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

[davegee]

Thanks Davegee. That picture really helps. Probably have them about like the original. Wasn’t to bad to remove and install the new exhaust. They look more like the real ones. Thinking about making the hooks underneath the fuselage from bondo and shaping them more to the real hooks. Simple to do and will look better. Not much weight that small.
Seems we keep finding more details to add after we say it’s finished. Have you installed the bushings I sent to you? Just hoping they fit ok. Rex

Sounds good, Rex. No, I have a ton of things on my plate to do, but it is definitely on my list. I'll let you know how it goes.

Regarding the hooks, are you talking about the bridle cable hooks underneath the fuse for carrier launch ops?

cheers

davegee

[jetfool]

Yes, thought I would use a piece of styrene for the base. Put a glob of bondo on and as it starts to gel just carve away. Ala Dave Platt.
Then once I’m happy I’ll install. Rex

[jetfool]

Here is a picture of a F4U-1 being catapulted off the Bunker Hill, 1943. I'm sure it was installed on all Corsairs at the factory. Rex

[Elbee]

jetfool davegee

Gentlemen, my exhaust stacks stick out and are aligned in the fuselage to the "Exact" point where I thought it looked good.

Seriously, that is how I did what I did. Rex, Dave is correct in that most reference showed a close fit to the fuselage, however, I liked to be a bit proud of the skin, 'cause it looked better to me.

Best, LB

[jetfool]

Thanks Elbee,
Just glued the first one in and I left it sticking out a little. It does look good as I compare it to my photos.
What are your plans for your wing? I will simulate the lights,gun camera but not going to do any surgery. Waiting patiently to see your upgrades.
Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Here is a picture of a F4U-1 being catapulted off the Bunker Hill, 1943. I'm sure it was installed on all Corsairs at the factory. Rex

Yes, that is VF-17 doing initial tests for the Navy early in the Corsair program. It was quite a while before the Navy finally cleared the airplane for carrier operations, in fact the Jolly Rogers (above) did quite a bit of flying off islands in the Solomon Islands in 1943-44.

I only have scattered statements in my Corsair books that the stall strip was attached starting with the F4U-1A aircraft. Perhaps we'll never know for sure, but my guess was that this early with the Jolly Rogers testing, they did not have them installed yet.

Dave

[davegee]

Forgot to tell you the website. Doogs Corsair

Hi Rex: I have been looking through the pages of this Corsair blog, and darned If I can find where you showed how to install your wheel mods for the Corsair! Could you give me a number on the site where I can follow along how to do it? Would you recommend waiting until I get the printed scissors parts first before tackling this?

Thanks, Davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee,

I found a picture I showed on page 261. You can use this to fly without adding the scale struts. Just loosen the set screw in the bottom of the strut and remove the axle. Press the bushing in the hub, install axle in wheel, add the spacer but don't glue. it will spin with wheel but shouldn't be a problem. Cut end off the axle about 1/16" long, that way it will fit thru the scale strut. I cut mine flush and had to add jb epoxy to fill the hole. Works either way. If you have more questions just ask.
The extra bushings should fit your P-47 if you are using Robarts.

Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Davegee,

I found a picture I showed on page 261. You can use this to fly without adding the scale struts. Just loosen the set screw in the bottom of the strut and remove the axle. Press the bushing in the hub, install axle in wheel, add the spacer but don't glue. it will spin with wheel but shouldn't be a problem. Cut end off the axle about 1/16" long, that way it will fit thru the scale strut. I cut mine flush and had to add jb epoxy to fill the hole. Works either way. If you have more questions just ask.
The extra bushings should fit your P-47 if you are using Robarts.

