chilie

I weighed the stab and elevators and they came to 8.0 oz. exactly according to my little scale. Since I didn't build it the way the plans tell you, I have no way of comparing it to the normal Top Flite way. If someone has built theirs and weighed it, I'd be interested in comparing it. Im sure mine will be a little heavier given the materials used and the fact mine is a little bigger than the normal Top Flite method.

1UGLYPUG

HI FOLKS. PARDON THE ALL CAPS, BUT MY EYESIGHT IS NOT GOOD UP CLOSE ON THE COMPUTER,,,, I JUST LOST MY TOP FLIGHT CORSAIR YESTERDAY,,, THE CONTROLS JUST LOCKED UP IN A TURN,, NOT ABLE TO EVEN CLOSE THE THROTTLE,, I AM STILL TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT.. I AM THINKING THE TOP RUDDER HINGE MAY HAVE BEEN COMING LOOSE AND BOUND A LITTLE WHICH DREW TOO MUCH CURRENT AND LOADED UP THE BATTERY,, AND MAYBE EVEN OVERHEATED THE FUTABA 6EX FASST RECEIVER, WHICH I HAVE READ SOME THREADS ABOUT OVER HEATING PROBLEMS.
EITHER WAY, I NOW HAVE A BAG OF CRUNCHED BALSA.
THIS WAS A PLANE I BUILT BACK IN THE 80'S,, AND IT WAS FLYING VERY WELL ON A NEW 1.00 EVOLUTION WITH A 3 BLADED PROP. I GOT 3 FLIGHTS IN BEFORE THIS CATASTROPHE AND AM NOW THINKING ABOUT A HANGAR NINE 60 SIZE, AND GETTING A NEW 100 SAITO FOR IT.
THAT PLANE SURVIVED MANY MOVES AROUND THE COUNTRY WHILE I WAS IN THE SERVICE, AND I NOW WISH I HAD NOT TAKEN IT DOWN FROM THE CEILING. YOU GUYS HAVE SOME NICE LOOKING PLANES,,, DAY,,,

SMUGator

I got most of the big pieces of the cockpit kit assembled over the weekend. I have just a few spots that I want to dress with a dab of Tamiya putty and sand a bit more before I shoot the base colors on it. The Zollner kit is well thought-out and easy to work with including pretty good step by step instructions. If you can catch Luke in the mood to produce and sell his work, it's a good buy to at least get the basic elements in place. At 1/8 scale, I doubt that I will add much more than what he's included. Might talk to Chris and see how much trouble it would be to add a couple of LEDs to our lighiting scheme to add a cockpit light or two and maybe backlight the instrument panel, but that's about it. One question for the group. I don't have a good photo of the area that's circled. Anyone have a nice close up of a -1D version that will give me an idea of what these parts are and how they should be painted? All of the photos I have show this area as open save for the gunsight mount. I've followed Luke long enough to know that he didn't stick something there just for grins.

Tom

samwood2

Hi Tom,
Yes, you are one of the lucky ones to get one of his kits. Very scale with a lot of detail. I purchased the one from TF, and was a bit dissapointed. I added several features to mine ,including the rudder and elevator trim tab controls and the bomb sight. Still have the gun and bomb arming devices to add. I did make a seat frame like the one you have, sketched it from the instruction sheet from your kit. The other add on I did, which you can't see, are the wing locks on the rear port side of the panel.
What exactly are you looking for in pictures?I have several, I'll PM them to you.
Sam

Adonis

I guess I'm kind of in a talking mood now, so I'll answer your question. From what I saw on the original everything was just painted black on the dash to prevent glare, but as you can see by the shiny restoration the parts are very colorful! I would paint it all black and then use dry brushing to give the parts some depth, that would look great.

Notice how my dash is lightly dry brushed.

samwood2

Found a few pics for you Tom.

samwood2

Found a few pictures Tom

SMUGator

Thanks Luke and Sam. I appreciate the photos. Thanks also for the little avatar icon, Sam. It's been a good couple of years to be a Gator.

I used the TF cockpit kit along with parts of the Bob Dively kit for my P-47 and was pretty disappointed with both. Luke's work is night and day better than either. On those, I painted everything aluminum colored first and then rubbed the finish colors back in some areas and dry brushed on dirt and gunk in all of the likely places. It was my first try at a detialed cockpit, and I was only somewhat happy with it.

