F4U-1 Final Photos

Here are the final photos for the F4U.  The lighting shows off the high light more in the photos than in person. 

F4U Decals, Pin Washes and Done!

So at the decal and pin wash stage.  The Academy decals SUCK.  They are very durable BUT they do NOT take to Solvoset at all!  I didn't have any other decal softening agent left so this process was VERY annoying and took a while. 

So after the pin washes were completed after decals, I hit it one more time with satin coat (which is WAY to shiny) and added some streaking on wings, and fuselage. 

I did NOT like the sheen.  Too glossy even for US NAVY Blue Gloss.  So I decided to give Alclad Aqua Gloss a try.  I know it is a GLOSS but I heard good things. 

BAM!   Perfect sheen.  This product went on out of the bottle, NO cutting with anything else.  It was perfect!  I sprayed it at a 18-20 psi out of my airbrush. 

I did however totally mess up the gun smoke!  I am NOT happy with that.  I guess the paint wasn't thin enough and blasted out.  Oh well.  ANOTHER lesson learned. 
But the sheen is awesome. 

DONE!

F4U Filters.....HUGE leasson learned.

Then came filter time.  I have applied filters to countless tanks, from 1:35 scale to 1:100.  I have never not been happy with a filter, TILL NOW.  I think the filter from AK Interactive was too thick.  I was NOT happy with the filter.  I used the blue filter for panzers, thinking it would tone the blue down a bit, but it was very visible and dirty looking!  NOT HAPPY.  I should of made my own filter.  I ended up making my own wash. 

Being the filter looked like shit, I tried to remove as much as possible and carried on. 

Next step was to clean off the excess filter and add a diff blue (Tamiya Royal Blue XF-3) to 2 panels to add some variation.  I added it to the right wing and one of the wheel hatches on the left wing. 

F4U High Lights etc.

So after the first pass of the blue color (Vallejo Model Air) which is their closest to the FS color required, I also added a drop of white to make it more to scale, I decided to add some high lights.  Somewhat Mig modulation style, but not exactly.

As you can see, I hit the front of the wing edges and top of plane going down the middle.  So far I like it a lot!

Building the Academy F4U

Here is the model glued together.  the fuselage was a bit imperfect on the wings. 

Canopy all masked off.  This was my first time doing a canopy mask,  It WAS a pain in the ass.  But well worth it. 

Green primer mixed with some interior green.  This color should have been a bit lighter.  Oh well, lesson learned.  Also, I used Mr. Hobby liquid putty or what ever they call it.  It's a great product.  It's a very wet and loose putty (stinks to high heaven!  Use a respirator), I applied it with a tooth pick.  The liquid mostly evaporates and the putty stays behind in the seam.  GREAT STUFF.  Minimal sanding

Used my airbrush and applied the later war US navy blue on the model.  Plan is US Navy Gloss Blue finish.

F4U Corsair 1/72 scale - First model airplane built since 1991, when I was in school

Yes, that is right, you saw correctly, I built a 1/72 scale model of an F4U.  Why is PANZER Bill building model planes you ask?  GREAT question.  A friend asked me if I had played War Thunder, a multi player online game that is about WW2 and cold war aircraft.  As soon as I tried it, I WAS HOOKED. 

So I bought a few model airplanes.  I started and finished this F4U in record time.  Planes at this scale are much quicker to build, BUT building planes is tough.  You have a lot of building then painting, and repeat!  It not like a tank where you can build it, and paint it.  So here is my F4U.  I made some mistakes on it, but lessons learned.  I have a P-40B Tomahawk from Trumpeter in 1/72 scale up next. 

So, first we have the start of the project.  This is an Academy F4U. 

Cockpit Painted and washed.  Nothing crazy.

Dash simple paint, but looks fine at this scale through the canopy glass.

Didn't like the crappy exhaust, so I cut some round tubing to use.  All I had was this metal tube, a bit out of scale, but you cant really tell when the model is propped up on the base. 

Looks BIG here, but not so bad when finished