Topflite giant scale F4U Corsair
#1

Thread Starter

Added a new plane to my hangar. Got this beautifull and masterfully built Topflite Giant scale Corsair from Ricky Rivera. Ricky has been in aereomodeling for the longest time. We have flown together for over 20 years in our Club, Borinquen RC Club in Sabana Seca, Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. Ricky was president of the club for various terms and is a peoples person.
Luis Morales, one of the master builders in Puerto Rico, built this Corsair for Ricky in exchange for a long tenured AT6 previously owned by Robert Tanner. Robert retired from the hobby a while ago. A real shame since Robert was one of the top fliers of scale models in Puerto Rico. Robert's AT6 was a Ziroli 100"+ with a Guantanamo scheme. A really nice and realistic looking model. Robert had given the model an excellent weared look through his particular model cleaning process. The model looked exactly like well used real planes look like.
The F4U has a Zenoah 62 powering it, Robart retracts in the tail and main gear. It is covered masterly with monokote in Navy blue and gray. The monokote looks like it is paint. That is how well the covering was installed. The only drawback with the scheme is that in sunny days, the model blends so well with the sky that its hard to see well its silouette. Specially with its light gray vertical stabilizer and rudder. I will change the color in this area to navy blue for contrast.
The model flies very well and realy looks well in the sky when I can see it clearly.
Thanks Luis for building such a superb model and Ricky for making it accesible to me.




Luis Morales, one of the master builders in Puerto Rico, built this Corsair for Ricky in exchange for a long tenured AT6 previously owned by Robert Tanner. Robert retired from the hobby a while ago. A real shame since Robert was one of the top fliers of scale models in Puerto Rico. Robert's AT6 was a Ziroli 100"+ with a Guantanamo scheme. A really nice and realistic looking model. Robert had given the model an excellent weared look through his particular model cleaning process. The model looked exactly like well used real planes look like.
The F4U has a Zenoah 62 powering it, Robart retracts in the tail and main gear. It is covered masterly with monokote in Navy blue and gray. The monokote looks like it is paint. That is how well the covering was installed. The only drawback with the scheme is that in sunny days, the model blends so well with the sky that its hard to see well its silouette. Specially with its light gray vertical stabilizer and rudder. I will change the color in this area to navy blue for contrast.
The model flies very well and realy looks well in the sky when I can see it clearly.
Thanks Luis for building such a superb model and Ricky for making it accesible to me.




#2

Thread Starter

Modified the color scheme of the Corsair and tested its clarity today at the club. The model flew very well as it had done previosly, but this time I was able to really enjoy it since I could clearly see the model when it was flying down wind. The change of the vertical stabilizer and rudder color to dark blue and the arrow really made a difference. I also painted arrows in the tips of the wing including a yellow band. This made the model clearer when banking. I had flown another Corsair many, many years ago. It was the smaller TopFlite kit and my eyesight was much younger.
Here are some photos of the model on the ground. Hope a friend can take some photos on the next flight session while flying.







Here are some photos of the model on the ground. Hope a friend can take some photos on the next flight session while flying.