I think on this effort, I'll paint the finish colors first and then use a combination of dry brushing and metallic [link=http://www.goldingcraft.com/rubnbuf.htm]Rub n' Buff[/link] to get the weathering right. One other little thing I like to do is make the headrest actual leather finish. I liked how that worked out on the P-47 so will probably do it again here. I find that those items that are "high" in the cockpit catch my eye more. The gunsight is another good candidate for some additional detailing.

Appreciate the assist.
Tom

SMUGator

My cockpit kit project took a little bit of a detour when my father-in-law who is a recently retired art professor and avid modeler of all things military in plastic got interested and offered to detail my pilots. So I made a prototype of the cockpit box in the fuselage and sent my parts to him so he can fashion the pilot perfectly to fit the kit. He's starting with a Vailly 1/8 USAAF pilot and adapting it to suit the Marine corp flight suit. I'll try to get him to post his work here, as I know he is missing the teaching. You guys are poor substitutes for adoring 20 yr old coeds, but it's something. If he has fun with this, he may take a shot at dressing up Doc Miller for the 1/6 project as well. I sent him both.

Primer and paint tests are continuing as well. Wasn't too happy with how the first pass of Warbird Colors primer went on the test pieces using the airbrush. I think I thinned it too much. It immediately wanted to bead on the surface.

Tom

RCPtero

Hmmmm, perhaps he could get one of them coeds to pose for the nose art.


Tom

SMUGator

He says that the models are the one thing he misses the most.

samwood2

Nice looking avatar you got there Tom!



Sam

SMUGator

Yeah, some guy named Sam sent me that. Thank goodness he's a Gator fan and not some nole or cane or godforsaken bulldog.

SMUGator

It's interesing to me how little realizations about my level of talent, inspiration, ability and keys to success on a project get exposed. I was chatting offline with Luke a few weeks ago, and he mentioned how he just sees how things are supposed to be and can reproduce them. I understand that gift, and I don't have it. That's why I struggle to be much more than an adequate scale modeler. My father-in-law also has "the gift". As an artist and a professor of drawing, he is able to look at something and reproduce it very accurately. He makes plastic models and casts and paints lead soldiers that are breath-taking in their accuracy. He also remembers spatial things in a more precise way. We went to the Museum of Flight together here in Seattle a couple of summers ago and toured the warbird exhibit. I mentioned to him on the phone recently that I had gone back to do some photos of the Eindecker e.III there for a couple of other scale modelers, and he immediately said, "oh, but it was hung from the ceiling, so how did you get good photos?" He remembered not only the aircraft out of several dozen that are in the exhibit, but also how and where it was displayed.

I think everyone has this gift to more or less of a degree, and I struggle with it. I find that it helps me if I have a lot of (good) drawings of my models hanging around the shop. The TopFlite plans do not count as good drawings and should be removed as quickly as is practical. All drawings are not created equal. In these photos, there are the Royal plans, some Vought drawings and two of the three Paul Matt drawings. Even these have their respective inacurracies and differences. Given that I am a visual dunce, I find that if I am surrounded by good images that sooner or later some of them sink in.

That's why I sawed off the tailcone and replaced it last night. I knew that it wasn't right, and sooner or later all the drawings and measurements helped me get it a little better. The first picture is before, and it isn't too bad. The second picture is after, and it is a little better. I just keep doing the best that I can. I do find that I have some talent in some of the more engineering-focused tasks, so I enjoy those more than the visual stuff.

Tom

rwright142

Nice looking cockpit Tom!

samwood2

Hi rwright142,
I was browsing that other site a couple of days ago and came across that wonderful Corsair graveyard collection. Fantastic!. I can't imagine what an oppertuinity it is and could be with that documentation. Personanly, I'd set the RC build to the side and jump in with the rebuild of the rear thing, but that's me.
I've seen many people go through school without any hands on, and see that the schooling has gone through them as well. One can only learn so much, until he gets in there and does the actual work, then you can see what you have accomplished.
Anyhow, thanks for sharing, will there be more?
Sam

rwright142

I wish I could be a part of the Corsair restoration - that would be really neat. The museum has put it on hold though, because they got a P-40 and FW-190 they are restoring. I would like to go back there sometime to get pictures/video of them too but times are tough right now. But I keep in touch with the director (and the WWII Corsair pilot that lives close to the museum) and will go back this summer.

There will definitely be more pictures added.

SMUGator

Here is the smallest of progress reports...

