I'm planning on building TF's Gold Edition Corsair, but i've been hearing it's "too much work for a semi-scale".
Do any of you know what's so "semi-scale" about it? I downloaded the manual, and nothing seems to be wrong with it. Please help me here

Thanks

Daxx,
Do a search on the TF 60 Corsair and you will find alot of info. I'm building one now and did not appreciate the differences either until I did some research (books and online Corsair sites). Outline of the Rudder, wingtips, belly pan area, wing and stab incidence all differ from more "scale" kits. You can make adjustments to fix some of these or just build and enjoy. Pete

Rocketman

Thanks for all your help. It looks like it's gonna take a lot more work than i thought. Do you know of any other corsair kits, more "scale" ones?

Thanks agian

Sent PM.

As for 1/8 scale Corsair kit which are more scale accurate than Top Flight: the old Royal, and now Marutaka kits are very scale compaired to Top Flight. The best is the very old D&B kits, which came with very accurate 1/8 scale drawings, as well as 'glass fuselage and foam outer wings & stab, and many vacufomed parts (m.g.s, clear wingtip lights). Heck even the smaller 1/9 scale Jemco Corsairs (foam wing versions, NOT FunScale) where more scale accurate than Top Flights. Nontheless, I still love'em as they are excellent flying aircraft, and knowing all of it's (scale) flaws, I know how to correct them.
Do a search ("Corsair") here at RCU and you will find discussions on these matters.
Check out my gallery for pics of Top Flight Corsairs finished a little more scale accurate than the one shown on the box.

CorsairJock,

Have you come up with the vacuum formed wheel wells and guns for the Corsair yet? Let me know. Thanks,Pete

I wasn't working on wheel wells, but I have made up some m.g.s. I want to let Wing Mfg. have them so they can make plugs and duplicate. Whatever they do, I have some sets made up which will be available around June 1. Here is a pic of ones which I installed on my (Top Flite) Corsair. It is a retrofit, meaning I installed and painted them AFTER the plane was already completed (and flown).
I will keep you posted, AND post a pic of what they look like right out of the mold (unpainted, untrimmed).

Here is a pic of my (Mattel) vaccu-formed Corsair 1/8 scale machine gun ports. I have just lent them to Wing Mfg so they can make mold plugs, for the purpose of possible mass production. When they are done with them, I will sell a few of these sets, probably around June 1.
By the way, my supply of plastic plates for my Mattel Vaccu Form is getting very small, anyone out there have some?

And here is a pic of a D&B 1/8 scale Corsair machine gun port (from the long ago discontinued kit), which I chose NOT to copy as I feel my design is better.

CorsairJock,
Wow, The MGP looks great. Ya, I want some Pete

Hey Corsairjock, you chose not to lower them toward the tip as the full scale? Each port is a little different. Yea those D&B ones suck!

I drew a white line on the leading edge to help the eye!

OK, i did a sloppy job of installing them. As I said, it was a retrofit. Best way to install them is BEFORE finishing/ MonoKoting/ 'glass and painting (your choice). Heck, this is supposed to be my every day/ Sport Corsair, I had intened to finish up a red box one by this summer which will be far more detailed and accurate.

I didn't say you did a sloppy job, it looks great. OK, that explains the Red Box allegiance! I got ya, your building one! I want some pictures so I can pick it apart, like a scale judge would you know! haha

Luke

Start picking. Not visble is scale exhaust location, in front of wing. Tail wheel is retractable, antenna masts have slots for installation, fuselage is rounded inward in cowl flap area, wing is positive about 1.5 deg, rudder has been re-contoured, and fuselage is gently rounded (not flat) aft of cockpit. Cowl has been shortened by 1/4", making it close to scale.
Wing is assembled but not covered, need to make outboard flaps yet. Wingtips are from my old #102 , which were scratch built by me using B&D drawings. Front gear doors are made by me (as are the ones on #167). Front gear doors are not scale, but more so than the Top Flight ones. Reason for deviations: difficult to make exact scale ones work well with the retracts. I will eventually install the rear main doors on this one also, but not the tail wheel doors. Also not visible is a notch I put in all my Top Flites, on the underside where the tail hook would normally reside, right below the elevator. Another little detail and all it takes is a Dremel with a sanding disk.
Lacking is cockpit kit, altho I will add the headrest.l

Here is frontal of cowl. Note that flaps are slightly open, EXCEPT on top where they do not open. Sawtoothed flap separation lines have been partially filled with black paint, which will make them stand out more when UlraKot Corsair Blue is applied (covering is UltraKote Corsair Blue).
Up close, I'm sure there are many other Corsairs out there that will be judged better. But like I said, I beleive mine will be judged better in the air.
BTW, engine is YS .63. I had a YS .53 in previous (gold Edit) for awhile, it flew it well but ran hot when on the ground. Improved cooling on this one (remember the rouded fuselage/ cowl flap area?) should make this one run better.

CorsairJock,

Your plane looks great but the deck railing could use a new coat of stain

Did you use a saw or Xacto to cut the cowl flaps?

Pete

Yes, I know about the (lack of) stain. Trying to talk my wife into doing it, so I have more time to builld and fly. I'm sure getting some use out of it tho, same background used for machine gun pics. For the flaps, I used a fine tooth hobby saw, BEFORE attaching cowl ring to cowl.

CorsairJock,
Thanks, I'll be cutting mine soon. Had my wife helping me with the Honeydoos today so I can fly tomorrow

With the change in wing incidence how did your belly pan fit?

CorsairJock,

I'm going over the measurements on the revised wing saddle. For 2 deg incidence it looks like I will need to drill a new dowel hole 3/16 up as well as taper the saddle 3/16 deeper at the LE to nothing at the TE. Were you similar? Pete

Gentlemen:

These cowl flaps are done in thin sheet aluminum. the cowl mounting ring is just forward of them. Inside, of course. Cuts were made with a Zona saw, then they were bent out until the angle looked right. And they are the cooling air exhaust.

The complete cowlings, including the flaps, were made from cut off aluminum drink cans. And there are larger cans around, maybe even some big enough for a semi-scale Corsair with 40-60 engines. Or modify a cooking pot. I HAVE seen that done.

Bill.

The one area that really bothers me about the TF kits other than the wing incidence is the top of the nose. The former in front of the cockpit is F-5 on the TF and F-6 on the Royal. If you look at the factory drawings, you will see that the top of the nose is not round like the front. It instead bulges up to meet the canopy. I think TF copied the Ziroli or Ziroli copied the early Red Box Corsair, because they are both the same in this area and in many others. But trying to fix this one thing on the TF kit would take a complete redesign of the fuselage.

Compare these 2 formers, they don't even look like they came from the same type of plane! The first is the TF. I apologize for the quality.

Next the Royal:

One other picture, this is a Royal Corsair built by Jack Aycock several years ago. It has full cockpit, flaps, retracts with full gear doors, bomb racks, scale tail wheel with operable hook, panel lines and fiberglass finish. He said he had to add 1/2 lb to the nose to balance and the all up weight only came to 10lbs!