Official FlightLine F4U-1A Corsair 1600mm (63") Wingspan

[Grossman56]

Working on the tail feathers and the starboard wing, starting to impress me, looks better 'live' but you get the idea



You can see the difference on the wing as the inboard section, in from where the wing folds is still stock. I haven't applied the silver 'paint chips' to the gun hatches yet and I should do that before I add any more chalks to it. Taking a break and letting the fixative dry.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

Grossman56

By Jove, I think you've got it.....

Best, Steve

[Grossman56]

Thanks Steve, can't wait for the decals to arrive, then it all comes apart for the fuse work. Dave and I are looking into the possibility of using your pilot, the only thing that worries me is trying to do as good a paint job on him as you did on yours! We're going to try to work out just exactly what the minimum is that we'd have to do to fit him in. Meantime, I have some more Porcelain Petes to try the 'wash' method. I believe that's what Akuma Zeto did as well. I have one that he painted and it's really amazing.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

Dave and I are looking into the possibility of using your pilot...
Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Danger,

A few pointers for you guys while working on the Max Grueter's US Navy Pilot.

For my print, I cut and printed the figure body parts in Prusa Slicer.

Body parts were resized in Prusa in X, Y and Z axis after printing once to fit the cockpit as I had designed it.

For example, arm lengths were printed to size, so those would be in the position I wanted, hand on throttle, hand on joystick.

The legs were sized to bend at the seat front and angle down to the rudder pedal trough, and so on.

You get the idea; it is a combination of sizing and placement for my build.

As for the finish, I watched figure painting vids on ewe-toob and went from there.

I did not paint it in one sitting, I worked on him until I liked what I saw or got frustrated and then took a break sometimes for several days.

I black-based the figure and highlight sprayed from the top in light gray.

From there it was just finding a color that was close and using washes to adjust the colors.

I was surprised at how well that technique worked in taking the toy out of the printed figure.

Best, LB

[Grossman56]

Thanks for the information Elbee and for all your help. The guys on HobbySquawk are the greatest! Always liked the Clan Squawk an I've been lucky enough to be a member for at least if not over a decade now.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

For all of us struggling to come up with a method for painting pilots that give us consistently good result, I thought this video was great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51KFiNsLxEw

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Fast N Light]

I followed this video for my 1st painted figure. Has good info on technique. Surprised how well it came out with only a couple tries.

[davegee]

Working on the tail feathers and the starboard wing, starting to impress me, looks better 'live' but you get the idea



You can see the difference on the wing as the inboard section, in from where the wing folds is still stock. I haven't applied the silver 'paint chips' to the gun hatches yet and I should do that before I add any more chalks to it. Taking a break and letting the fixative dry.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Looking good, Dan! I am printing the rest of the cockpit panels for you to see how they might fit in your aircraft. Should be able to get them to you next week, maybe after Thanksgiving Day.

I was impressed in many ways with this Flightline Corsair, but the one photo you took of the horizontal stabilizers/elevators is a case in point. You are probably already familiar with this, but for those who are not, you can see the circular inspection plates on the left stabilizer only, as seen from overhead. If you were to reversse the airplane, (flip it over) you'd see that the same patterns of inspecition panels are on the right stabiliizer. The reason is that these stabilizer/elevator units were completely interchangable; there was no Left or Right units. You can imagine how helpful that was, being on the very end of the supply chain in some godforsaken islands in the South Pacific, and parts like those could be easily replaced as long as there were some usable or fresh parts to fit. On top of that, each elevator had a trim tab and a balance tab. And they had to work in either location, left or right. Those guys really had some superior headwork designing these airplanes over 80 years ago!

Cheers

davegee

[davegee]

While I was printing up some cockpit parts for Dan, I decided to do a little "look-see" on my own Corsair cockpit. I have had this plane about 5 years, and I think the only 3D printed part I put in it was the forward control panel and Mk 8 gunsight that someone else did for me long before I started dabbling in 3D printing. I did paint up the stock pilot a bit to a USMC shirt jacket that was the type that the subject of this plane, Lt. Robert M. Hanson, habitually wore on his missions. While I was about it, I made the following embellishments on the cockpit:

1) printed, painted, and installed side control panels
2) printed new head rest on back wall
3) printed and painted a crew oxygen bottle installed on the right side of the cockpit next to the pilot
4) installed clear sheet of armored "glass" in front of the pilot behind the curved windscreen

I'll include a few pics, but they aren't all that good due to the poor lighting in my shop. The canopy is now being glued on with canopy glue and taped down overnight until it dries.

