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Dark Blue Killer - Tamiya 1/32 F4U-1D Corsair


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Thanks Sabre!  No, the wheel hubs are painted aluminum.  The Dana Bell book has a great color pic of a Corsair from the same unit that the one I'm building is from (VMF-511).  In it, the hubs are clearly shown to be aluminum, not grey.  

 

 

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And she's on her legs!  Landing gear is installed.  A bit fiddly trying to get things to fit but once in, all was well.    I am a bit concerned about the ability of the landing gear to support the weight of this beast.  Tamiya provides a thin metal rod to go inside the main strut but the weak area seems to be right at the base of the LG, above the wheel axle.   Haven't seen anyone else complain about this, so I've got my fingers crossed. 

 

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After LG installation, I added the landing gear doors.  These come with the retraction cylinders.   I drilled out a small whole at the cylinder's base and added soft copper wire to replicate the hydraulic lines.   I'm calling the wheel wells complete.  I didn't replicate every single electrical / hydraulic line but I caught most of them and I think it's a decent improvement over the kit parts.  I still will be going back for final touchups and will add a few YZC scratches to the inner gear doors and hinges.   I'll then hit the landing gear with a dark wash to highlight some of the hinges, etc.   Probably throw some dark grey pastels on the outer wheel hubs to replicate brake dust.   If you folks haven't tried pastels, I highly recommend it.  A box of 30 colors purchased from Michael's will set you back $10 and provide a lifetime supply.  Easy to apply and if you don't like the look, you can simply wipe them off.  

 

On the subject of landing gear, I really like comparing the ruggedness of the gear on Corsairs and Hellcats to those on other WW2 carrier aircraft, such as the Zero, Seafire, etc.  You can see why US carrier planes developed a reputation for being much better suited for the rigors of life on a carrier than those of other nations (especially the British Spitfire variants which really had no business being on a carrier deck).   Truly some heavy duty metalwork here! 

 

Anyway, I digress.  Here are a few more pics. 

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Definately need to add a wash to tone down those pristine MLG's.  That being said, the color pic I've seen seem to show the landing gear on carrier-deployed Corsairs looking pretty clean so I won't be going that heavy in this area.

 

Still need to add the tailhook and I'll go back and add some major wear to the tie-down rings on the tail and main landing gears.  They will be mostly bare steel when i'm done. 

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That's it for now, I'm off to start building some HVAR's.   Thanks for looking.

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Thanks for the compliments Britaholic.     I hope you end up building one of these, you won't be disappointed. 

 

Just as  break from the main build, I started work on the ordinance.   My probable load-out is one external tank (more on this later), a 500 lb bomb (the kit supplies 2 x 1,000 lb bombs but these weren't very common on carrier deployed Corsairs, Jennings has graciously provided a Brassin resin 500 pounder) and 8 x HVAR's.  

 

The rockets ended up being a bit of work.   While Tamiya nicely supplies the bodies in a single piece (to avoid a lot of tedious sanding of seams), they do have a couple of pin marks on the rocket body and two on every fin.   Took a good amount of time to sand these away.  Other than that, these rockets are superb.  Tamiya even provides a PE exhaust cover.  I wish Tamiya would market these separately, I'll need them for my upcoming F-51 Mustang project.   They even provide full stenciling for the warhead and motor body (haven't gotten to applying these decals yet).   Whilst on the subject of warheads, pictures provided by Fundekals of the version I'm building on the USS Block Island show the warheads to be a creamy, off-white color. I thought that made a nice contrast to the regular OD ones; so far I've yet to see any documentation on why they were colored like this.   Best I can come up with is that they were white phosphorous (WP) warheads.  

 

Anyway, I painted the motor bodies in a dull aluminum (later versions used in Korea were a light grey), painted the fins a slightly lighter color and painted the two bands supporting the mounting lugs in silver.  The rockets were capped off with steel colored fuzes.  Seems to replicate the ones I've seen in pictures.  The actual HVAR's came in separate pieces.   The motor bodies, warheads, fuzes, fins and mounting lugs were all assembled on deck, just prior to loading.   Aside from the decals, the only other thing I'll be adding are the "pigtail" ignition wiring that runs from the socket on the aft pylon to the igniter which was inserted in the motor (I've already drilled out the opening in the motor exhaust).   See below (and thanks to Finn for finding this picture).

