Joe, that’s awesome! Getting details to the level of the actuator cable in at all in 1/72 is great. They’re so splayed on the Corsair that you’ll really be able to see, too. Nice.
Do you mean roughing in sheet stock in the shape of the profile and then sand or filing down flush? Would you do that before or after joining the wing assembly to the fuselage?
This is where my lack of experience really comes out.
Thanks!
-J
Do you mean compressing the aft section of the fuselage down to get it to meet the fore section? If fusing w/ liquid glue, how would you keep the glue away from the rivet detail on the fore section of that panel?
What I think is tricky about that area is that on the prototype those lapped (not sure that’s the right term) panels lay out the same all the way up the fuselage, and on this kit that join almost always looks slightly different. It would be easy-ish to fix if you were willing to sacrifice the rivets, but I’m not (yet). The raised rivets are a lot of the charm of this kit…
Thanks!
-J
A bit more work.
First detaching the elevators do drop them. What a pain! Now I know why people don’t bother.
The hinges are from Eduard’s PE detail set. I managed to break, lose, or accidently throw away almost every other piece from it (the perils of learning as you go, I reckon). I should have filled back in some of the plastic lost in cutting.
I decided to try a styrene shim to fix the wing bottom gap. I roughly traced out around the fuselage on a piece of .05” stock and then trimmed the inside piece and glued it with Tamiya Extra Thin.
Once attached, I shaved the outside flush with the fuselage.
After joining the parts, I filled in any remaining gaps with gap filling CA. Not sure this is the best way to do this, but I think it’s going to work out.
It’s starting to look like an airplane and I’m about ready to start painting. It’s so weird to me that it’s weeks and weeks of fiddling about with tiny details and then, bang, all of a sudden there you are.
Hello!
Nice work with fixing that gap! You can save a lot of time this way, too! If you would like to perfect this technique, you could try Dragon’s P-38 - you get to do it with almost every part, and in 1:72, too…
Good luck with your build and have a nice day
Paweł
Man you’re doing a great job on this F-4
.Irreguardless of the 30 year modeling hiatus, it looks like you’ve been modeling all along. After I re-started the hobby,my first 4 found their way to the trash can.
Thanks guys!
Yikes! That just sounds miserable.
-J
Absolutely outstanding effort Johnny. You tireless work is paying off in spades. Very glad to see that the shim seems to have worked out well. You are really doing some stunning building. Hang with it and keep the updates coming.
Nice fix bud…That’s coming along nicely…
Joe and Joe
Thanks so much. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the encouragement and support. I haven’t had a chance to get back to it in a bit, but will hopefully will get some work in this week.
There’s a few remedial items (finishing cleaning up that join and restoring rivet detail, cleaning up around the machine gun tubes, fixing a gap between the horizontal stablizer and elevators, etc) that need to be addressed before finally moving on to painting the airframe.
Best
-J
So… what with one thing or another, the remedial items have taken me three weeks to get through, but I think I may actually be moving on.
First up, rivets. I used Archer resin rivets to restore some of the rivet detail. The big line across the body took me four tries to get straight enough. I did, however, eventually learn a valuable lesson about making sure that decals are dry before applying Microsol. The spacing isn’t exactly right either, but hopefully won’t be noticable when they’re the same color as the body. There’s also some on the wing near where I filled the drop tank holes which I did apply individually to match the spacing.
I was going to do each of the plates all the way down, but decided this falls under the category of “life is short.”
My “clever” idea of turning the rudder by scoring the tabs and then regluing in place did not work. The work around was to use .031 brass rod as a pin at the bottom, and then cement at the top. That seems to be okay.
More rivets on the horizontal stablizers. There was a gap from cutting the elevators to drop them that looked unnatural, which I filled with .030 stock. Smoothing that in naturally obliterated all the detail on the stablizer, so I rescribed the lines and added rivets. I also managed to ding around the hinges, but hopefully they’ll look okay when painted.
Fumes from spraying lacquers, such as Tamiya primer, were bugging my wife. I spray in an unfinished storage room in the basement which is right underneath the master bedroom bathroom, and the fumes were wandering up into the bedroom and my kid’s room (old house). Acrylics seem to be fine, but laquers not so much.
My work area is below grade and there aren’t any windows, just storm doors I can open in warm weather, so I’ve pulled together the stuff to make a spray booth and filter to try to contain the worst of it. Hopefully tonight I’ll get that built and then tomorrow I’m back in business priming and actually painting this little monster.
(I’m sure I’ll discover all manner of ways to overthink that as well, but one thing at a time.)
As always, thanks for looking.
-J
It is great to see an update from you. And what an update it is. Very impressive rivet work and your solution to the rudder is well done. I’m really looking forward to seeing some paint on this. Excellent work my friend.
I can sympathize with your spraying of enamel paints issue. Fortunately I have a spray booth that greatly minimizes the odor impact in our small house. I’m just kind of attached to enamel paints. I like how they spray and I’m partial to the finish they provide.
Wow, you are doing a great job with this and what a family history connection.[Y]
Mike
Very impresive for being away for so long. Now you are giving me the itch to add a 'cat to the stash, only a little bigger version.
That’s looking great! I have one of these on the shelf of doom, and it’s nowhere near as nice as yours, haha.
I can’t wait to see your next updates.
-BD-
This really nice work. Great update on your WIP build.
Toshi
Oops, double post.
-BD-
Thanks so much. I really appreciate the positive feedback.
I got my spray booth and bucket filter built. I call it “the contraption”. I didn’t document, but it was pretty easy to do and seems to work well. I got it primed with Tamiya grey primer and no complaints from anyone about fumes. I can post something with pics in the appropriate forum if there’s interest.
I’m about ready to paint the airframe with actual paint in '42 PTO camo. Now if only I can find a few unallocated hours…
-J
Looking really cool, love all the modifications you have made!
Thanks USMC93.
I managed to sneak in a few hours this weekend, so a quick update.
I finally got the camo on. After a lot of back and forth, I decided that pre-shading isn’t for me, at least for this build. I instead opted for a bit of subtle post shading and building up color in layers with variation. It’s probably a bit too subtle. I might mess with it a bit more. I need to touch up spots on the camo (on the cowl, for instance, see below). I’m also hoping to get more variation, along with selective panel line detail with a wash, or washes.
Engine on, landing gear press fit.
As a kid, I never understood why anyone would pay perfectly good money for resin wheels. When I started this project, I still didn’t understand. However, in my research, I found a photo of a Wildcat from VMF-121 at Cactus clearly showing knobby tires, so I dutifully ordered the appropriate resin AM (I forget which, will update).
After priming, I sprayed a coat of XF-69, NATO black (I’m loving this for most black duties) lightened with a drop or two of XF-2, and then the lightest mist of XF57 buff mixed with a bit of XF20 medium grey. I’ll probably dust them up a bit more with pastels, and then once I get a wash going in the crevices, I think they’ll look really good.
You can’t see it in this pic because the hilights are blown out, but I picked out the oleo on the struts with X11 chrome silver. Despite being a tiny detail, it kind of makes it for me.
I’ve also almost got the prop done. I’ll hopefully the decals, general weathering and canopy going soon.
Thanks for looking.
-J