In part three I mentioned that
I took off the cowling and removed the engine so I could attach the
ignition wires. Did any of you "wonder"
how I got the engine out of the model?
( Now go back to
Part
Two).
The photo story shows that I attached the
aft section of the engine to it's front part. The total engine was
then whited glued to the right half of the fuselage. The fuselage
halves were dry fit and taped together. The engine is now locked in
place. There is no way to remove said engine, once you glue the two
fuselage halves together.........RIGHT ?
At this point I realized that
the engine may be damaged since I had to revise the kit's aft fuselage
section. My choices were to install the cowling, and/or remove
the engine. I choose the latter. Parts B-10, B-11 and B-13
make up the engine's "aft" section, (see page 3, steps
2, 3 and 4). I had white glued these parts together, so I just
let the "aft" engine section set in some water and off came
the part. With this accomplished, the modeler can install the engine
once all the work is completed on the outside of the fuselage and install
the cowling.
This first photo shows you
what you don't need to assemble. When it comes down to manufacturing
and modeling basics, why make the parts in the first place, when you will
never see them, once the model is closed up? I know several modelers
that are just like me, we build in lots of parts that are never seen.
Unless we display photos of these parts with our models, no one else would
know that the parts are there. So why do we do it ?
(The builder know's the part (s) are there.......that's it ! ).
With the engine out of the
model, it was easy to drill in some holes into the cylinders, slip in some
spark plugs made from .025" diameter white rod, and connect my black
insulated .010" diameter ignition wires. The cowling was
re-attached and I was ready for my next operation.
It's time to make my antenna
post, using some "K and S" brand named .030" thick
flat aluminum sheet stock. This photo shows the end result of
about a half hour work of work. It will not break off like the
plastic posts.
After I have dusted on some
paint, I can see, then fix any flaws. The final paint
application is as follows: I used Tamiya's XF-17 Sea Blue and X F-18
Medium Blue for my primary exterior colors. The rest of the
models was painted with other Tamiya colors. The paints are mixed
with 2 or more parts of Denatured Alcohol "DA" to one part
paint. The flat paint was rubbed down with cotton, which removes the
fuzzy like over spray. Next came the Future Floor Wax. I used
Trumpeters wing and fuselage insignias, which are a bit thick, and did not
suck down into some of the panel lines. The rest of the stencil
decals came from my spare box of decals, including the correct style
for the cowling number of "092."
This photo shows me lining up
the flaps, so I can drill in the holes into the wings, then install the
six flaps. On one side of the model I placed the flaps up, and then
put them down on the other side of the model. ( In reality,
this never happens on the real Corsairs). The
only photo I have of "092" shows the flaps up on both sides.
I put the one side down mainly to see how my small
"insert" flap would fit. As you recall in Part
I, a photos shows Trumpeter's so called insert flap that just
has to go. Now that I know that my F2G cast resin insert flap works,
I could dissolve the white glue, then re-align the flaps to their up
position.
These photos show that I replaced
some of Trumpeter's landing gear parts with my F2G cast resin parts.
I added brake lines, and installed the valve stems into the tire rims.
The main landing gear
strut went into its' front square hole ok. The back angle
brace fit in the slotted groove quit nicely...........Alas, Part
E36 does not fit up against the wing's spar like it should.
( See page 16; steps 36 and 38 ). Reviewing
everything, I had no choice but to fill the 1/32" wide gap with white
glue.
In reality, "E36" needs to be rebuilt !!!!
See my F2G gear assembly in
Part I.
I have included a drawing of the Corsair landing gears so I can make my
point more clearly.
This photo shows my hand
crafted wooden tire bumper. This bumper can be seen in wheel
well photos. Trumpeter did not include it.............so it's up to
the modeler to make one, and/or leave it out.
The tail wheel assembly is a
excellent piece of craftsmanship. As all of you know, Corsairs had
two types of rubber tires. One was a solid rubber core, while the
other tire was a balloon type, and was filled with oil.
Trumpeter choose the latter style of tire, so the modeler "must"
install a tire valve stem.
