer you to my FG-1A Corsair story on this web site).
Scribing Templates
I make lots of scribing templates, using .005" thick aluminum. It
took about 30 minutes to make these two templates for my two
stabilizer/elevator combinations, including one for the rudder. The
end results are worth the effort.
I fill in the gaps and holes in the aft fuselage
section.
Inspection Time
I apply a thin coat of paint onto the assembled one piece wing,
fuselage and tail plane parts, and check for flaws. As always, I
find and fix a few imperfections. I find it very easy to work with
the larger models, when the darn wings and tail plane is left off.
Of course, when the wing and tail plane is attached, it's inspection
time again and there are always some seams to fix.
Paint Application
I have used Tamiya paint's for about 25 years now. I applied the
new "Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver" for my base coat on the entire
model. Tamiya's X-2 Gloss White was applied to the rudder and to top
side of the left wing. In one of my photos of the real aircraft, it
shows part of the underside of the wings. I did not detect any white
paint on the bottom of either wing, nor the number 94.
The back of the prop blades were painted with Tamiya's XF-1 Flat
Black and their XF-2 Flat White. The Chrome Sliver was applied to
the front of the prop blades and on the spinner. I used some "SnJ"
aluminum polishing powder and polished the blades and spinner a bit.
The model was airbrushed with Future Floor Wax, (FFW). A few days
later I added the number 94 decals to the fuselage. The slightly
larger #94 decal was applied to the top left wing.
(These decals were made by Dave Newman -
newmanispwest@yahoo.com
).
The civil number of NI94G was found on one of my old 1987 Microscale
decal sheets, (72-0228 and/or on 72-025). The decals were sealed
with FFW. I used my standard Tamiya "dull-coat" on top of the
future. The model still has too much shine on it, so I will most
likely add some more dull coat.
The real aircraft photos show that the engine must have dumped
all its' oil all over parts of the cowling, fuselage and wings. To
simulate this, I used brown and black artist oils. I really do not
like my attempt of trying to duplicate this oil effect. I may just
take all of the "oil-looking" crap off and leave it that way.
On final assembly I put on the windscreen and sealed the edges with
FFW. I dropped in the finished seat, which had my fabric seat belts,
including some Waldron 1/32 scale buckles. The canopy fits excellent
in it's closed position and will slide back and forth in the tracks.
The gear doors, tires, pitot tube and the prop were glued on.
I did not mention anything about the "deep/wide panel lines."
Really, the modeler should sand off all of the panel lines and
re-scribe them back in. Other than that, the model is not bad at
all. And for the price of ten bucks......go for it!
I forgot to tell you that I also bought the 21st Century Toy 1/32
scale "JU-87B/R STUKA." It's a darn nice kit and well worth
another ten bucks........and I'm not going to tell my wife about it
either.
Happy Corsairing!
Rodney Williams
fox77@mindspring.com
