I wanted to share some photos of my new 1/72 Admiral F6U-1 Pirate build. This is a nice looking kit with a few areas that can be improved to make this kit even better.


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I started with the cockpit of course. Admiral provides a one piece resin casting for the entire area. The instrument panel is a three piece sandwich affair which looks the part. I think the bottom of the resin cockpit part is supposed to double as the nose gear well roof but there's one big problem. The resin cockpit tub isn't long enough to cover the well opening! If this isn't addressed, you'd be able to look inside the forward fuselage halves and I'm not even sure how one would mount the nose gear. To fix this, I made up a nose gear wheel well roof from sheet styrene and super-glued the resin cockpit to this piece. I added front and rear bulkheads and a few stringers from Evergreen strip to add some visual interest and left it at. There aren't any photos of the well in the Ginter book on the Pirate so it was just a guess on my part. By the way, "Naval Fighters #9" in the excellent "Naval Fighters" series of books is a must have if you are building this kit.


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The final interior area I wanted to address was the tail pipe. Admiral provides a simple blanking plate with a turbine wheel looking piece molded on it. Painted black this would probably but okay, but I didn't think I'd be able to fill the resulting seams in the interior to my satisfaction. To remedy this, I added a length of 7/32" diameter K&S brass tubing which looks much better to me.


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Once that was done, I painted the cockpit and nose gear well and the main gear wells in the wing.


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Once the paint was dry, I super-glued the cockpit into the nose. I also added some lead to the nose so my Pirate would sit on its gear properly. Upon dry fitting the fuselage halves, the instrument panel is a bit too wide. I bit of sanding and filing took care of this issue.


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Next up, I'll be zipping together the fuselage halves and then adding the wings. Thanks for looking, more photos soon.

-Derek

One of the good old early funky jet designs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_F6U_Pirate

The sole remaining example has been undergoing restoration for a while
http://www.fencecheck.com/forums/index.php/topic,17543.msg209860.html

M.

It's good to have a friend here at my shoulder with a little time to spend, til I find love again -F. C. Collins W. C. Bickhardt

r

Perhaps that is the airframe.

M.

It's good to have a friend here at my shoulder with a little time to spend, til I find love again -F. C. Collins W. C. Bickhardt

unless we are talking different mark.i thnk the current restoration is in texas




r

As far as I know that's it and there is only one airframe left.

Thanks,

M.

It's good to have a friend here at my shoulder with a little time to spend, til I find love again -F. C. Collins W. C. Bickhardt

r

In Connecticut--rough shape but I think it is under restoration??


Steve

M.

It's good to have a friend here at my shoulder with a little time to spend, til I find love again -F. C. Collins W. C. Bickhardt