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1/72 F4U-1 early birdcage VF-17 Tamiya


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Here's what I wanted:

earlybirdcages.jpg

And here's what I managed to do:

F4U-1earlya.jpg

Tamiya 1/72. Used an extra section of open cowl ring to make the 360-deg wraparound cowl flaps (Thanks for the parts, Chuck1945!!! :coolio: ). Also made transparent wingtip lights with colored bulbs deep inside, completely detailed the tailwheel well and tailwheel assembly, used a TD seat and extended the belts to hang over the scratchbuilt seat frame, wired the engine, put brake lines on the main gear, and scratchbuilt the tiny bomb racks.

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Notice the "25" appears to be two 5's, with the stencil of one of them inverted and reversed to make a crude 2. Had to trim the 5's (all 4 of them!) to get the right look. Then mask with lo-tac tape to do the white overspray seen in the photo.

F4U-1earlyb.jpg

F4U-1earlyc.jpg

F4U-1earlyd.jpg

Edited by Andrew D. the Jolly Rogers guy
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Andrew, that is one beautiful Corsair, it does look like a much larger scale than 1:72nd ! Love the "overspray" detail, most would have overlooked that detail ... Congratulations on a marvelous build !

Gregg

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What can I say that hasn't already been said by everyone else as impressed as I am? Superb. One of the most realistic weathering jobs I've seen in a good long time. Thank you for sharing.

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.... about the colours: the camera white-balance seems a bit off?

You mean on the undersides? That's gull gray....it was the three-tone schemes that had white on the bottom. :nanner:

Klimmer, the upper surfaces are MM Navy Blue Gray, then made a thin mix of same with Light Ghost Gray to lighten it, and went back and sunbleached the panels, but nto much along the panel lines. Then masked the fabric-covered areas and gave a couple extra light coats there. Then a watercolor sludge wash, which was repeated several times on the cowl/nose area.

Thanks, everyone, for the extremely kind comments! :banana:

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Most kind, thanks! Yep, that's the effect I was after, Mike...as near as I can tell, these were temp airframes to get the squadron into the aircraft pending delivery of their late-birdcages with the bulged canopy and the tricolor paint scheme. Figure they were probably castoffs from returning Marines Corps squadrons following a tour of duty, probably.

I really need to pose the question to a new friend of mine, who is friends with VF-17 ace Mel Kurlander.... :coolio:

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