ram3500-RCU

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BTW,the patches on the inside are perfectly flat and smooth. My picture makes it look way. Must be the light.

Growler84

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That looks horribly familiar Gary, good repair!

ram3500-RCU

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Yea, I thought you would think so Greg. That is why I am adding this reinforcement to all my builds going forward. Definitely a weakness on these birds.

ram3500-RCU

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BTW, maybe a little known detail, Blackburn didn't have his name on his plane add was the custom.

Darkbird

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Ouch, that's still an expensive repair. Thanks for the info.

ram3500-RCU

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Yes it is. Takes about three months also. Some of the parts are not on hand.

Growler84

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Blame Phil for that one.

ram3500-RCU

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LOL. Hard to find fault with his work. He is an awesome builder from what I have seen. I just had to do a lot of research on that scheme because we took it to Top Gun. Another little detail. The forth (bottom) kill mark looked different than the other three because it was hastily hand painted below decks as the plane was serviced after the only carrier landing it made, after the squadron was diverted from a mission, to fly cover for the fleet. Blackburn had gotten a kill on the sortie. Four days later he got another, so the plane didn't look that way very long.

This stuff can make you crazy.

Growler84

My Feedback: (8)

Well, the name is gone now! I started this repair planning to retain as much of the original paint as possible. However, he used Warbird colors with some clear coat over it. I use KassKote and the FS number interpretation is slightly different between the two paint sources. As you know trying to interpret colors and shades off of black and white photos is challenging. I sprayed the fin and rudder twice because of that. So pretty much the entire model is getting new paint, except the stars & bars.

I read Blackburn's book and after reading his description of the conditions they operated in (daily thundershowers, lots of mud) and looking at photos I can see that proper weathering of this thing is going to be a tough road to travel.

Growler84

My Feedback: (8)

See what I mean?

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Yes. All true. Do you use the sheen control that Klass Cote has? That would help with the fading on top, along with the 10% white. VF-17 flew off those coral islands, so the front of these planes were 'sand blasted' unlike the ones flown off carriers. You need to add the bullet hole patches add well, if you use the four kill markings. That happened prior to his getting those.

ram3500-RCU

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Threes planes had more fading also, because they were on islands all the time, not below decks on carriers.

Growler84

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I've used the flattening agent with limited success, seems like it takes a bucket of the stuff to have an effect. Mostly I achieve the desired reflectivity using scotchbrite and or steel wool. I asked a good friend who is a master plastic modeler about sun fading and here is what he said:
"SUNFADING: When I weather a model, I'll hit everythingwith the standard colors first, then go back and do some 'sunfading' with alightened version of the colors exposed on dorsal surfaces. Basic sunfading isfairly subtle and generates just enough difference to lighten the dorsalsurfaces and bumps, while accentuating the shaded/ventral areas by its absence."
"Do an image search on 'Tamiya Corsair' and you'll seesome amazing paint & WX work those kits. Note that there is a minor debatebrewing over the discovery that many surviving Corsairs apparently had anoriginal salmon color instead of zinc chromate in the wheel wells. Go figure."

He included this example of a plastic model slightly overdone in his opinion.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

I agree. Overdone. Easy to do though.

Yes, to represent fading I use the color cut with 10% white. Then this is shot on the top surfaces.

The undercarriage, bays and doors. Here is what I have uncovered. It is true that on the F4U-1s a brownish salmon primer was extensively used in the bays and on the struts. They mixed 2 ounces of Indian Red in two gallons of solvent then mixed that with the Zink Chromate. On the F4U-1As and on, they painted the inside of the gear doors, the bay interior, and the struts the same color as the underside (insignia white). Many F4U-1As also had the struts painted light grey or a steel color. The F4U-1As used by the VF-17 squadron had the all white gear and bays, based on the bulletins the manufactures were using at that time.

Another detail hard to document is at what point the Red border on the insignia was dropped. The bulletins would go out, but the implementation was not always a high priority to maintenance, charged with keeping them in the air. I have some documentation that shows the insignias on the bottom of the wings of these VF-17 planes void of these red borders, as the planes were delivered to the theater, while the Red is still on the ones on top and the fuselage sides. I modeled our Top Gun plane this way, and included the documentation.

