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1/48 F4U-5 Argentinian Corsair


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Ooooo! Nice pics! Thanks!!

I thought I was going to need a football antenna (and I got one from a friend) but maybe I don't need it. I am so torn between the grey or blue but think the grey will be more fun to paint. I am almost done with the cockpit so I will have pics soon.

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Ooooo! Nice pics! Thanks!!

I thought I was going to need a football antenna (and I got one from a friend) but maybe I don't need it. I am so torn between the grey or blue but think the grey will be more fun to paint. I am almost done with the cockpit so I will have pics soon.

If you are done painting the cockpit, the then external color is already chosen for you. Follow the translation I posted a while back based on the Argentinian book.

Regards,

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Looks like I am committed now! The cockpit is a medium grey (a first for me!) I did as much highlighting as I thought would be noticeable.

The cockpit is from True Details and honestly, aside from the seat, its not too much better than the kit pieces. Actually, the resin instrument panels (there are different ones for the -5, -5N, -5NL) are not very nice at all. I tried to use the -5 specific resin panel and it never looked good - so I modified the kit part to fit with the resin cockpit tub. The corsair experts out there will know instantly this is the wrong instrument panel but what can I say? I like the looks of this one better.

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The cockpit is done and I am pretty much ready to close up the fuselage but I do know that I have to paint the tail gear well white. I also know that I have the paint the main gear wells white too. So I might as well get all out of the way at once. The eduard set has some wiring but I think its not very convincing (its flat) and difficult to work with. The hydraulic actuator on the PE fret is strange as the real thing is very 3 dimensional and this one could not be more flat:

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So I am stratch building - using a little evergreen round I made the... well, I don't know what it is, the hydraulic manifold for the gear door actuators? I also made the pistons that open the gear doors with the same rod and some tamiya tape cut thin. I drilled out everything for the 0.10 led wire

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Last part before I paint white - the gear itself. For the tail gear, I used the bits from the eduard set - the hook actuator and the... well, what do you call it? A tie down? I then drilled out some holes on one of the braces as the real plane has that:

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Main gear - much the same. I find the eduard hinges difficult to work with because they are very offset - I don't see why they did it this way but its the 3rd time I am seeing it. So I made the best of it but I am afraid it will be the weakest part of the build. Other than that I added the tractor pull rings. I used more lead wire for the brake cable and I used thin wire to create some springs.

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All this gets painted white the next time I am downstairs:

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Ask anyone who has built the Hasegawa Corsairs from -5 to -7 and they will tell you about the nose insert. I think Hasegawa wanted to have more flexibility with their molds so they made the fuselage part separate from the nose. Mind you, this is not the cowl - just the front of the fuselage. Anyway - no matter what, you end up with a strange step in the middle of a panel. The problem is that its right beside a lot of detail - so one has to be careful when trying to sand, file or blend this step in. I am trying to do that right now.

So I took a break and started on the external fuel tank. I did not like how I did it last time - I followed the instructions and they are not exactly right. The instructions have you hang the tanks off the pylons with sway bars. As you can see from a prototype shot - this is not correct:

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Here is how the model wants you to do it (or at least, does not tell you how to fix this):

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Drill out the holding piece

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Fit it onto the pylon (Its going to be a very strong join at this point - and it will allow for easier painting!

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I also installed the rod that connects the tank to the back of the wing (internal?) It was just .20 brass rod... maybe a little overscale but it is strong:

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I was looking through my dads stash now that I'm visiting for the week and found one of these. After following your build it might just follow me home hehe. By the way did you fibs the football antenna? What kit would include this just so I can keep j eye open for you.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks guys! Sorry for not updating for some time.... The fuselage is not the easiest to put together cleanly. It would have been one thing if there was no fuel/oil filler 'circle' panel on the top. Unfortunately, the panel like was very shallow and despite my best efforts to close the fuse with no gaps or steps - I had to do some sanding. Getting that circular panel line back (which is really a compound circle) was a pain but I think I got it.

The fuseleage also needed a spacer near the nose to properly mate with the bottom wing. I learned that lesson the hard way the last time I build this model. The other 'problem' is the attachment of the cowl... despite hasegawa's obvious cleverness with this design, its not a perfect mate and some clamps, sanding, will have to be used. But this is supposed to be a 'shake and bake' right? :)

Anyhow - I think I got it back on track. Here is my engine. I made the ignition wires from lead thread. The 'clamps' are tamiya tape. The rest is just paint and some post shade with some drybrushing:

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Here is the plane as it stands now - the cowl is not attached

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Nice work, I hate the step on the forward fuselage too. Hasegawa Tri-Tool makes a nice scriber that I use to replace the donuts on the front fuselage. It is almost like they designed it for this kit, the circular donuts are the exact size of what is sanded off when you fix the nose.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Now onto the dash...

This is a later mark gunsight and was part of the true details F4U-5 set. I cut out some plastic from a bubble package to act as the reflector and added some led line from the sight to the dash... not sure where it connects or what it does but it looks cool.

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Next I fix and then install the canopy.

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