Tamiya 1:48 F4U-1D Corsair with Moto-tug Part 4

 I'm getting closer to finally adding some primer and paint to this model. There's not too much more to do at the moment, but I'm going to be adding some details to the engine, wheels, and landing gear to boost up the detail.

I've had this idea in my mind for several years now, and that's to add tread onto a smooth wheel. But first, I'm going to have to thin down the wheels included with the kit.

 I began by sanding down the outer sides of the tires using a Vallejo Sanding Pads. Once I was satisfied with the width of the tires I sanded down the curved profile of the tire. The tires on the Corsair and Hellcat are pretty thin to allow them to fit backward into the wheel bays, and the newly thinned profile looks a lot better than the stock kit. You could stop at this stage, but I wanted to see if I could add a diamond tread to these wheels. 

I had a few options to create the diamond tread pattern. I first experimented using Tamiya Masking Tape for Curves, a white Vinyl tape that is slightly raised. This worked well, but I had a very hard time cutting the vinyl as by its nature it flexes. I also had the worry that the tape would lose adhesion over the years and my tires would lose their tread.

I then tried scribing the tread using the Tamiya Masking Tape for Curves as a guide, and a Tamiya Scribing Saw to carve out the plastic. This worked pretty well, but it was hard to keep the angle straight around the curved tire. It also just didn't look accurate.

So I went with my final option. I cut out a few hundred squares of Evergreen 0.25mm styrene. This took a while to carefully cut out, but I decided that I would slowly glue these onto the wheel and it would create a more realistic tread.

I mounted the tire into a mini vise from the Wave Corporation, and starting at the bottom of the tire I glued one diamond into the center section using Mr. Cement SP.  Mr. Cement SP is a more aggressive glue and this allowed me to work quicker. After the first diamond was glued down I'd then glue 2 more on the outer edges.

I started at the bottom of the tire so that once I went all around, if the tread didn't match up I could easily sand this part flat to reflect a weighted tire.

This process did take a while to accomplish, but it was really satisfying to see the tread come together and take the shape that I had envisioned. Some of the treads look crooked, but this is just an illusion from the curve of the tire.

Lastly, I sanded down the edges of the styrene with a low grit sandpaper, just enough to round down the sharper edges. 

I'm really pleased with the end result, and it will look a lot better later on when the wheels have been painted. I'm glad that I was finally able to try this after the many years this has been on my mind. I will admit, that I'm not sure that this was totally worth the effort versus just going out and buying a new set of resin wheels, but it was fun to try. 

For the main landing gear, I drilled holes in the center section for the brake line. Then I used 0.20mm magnet wire and ran it from the bottom through to the top. I could have stopped here, but I wanted to try adding some springs that would go on the top section.

As before with the springs I made for the cowl flaps I bent some wire, this time 0.10mm, and glued it to the braces in the landing gear. This was tricky to do as the wire at this size is really fragile and bent easily so I had to use extra care when I glued the springs. I had to make 4 of these in total and it added some nice detail.

Now I moved on to building and painting the cowling and engine. The inside of the Corsair cowling is 2 colors, for the inner section, I painted Mr. Color 351 Zinc Chromate Green. I then masked off this section and painted Mr. Color 62 Flat White.  I wanted to see how this compared to the Tamiya XF-2 Flat White. It's not as bright as Tamiya, but I found it easier to paint on and build up instead of a lot of thin layers. 

The Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Wasp engine is a fair representation of the real thing. It's missing a lot of details on the crankcase, and the crankcase doesn't stick out far enough, but with some modifications, we can add some details and really help this engine stand out.

I first drilled out the holes at the tops of the cylinder heads for the ignition wires. And then I painted the engine sections XF-19 Sky Grey and the crankcase with XF-24 Dark Grey. Afterwards, I applied a gloss coat to protect the paint while I added in the ignition wires.

To further bring out the details, I painted Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color Dark Grey onto the cylinders and left them to dry overnight. Painting these will help the details of the engine stand out when everything is hidden behind the engine cowling.

For some extra detail, I painted the bolts on the crankcase with Tamiya X-12 Gold Leaf, and then carefully drilled out holes around the ignition harness. I then glued in 0.20mm wires all around the crankcase. 