A guy can get a lot of time wrapped up in digging for these details. Countless hours.

jetspezi

Hi Gary and all you other guys,

this is one of the best and helpful threads I ever read. There are so many things that help building this wonderful airplane. Thanks for that!!!!!

I have my Corsair now at a point, were I couldn't withstand to make the rollout and some tests, but it ended up in a maidon flight
Here are two vids. Sorry, not the best Quality:
http://youtu.be/8iVJdOIMBFA
http://youtu.be/tqfdxLYU760

So Gary, what I must have, are these exhaust shrouds. I think that you mentioned somewhere that you ar going to offer some things as a kit, like the canopy opening mechanism or these shrouds. Is this still so?

Thanks for an info.

Sascha

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Welcome to the thread Sascha, and thank you for the compliments. It is gratifying to know we are helping other CARF owners and builders.

My compliments to you as well on your successful maiden and very fine landing.

Yes, we did produce shrouds to compliment our functional stainless steel scale exhaust pipes. They are also stainless steel laser cut complete with the screw holes.

Here are some other things we produce for this airplane.

- gun system with both sound and gun flash (can be heard from anywhere in the pattern)
- scale lighting system complete with all wiring, lenses where applicable, and protection on each LED to prevent reverse polarity or over-volt blow out.
- Scale wing inlets (a must for the gun system as the speakers are placed behind these openings) These come with Aerofoil for around the lips of the inlets, and some rivets to detail the inside
- stainless steel engine stand offs
- scale exhaust pipes in stainless steel with the shrouds, mounting hardware, and our special flex pipe to connect to the Moki collector.
- top hatch kit which converts the round fuel tank cover on top to a nice hatch for all your switches and jacks
- bottom hatch kit including all the parts to create the hatch on the bottom of the center section you see on our builds
- operational cowl flap kit (helps with cooling the Moki beast) This kit includes stainless steel stand-offs for the cowl ring that connects the flaps to the fuselage per scale
- canopy kit which includes parts and hardware to mount your canopy to the frame and make it a slider (can be air or electric)
- drive kit for the canopy (these parts work with the Down & Locked electric motor system to open and close your canopy)
- I also have the gun port fairings for the wings, available separate from the gun system, for those who just want to simulate the guns (these are included with the gun system)
- scale aluminum instrument panel kit including aluminum bezels, the tiny screws, lens material, and the instrument faces

- available soon are the hinge covers, gear door detail, boost tab linkage (operational on the tail, simulated on the wings), and more

If you want more detail on any of the items above, feel free to email me at [email protected]

Thanks for your support.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

The lights are being installed in the wings of the currant build. Here are some pictures.

ram3500-RCU

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Bottom hatch has been cut in. This is necessary to install our scale inlets and the gun system. Here is the opening. You can also see the speaker mount the has been attached to the CF spar.

ram3500-RCU

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Here is the door. Waiting to resupply on the small piano hinge we use on these. It comes from Meister Scale.

ram3500-RCU

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Coming up soon will be more pictures of the wing inlet install, gun system install, lighting install, the installation of the sliding canopy, and more.

ram3500-RCU

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Some canopy rail repair on John's aircraft. Notice the wooden wedge I now add to keep the canopy rails parallel.

ram3500-RCU

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Last of the repair to the wing saddle area. All the structural repair is done. Just cosmetic stuff now.

Also seen are the pull pull cables for the tail gear reconnected. I flipped this servo around so I could reuse the original cables.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Here you can see the hole your must make in the instrument panel so the canopy drive ram can go through it.

ram3500-RCU

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Back to this latest build. I wanted to point out this graphic demonstration of what happens when you don't carefully plan construction out before using Hysol. Here, this builder glued the left front wing hinge in place. Then realized, after having to grind on the inner part of hinge to clear the top skin, he should have glued it in on the other side of the plywood. After the change, he needed no grinding on the right side. Always dry fit things first, carefully checking for fit in both up and down positions on this wing. Another tip is to make sure the wings are in the down and LOCKED position when fitting these outer panels. During the locking action, you will notice that the wing mechanism bottoms and then raises slightly as it locks in place. This slight raise changes the position of the outer panels and must be accounted for when gluing the outed panels.

ram3500-RCU

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Had to cut mounts out of the outer panels in order to realign the panels.