The
F4U for me has always held a special attraction having modeled countless kits in
many scales and until the release of the Tamiya 1/48th scale corsair birdcage,
modelers had only the choice of the 1A or 1D or the -4 versions in 1/32nd
scale.
Recently
while browsing the multitude of after market resin kits I happened upon a gold
mine for the 1/32nd scale F4U, a conversion kit from Mike West of Lone Star
Models. A basic kit, that includes a cast resin aft deck and two styles of the
framed canopy fashioned in vacuform.
Finally
I had the opportunity to build an F4U-1 Birdcage in 32nd scale decided to use
the Trumpeter F4U- 1D as the basis for the design, the Trumpeter kit while being
one of the newest kits on the market lacks detail throughout the kit but panel
line detail is abundant.
As
with most Trumpeter kits the cockpit on the F4U kit is extremely inaccurate.
While the entire late model Corsairs from the -4 model on had floor boards, the
early models such as the -1 to -1D were floorless. I decided early in the
planning not to use one of the after market resin cockpits. I wanted to do some
serious scratch building in this project.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
Painting
Paints
used: Polly Scale USN blue gray, USN light ghost gray, flat black, flat white.
Painting
of the Corsair followed my tried and true method; after all the final assembly
was complete I polished all the seams and exterior areas that required buffing.
I then primed the kit with gray primer tinted with Polly Scale USN blue gray.
This allowed me to see any imperfections in the sanding, after re-sanding and
buffing the areas that required attention I primed again.
I
sprayed a base coat of light ghost gray to the bottom; added black to the base
color shadowed the panel lines, added white to the base coat and highlighted the
interior panels.
The
Top coat follows the lower painting much in the same way with excessive shades
of highlight color touching up on the shadows as I go along.
A
coat of future floor wax was applied, and then decals were added after the paint
was dry.
A
wash of black and rust enamels followed the acrylic painting, allowed to dry 24
hours and cleaned in a shrieking direction of the airflow.
Weathering
was applied with pastel oils, and then the entire model was coated in Polly
Scale clear flat.
In
all I really enjoyed this conversion I really hope you enjoyed the article, so
run right out there grab an F4U kit, then call Mike West at Lone Star Models and
Go to town on this build.
You’ll
never regret it for a minute.
Thanks
and have a great build.
Damian
|