F-5U Morsair (December 2004 - May 2008)

[John Howling Mouse]

Wing root bracing (no curved vertical ribs yet but they're coming too)

[John Howling Mouse]

Profile so far (just held together with the tape at this point).

[John Howling Mouse]

I had just chucked out a semi-circular piece of heavy sprue-gate from another kit when I realized it would nicely fill the rear void of the re-cut cockpit aperture. So I pulled it out of the garbage just in time.

The little half-round piece fit just fine without any shaping but I didn't realize that the way I had the needle clamp set, the piece ended up quite crooked as can be seen from the front here.

There will be a short turtle deck aft of the pilot, similar to the Mustang's but shorter.
The rear-facing edge of the turtle deck will conceal the mistakenly crooked "aft cockpit coaming/armor plate."

[John Howling Mouse]

Stabilizers have been reshaped to be more squared off than the "real" aircraft.

[Ollie]

Awesome buddy!!

   

[Captain Canada]

Geez, must be nice to have model building time during the holidays !

Every table in my house is covered in lego and chocolate !


Mind you, I'm not complaining !

[nev]

Wow, thats some serious work you got going on there Baz.  And doing it fast too!

B)  

[John Howling Mouse]

Canopy prep'd for some serious, careful cutting (four layers of masking tape adjacent to each side of the cutline to protect the clear styrene).

Note the serrated blade which cuts on the pull-stroke---much easier than those which cut on the forward stroke and often bind on you.

[John Howling Mouse]

About 20 minutes later (no swearing even!) and voila:

[John Howling Mouse]

Some gentle trimming with the X-Acto knife and a little polishing with a three-grit fingernail file and I have two fairly neat canopy halves.

For this project, only the front windscreen part will be used.  I will tape it to the fuselage in progress and do my best to shape a pattern out of MDF* which fits not only my re-cut cockpit aperture but will mate with the aft edge of the regular windscreen canopy frame as well.

The separated sliding canopy section will find its way to my "regular" Corsair.  Of course, I still have to cut that kit's canopy the same way in order to have an open canopy.
Could probably just buy a vac-formed one elsewhere but the test of patience is good for me.

* MDF = Medium Density Fiberboard, a very fine-grit type of man-made particle-board; essentially very fine sawdust bonded together very densely.

[John Howling Mouse]

Exhaust stack close-up.
3/32" Aluminum tubing, cut at an angle, crimped then reshaped to have kind of an oval shape.  

Lucky me: I get to make 13 more of them!

[John Howling Mouse]

The first exhaust stack in place.
None of the engine mod's will be realistic or sensible.

But, if all goes well, what the viewer will be able to see will look cool.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!      

[Ollie]

Awesome Barry!

But why didn't you just made your cuts as to fit a Typhoon canopy on the thing, like they did on the P-47?

It would have saved you countless troubles!

   

[Geoff_B]

But why didn't you just made your cuts as to fit a Typhoon canopy on the thing, like they did on the P-47?

It would have saved you countless troubles!

Wouldn't an F2-G be an easier starting point ?, no matter looking interesting so far. Be nice to see what the final configuation comes out like (BTW how about a contra prop to replace the huge thingy from the original ?)

Geoff B B)  

[John Howling Mouse]

But why didn't you just made your cuts as to fit a Typhoon canopy on the thing, like they did on the P-47?

It would have saved you countless troubles!

 

Oh sure, NOW you tell me!!  I should see how long a Typhoon canopy would be on this fuselage...

Seriously though, my rationale for doing it this way:

a. by using the existing Corsair windscreen, I don't have to modify its fit to the instrument coaming;

b. the canopy aperture I've made is quite large and very long---I thought it would be more fulfilling to make my own customized blown canopy;

c. I am quite completely insane   ^_^