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Tamiya F4U-1A Corsair


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Peter, some great progress on your Corsair. 

The wing spar has caught a lot of people out by gluing it in place. I think it's the most common mistake made on the kit. 

I've left the gear off mine until after the paint is done so I think it's a good move to keep them from getting damaged. Which in my case is a good thing as it's sitting on my bench. Somewhere. Here's the last I saw it. 

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On 10/10/2021 at 11:41 AM, Peterpools said:

SUB ASSEMBLY PROGRESS

 

10/10/21

 

Tamiya 1/32 Aircraft kits are a maze of beautifully molded and intricate parts/sub-assemblies. Care needs to be taken with constant referral to the instructions and construction sequence, or you will walk the plank – I needed to be fished out twice this week, all of my own doing. 

 

The Big P&W R2800 – tinkered a bit and added six light washes of an acrylic bluish gray wash to bring the crankcase closer to the right color. The problem is, so many engine photos are of restored aircraft, the engine crankcase color is all over the place. It’s now as done as it needs to be.

 

Fuselage – Working on the multi piece cowl and cowl flaps, required lots of attention, ungluing, gluing on parts and then ungluing again and then I’m now where I am presently. Study the instructions and just keep test fitting until your mind thinks like Papa Tamiya. I’m going with the cowl flaps closed as opposed to them being open and that means loads of different parts are used. The cowl parts and support rings all are glued to the R2800 for the first stage and with all Tamiya kits, the tolerances are so close, all the paint where parts are attached has to be removed or there will be fit issues. Finally, everything was glued into place and looking good, the center wing section needs to be added first or it won’t fit as the three lower cowl flaps will not allow the wing to fit into place. The offending parts put up a good fight but I finally was able to remove them and test fit the center wing assembly carefully, which is just being test fitted right now.  The instructions show the cowl flaps added first but I just couldn’t get the wing center section to fit with this sequence.  I walked the plank on this one!

 

Prior to finishing up the center wing assembly, the following sub-assemblies needed to be built;

 

Inboard wing flaps – a sub assembly unto themselves with a good amount of Tamiya PE used and I this case, being stainless steel was a plus.

 

Oil cooler assemblies were completed plus it’s required PE.

 

All the remaining parts were added, painted and the upper and lower wing skins glued together. Much like ZM, the majority of these parts will never be seen.

 

Outer Wings:

 

Ailerons and outboard flaps built up and all required PE added as well.

 

Parts N58 and N51 as the boxes the wing spars slide into to support the outer wing panels and there is a note not to glue them in place. Of course, my brain must have bee3n asleep at the switch and I took it that the spare isn’t to be glued into the spar box and glued the spar box in place. What a nightmare, as I now had to carefully sand the spars down until they would snuggly fit as the boxes were designed to float inside the outer wings.  

 

I walked the plank on this one!

 

At this point, there still is a lot of parts to be added and then all the leading edges for entire wing assembly needs some filler and TLC; the focus of next week’s work.

 

The rudder and vertical stabilizer is still float loose, I managed to knock off the headrest and these two small items need attention.

 

I still haven’t decided what to do on the gear yet, as it’s the same color as the underside and wheel wells bit between doing the oleos and detail painting but my instinct tells me to follow my plan and not the instructions and add them after the Corsair is through the paint shop.

 

The front canopy is just resting in place and the fit is tremendous – just might add it as with the gear, after the paint shop visit is done.

 

Thanks for checking it.

 

Keep ‘em comin

 

Peter

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Parts N51 & N58 should only be place in position and allowed to float, In my infinite wisdom, I glued them in place and then had to do a lot of fancy sanding on the spars to fit when test fitting.

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That's one way of doing it Peter but not one I've ever used. I just trim down the main spars a bit so they slide right on in without a problem. I will sometimes put a bit of Vaseline on the ends to aid things along. 😉

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Carl

Glad to know I have lots of company and having done it twice now, I do feel a lot better.  Completely agree, leaving the gear off until after paint is the right and safest way way to go. You Corsair is looking mighty good and hopefully you'll be back to finishing her soon.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

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4 hours ago, JohnB said:

That's one way of doing it Peter but not one I've ever used. I just trim down the main spars a bit so they slide right on in without a problem. I will sometimes put a bit of Vaseline on the ends to aid things along. 😉

This is exactly how I did it with mine. 
Is simple and amazing!

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  • 2 weeks later...

ALMOST READY FOR PRIMING

STILL TEST FITTING - 10/23/21

I was spending a boatload of time on the Corsair and needed a bit of a diversion to keep my juices in top gear and started tinkering with my next build, the Revell P-51D Mustang. After nearly a week tinkering with the Mustang, it was time to get the Corsair ready for priming. 

First up was taking care of the few small gaps and seams that needed filler, removed a few glue spots (self-induced of course), added all the control surfaces as I wasn’t sure I could add them after painting without struggling which so far, seemed to go well. The outer wing panels were gingerly eased over the wing spars, a tight fit but they ended up where they needed to be. The inner flaps and the outer wing panels are still being test fitted and just about ready for some Tamiya Extra Thin.

Both the main gear assemblies and the tailwheel assembly were completed with the appropriate gear doors also done and ready for primer. I decided I’ll add the gear to the Corsair after painting which should make life easier. The canopy, front windscreen (not glued on yet) and armored glass were masked a ready for paint. I was going to paint the area in front of the instrument cowling but once the canopy is in place, it won’t be seen, so I’m letting it slide.

At this point I’m just about ready for ready for primer and hopefully not too many redo’s will be found.

Next up:

Priming this bad boy

Keep ‘em comin

Peter

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