April Group Build--F4U Corsair

[draken35]

Well done!!!

[Sall]

Great post.Very useful.

[Second Air Force]

With all of the paint removed from the principal parts it's time to examine my "work" from thirty years ago.

I had scratchbuilt the wing fold parts when I built this model but the parts didn't hold up to the moving damage over the years. I decided that it would be much easier to fix the wings in the flying position. As it turns out, that wasn't too easy either! I'd done a pretty accurate job of splitting the wing sections but there are some folding doors involved with the linkage that I had to remake. I also made a fixture to hold the outer wings in the proper dihedral for joining. Here are a couple of in progress shots of the wing rebuild:

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

I also removed the cannon barrels and shrouds and reopened the .50 caliber ports in both outer wings. Thankfully the filler was easily found and removed from the original holes.

[Sall]

Hard job!

[Second Air Force]

Not too bad, Sall, but there is a bit of the "fill and sand, fill and sand" routine to go through. I made some spars out of scrap material to help guide the wings back together and used some CA glue here and there. I'm heading up to work on finishing the wing for primer right now.

Here's the finished wing assembly just before a primer coat. You can just make out the little hinge doors I had to build to replace the ones I cut out to fold the wings.

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

[No.1]

Very slow progress from my side

[Second Air Force]

Yes, but you are dealing with a lot more parts than I am! The Otaki kit has beautiful molding and surface detail on the exterior but the cockpit and engine are very basic. If memory serves there are between forty and fifty total parts in the Otaki/Arii kit.

Here's a little progress, first on the cockpit before I finished adding some details to the sidewall consoles. This is still going to be an almost out-of-the-box restoration so I can preserve a little of the original workmanship:

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

The engine from Otaki is simply a blob , the only thing in the kit that is useless. Here is the original next to a Monogram R-2800 from the P-61. The Monogram part has been replicated in resin for this and future projects.

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

Here are the principal assemblies nearly ready for a little primer and more sand-and-fill action.

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

[No.1]

I get some time to work and here we are- almost in the same step of work

[Sall]

Nice job Scott. I like your "store" in your posts!
Srecko,it is important that kit is rolling!Btw,i like your cockpit much.I love when that part of plane looks busy!

[samuraj77]

Splendid work lads 

[Second Air Force]

Here's a shot of the resin engine and prop during the fitting process. The propeller on the Otaki/Arii kits is peculiar because they molded a little indentation in each blade for the Hamilton Standard decal to fit into. It just takes a little filler to fix it and then sanding all the flat black off the blades. I tried the EasyOff cleaner on the prop but it didn't do a thing to the paint, just like the anti-glare panel.......

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

I had a few minutes tonight after getting home from work so I assembled the fuselage and wing. Just a tiny bit of filling, sanding, and priming of these joints and it'll be ready for the camouflage paint.

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

If you ever get a chance to build one of these old Otaki Corsair kits you'll really be impressed by how nicely the wing joins the fuselage. It is one of the most precise fits of any model I've built, including the best Tamiya kits, and almost doesn't require any work to make the seam invisible.

[No.1]

On my side nothing special, just assembled fuselage with wings and ad landing gear

[Sall]

Just that! You are on half way,and you say "just".Good work.I like progress.

[No.1]

Well... thus could be faster. I am not fine last days and ceased all works

[Second Air Force]

I finished all the filler work on the airframe yesterday by fairing the windscreen into the fuselage. This doesn't fit perfectly and leaves a gap where it joins so I masked the clear areas, glued it together, and used a bit of filler and sandpaper to get the smooth seam required. Just a little primer and the aircraft is ready for paint.

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

The winds died down a bit this morning so I cleaned the paint booth out and painted the interior of the gear doors and the landing gear assemblies. I also shot the small parts for the F-106 project while I had the good airbrush hooked up.

April Group Build--F4U Corsair