At this point, it looked like a squished spider, but once the glue dried I carefully bent the wires through the holes I previously drilled out on the ignition heads.

Once the ignition wires were in place I painted them with Tamiya XF-6 Copper. It took some time to carefully paint them all and avoid hitting the Sky Grey, but once the painting was completed I sprayed a flat coat over everything and my little engine was finally complete.

I'm really pleased with this section, and it looks really sharp when I test-fitted into the cowling. The only downside is that once the propeller goes onto the front it really ends up hiding the engine.

The antenna that sits just behind the cockpit needs a bit of work. It's meant to sit straight up, and angled forward, however the part has a round disk at the base. So I sanded this off and I was left with quite a large gap all around the base.

I could have simply filled the gap in with Mr. Dissolved Putty, but I really liked the detail of that disk, so I decided to build one out of styrene. It was tricky to sand down a nice oval shape, but with some time and patience I got the shape I wanted and it looks really cool. 

Lastly, for this week, I masked off the canopy sections with modeling tape. I usually cut out my own masks, but this was a time when I wished that I had some precut masks as the frames for this kit were fairly thin and were at times difficult to see and cut out.  

Usually, I will temporarily glue the canopy onto the model so that everything can be painted in uniform. But I think this time it will be easier to leave these parts off until last. 

 Now all I need to do is begin the long haul of masking off the models painted sections, and in the next post, we'll start laying down a coat of primer.

To be continued...

Tamiya 1:48 F4U-1D Corsair with Moto-Tug - Part 3

 I was still having fun adding extra details to this project. Keep in mind I've added these modifications solely for my own satisfaction.  I decided that I'd like to add some extra details to the landing gear bays by adding in some of the wires.  I added as much as I thought I could without driving myself too crazy dealing with a small scale. 

The most difficult task was deciding which wires I was going to add and where they were going. Again the scale played an important factor in deciding which wires to use, and thanks to some great aviation enthusiasts, there were a lot of pictures documenting the Corsair for me to reference. 

Once I had decided which wires I was going to use and plotted where they were going to go. I began by carefully drilling out the holes. Some of these were tricky to drill out, as seen above with the holes drilled out behind the cylinders.

I drilled out smaller holes that would pass through some of the frames. These were carefully drilled out and will add some really nice stability when I eventually add in the wires. I want to also note that there are some really ugly-looking ejector pin marks that I scraped down prior to adding in the wires. These pin marks weren't too difficult to remove using a curved blade in my hobby knife. After I had the pins scraped off I sanded the area with 600 grit Tamiya Sand Paper.

I used 0.20mm Magnet Wire and some more Mr. Just Super Glue to keep the wires fixed in place. The wire is really easy to bend around, and with pointed tweezers, I was able to guide the wires from the center junction to the outsides of the gear bay. I was pretty pleased with how the wires looked going through the back of the cylinders. 

The next wires ran through the wing spar, and I really liked how busy the gear bay was starting to look. It took time to lay down each wire and wait for the glue to dry, but once this is painted these details will really stand out. 

Lastly, I added a few more wires to the back of the gear bay. Like before these would run through a wing spar. There were a few times when I got frustrated with the wires, or the super glue wouldn't dry fast enough, but I think it was worth all of the fuss.

I was going to paint the insides of the gear bays after I had painted the exterior of the model. But when I test fitted the lower wing section I realized that I might not get every corner or I might spray green onto a nice blue finish. So I painted Mr. Color 351 Zinc Chromate Green, which allowed me to see how the inside looked all painted. I'm really happy with the results, and it will look even better later on when a wash is added to pop out all of those new details. 

I turned my attention to the tail wheel. There are long flat bracers on this piece, and these should have openings to them. I used my standard Tamiya Pin Vise to carefully drill out the holes. A bit of a bonus, there are a lot of seam lines to clean up on the tail wheel, so all I needed to do was drill along that seam line and I was able to keep the holes level.

Drilling out these holes was a really simple way to add some extra detail to this model. It's not immediately noticeable, but it looks so much better than before.