I decided against going any further in printing up a more detailed full body pilot and all those extra details. This old bird has a ton of flights on it, and I think it is pretty good as is. I've had my "fun" doing detailed cockpits on big gassers P-47 and P-51 models that are now safely ensconsed in museums after their flying days were over. I'll devote some time doing what I can to help Dan with his beautiful birdcage Corsair.

[Elbee]

davegee

Looks tremendous, Dave.

Sometimes it is about just having fun, right.

Nicely done, Sir.

Best, Steve

[davegee]

davegee

Looks tremendous, Dave.

Sometimes it is about just having fun, right.

Nicely done, Sir.

Best, Steve

Very true! The building and flying I did for my contest airplanes was satisfying, but many times not really "fun." All in all, I'm glad I did it, we won prizes, we lost other contests, but it was a good expereince and the warbirds scale group was pretty good. We would help each other out where we could, it was a lot more relaxed than some of the contests where I understand it is pretty cutthroat. That part of it never interested me!

Cheers

Davegee

[Grossman56]

Yeah, I'm with you there. I dabbled in art shows for a while and it always seemed that some higher up's kid would get first prize. My last was here in Cody when my Buffalo Bill portrait came in second, which was okay, but the same ol' story. Always a mistake to take the fun out of it.
Anyway, got the starboard side wing looking close the port now, took here out in the sun for the official 'welcome to the Hangar' pictures, a tradition I do with all my birds, see what you think:

thr


The official cat(s) picture. They come running outside when I do this, you think they know??
Number three was too busy cuddling with his mom.
Now, the starboard wing isn't quite complete, gun smoke and some more work on the flaps. The chalk colors I'm using besides black and white are a light coral pink, a dark blue and a light blue and purple all blended from leading to trailing edge by index finger. So far, so good. Just waiting for the decals, then she comes apart.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

Aw heck, may as well post the rest of them too. BTW, I used workable fixative on this coat just before bringing her up, if you fine mist in short burst, not directly at the wing, but just over it so it can settle down on the wing, it works great.








This gives you and idea of what the airplane will look like as you can see the wings and horizontal stab. In the others you get an idea of how much the color has changed compared to the fuse.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Bomkrb]

Has anyone converted this to fpv?

[Elbee]

Aw heck, may as well post the rest of them too. BTW, I used workable fixative....Grossman56(Dangerous Dan)

Danger,

I did the same thing and redid all the areas that had faded out, by adding some additional pastels after the fixative; worked great, too.

Lookin' good, Sir.

Best, LB

[jetfool]

Dan,
Really look-in GOOD. Amazing how the chalk really brings it alive. Still looking for the Birdcage mirror photo, I have too much documentation on this bird.
Best Regards, Rex

[Aros]

Dan you are joining the ranks of others here who do fantastic weathering work. Keep it up!

As of today, we've added this note to the product page:

Note: All 1600mm F4U-1A/D Corsairs sold November 2024 and later now include upgraded retract strut pins with a 6.5mm pin diameter. When purchasing replacement parts, please make sure you purchase the updated parts for your retract pin size.

The upgraded 6.5mm pin diameter spare parts should be available shortly.

[jetfool]

Aros, Great news. Love my Birdcage and hope to get the bubble-top next spring. Sounds like you are involved with FL, if so hopefully we will see some new 1600 Warbirds next year. A 1600 SBD-3 Dauntless would be a great model.

Happy Thanksgiving, Rex

[Grossman56]

So, I think mine just missed the mark, there were only four left when I ordered mine, then they were out of stock for a couple of days, oh well.
So the Robarts arrived today and I tinkered around with them to get them to fit. I ended up using a prop/shaft adapter from the Pandoras and a lock collar in this order. Spacer, electricians tape to upsize the diameter of the axle pin, wheel fitted over the taped area, lock collar, then through the hole in the strut. Originally, I had the stock spacer after the wheel and before the collar but it looked like the wheel was too far from the strut so I removed it.



I successfully retracted the gear with the spacer still installed, but haven't tried it without, that'll wait 'til tomorrow. I like the looks of these tires better than the stock ones, just too bad the supplied axle adapters don't work.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

SanExup,

I made some bushings for Davegee,Elbee and myself from brass rod, 1/4” turned down and bored to fit the Robart wheels and stock axle. I think Elbee did a complete new wheel for his though. If you need a pair of bushings PM me your address and I will send you a pair. Mine spin freely on the axles and no wobble

Best Regards, Rex

Hi Rex, do you happen to have any more of those bushings? I'd love to get a set, let me know.
Thanks in advance! BTW, Happy Thanksgiving!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)