Trumpeter Corsairs Part II

After a very "long" absence, I'm back at model building. Since Part-II was posted on this web site, we spent nearly two years renovating our home in San Jose, California. My biography on Skywriters says I was moving to the tropics! Unfortunately, that did not happen. Instead of "palm trees" and "scuba diving," I'm setting in a new home in Southwest, Colorado. It's been near zero for almost two weeks, and we have our first snow today, December 13, 2005. I had eye surgery this past May, which lets me see much better at my tender age of 74.5 years old. I felt it was time for me to finish my "last" Corsair model. Honest, I have 12 of them setting in my showcase.

Be my guest and please review my previous two stories on the Trumpeter Corsair kit. Now that I'm nearing the end of my conversion project I will add this statement. Trumpeter made a few mistakes producing this kit. However, it is much improved over the old but good Revell kit. Let's face it, without this new kit, how many of us can scratch build the entire model?

The model I choose to build is called the "FG-1A" Corsair. The real aircraft was produced by "G.A.C." ((Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, of Akron, Ohio U.S.A. )) To my knowledge, there were two such Corsair versions made by GAC. They had the following BU Numbers of 14091 and 14092 . About 15 years ago I found two photos of real FG1A's One photos shows a full side view of 14091. The photo of 14092 was taken at a obleak 45 degree angle taken from the left front of the aircraft. At about the same time I found a side view drawing of the first "bubble top" Corsair as I call it. I have enclosed these two photos for your viewing!

Here you see the finished kit seat. I added the Waldron Products buckles, then used this ribbon for my seat belt and shoulder straps. This ribbon was purchase at a fabric store in San Jose about 20 years ago. It came in several different colors, so I bought a pack of each color. It's called: "Double-Face Satin" 100% Polyester, and has a brand name of "Offray." It has a pattern number of 2209, and is 1/16"x 9.5' long. This ribbon is ideal for 1/32 scale belts and straps, as it's 2 inches wide in 1/32 scale. It is/was made by "C.M. Offray & Son, Inc; New York, N.Y. 10016." They do not have a phone number on the plastic packages. Go surfing at your local fabric store or try the web.

In Part-II I showed the finished tail wheel. This recent photo shows the fuselage together, with the area behind the tail wheel opening filled in with styrene stock. I added a cast resin "tail wheel tip," as I call it. This cast resin "TIP" comes from "My 1/32 F2G Cast Resin Conversion Kit." All I did was to make sure that the tail wheel assembly was moveable when I put the two fuselage halves together and glued them together with "CA," (super glue).

The tail plane and wings went together like putting on your socks and shoes in the morning. There were a few minor gaps to be filled at the wing fold areas. I just slipped in some thin .005" and .010" thick flat styrene stock, then applied some "ca," and it was sanded.

I dry fit the "almost" finished engine into the front of the fuselage, then tried to slip on the pre glue engine cowling and cowling ring. As "da" photo shows, I did a bit of careful grinding on the cowling ring part. I have read a few stories on the model web sites about this Corsair kit by Trumpeter. No one has mentioned anything about this fit problem. I wonder..........did other modelers have this problem?

The other thing that I noticed is that the kit cowling is attached at the top of the fuselage spine "only." The cowling more or less "free" floats on the bottom. I got the bright idea to add some styrene stock on the inside bottom of the fuselage, just below the engine. Carefully, I glued the cowling to this little home made bracket. Now my cowling is in alignment and is no longer a free floating piece of plastic.

My research says that GAC may have used a canopy from the British Hawker Typhoon and/or Hawker Tempest. I found a 32nd scale "Tempest" canopy in my spare parts box. It did not fit my model, nor did it have the outline like the side view art drawing. There's no data as to what kind of windscreen was attached to the FG-1A. I looked real hard at several windscreens on WW-II fighter's. The windscreen sure looked like one that came from the P-38 Lightning. Chris Sherland was kind enough to lend me his P-38 windscreen, so I could make a plaster mold. I jury rigged the P-38 windscreen to the Tempest, P-51 and F2G canopies. I made three molds, and pulled several vac-u-form one piece canopy/windscreen clear parts. Revisions, revisions and more revisions !!! The enclosed photos show that I was making lots of molds, clear parts, etc. Finally, I got a finished windscreen and canopy that looks somewhat like what was on the real aircraft, and was a close match to "Watanabe's Art Drawing." What's the old American Saying?: "If you first don't succeed, try, try again."

As the words say on the one photo, (add plaster to the bottom of your mold). Another photo shows that the artist "frisket film" film has been applied to the windscreen on both sides. After the paint has dried for several days, I dip my windscreen and canopy into a jar of future floor wax. My canopy latches are made from .005" thick aluminum, which comes from any brand of soft drinks and/or beer cans. They are bent to shape with a very small "U" shape design, which fits into a pre-cast strip of Evergreen "U" channel stock. This channel stock was glued onto the top inside of the cockpit side walls. I drilled .022" diameter holes into the aluminum and into the canopy, then inserted some round .020" diameter Evergreen styrene rod. I applied a micro dot of "ca," then cut off the excess, and did a bit of sanding. I mask off the canopy and sprayed on my Tamiya XF-1 flat black on the inside any my Navy Color of XF-17 on the outside.

Yesterday, December 12, 2005 I successfully attached the finished windscreen to the model. I'm almost done..........wait just a minute..........I just remembered this: I forgot to add the ignition wires to the engine. I sawed through the top cowling/fuselage section of the model, then just popped off the small lower bracket. The engine was white glue to the fuselage, so with a bit of time dissolving water, off came the engine. Trumpeter did not make any recessed areas on the cylinders so I will have to drill in some holes, add the plugs, then attach some wires and once again reattach the engine and cowling.

By the time you read this story, this long overdue model will be finished and setting inside my show case. I'll send a few photos of the finished model for your viewing pleasure.

Remember: Modeling Sure is fun!

Rodney

Click HERE for Part I

Click HERE for Part II

Click HERE for Part IV