Again looking at the reference picture I showed in Part 2, you will notice that the gun covers are taped over. This was done so that nothing would fly into the gun barrels before they were fired and could end up jamming the machine gun. They also marked to indicate that the aircraft had live ammunition.

I used thin Evergreen Styrene, 0.25mm, and cut out six small squares. I then glued these into place using Mr. Cement SP, and after the glue had dried I sanded them down to further thin down the plastic. 

Later on in the build when the rest of the aircraft has been painted I'll come back and paint these white. 

I've never been a fan of adding drop tanks to my models, I don't know why, it's just one of my many quirks. But after some deliberation, I decided to add them to my Corsair. But I noticed that they were missing the fuel caps. 

After some online searching, I finally found a good picture of the fuel caps and their placement. I drilled out an opening on both of the drop tanks. 

I used a leather punch to cut out some disks from styrene. I glued these disks to the opening and then cut out the center to match the previously drilled out hole. I then glued a thin piece of styrene to the inside of the tank so that the new fuel cap wouldn't fall through.

I used the leather punch again to cut out thicker pieces of styrene that would act at the fuel caps. These sections later on will be painted a bright red.  There were some more additions that I could add to the rear sections of the tanks, but since the model is going to be built with the flaps folded down they wouldn't really be seen so I've left them off of the model.

These modifications were a lot of fun to add to the model, and I've still got some more modifications to add. Next, I'll begin work on the tires and the main landing gear sections.

To be continued...

Mr. Replenishing Agent for Mr. Color Paints

 

If you've ever used Lacquer paints you'll eventually find that some of the paints have stiffened up and become sort of gummy. You can try to mix this up with Lacquer thinner, but from my own personal experience, this really doesn't get the job done and the paint will accelerate too fast in drying. 

A friend of mine told me about a really cool product that I had seen many times but I had no idea what it was actually used for. Turns out Mr. Replenishing Agent is designed to rejuvenate those older lacquer paints that have in Mr. Hobby's words "turned to syrup.  

In this demonstration, I'll show you the quick and easy steps to go through to restore your paints, and it won't even take 5 minutes. Seriously, before you know it your paint will go from syrup to airbrush ready!

I sadly found my 126 Cockpit Color (Mitsubishi) had thickened up. As you can see from the clinging paint and the spiderwebs, most of us would simply toss this in the trash and buy another one rather than try to save it.

According to the instructions I translated, you will need to add 1/3 of Mr. Replenishing Agent to the amount of paint still left in the jar. Typically when I add this to Mr. Color paints that I've never used before, I fill it up to the section where the paint jar narrows. 

The next step is to put the lid back on tightly and shake the paint thoroughly for several minutes. After a few minutes, I took the cap off and with my paint stirrer I scraped the paint around the bottom and the edges. This helped the paint that had settled at the bottom mix with the Replenishing Agent.

At this point, you can also see if the paint is thin enough. If it's still too thick add some more Replenishing Agent, but remember to add a little at a time, it's easier to add more rather than having to worry that you added too much.

I then recapped the paint and shook it for a final time.

And here you have it, the paint is restored and is just as it was the day it left the factory. There is also no wait time on this, as long as you properly mix the Mr. Replenishing Agent with the paint, this paint is ready to be used. Please also note that this is not a thinner.

This is a product that you'll be kicking yourself if you didn't have in your modeling arsenal sooner (I know I did). It's so simple to use, and it should work on any lacquer-based paint. I've used it with Mr. Color, Tamiya Lacquer Paints (LP), and AK Interactive Real Colors.

I have also used it on Acrylic Lacquer paints such as Tamiya (X and XF), and Mr. Color Aqueous. However, this might not work on all of these paint lines so use caution.

Mr. Replenishing Agent is not suitable and should not be used on pure Acrylics or Water Based Acrylics such as Vallejo, Citadel, Army Painter, Formula P3, Monument Hobbies, and brands similar to these.

So if you are a long-time user or getting into Lacquer based paints for your modeling and hobby, when you add Mr. Levelling Thinner to your shopping cart don't forget to add a bottle of Mr. Replenishing Agent, because when you need it, you're going to need it!