The 5-inch High Velocity Aircraft Rocket (HVAR).

 

 

Here are few pics of my rockets so far.  I tried to add a few scratches here and there to the warheads.  A few seams will be re-puttied and sanded prior to mounting. 

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More rocket work.  I applied the decals to the motor and warhead.  Made a point to position them at different angles since, in reality, the rockets and warheads were installed randomly.   Not going to see any real Corsairs with the stenciling uniformly lined up on all 8 assembled rockets.  

 

Also started installing the "pigtail" igniter leads.  As in the drawing above, they run from a plug receptacle at the base of the rear pylon and are inserted into one of the exhaust ports.   

 

One down, 7 to go.   

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Yes, I will still be dealing with that seam line on the aft motor body!

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Next up will be clear coating the Corsair.   As mentioned, the Colourcoats Gloss Sea Blue paint has a rather dull finish to it.  Even some pretty weathered F4U's still exhibited a bit of shine so I'm going to have to gloss this thing up a bit.  I need to do this so I can add the decals, secondly to replicate the real thing. 

 

In the past, I've been using Future.  However, to be honest, I've never been able to get satisfactory results.   I always end up with some of it pooling or drying in a pebbly finish. Also, despite multiple coats, it really doesn't dry that shiny.  I saw a post over on Chuck540z3's amazing Spitfire IX build where he mentioned he had the same problem and ended up using Tamiya X-22 gloss.  Said it's better than anything he's ever used in the past, including Future.  I'm going to give Tamiya's product a try.  Wish me luck guys, this is a step that will make or break the project.  If anyone has experience using this stuff, please let me know how you like it.

Edited by 11bee
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11Bee

 

 Have you thought about trying 2K automotive clear? I bought a kit at the local paint shop for my model cars and it is great. Have not tried it on an aircraft kit yet but it will be happening soon I hope! Another clear I have tried and that is Mission Models Gloss clear it is also nice.

Edited by tosouthern66
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So I got my order of Tamiya X-22 and sprayed the first coat on my Corsair.  This stuff is da bomb!!   Goes on nice and smoothly and provides a MUCH shinier finish than anything I've been able to accomplish with Future.   Still have a second coat to apply but here's how we are looking currently.  Note that this finish definitely looks more like what I've seen in period color pics, the Colorcoat finish looked fine from a tonal standpoint but appeared to be much too flat.   One note on X-22 - you need to apply it wet.  This took my a bit of getting used to, I typically apply multiple light coats.  Another note on this stuff - it stinks.   Lots of fumes from using it, I highly recommend you either use a good paint booth or get a respirator.   Can't thank Chuck enough for all his useful info. 

 

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Also completed all 8 HVAR's.   This was a significant amount of work but they'll be highly visible since the wings will be folded (and yes, I still plan on filling those seams that are visible on a few of the rockets).   

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Thanks for looking. 

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Got the two outer wings completed.  For some weird reason, carrier based Corsairs later in the war often had ammo covers painted in either earlier camo paint (in this case blue-grey) or applied in the wrong position (ie - GSB cover present within the white star of the national marking.  I added a couple of blue grey ammo covers, may add another 1-2.  We'll see how it goes.   I'm a bit nervous about masking on the national insignia decal.  

 

Sorry for the crappy pics, I can only get decent pics outside and today, the glossy paint reflected the clouds.  The wings really are a nice uniform GSB, gotta trust me on this.  Note that in real life, the service markings were printed on a silver/grey background so that's not carrier film you see below, the decal is a solid color. 

 

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Underside of wings.  That smudge on the right wingtip was just pastel dust.  It's been cleaned off.   Speaking of pastels, I used some ground up black pastels to replicate the soot from the .50 cal MG's and HVARs.   Most pics of the underside of the wing show them to be pretty filthy in this area.    I'm not done with the weathering.  More to come.   Note that Tamiya even gives you warning placards that go inside the wing.  Good attention to detail here. 

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That's it for now.  Thanks for looking and for all the great feedback!