This photo shows the excellent
kit gun sight, seat and my hand made armor plate, head rest and back
brace. Trumpeter's seat has four pins on the back of its'
frame, which was inserted into part A2: (see page's 5 and 6; step's 9, 10
and 11). I had to revise part A2 since I cut down the aft top
section of the fuselage. Thus, my armor plate had to match up with
the bottom section of part A2 and with the "revised" front
curved section of the fuselage. I cut off the top section of part A2
just about 1/8" below where the top two holes were located
for the seat bracket. Once my hand crafted part was mated to A2, I
carefully located where the two top holes had to be drilled in. (
look close at the drawing of Part A2 in figure 11 on page 6).
You can visualize about where I cut the horizontal line. All of
these parts were dry fit to perfection prior to painting. Thus on
final assembly, I had no problems with attaching the armor plate to part
A2, which fit next to the new aft section of the fuselage. The four
seat bracket pins went into the four holes so snuggly, that I did not have
to apply any glue to the pins.
My next step on final assembly
was to carefully remove the frisket film from the front of the windscreen.
Long ago, (circa 1979) I was employed in television in
San Jose, California where I met the company artist, Roger Sook.
Roger put me onto Artist Frisket Film. I have used all types of
masking tapes, but I still prefer the frisket film to mask off the
"inside/outside" of my windscreen's, canopies' and other clear
parts. Over the last couple of decades, I have successfully been
able to slip in a sharp pointed surgical knife blade, and/or a
"X-ACTO" #11 blade under the film, lift up a corner and bend it
over slightly. Next, I grasp the film with tweezers and start
pulling the film off the clear parts. Like all masking tapes, the
frisket film will leave some minor adhesive on the clear parts.
Never fear when Rodney is near................I use a clean
"Q-Tip," and dip it into "Mineral Spirits-Paint
Thinner," and remove as much of the thinner as possible. I
gently move the Q-Tip all over the windscreen/clear parts, which will
remove the tape adhesive. Alas...........that's why I use Tamiya
Acrylic Paint as the paint thinner will not remove the paint unless you
rub real hard........Da ! Da ! Da ! I remove the remaining
thinner with just plain old "soft" toilet paper, and/or facial
tissue. A clean "no soap" water wash is next.
This photo shows me adding the
final "micro dot" of "CA" to my antenna post.
For a decade or more I have used women's black stretch nylon panty hose
for my antenna wires. A few years ago, I strung my antenna wire on a
1/48 scale Zero, using black human hair. It's easy to tie and glue
in place. So far, it has not sagged, so I used some on this FG-1A
model. My "micrometer" reads .003" diameter
on my strands of black hair. All you have to do is find a lady with
long black hair, get her down on the "floor - bed - ground," and
cut off some strands of hair at least 18" long. Then as a
gentleman, you should help her up!
This photo shows the proper
style of lettering for the numbers of "092" which
were on the cowling. I just lucked out, as they were on a
"sample" sheet of decal film, which someone sent me. If
you do the other Corsair with "091" on the
cowling, the numbers are different.
The red gas cap decal was
punched out of solid Superscale decal film using my Waldron punch set.
If desired, you can punch out a hole in thin white paper. Soak the
paper in water, then blot off as much water as possible, then lay the
paper on the model and then spray on the red paint.
Alas, here's a few photos
showing what you can see of Trumpeters' cockpit, which is very neatly
made.
If you review my stories, you
will recall that I removed the exhaust stacks and made my own. Then
I mentioned that you needed to correct the hole area where the exhaust
stacks exited the fuselage. A real photo of said area on the
Corsair's showed that there was a small cover plate. Well, you know
me, I just looked at the photo and drew a cover plate on paper. It
was cut out and placed over the pipes.........Presto, with a bit of
revisions, I cut this plate out of .005" thick flat styrene stock and
painted it. Once the paint was dry, I put a little curve in the
parts, added some white glue and put it in place over the installed
exhaust pipes.
Over all, this was a real easy
model to work on ! Like I said in
Part
III, even though Trumpeter made some mistakes in making the kit, there
is not many modelers that can scratch-build the entire kit. Maybe
they should revise some of the parts like they did with their F4F-4
Wildcat, which I am currently working on.
These photos show the
finished model and the last photos shows my four 1/32 scale Corsairs.
I built the "Crashed F2G" about ten years ago and I finished #5
and #9 in 2003. By all means, "092" should have been done
sooner.
Cheers,
Rodney
Click
HERE
for Part I
Click
HERE for Part II
Click
HERE for Part III
