Hello all, long-time lurker first-time poster. I’ve jumped back into modeling within the last year and half and have knocked out roughly half-dozen 1/48 kits, so I’ve sorta gotten a handle on modeling in general.
However, I have a fit problem with my current build which has me stumped and I could use some advice. I’m putting together Tamiya’s 1/48 F4U-1D Corsair with an Eduard PE upgrades. I have the cockpit finished and the fuselage closed. No problems up to this point. The PE kit replaced the instrument panel, seat and added a few fiddly levers. Fuselage closed around it nicely and I then completed the wing assembly.
The fun begins. The wing assembly cannot attach to the fuselage because the cockpit is literally in the way by nearly 1/8". I went back and checked the instructions and I didn’t miss any part or necessary step. The added PE was minor enough that it didn’t change the “form” of the aircraft, so that’s not the issue. The rear cockpit bulkhead is up tight to the top of the fuselage as well as the instrument panel, so the cockpit isn’t too low.
This seems like an engineering snafu on Tamiya’s part, because it’s so far off. To correct it I’m looking at cutting a chunk of the lower cockpit assembly off and I understandly feel rather queasy about it. Am I missing something? I searched for reviews and builds of this kit and no one else has apparently run into this. Help…[?]
I’ve built all 3 versions of the kit & 2 of the D’s. Never encountered a fit problem as you describe, so it’s not a Tamiya snafu. Only thing I can think of is that you somehow mis-positioned the PE Instrument panel. If you could post some pics might be able to tell more.
Yes, the bottom of the front bulkhead, the rudder pedal assembly and the control stick piston assembly are in the way of the wing. Just sitting in the fuselage it doesn’t look like a problem, but it is.
The only Eduard replacement part that would possibly be part of the problem is the instrument panel. I cut away the original per the instructions and attached the new exactly as the Eduard instructions stated. I suppose the instrument panel may be slightly larger than the original, but an 1/8"?
Grrr…[:(!] I think I know the answer to this, but I don’t want to start cutting.
Okay, just gave myself a crash course in posting images. Be advised, I have a cheapo digital camera and no real space for a lighting studio so bear with me on the picture quality.
Rear bulkhead behind the seat is as tight as possible to the upper fuselage.
Instrument panel is tight as possible to upper fuselage. That’s the Eduard replacement panel.
Cockpit assembly at wing joint. Doesn’t necessarily look wrong, until…
What the…?
Bottom line, if I’ve goofed it somehow I’ll have to fix it. But I’m not sure what I did wrong and it seems that others haven’t had a problem. I love this hobby!
Having built this kit many times myself, I’ve never run in to this problem. What exactly is the fuselage portion of the wing touching when you attempt to assemble it? From what I can see in the pictures, it looks like it oughta fit. Is it possible the rear of the wing assembly is hitting the fuselage and not the cockpit components? The cockpit components don’t look like they’re sticking down too far. It just looks like it oughta fit, based on what I can see.
In the last picture the back portion of the wing structure is hitting the joystick control pistons and front bulkhead you can see in the second to last picture. That gap between the fuselage and wing is how far off it is. I’m rather vexed.
However, see this picture…
The support placed across the observation window on the bottom of the wing isn’t helping anthing. If I remove that piece completely, that’ll help although it won’t solve the issue totally.
There are two things I can think of that may be the problem:
Even though the instrument panel is fitting securely, is it possible the side instruments have come slightly loose from the instrument panel, causing it to fall in at an angle?
Is the instrument panel in place in front of the positioning strips on the side of the fuselage? Misalignment could possibly have caused the problem.
Just some ideas… By the way, if you can get the thing to fit, looks like you’re off to a great start.
I’m sorry if this might come across the wrong way, but, based on what you’re telling us, and from what I can see in the pictures, I can’t see how the cockpit items are causing the problem. I’ve got my unbuilt kit of the same plane (Tamiya Kit# 61061 Vought F4U-1D Corsair) out and looking at it, and, by all accounts, your’s oughta fit. The cockpit items can’t possibly be causing the problem, unless they extend below the wing cutout in the fuselage, which the pictures show that they don’t. The wing assembly is curved on the bottom to fit the fuselage shape, so the cockpit items shouldn’t touch anything on the wing assembly. It looks almost as though the rear of the wing assembly needs to be trimmed a bit shorter to fit the fuselage. I sure hope that you get it figured out. It looks like you’re doing a great job on the build. As I’ve said earlier, I’ve built a few of these Corsairs, and they are great kits to build. Good Luck!!!
I’m building the exact same kit out of the box and I don’t have that problem at all. I’m at exactly the stage you’re at and my cockpit doesn’t stick out any more or any less than yours. I can’t really account for it. Did you mistakenly glue the observation window on the inside of the fuselage? That might account for the difference.
The only thing I can suggest is that your cockpit assembly looks like it is sitting too far back in the fuselage. In the first pic you posted, the green bulkhead is sitting slightly behind the front of the fuselage inserts. The front of the bulkhead should sit flush with the front of those inserts. On my one that I built with the eduard set added a few months ago, the intrument panel was also a bit further forward.There is a small notch in the bottom of the foot pedal part that should fit over the front of that angle brace over the window in the floor. and that part should sit flush with front of the window.
If you can, try moving the whole thing forward so it sits like I described earlier, and see if it fits then. I don’t think it’s you PE parts that are causing the problem, they looks just like mine did when I built my one, and it fit just fine. And the Tamiya cockpit is such a tight fitting one that any small error in positioning the parts can cause problems.
Looking at the pics, I agree with Daniel. There are vertical positioning guides molded into the fuselage halves. You may have inadvertently glued the tub on the wrong side of the guides.
Pingtang, I think you’re right. I completely missed that when I first looked at the pictures. After looking at my completed Corsairs, the seat bulkhead should indeed be flush with the fuselage. Good call!!!
And that my friends is exactly what happened! I had the cockpit tub back a hair and that snowballed itself into other areas. I fixed it over the weekend and now have the entire wing assembly attached along with the elevators and cowling. I’m off to the races! [:D]
BTW, I would have replied earlier but my DSL went down on Sunday, so I’ll give a belated thank you to all who chimed in. Thanks for the advice, comments, etc. etc…