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BTW - if anyone is looking for a nice source of WW2 Corsair pictures, head over here:

 

https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/aircrafts-2-3/f4u-corsair/f4u-4-corsairs-vmf-224-on-okinawa/

 

Close to 200 good quality pictures,  many of which I haven't seen before.  More than a few of -4 Corsairs, which were pretty uncommon.   

 

For some reason, this one really jumped out at me.   Would be a great subject for a diorama!

 

Ace Pilot Donald Burch of VMF-221 on his Damaged F4U-1 Corsair 125 (Bu No 02467) â Russell Islands 1943

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Got a bit of progress on the decals.   I've been burning off some "use it or lose it" vacation time and having a house empty except for me, a Labrador retriever and couple of old cats, it's a good time to get some modeling done.  

 

I've completed one side of the fuselage.   Now she's in her generic colors as she would have looked when received by her squadron straight from the Vought factory.   Again, I just used the standard kit decals.  No issues at all, just applied a bit of Micro Sol to get them to set down nice snug. 


While I was at it, I also started a bit of weathering.   Dana Bell's book has a couple of outstanding color pics of Corsairs from the USS Block Island.   One pic in particular (on the back cover) shows a very heavily weathered F4U being re-armed.   This aircraft had pretty pronounced grey staining aft of the cowl flaps.  Not sure what it is, it shouldn't be exhaust.  I'm assuming it's just some discoloration of the paint from the engine heat.  When I gloss coated the fuselage, I left this area alone since the pics seem to show a pretty flat finish in this area.   The other plus to this is that I was able to use some grey pastels in this area (pastels really need to be applied to flat paint, don't work very well on gloss).   Still a work in progress but I'm pretty happy with the results. I''ll be going back in to touch up this area and add a few oil streaks, etc. Keep in mind as well, when I seal this area with dullcote, it will tone done the grey a bit.  Also, much more weathering to be done on the wing root, etc. 

 

Anyway - some pics:

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Note that the upper engine cowling is only loosely fitted.   I haven't decided if I'm going to glue it in place or leave it off to display the entire motor.   Right now I'm leaning towards only having the lower cowling removed. 

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i'll also address that bit of silvering on the fuel tank instructions directly in front of the windscreen.   Small prick with a needle, some Micro Sol and all will be well. 

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As always, thanks for looking!

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While I ponder the ammo cover issue, I completed the application of all "generic" markings on my Corsair.   Even less on the port side of the aircraft and most of them are small.  Also added the various markings to the wingroots.   One word of warning on the kit decals, the large ones are a bit prone to tearing.  I had this happen with national insignia, need to go back and do a bit of touchup.  Anyway, next up will be the Fundekals!

 

Here's the port side, in all it's glory. 

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Thanks for all the good ARC feedback!  

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5 hours ago, fulcrum1 said:

Great job so far! Maybe I missed it, what aircraft are you trying to build?

I'm using the very nice Fundekals sheet to model My Nel III, a VMF-511 Corsair flying off the USS Block Island.  The decals are fantastic, went on great, no bleed through of the dark blue through the white, which often happens with other aftermarket decals.   Here are some pics of where I am currently at:

 

Sorry that I smudged some of the pastels aft of the cowl flaps.  That's the great thing about pastels, easy to fix.  Once they are under a coat of flat, they'll be much more durable. 

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On 11/12/2018 at 10:51 AM, 11bee said:

...when the USN developed the rocket equipped -1D, apparently they decided it would impact production if they had to install the rocket firing button on the pilot's control stick (like every other aircraft had).   Instead, to keep things simple (and add to the ergonomic nightmare of this cockpit), the simply installed a crude handgrip on the left side of the cockpit with the rocket firing button included.   Typical Navy solution, never mind that it mostly blocked the view of the flap position indicator.  

 

That's bananas!  You're diving from low to ridiculously low altitude while attacking some probably very dangerous people on the ground, and you're fishing around your cockpit for for the rocket release.  If it wasn't for the very real production priorities you cite, we'd think it was sheer spite.  

 

This is an ideal thread: amazing build, with lots of historical context.  Threads like these are why text-and-image message boards can still be awesome in 2018.