Best Regards, Rex

Thanks, Rex. Really appreciate it. I have your bag of parts right here on my desk. I'm supposed to get the gear scissors parts any day now. I might wait until I get them and do the whole shootin' match all at once. I'll review your previous blogs on the wheels. I've been working a lot on my P-47D that I flew with the big prop the other day. Last summer, I lost power right after takeoff, not total but not enough to keep it flying, and had to put it down in the sagebrush off the end of the runway. Could have been worse, but the bottom of the bellypan was like I used Home grit sandpaper on it! So, I decided to fill in all the cuts in the bellypan, which took most of yesterday to do and repaint the area. Added some sway braces for the drop tank that I put on one of the other planes, it worked so well for that one. Whole plane looks much better now, and I think I discovered why I had that power loss last summer. I had these Anderson power pole connectors which work great. However, I noticed the other day when I flew it a clicking or sparking sound. It went away and I got a normal flight out of it, but when I examined it later in my shop, one of the little metal contacts had bene pushed back, barely touching the other. So, I have also gotten my plane back to good flying shape, reliably, I hope!

cheers

davegee

[davegee]

Did some work on my Corsair today. Haven't flown it since last fall, but as soon as I get a decent day with little wind, I'll take it out for a flight. One of the things that I had planned on doing but I guess forgot to do was make a simulated gun camera port on the right leading edge wing. I did that today, even added a little tube inside that mimics a camera lens inside the protective clear plastic cover. The white patches over the guns, for those not familiar. were taped over by the armorers after they had loaded the .50 cal bullets and the guns were ready to shoot. It was meant as a safety reminder that those guns were fully loaded and ready for the next mission.

Also got LB's magnificent printed tailwheel installed, so I'll be all set when the weather cooperates. Attached are a few pics in the shop today.


Cheers

davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee,

Your Corsair looks great. T/W adds a better touch than the OEM. I planned to add the camera lens also and you just saved me a lot of measuring where it goes. Thanks!

Elbee, I found a profile of the Corsair your coping and it is shown with a bomb on the Brewster bomb rack. Might be something interesting to add. Not many will detail the bomb rack like you can. Found this in my Squadron book Corsair in Action.
Looks like spring will be full of gull wings.

Best Regards, Rex

[Elbee]

That is so cool. I will have to find a copy. I also see the aircraft is misidentified as a VMF-115 "Joe's Jokers". That is a common error with that livery I have found. Best, LB

[davegee]

Davegee,

Your Corsair looks great. T/W adds a better touch than the OEM. I planned to add the camera lens also and you just saved me a lot of measuring where it goes. Thanks!

Elbee, I found a profile of the Corsair your coping and it is shown with a bomb on the Brewster bomb rack. Might be something interesting to add. Not many will detail the bomb rack like you can. Found this in my Squadron book Corsair in Action.
Looks like spring will be full of gull wings.

Best Regards, Rex

Looks like that is one book I don't have. I probably had it before the big move three years ago, but it was a brutal downsizing, stuff I had been accumulating in our house for 27 years before moving. We probably got rid of 75% of the books we once had. I still have some of the more important books in a book case in my study here In WYO, though.

I had to "eyeball" the gun camera port a bit. Ended up using a piece of Evergreen white tubing, about .3" square. I took the tube and carefully started pushing the end where I wanted the camera to go. It made an indentation in the foam, and I carefully used a exacto knife and a needle nose piers to carefully pull the foam pieces out of the hole. Then I cut a section off the tube, maybe 1/2" long, and started sanding the front of it so that it would conform and be flush with the shape of the leading edge of the wing at that point. Painted it Navy blue to match the rest of the upper parts of the airplane, and glued it in place. Cut a small piece of K&S aluminum tubing, not sure what the diameter was, but something to look believable as a camera lens. Glued it in. Then, found a piece of very thin, maybe .005" clear plastic from the packaging of a sharpie pen, found it had a slight curve in it, and cut it so I could glue it over the hole, slightly bigger than the square tubing I had put in. Used that same white glue I mentioned previous above, taped it in place, and Voila! You got yourself a camera port.

I'm pretty sure that it is right where it is supposed to go. Had several good photos for reference.

Let me know how it goes.

Cheers

davegee

[jetfool]

Thanks Davegee for your installation instructions. Yours really looks great. I will try it on mine.

