I did not realise that I had only done the one WIP posting on this diorama build, this just shows how I can get distracted from doing one project to another. Well, since I finished the Messerschmitt Bf110, after leaving it sitting for over two years, I thought it would be a good idea to get this project out and completed as it has not been touched in over two years. I have too many of these projects just sitting there waiting.
Well, to catch up on this project. Over a period of a few months, I managed to get hold of two Tamiya F4U-1A Corsairs, one which was motorised. I had a vision in my head of having one with the propeller running with a pilot in the seat and another standing on the wing talking to him. A former club member then gave me a moto-tug that he had lying around unwanted. This then completed the vision in my head of what the diorama would look like.
The non-motorised aircraft had all of the major construction done, to the point that it was ready for painting. It was also the same with the tug with the assembly done and ready for painting. The motorised Corsair was a different situation. I needed a set of small connectors to allow me to remove the model from the display base for safe transportation and displaying the model on my shelves. I kept keeping some connectors from inside old computers, but kept losing them somewhere. The house move did not help either. So I popped into the local Maplins and looked through what they had making a choice on one set. Now I could sort out the power lead for the motor then paint the interior and assemble the fuselage. The wing were now assembled and glued to the fuselage followed by other construction getting it to the same stage as the other Corsair.
I decided to get the tug painted first once I had downloaded some painting instructions for it. This was straight forwards to paint, just one colour all over with the engine in steel/gun metal. Once the engine was weathered/grimed up and tyres painted, I assembled the tug and did some detail painting before weathering the it with worn areas of paint, grime and washes. Now with a little grime, etc. on the tug, the wheel chocks were painted, weathered and added each side of the engine and a few extra lumps of wood behind the drivers seat. These were made from a chopped up matchstick gone over with a wash and glued in place. The steering wheel is only held in place at the moment with blutac, it is hard to get the driver in place with it there. So once the driver is painted and glued in place, then the steering wheel will be glued then.
The fuselages, wings and engine cowls have all been sprayed with Alclad grey primer, which I think is one of the best on the market. But as the underside of the fuselage is white, I also went over the lower half with some Vallejo white primer.
Pre-shading was done using the same mix of black as I did on the Messerschmitt Bf110, covering all of the panel lines and removable covers on the fuselage and wings. The wing folds were also pre-shaded to along with some other edges.
To finish off this posting, we end at where the Corsairs are at this stage. They have both received the white areas under the fuselage, tail planes and inner sections f the wings. I will start to mask off these areas next and spray the intermediate blue areas.
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