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16 hours ago, Fishwelding said:

 

That's bananas!  You're diving from low to ridiculously low altitude while attacking some probably very dangerous people on the ground, and you're fishing around your cockpit for for the rocket release.  If it wasn't for the very real production priorities you cite, we'd think it was sheer spite.  

 

This is an ideal thread: amazing build, with lots of historical context.  Threads like these are why text-and-image message boards can still be awesome in 2018.

Thanks for the compliment Fish!  You'll be pleased to know that they finally added the firing button to the control stick in the -4 version.    I ended up replacing the too large red firing button with something smaller.  I'll post a pic when I get a chance. 

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Mini update: 

 

Been working on "the bomb".   Most of the pics available show the Corsairs on the Block Island with a mixed weapons load of HVAR's, a single drop tank (more on these later) and a 500 lb general purpose bomb.   Only issue is that the Tamiya kit comes with 1,000 pounders.   Thankfully, Jennings was gracious enough to donate a Brassin resin 500 lb bomb to assist me.  Thank you Jennings! 

 

The Brassin bomb is really nice.  Perfectly cast in resin, it also comes with the various decals needed and PE arming propellers for the front and rear fuzes. Nice stuff and highly recommended.

 

One issue I've always had is seeing WW2 (and later) model aircraft loaded with immaculate, glossy bombs.   It just didn't happen.  The bomb bodies were stored outdoors in bomb dumps for extended periods. They got scratched, faded and generally banged up.   Often they were rolled through dirt and mud prior to being mounted on the aircraft.  Even bombs being hung on carrier aircraft would still be weathered (not quite as heavily as ones on land-based aircraft).   I tried to replicate this by shooting the body overall OD, then dusting on a browner coat, followed by a lighter coating of diluted sand, sprayed very finely.  I then glossed the bomb, added the decals (they go on quite nicely) and sprayed the body with dullcoate.  I left the fins pretty much immaculate.   They were kept separate from the bombs themselves and since they needed to be in good shape to avoid the bomb going astray, they were only mounted to the bomb's body just prior to being loaded on the aircraft. Once the dullcoate was on, I dry brushed the bomb using a couple of lighter shades of tan.  I also used to toothpick to gently replicate some scratches and dings. 

 

One other thing I noted was that the bomb bodies were fitted with wooden rings around them.  These rings were used to protect the suspension lugs and also to allow the bombs to be rolled on hard surfaces.  Here's a good example of a typical outdoor bomb dump.  Note the wooden rings and how banged up these bombs are looking (although I've seen much worse in other pictures). 

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Edited by 11bee
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More progress.   First off, I sealed the decals with another coating of Tamiya X-22 gloss.  I wasn't sure if the national markings were flat or gloss on these aircraft.   The decals themselves are very flat.   Sounds like the stars and bars were glossy on the real thing, so I applied a light coat over the markings.   I also looked at a nice color reference picture of a VMF-511 aircraft in Dana Bell's book.  It shows the upper foward fuselage to be pretty dull.  Whether that is intentional, to act as an anti-glare panel or just from all the fuel spills and maintenance work, I'm not sure.  The fuselage sides aft of the cowl flaps and the wing roots also look pretty flat.  For these areas, I hit them with an overspray of Testor's Dullcoate (my favorite flat).   Not sure if it really is evident in the pic below but in RL, you can see the difference. 

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As you may have noticed, I also added the drop tank (and 500 lb bomb).  The drop tanks on these aircraft are somewhat involved.  Fundekals did some excellent research and noted that certain carriers used the standard issue USN 150 drop tank (same one used on Hellcats) as shown above, while other carriers used a larger 160 gallon drop tank (believe the same one used on Army Air Corp P-38's).  Those larger drop tanks were painted a non-spec light grey.   Unfortunately, Tamiya doesn't provide this drop tank so modelers need to be aware of this when they are selecting which Fundekals variant they will be building (approx half of the Fundekals subjects used the 160 gal tank).   I was lucky, I had a set of these tanks from a Trumpeter kit in my stash so I was covered either way but hopefully some aftermarket outfit will release these tanks. 

 

Anyway, I opted to leave my drop tank in immaculate GSB.   I've seen some of these tanks pretty banged up and chipped but I think most of those were post-war aircraft that had the tanks mounted for extended periods.  While deployed in combat, I'm guessing these tanks only lasted a few missions before being expended.  I'll probably go back and add a light fuel stain on the fill port but that's the extend to weathering.  Plus I think it will make a nice contrast to the overall airframe. 

