It never ceases to amaze me at the detail of some of the warbirds I have seen. I am especially interested in knowing how you get the intricate parts. For example, I have seen rivets, detailed cockpits and pilots, etc. I am searching for detailed pictures of F4U-1D cockpits and have found a few. Where would I find a resources for the material/process, etc that shows rivets? I searched and found one listing that said he used a mechanical pencil with the lead retracted, then pushed the pen onto the skin. Any other ideas?

A pocket comb with some teeth removed dipped in glue will make some nice round-head rivets

I use a mixture of thined out 30min epoxy and resen with fine tipped glue applicaters it,s long and tedious but the resalts are worth it. I like the comb Ideal . it all depends if you are going to enter your bird in true scale compition of go for stand off scale. as far as cocpit detaling your local hobby shop carries a lage selectin of profile books that go into a lot of detail. these are called walk around or profile books. there is allso a guy on Ebay that is selling profile books on the F4U corsair as well as many of the WW11 war birds. Good luck with your search

Just remember that the rivets are small, most are about 3/8 dia or so. When you plan them on your plane take that into account. Sharpened brass tube also works well for flush rivets. I have an applicator for applying white glue for raised rivets. It takes a while but it's easy work and goes quickly.

Thanks everyone.
I'll check out the books and maybe I'll find some. I also like the comb idea for a couple of reasons - the spacing will be even, and I can get several combs (I'll have to go get some because I have not needed a comb for many years! ) and remove the teeth at varying spaces.
I will be traveling to Cincinnati next week to visit the Tr-State museum. I did some research and found that they are restoring and FG-1D and will let me photo and video it. It's not 'together' and parts are missing but hopefully I'll be able to get a lot of pics.

Thanks again!

I've also considered the idea of using the cut-off heads of sewing pins (the flat metal type). This would be awfully slow but you'd have perfectly uniform rivets (if this is the type of rivet you are attempting to replicate).

Good idea, but I think the mrs. would not take it kindly if she went to use the pins and the heads were missing!

You are right, that would be very slow, plus I would lose a lot of the heads! hahaha

RC Scale products http://www.rcscaleproducts.com/detailing_acc.htm has a kit with rivet tape, aplicator, etc. They also sell rivet tape in various scales separately.

Cool stuff, thanks!

Wright, go ahead and splurge! Buy yourself a WHOLE box of sewing pins JUST FOR YOURSELF. No need to share with the misses. Actually, it's also perfectly acceptable (in most states) for a male to wander alone through a sewing and crafts shop. I found some really good stuff there for my EIII project including the faux black leather that I used for the cockpit lining and patches on the fabric.

It was kinda weird being the only guy in the store though! And only buying 4" of fabric! Must be how my wife feels in the hobby shop.

I agree with the wandering, but it's always better to take the mrs, so it doesn't look so obvious...

Send some pics of the EIII - would love to see the lining.

Since you asked! Here's a link to a thread with some pix of my finished EIII:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_19..._1/key_/tm.htm

WOW! Very nice indeed.