1/72 Korean Corsairs Part III

by Richard “RJ” Tucker

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Ok! In part II we got the wings together, time to finish up! Before you start, make sure you’ve got plenty of filler and sandpaper, kiss your significant other, scratch the dog and kick the cat ‘cause we’re goin’ to be a spell!!! 

Glue the fuselage together aft of the cockpit, but don’t glue the forward fuselage together. After we fashion the aft bulkhead, we’ll insert the cockpit and finish gluing the fuselage together.  Glue plastic card to the back of the cockpit and sand it to shape.  (38) Paint it interior green. 

There is a HUGE gap down the center of the aft wheel well: way too tedious to fill in!  If you want to scratch build the interior, you will have to lengthen the tail wheel strut. Too hard! So, I simply covered up the gap.  Using the aft landing gear door as a template, I cut out a piece of plastic card in the shape of the gear wheel; painted the card flat black; and glued it in place. With a pair of dividers, I located the part placement hole and opened it up with a rat-tail file. (39) 

We need to finish up the cockpits, now.  Since the back of instrument kit part is smooth, glue the scratch built panel to the back of the kit part; the kit part acts as a stiffener. Glue the panel to the cockpit assembly. Don’t forget to remove the bottom center consol on the –5N cockpit. Place the cockpit in the fuselage through the bottom and glue in place. Well...#@%&*$ There is a bad gap between the cockpit combing and the instrument panel. I filled the gap with a plastic shim on the –4 and made a cockpit shroud for the –5N. (40) 

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Place the tape template on the –5N fuselage and mark the exhaust location. Restore the ports using a file.  Don’t forget the exhaust ports on the wing-part bottom! (41,42)

Glue the front of the –5N fuselage together. Take a deep breath! Place the –5N wing on the fuselage and glue the back seam.  Now hold the wing and fuselage assemblies together, gluing the seams as you work your way to the front of the model. When that has set, glue the engine cowling to the fuselage. LINE UP COWLING TOP AND BOTTOM SEAMS SO THEY ARE ON THE FUSELAGE CENTER LINE!  Okay! Now the front of fuselage is UGLY!  The most important thing is to be sure the cowling is centered. I filled all the gaps with plastic shims to ensure maximum strength.  Fill and sand all the gaps and restore the shape.  (43a,b, c, d, e) 

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Glue the front half of the –4 fuselage together and glue on the engine cowl. Also, glue the engine to the firewall part.  After cleaning up the seams, add the engine through the fuselage bottom before gluing the wing in place.  The front of the engine should be tangent to the cowl opening. (huh?)  Fix a piece of Scotch tape across the front of the cowl.  Insert the engine through the back and push it forward until the engine front touches the tape. (44) Hold it in place with a little modeling clay. After any minor adjustments to the placement, glue it with super-glue. (45) Just leave the clay.  

Glue the –4 wing to the fuselage. 

From the front, place the engine in the –5 fuselage and dry fit the proper location with tape over the cowl. Glue it in place.  Glue the cowl on and fill in the gaps. (46a, 46b) 

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The tail-planes on the –5N did not have the circular access covers that are molded in the kit parts. Fill them in and sand smooth. (47) Glue them on.

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Now, we get to restore the panel lines.  On the –4, the task is pretty straightforward.  Just re-scribe the filled line or connect the lines where a section was sanded away.  For the –5N, the task is more involved.  Refer to the scale drawings. Using label tape or masking tape, lay down the tape edge to establish the line. Run your scribing tool down the tape edge the length of the panel line.  If you make a mistake, fill in the error with Mr. Surfacer or superglue and sand smooth.  I used a file edge to restore the gap behind the cowl flaps.  Locate the position of the exhaust guard (parts 45) and glue them in place. (48) 

The –5N had trihedral (like a 3-face pyramid) shaped reflectors on the wing tips and tail.  Trihedral shape is too hard, so I cut 0.8mm x 2.0mm strip into right triangles and glued them on the wing tip tops and on the fuselage aft of the tail planes. Refer to the scale drawing for placement. (49) Add the guns and fill the seams. (50) 

Ok! We’re ready to paint.   Paint the top of the forward fuselage flat black and then mask out the anti-glare panel.  Paint the models and parts still on trees Gloss Sea Blue (FS  15042).   Let them dry at least a few days before handling. 

TIP:  Place the models in box with a cover to dry.  The box will keep the dust off the smooth finish while it dries.   

TIP:  Cut the tips off of 3 toothpicks and cut them down to about ¼ of their length. Wedge them in the landing gear holes. The model will rest on these stilts while drying, so the wet bottom won’t be marred.   

When dry, mask out the radome and paint it silver.  Silver provides a neutral base coat for the light blue. When dry, paint the radome light blue.  (51)

TIP:  Using very fine sandpaper, I very lightly wet sanded out a small run of paint on the radome for touch-up with the airbrush. The result was a worn (duh!) weathered look. I left it as is.

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Decals, weapons, weathering, and details: 

Cut out the 8 of the 10 rockets in the F4U-4B kit. Two go in the spares box.  File the bottoms flat and clean up the molding seams.  Glue the bombs together and clean the seams. TIP:  Drill a hole in the base of the rockets and bombs, and wedge it on a toothpick. The toothpick acts as a handle for painting. (52) I painted the bombs and rocket noses flat olive drab (34087). Then mask the rocket warheads and paint them silver. (53, 54) 

I painted the propellers flat black. On the –5N, the hub is light blue; on the –4 it’s silver.  The propeller tips were painted yellow with a fine brush.  In the Korean War pictures in my references, the Corsairs had no stenciling or emblems on the propeller blades, so I left the decals off.  (55)  

TIP!  I found easiest way to paint the propeller tips and keep a sharp, straight line is to lay the hobby knife edge on the propeller blade and lightly score a grove 2 mm from the tip.  Sparingly and CAREFULLY paint the tip. The paint will flow to the line and stop. 