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I also added the 500 lb bomb.  Hopefully these pics do a better job of showing my weathering efforts.  Had a slightly brighter day today when I took these pics.  I do like the contrast to the overall blue aircraft.  Have to admit, that bomb looks pretty small compared to the overall bulk of the Corsair.   Not sure you can see it in any of the pics but I also added the arming wire that held the nose fuse windmill in place until the weapon was dropped.   This is a small feature but seems to be neglected on most models (along with weathering of the bombs themselves).   Note how the rear fins (hopefully) stand out from the weather-beaten bomb body. 

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That's it for now guys, thanks for looking. 

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So, moving on to the final steps here.   I'm back to the outer wings.   Mounted the HVAR's.  For some reason, they didn't fit very well into the wings.  I had to cut the mounting stubs short and widen the holes in the bottom of the wings.  Not the end of the world and given that Tamiya is usually dead on with their fit, I'm guessing somehow I screwed up this step.  Once installed, I noted that the HVAR's pretty much blocked all my nice gun residue on the bottom of the wings but heck, at least I know it's there.

 

After that, I decided to replicate the heavy soot on the .50 MG ports.   I noticed that many carrier based Corsairs at this stage of the war had their MG ports taped up with what looked like regular, old-school packing tape.   See below (another great picture from Dana Bell's book):

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I wanted to replicate what these taped up muzzles looked like after a few thousand .50 cal rounds blew through them.   Again, another awesome pic from Dana's book:

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If you squint, you can make out a few bits of packing tape still present.  This great pic also shows some of the restrained weathering on the wing leading edge I'll be trying to replicate later. 

 

So I ended up using a combo of paint, pastels and radome yellow painted masking tape (cut into very small bits) to replicate all this.  I'm not done yet but I think it's a good start.  Here are a few pics:

 

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Nice gloss on this section of the wing.  Unlike the upper wing roots and areas around the MG doors, these sections woudn't have seen much weathering.   You can still make out some MG/rocket soot on the outboard flap though. 

 

A few shots of the leading edges.  Overall, I'm generally pleased with the current look but I'll be going back to tone down the tape just a bit. 

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Again, this is still a work in progress, I'll definitely be tweaking those tape bits.  Thanks for looking. 

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Finally got to taking care of a missing detail.  The right hand side number had an extra strip of white adjacent to the number 9.   No idea how Fundekals even caught such a minor detail like this but it shows their commitment to accuracy.   I also was able to complete the forward landing gear covers.   I (again) owe a great deal of thanks to "1to1Scale" over on LSP who was truly kind enough to send me a couple of decals I was missing.  With those decals (the oleo servicing placards) I was able to finish the markings applied to those LG covers.   I also used the Fundekals "Enclosure Release" decal for the canopy.  It seems to be more accurate than the one included on the Tamiya sheet.    It's slow going, but I'm getting there.  Next up will be installing the outer wings.

 

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Canopy is just dryfitted in place.  Still need to add some interior details to it.   Note that "pebbly" finish on the national insignia is just a weird reflection.  It's not actually present on the model!

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Forward landing gear covers in place and properly marked.  Thanks again 1to1Scale!!!  For some strange reason, the aircraft number was only painted on the left door and cowling.

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That's it for now.  Thanks for looking. 

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Thanks Phantom!

 

Just wanted to offer one bit of advice - if you are painting around the clear parts, make sure you do a good job of masking!!  I neglected to mention in my last post above but when I pulled off all the masks, I found to my horror that the interior of the windscreen was partially covered in Dullcoate!  For a few minutes, I thought the kit was ruined.   After I was done with an epic swearing spree, I decided to try to repair this without ripping off the windscreen assembly.  Using surgical tweezers with the tips covered with tape to avoid scratching the clear plastic, I was able to reach inside and delicately remove the armored glass that had most of the Dullcoate.    I then used Novus's two part plastic polish (can't say enough about this stuff).   

