Tamiya F4U-1 Birdcage Corsair Begins

You're probably thinking, "He's finished all his models and he's starting a new one!" You are completely wrong! I got anxious and started this kit last December while I still had the Spitfire PR.IG and the Stug IV quite firmly in progress.

Quite some time ago, I purchased, I believe a Revell Corsair for the nephew in the West. Perhaps this can be somewhat of a guide in your build, if you find the time between all the things you have going on.

If the Revell kit is like this one, sorry. I would have sent the Tamiya Spitfire Mk.I kit had I known the complexity. Not that I think this kit is that complex, just that I missed a few things...a few times.

The box art. I don't think it will turn out this nice, but we'll give it a shot. Although, it is a bit clean for my taste.

I decided to upgrade a few areas. The wheels, exhaust and the seat. I also hate masking canopies so I thought I would try pre-cut masks from Eduard.

Parts look good overall.

Decals, typical thick Tamiya decals.

Several sink marks needed to be filled. I touched them up with Mr. Dissolved Putty.

First the Cockpit.

You can see the difference between the kit seat and the resin upgrade. If not, I'm not sure how you're reading this.

Parts ready for priming.

I primed this with AK Interactive Gray Primer, before I knew of the wonderful Badger primer.

 I think I got all the interior areas....or did I?

For this kit I got Akan's U.S. Navy paint set. I sprayed Interior Green here. It's a fantastic paint, lays down beautifully.

I added a little Pale Gold to the green to lighten it up and provide some variation in the paint.

Can't you see it?

I brush painted flat black on the headrest.

The areas of wear were chipped with silver....I think.

Details painted.

I took some artistic liberty with the colors of the buttons, because it's my kit and I can!

Harness brush painted with Tamiya's Deck Tan, or we can call it "harness color" and silver on the buckles.

The tub is completed.

Glued into place ready for the fuselage to be assembled.

It's as easy as that! At least to read anyway, what it take under 5 minutes? This actually took place between Dec 6th and January 10th, 2016. I'm not that fast at building or apparently at getting posts out either.

The next post you'll see is the engine being painted and slapped together. It won't be as involved as the Zero so it shouldn't take that long, right?

Tamiya 1/35 Stug IV sdkfz163 Weathering and Completion

I've been struggling to figure out if I should split this into a couple of posts or do just one. I don't feel like milking it for two posts, so here is the completion of the Stug IV.

All detailed, chipped, glossed, decaled and glossed again, ready to get dirty with weathering.

I started with UMP's Dark Dirt clay based wash. While pouring, it has a tendency to pour down the neck and the bottle, right onto the table. I stopped myself from cleaning it up and just used it from here. It did weather the table dents a little bit.

The thing with the clay wash is that your gloss coat better be pretty solid, otherwise getting it off is torture, if you can at all. See the PR.IG build.

Smeared and streaked up. Let it sit for 20 minutes or so.

Clean it off with water, paper towel or Q-tips. It mostly wasn't a problem.

Recessed areas and weld marks are a bit more emphasized with dirt.

After a dull coat, I added a brown filter. See this video for a fairly good tutorial on filters and how to apply them. I did it completely wrong and then found this video. https://youtu.be/XrTxiUt0Ze8

I'll spare you most of the filter pictures, because you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference anyway.

The schürzen plates.

I realized I completely missed priming and painting the rod that holds the spare roads wheels in the tray on the side. As I was carefully sanding the nubs, it just broke. Great, now what?

I stretched some sprue and easily replaced it. On to smearing some primer and paint!

The tracks came out far too red with the track rust pigment, so I just sprayed Mig's Dark Tracks on top.

Added some pigments and rubbed Mig's Gun Metal pigment on the raised surfaces that would have had some friction with the Earth.

Some Gun Metal on the sprockets.

And the outside of the idler wheels.

The tracks were super glued together. I found them easier to put on when I took the drive sprockets off.

The return wheels are held in place by the tracks. Notice something missing? I broke the jack off while I was fitting the track. Had to glue it back on.

See anything here? I broke one of the braces while fitting the track on this side. Had to fix that!

Milliput tarp just lays on top.

Now it's time for getting it more dirty. This next step should be more obvious.

This is my first go around for this method and I borrowed it from this video: https://youtu.be/8MBfYwk42A8 I definitely didn't do it as well, but hey, it's my first time!

I made a mix of all the parts, loaded up a brush and used the airbrush to splatter the mixture on.

I used the odorless thinner to streak it down the sides and cleanup areas I didn't like.
I also gave it a second coat. Next time I think I will try a thinner mixture.

Here are the final pictures for this project! The antennas were made from stretched sprue and covered in black primer. I put the model down for 5 seconds and the other cat roaming the residence bit them off. I had to re-stretch and re-prime another set.

That's it. Time to wrap this up with a lessons learned.

• I think I officially like armor model building.
• I don't look forward to the weathering stage though.
• I will try color modulation on armor again, as I think I quite like the effect. However, I will be using a gray primer base instead. I think the modulation effect is there to build shadows and light with the color palette. Using a black base makes it too dark to start. If you are using 1 or 2 colors then the black base will assist with the shadows.
• I'll probably glue the tools to the hull before painting again. It worked out just fine.
• Filters are meant to be put on in VERY thin layers.
• I'm still not completely sold on clay based washes.
• It takes several coats of Alclad Aqua Gloss to get a nice smooth coat.
• Rubber band tracks aren't too bad. Just spray with Dark Tracks paint, apply pigments, pigment fixer and call it a day. Don't fuss about too much.
• It's easier to put tracks on when they are glued together and you take the drive sprockets off.
• Stretched sprue makes great antennas.
• If you scale up the tarp I made, it would probably be a thick blanket. Next time I'll be trying a thinned PVA glue and facial tissue.
• Melted sprue takes a REALLY long time to cure, at least a week. I don't think I'll be using this method for hole filling in the future. I'll be using Milliput more. It's a bit of a pain to prepare, but it doesn't shrink and can be cleaned up with water before it sets.
• I really need to get some good lights and a build that light booth for completion pictures.

On to the next project!