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When the models are thoroughly dry, decal the planes.  After the decals thoroughly dry, seal them with a clear coat. I used Testors Sealer for Metalizer.  The sealer yields a smooth gloss finish that’s not too shinny getting rid of the high-gloss toy appearance. Then, remove the masking. (56) 

Before you put the fragile details on the models, drill any placement  holes. For both, you need to drill a hole on the front edge of the rudder for the wire antenna and a placement hole on the side of the –5N fuselage for the second wire antenna. Drill a 1mm hole on top of the fuselage where the original gun sight representation was.  (I waited to now because the holes are so small, the multiple coats of paint and sealer would have filled them in.) 

These models depict carrier-based aircraft. Therefore, I kept weathering to a minimum. The gloss blue color scheme weathered well and was easy to maintain. So, I limited the weathering to engine and gun exhaust. First, airbrush a medium gray from the exhaust ports down the fuselage following the contour of the wing. After the gray, turn down the airbrush to the minimum flow and make a very light black spray at each gun port and ejection chute.  Then, spray a light burst over the gray exhaust.  Mark the demarcation between black and gray with dark gray pastels; use a paper towel to blend in the pastels to even the exhaust pattern.  For the bottom exhaust ports, lightly sand and rough up the gloss finish in the direction of the smoke flow. Apply some dark gray pastel at the bottom port and blend it down the bottom of the model.  When you are happy with the weathering, paint the exhaust port depressions flat black.  (57) 

TIP: Make a copy of the profile drawing and rehearse your airbrush technique on the profile before, gulp!, painting the model side. 

TIP: Blending pastels.  Apply some pastel powder (not pastel oil crayons) at the beginning of the port (or panel line) and use a paper towel to pull in the powder down the roughed finish. This leaves a feathered, streaked appearance. This technique works of flat or rough finishes.

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Continue to assemble the models according to the kit directions. 

NOTE: Leave the fold-down step (part 50) off the –4. The step was only installed on the –5 and later variants. Since the real step folded up in the fuselage, I left off the –5N, too.  

I assembled the –5N then finished up the –4. Except the exhaust pipes on the –5N and bombs and rockets on the –4, the procedures are the same.  First thing to do is make the square exhaust pipes for the –5N. Using 1mm square rod and plastic strip, glue 2 lengths of the rod together side-by-side using the strip as a spacer so there will be a gap between the rods. Make 2 sets.  (58)  

 Trim the exhaust parts to fit under cowl flaps.  I painted all exhaust parts Testors Metalizer “jet exhaust” color and sealed it with  “Sealer for Metalizer”. Glue in place. (59) 

After assembling the bottom, we need to finish the cockpit. I started with the headrest. Get the harden tissue off the windowsill and trim the ragged edges with scissors.   Cut out the head cushions and paint them gloss black or brown. (I eyeballed the shape.)  (60)  

Glue the shoulder belts to the back of the headrest and trim the length, so they stop at the seat cushion. Glue the headrest on the aft cockpit bulkhead. (Man! I love talkin’ like that!)

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To make the gun sight, start with 3/32 inch (2.4mm) plastic tubing and 1mm rod.  Cut a thin piece of tubing by holding a hobby knife close to the tube end and slowly role the tubing back and forth while applying pressure to the knife.  A thin piece will pop off. Carefully file the top and bottom flat.  Glue this on the rod. Be sure to leave a little depression.  (61)  

Paint the gun sight black and the depression silver.  When dry, apply a drop of future to act as the lens. I used parts from my spares box for the gun sight reflector.  If you don’t have a spare, fashion a reflector from a plastic soda bottle. (Just cut a small rectangle with a sharp pair of scissors.)  Insert the new gun sight in the hole you drilled.   Be sure the top of the sight is below the top of the windscreen. You will have to fiddle with it! (62) 

TIP:  When pulling the masking off the clear parts, score the edge of the masking material with a hobby knife. This will prevent the cracking of the paint on the framing. 

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For the wire aerials, I used size .004 black nylon quilting thread. Dip an end in superglue and thread it into the hole on the rudder.  When set, place a tiny drop of glue on the top on the antenna mast (part 46). Gently pull the thread taunt and touch it to the glue. When set, trim the thread flush with the mast edge.  (Sorry, in this scale, they just don’t show up in photos.)   

Repeat for the –4.  Except use the kit exhaust pipe parts, AND……. 

Final detail (yea!):  For the –4, I added the arming wire on the kit bombs. Using a very fine drill bit (#80 on the X-Acto drill bit stand), drill a hole at the base of the bomb fuse.  Dip a piece of fine silver colored wire in super-glue and thread it into the hole.  When set, fold the wire over the top of the bomb and glue the bomb to the bomb rack. (63) 

 

That’s IT! Better than out of the box! Yep! The –5N is longer than the –4! (64)

 

 

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Click on images below to see larger images

Bibliography:

Decals:  

  • F4U-5N: Super Scale International 72-244 Korean War Aces

  • F4U-4: Super Scale International 72-700 F4U-4, F4U-5, F4U-5N Corsairs

 

RJ

Photos and text © by Richard “RJ” Tucker