[ul][*] A few shots of our paint test panels including some little bits of surface detailing testing. We are trying to understand how quickly, easily, effectively the Warbird Colors primer builds surface detail like panel lines and raised and recessed panels vs the Duplicolor high build primer. As the name would imply, the Duplicolor builds faster, but not remarkably so. We'll be adding color soon to test adhesion and compatibility.[*] As you may remember, we'll be building up the surface detail that appears on the cloth covered areas on top of a solid surface. There are a couple of little experiments going on here to see what looks best. The dark bands are construction paper strips blended with CA that is dusted with microballoons. So far, that approach is the early leader based on ease and appearance.[*] Chris added the fairings that blend the elevators to the fuse. I think most people miss these as they don't show up too easily in photos. Ours are a little wider than the 1:1, but better than nothing. We'll add the raised panel detail there after the initial passes of priming and dent filling are done.[*] Finally, a shot of the rare earth magnet and bit of metal washer that will hold down our hatch cover.
[/ul]

Chuck at Warbird Colors has been very responsive to a few random questions via e-mail so ++ to good initial customer service there. The only thing I'm still toying with is whether is possible to tint the WBC primer in some areas to make the dark color coats cover a little better. The painting has been interesting. The primer wants to go on a little beady using an airbrush at 25 psi, but it dries out quite smooth.

Tom

rwright142

Outstanding!

SMUGator

Thanks for the kind word. Cheering always helps me at this stage. It's a little bit like waxing your car. It's the point where you find all of the little imperfections and get to figure out how to deal with them (or not). I am pretty excited about the results with the construction paper. Being able to make ply in any shape and most contours using supplies that are found around the house is pretty fun. I look forward to playing with it more. I think the idea came to me from a thread by abufletcher on the Scale Forum, but I could be wrong about the thread owner. Too lazy to look it up at the moment.

Tom

SMUGator

Paint testing continues...

I found the Duplicolor Auto primer to be more effective at building panel lines and surface details that the Warbird colors primer.
[ul][*] Photo 1 - In the case where I sprayed WBC over the Duplicolor, the WBC would rub off pretty easily.[*] Photo 2 - I got better adhesion and cleaner lines where I used WBC exclusively[*] Photo 3 - I got the best results of all using strictly Duplicolor. I now hope the WBC color coats work well over the Duplicolor[*] Photo 4 - The first coat of color went on as crappy as the first coat of primer. If this were on the plane, I would be having a coronary. I think like the primer that it will smooth out as it dries and subsequent coats get applied. Interestingly, it goes on the Duplicolor primed panel in the lower right better than the WBC-primed panels. I'm liking my construction paper simulated rib detail more and more.
[/ul]

Tom

SMUGator

As expected, the second coat went on better than the first and began to cover pretty well. With the Warbird Colors, I find that I really have to "trust the process." I shot this a little heavier than I intended and it still fills ok. The gray spots are operator error where I got a little careless with clearing the airbrush. Good thing this is a warbird and not a hot rod or a Reno racer.

Tom

SMUGator

We finished our paint compatibility tests over the weekend, and will be using the Warbird Colors primer and the Warrbird Colors paint. While we liked the way the Duplicolor High Build Primer builds up surface details a lot better, the WBC paint does not adhere to it as well. We tested by scratching the paint with the back of an Exacto blade, hitting it with 60 grit sandpaper and then scratching it with a thumbnail. Only the Duplicolor primer failed the thumbnail test. You can see on the final photo that we also hit a panel with some 1000 grit wet/dry to see what type of weathering effect we can achieve with that. I wasn't too precise with hygiene in these tests, to the paint job overall isn't too pristine, but I learned what I wanted to know.

Tom

cimara

Tom the Duplicolor primer you used was it laquer or enamel ? I ask because i used enamel and the Wb paint is stuck realy well and i cant scratche it off with my finger nail .Not doughting you just a little concerned of the effects of time on mine .Oh did you use the hardner in your test sample
Thanks

SMUGator

Hi Winston,

The label on the automotive primer doesn't indicate whether it's lacquer or enamel. Maybe someone else on here knows the formulation. I did use the cross-linker in the color coats. It's almost a week now, and I can still scratch the color coat off pretty easily with a fingernail. The good news is that I didn't run into the coverage issues that you experienced with the darker colors. My color coats looked pretty good after 3 coats.

Here's a shot of the can.

Tom