Elbee, You could make it operable and as it swings down to drop the bomb, a cable fixed in the bottom of the fuselage would be pulled out of the holding pins in the bomb to release the bomb. I use old broken control line cable for these things. The cables are thin enough that they won't distract from the model. Just something for you to think about. Ha!

Enjoying these discussions with you guys, wish more guys would share there modifications too. Best Regards, Rex

[Elbee]

jetfool I like both bomb racks, the Brewster and the field modified. I don't know how I'd make either of those operable until I decided to build one. Aesthetically, I like the Brewster, but also like the idea of a bomb under each wing. Time will tell....Best, LB

[Grossman56]

Did some work on my Corsair today. Haven't flown it since last fall, but as soon as I get a decent day with little wind, I'll take it out for a flight. One of the things that I had planned on doing but I guess forgot to do was make a simulated gun camera port on the right leading edge wing. I did that today, even added a little tube inside that mimics a camera lens inside the protective clear plastic cover. The white patches over the guns, for those not familiar. were taped over by the armorers after they had loaded the .50 cal bullets and the guns were ready to shoot. It was meant as a safety reminder that those guns were fully loaded and ready for the next mission.

Also got LB's magnificent printed tailwheel installed, so I'll be all set when the weather cooperates. Attached are a few pics in the shop today.


Cheers

davegee

As someone who has personally seen Dave's Corsair, it's hard to believe that it could get any better, but, well here it is. Look forward to seeing it in the flying season.

Grossman56

[jetfool]

Found a picture of the homade built bomb mount for the Corsair. Brewster manufactured a factory copy that had refinements. Elbee this should be fairly easy to make and made operable. Just shows how inventive the US soldier could be in times of need.

Best Regards, Rex

.

[davegee]

Found a picture of the homade built bomb mount for the Corsair. Brewster manufactured a factory copy that had refinements. Elbee this should be fairly easy to make and made operable. Just shows how inventive the US soldier could be in times of need.

Best Regards, Rex

.

Rex: do you know how the bomb was dropped from this improvised bomb rack? I see the shackle, and there must be a lanyard or something going into the cockpit to release the bomb somehow. I know some of the P-47s had a similar arrangement to pull lanyards inside the cockpit, making it a very simple mechanical process to release the bomb.

Interesting "in the field" remedy to needing a simple but reliable bomb rack for combat operations. I like how they improvised cutting a notch in the cooling door so that it could still function. Good picture find, Rex.

davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee,
I think as the bomb shackle dropped down a cable tripped the ejector mech. that released the bomb. Like the trap-eze on the SBD, sorta similier. These in the field mods probably would not been allowed to happen in peace time without the Bureaucracy getting their grubby fingers involved to scarf off as much dollars as thy could for themselves. Common GIs inventions in time of war was great. We see things like this happening in the Ukraine soldiers today.
Rex

[davegee]

Davegee,
I think as the bomb shackle dropped down a cable tripped the ejector mech. that released the bomb. Like the trap-eze on the SBD, sorta similier. These in the field mods probably would not been allowed to happen in peace time without the Bureaucracy getting their grubby fingers involved to scarf off as much dollars as thy could for themselves. Common GIs inventions in time of war was great. We see things like this happening in the Ukraine soldiers today.
Rex

I remember talking to a former P-47 pilot with the 57th Fighter Group, Hel Hawks in WWII. They flew a lot of missions in Italy. From their remote bases, they couldn't get a lot of parts support to conduct operations. The bomb shackles that they received were for a P-40, so they tried to make them work somehow, anyway. Unfortunately, bombs on the wings would hang up sometimes, and they couldn't get rid of the bomb. It would somehow hang on with one shackle, and when they landed, the bomb would drop off, pulling the arming pins so now it was armed! It rolled down the runway at about the same speed as the aircraft that dropped it, and sometimes contacted the airplane with disastrous results!

[jetfool]

Davegee,
Yeah, I have the book Hell Hawks. Those guys really had it rough. The guys based in England had better ground facilities and meals. All the people in that war had it rough day in, day out.
Ground strafing had to be nerve racking. Germans were fierce fighters, on the ground and in the air. Rex