As you all know I am trying to get this conversion to work, and it has been more work than I had planned on. The resin center wing section was a bit small in areas. I think it may have been due to shrinkage. The aft section is about .070 inches short, and the wing chord was short as well, and the bottom trailing edge of the wing did not match up to the Tamiya upper wing sections. Therefore my flap well looked terrible as you can see in the first picture.


After thinking very hard on how to fix it... This is what I came up with:
I cut the aft trailing edge off of the Tamiya wing section that was being replaced by the new resin section. I put a new sprue from another Tamiya cosair kit in the picture to illustrate what I cut off.


I then flused the rear section of it off and glued it to some styrene sheet to thicken it up so that the trailing edges would match up.


I then trimmed it up.


Then I glued it to the rear section of the resin piece.


I then attached the Tamiya upper wing section, and it looked prety good. Now I have a much more managable seam.



Now I primed it all up to look for defects. It looks pretty good, and a only a few areas need to be addresses around the oil coolers in the leading edge where I had to fill with plastic strene and filler, and a couple areas on the bottom, and rescribe some lines. The seams in the flap well will be hid by the flaps. I am happy with the outcome.




To address the fuselage section I added some styrene due to the resin section being too narrow and short. I then rounded off the original areas so that the can be faired in to look like part of the fuselage. I hope it looks ok when done.



I then put on the resin section behind the cowl and taped it all together to look at mw fuse to wing gap. There is a gap, but it is managable, as well as the join at the front.






I think once that is done and looks good the rest of the build will go quickly and smooth. Still lots of wok tho, and I do not plan on finishing it by the deadline. I want to take my time and try to have this one look good. I still have alot more of the battle to go. Plus I am headed out tomorrow for a week and a half stay out on the USS Trumman to support training of our future Naval Aviators. JET FUMES AND NOISE HERE I COME!!!!! YEHAWWWW!!! Love the trap and the cat shot tho!! See ya'll soon.


Brandon

How is the length of the wheel wells? If the resin shrunk as it cured, did the wheel wells get smaller as well? Will you use the kit wheel well doors or did the resin conversion come with the doors? How is the fit of the doors?

I know it is kind of late now since you already did a great fix, but would it have been better, although more work, to cut off the rear side of the resin wheel well and keep a narrow wheel well to flap area. It would be as wide as the Tamiya piece and the styrene sheet you used?

You did a great fix and it won't even be noticable that the area from wheel well to flap is a little wider. I was just wondering for future reference.

Michael

Model Maker

So I overlayed the bottom of a wing from another tamiya kit and they appeared to be the same size, and I fitted the doors, and they worked well. Good catch I had not even thought of that. As far as the correction goes had I cut off the rear of the wheel weel as you suggested I would have had to extend the wheelwell to keep that narrow section that you mentioned and then the doors would not have worked. They would have been too small. The only way to keep that narrow section would have been to cut the top of the wing and remove some material to make it's chord shorter, and that would have been really tricky to say the least and then the outer wing sections would not have matched up at all. My only logical solution was to add to the bottom of the wing to keep the same wing chord, and that was really the only section that I see I could have added to. Had the wheelwells shrank I would have had to added to them. Fortunatly they did not. I really do not know why my resin section is smaller than it needs to be.


Brandon

One less headache to worry about. You did the most logical thing and it came out great. Keep it simple is the best way to go.

After looking at your conversion, it wouldn't take much for Tamiya to do a -4. And of course since you are doing this conversion, Tamiya is sure to come out with the kit before your paint dries all the way. LOL.

Michael

Model Maker

And I would probably go out and buy one!! You are right. I t would not ake much for them to do a -4. Thanks for the comments and for the WW headsup. As Isaid I had not even considered that, and rushed to check it at once right after reading what you wrote. i will have to say the WW's are very nicely done on the conversion part.


Brandon

Good fix there Brandon! I've always wanted to do this conversion,looks like quite a bit of work though. One question comes to mind about the nose section... Does this part fall on a panel line? on the gap for the wing center section on the L/S, would it fit better if you shimmed the L/S upper wing panel up to match or would it then look wrong? I'm just thinking how this would work for a future F4u-4 build. Keep me posted on this one... I'll be following along. Be safe on the cruise man!

Happy Modeling
Gary

actually that panel line is used as the cut line. It is going to be tricky to rescribe it, and then add the rivet detail. Actually most of that gap was created by me to get the wing to fit. Also that is a real loose fit I have in the pics a lot of that will shrink when I really glue it up. It is shimmed a little bit already. There is so much that has to be done to get tis to work, but I am going to try it, and try not give up!! LOL!! But it is going to be a lot of work! Thanks for the great comments!! And I will keep ya posted!



Brandon

Because of your build, I went and dug through my stash and found that I had cut out, boxed in and detailed the wheel wells on the Academy/Minicraft 1/48 F4U-4 Corsair. It even has the main spar. I must have done this years ago when the kit first came out. I probably put it aside when I discovered the cockpit/canopy was wrong. I even boxed in the intakes. Hmm. I may have to bring it to the top of the que build line.





Model On!

Michael

Model Maker

But I can't go back and edit the original post in the Group Build Forum. Strange.

Michael

Model Maker

Do not buy the CMK conversion set. OMG, I can't believe the resin shrinks that much.. I'd be pissed. I think I'll kitbash the Tamiya and Hasegawa kits before I plunk down the money for that CMK conversion kit AND a Tamiya kit considering you can snag the Hasegawa -4 cheaper that the CMK set..

Or..

If you'll hurry and finish that conversion, it will only hasten the release of a new mold -4/4B Corsair from either Tamiya or Hasegawa.. So get crackin'...

But seriously, nice recovery but I'd still be pissed. It's gonna look great regardless. Excellent work there, man..

Cheers,
Dave

but what the heck I figured I would try and make it work. If for anything...the experience will be good. I am not sure why that center wing section is like that. The cowl, front fuselage, and flight control surfaces, and stabs look great. Hopefully it will come out ok. I think once I get the ceter wing on, and the gaps filled, the rest of the battlem ay start downhill.


Brandon

I am at about the same stage you are - I have attached the tops of the wings to the bottom wing section. I demeled the snot out of it to get a decent fit on the front and sides. The back.... well, the holes don't match up completely. I wish I say your post before gluing everything - I might have tried that. As it stands I will fill and sand until I get something decent.

Nice work - good thinking!

If I run into anytthing else I wll let ya know!!



Brandon

I am wrestling with a side project but I am still putting a little time on the -4. I look forward to your next post!

From this Carrier Qual DET I will get back on mime as well. LOL!! I really do not anticipate finishing it before this GB is over, but will keep posting. With all of the work done so far I really do not want to rush it!



Brandon

I told you it was gonna hurt!

Semper Fi, Don

LOL!!!!

once you get it done. You done some fine problem solving on this build.

I may have to use that on mine, though I have not checked the fit yet. I know this may be a bit late, but here is a link to Brett Green's build of this same conversion in the Osprey book Modeling the Corsair. It is on pages 50-60 on google books for anyone who doesn't have the book... http://books.google.com/books?id=svMmuF0-flcC&pg=PA82&dq=osprey+publishing+corsair&ei=td8AS-u9Np6iygSK2KSeDw#v=onepage&q=osprey%20publishing%20corsair&f=false There is no mention of the flap well gap but he does cover the wing root gap.

Looks like it's all downhill from here Brandon, looking forward to seeing it done.

Allan

I love it when a plane comes together!

from somewhere but not all of it. Thanks for the link I will defiently have to study it.



Brandon