 

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Polish 2 is a fine scratch remover, with a microabrasive suspended in the compound.   Using a high quality cloth and a few drops of this stuff, I was able to get the flat coating off.   I then went in with Polish 1, which is a high quality finishing polish to fully restore the clarity and shine of the piece.   Ever since I've found this stuff, I'm now using the finishing polish in lieu of Future.  It really enhances the transparency of clear plastic parts and minimizes dust build up. 

 

There was a bit of dullcoat on the windshield interior as well.   I ended up using a small bit of fine cloth, wrapped in tiny ball and held in place with fine tip locking tweezers.   Going very slowly and using the two steps above, I was able to remove all the remaining Dullcoate.   Just needed to frequently replace the cloth and take my time.   Thankfully, all the areas that got hit with dullcoate were accessible.  

 

Took me nearly two hours.    The moral to this story is - TAKE YOUR TIME MASKING!!

 

This update has been brought to you by the fine folks at Novus!  :)

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Completed the outer wings.  Added the navigation and ID lights.    Finally found a close up picture of the navigation lights.  It appears that the interior is flat black and a clear plex cover goes over.   The framework is clear and simply shows the black painted surface that it's screwed into.   To replicate this, I painted the interior of the frames flat black.  I also used a very short section of sanded rod to replace the very small bulb that Tamyia had molded into the wingtip.  It should have been bigger but there isn't enough room inside the clear cover.

 

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Next up, it's time to finally install the folded outer wings.  First off was to add a couple of hinged panels (never noticed these before).

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Next was to add the outer wings.   Typical Tamiya, they just slide down the spar and pretty much click into place.  No glue required!  Not a bad thing and if needed, I can always remove the outer wings for transport of the model or storage. 

 

One note - there is a fair amount of weight on these spars with the wings installed.   Really need to be careful with handling the model at this stage.   If you ever end up breaking the connection, you are pretty much done.  Will be next to impossible to repair, given the small size of the hinge and the load it's bearing.   Tamiya provides two support rods that were used on the real thing when the wings were folded. These are a bear to install but I highly recommend that you do.  They help keep the outer wings rigid and minimize (a bit)  any flexing that could damage the hinge. 

 

Some pictures:

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hard to see in the pics but I added a bunch of scrapes and a black wash to those support struts since they would have been banged up quite a bit during normal use. 

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Couple of notes - I'm going to tone down the gun dust a bit.   Looked great at first but after looking at the pics, it needs to cleaned up a bit.   No biggie.   Also will be adding some hydraulic and electrical lines in the wingfold.   Going to be a pain to do these since  you can't really put the model on it's side.    Anyway, that's it for now, thanks for looking. 

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I've completed the prop (fun fact - the Corsair had the largest prop of any WW2 single engine fighter, it was close to 14' in diameter and one Corsair pilot achieved a kill when his guns froze and he used his prop to saw the tail off of a Japanese aircraft).   The construction was pretty basic, just took a while to get the paintwork done.  I first sprayed the tips white, then yellow (yellow never seems to look right applied over unpainted plastic), then masked the tips and shot everything gloss black.  I also painted the tip of the prop hub white since that's what My Nell was rocking when photographed back in 45.  Once I applied the decals, I sprayed everything a semi-gloss overcoat, since that's how the real thing was finished.   Lastly, I added a bit of weathering. I kept the paint scratches to a minimum since on a carrier deck, you aren't going to have any rocks / coral bouncing off the blades.   For a land based Corsair, I would have gone much heavier.  Here's an example of a Corsair at the opposite end of the spectrum.

 

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I also started doing some weathering.  I applied some brownish-black pastels to the wing root area to replicate scuffing from the maintenance crew's boots.  I also started using a new trick.   Got an artist's grade silver pencil and have been using that to replicate fine scratches and individual rivets.   I'm pretty pleased with the results.  Only trick is to make sure you keep it sharp.   Here are some pics.

 

I toned down the weathering around the MG ports a bit.  Still tweaking this..

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This one's a bit out of focus, I'll provide some better pics later. 

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Some overall shots showing the weathering.  Again this is very much a work in progress.  I need restrain myself since these aircraft weren't beat up as much as their land-based brothers.   Again, keep in mind that I'll be toning down the MG soot some more. 

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That's it for now, thanks for looking and thanks for all the great feedback.

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