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

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

A thing of beauty, one of those long projects I have followed with open jawed awe.... Incredible work, Barry.

Ian

[John Howling Mouse]

Mr Howling Mouse earlier you had asked if anyone painted bombs. I know the U.S.A.A.F. painted their bombs OD and the U.S. Navy painted theirs yellow early in the war. I think the Germans also painted their bombs too. I can't speak for the Bristish or the Russians, but I'm sure someone more authoritative will chime in.

HTH,
Brian da Basher

Quite right.  My original question was something along the lines of "During an all-out war such as WW2, why do air forces even bother to paint something that is destined simply to be dropped and exploded in short course?"

Seems a little odd, don't you think?  Other than colored bands to indicate type of ordnance, maybe.

Does one need to be concerned with the iron body of a 500-lb bomb rusting, for example?

:dum:  

[Damian2]

I'm in love with your Corsair  

If mine comes out half as nice as yours I'll be very happy!  

[Brian da Basher]

Mr Howling Mouse earlier you had asked if anyone painted bombs. I know the U.S.A.A.F. painted their bombs OD and the U.S. Navy painted theirs yellow early in the war. I think the Germans also painted their bombs too. I can't speak for the Bristish or the Russians, but I'm sure someone more authoritative will chime in.

HTH,
Brian da Basher

Quite right.  My original question was something along the lines of "During an all-out war such as WW2, why do air forces even bother to paint something that is destined simply to be dropped and exploded in short course?"

Seems a little odd, don't you think?  Other than colored bands to indicate type of ordnance, maybe.

Does one need to be concerned with the iron body of a 500-lb bomb rusting, for example?

:dum:

Hmmm well Mr Howling Mouse when you take into account that the bombs weren't used immediately after manufacture and spent months in storage, often outdoors, it makes sense to paint them. Of course, I've been on a run of painting all my bombs gun-metal lately.  :dum:

Brian da Basher  

[wolfik]

John...the way you was going was very interesting...the finished kit is really awesome...
now ...after seeing your nmf surfaces...I will build an usaaf corsair too...
but maybe I want wait for the special hobby f2g...
you are now the JODA here...my Master  

Peter

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Quite right.  My original question was something along the lines of "During an all-out war such as WW2, why do air forces even bother to paint something that is destined simply to be dropped and exploded in short course?"

Seems a little odd, don't you think?  Other than colored bands to indicate type of ordnance, maybe.

Does one need to be concerned with the iron body of a 500-lb bomb rusting, for example?

The paint applied to ordnance is there for the purpose of protecting the bomb from the elements when it is stored for long periods of time.   Keep in mind also that an unfinished/unloaded bomb or projectile would still have a bare metal finish and that would mean that it was still in the manufacturing process.  It is only after the bomb has been filled with the high explosives that the bomb would be painted.  This paint would be applied at the end of the production process to signify a finished product and to allow for all of the necessary information to be applied to the weapon pertaining to the stock number, date of manufacture, company that produced the bomb, ammunition identification code, explosive content, date of fill, date last inspected, and the weight of the bomb.  All of that information is necessary for the bomb to be shipped, stored, or employed to attack a target.  
While most people skip the details that are normally applied to a bomb in small scale, the information is there on the real weapons.  

The main reason that the bombs were painted green had to do with the Army/USAAF being the primary agent/agency responsible for requisition/acquistion of aircraft ordnance.  The original yellow paint applied to pre-war weapons was switched once it was determined/discovered that a basic load of bombs stored in the bomb dump were quite visible when they were all yellow.  This caused some concern since a highly visibile and highly explosive target such as a bomb dump would be an easy thing to spot from the air even when it was covered with camouflage netting.  

The decision was made to change the color of the bombs to green to reduce their visibility on the ground when stored in large concentrations such as bomb dumps.  With this change came the now familiar yellow ring around the bomb body to identify the high explosive content of the weapon.  The yellow warning ring would normally be applied to the nose of the bomb but in some cases it was applied at the front and back of the bomb body.  Some bombs were more sensitive to shock and had two yellow or three yellow warning rings applied at the front and rear of the bomb body to signify a special explosive filling.  

Does that answer your question?

[John Howling Mouse]

Thanks, Jeff and Brian.  Thought it might have something to do with storage but I never considered how difficult the application of stencil data over unpainted iron would be.  I've painted my bombs.  Might even try to do the yellow ring trick, too.

Peter-----you have to warn me if you're going to call me "Joda" like that.
I nearly sprayed my root beer the hard way when I read that!  

Thanks again, guys.

[Eddie M.]

Hey, hey, I'll bet there's an update right around the corner, right?  
   Eddie  

[John Howling Mouse]

Time to see if my modifications to the Vac-U-Form machine worked or not...

       :dum:  

[John Howling Mouse]

While I'm waiting for Superbolts and SeaBolts to dry, figured it was time to pull some of the pre-move builds back out into the light of day. 

And what did I find?

CRACKS!!!

To much play-flying around the house with the model instead of finishing the build, maybe?





Close-ups:





I have used some "penetrating" grade Loctite CA glue with an accelerator to pinch the cracks back together but I don't know if they'll hold.  At any rate, this is going to require some pretty fancy PSR since the surrounding area is completely finished and decalled!

[John Howling Mouse]

If you go back about 16 pages, you'll see where I had made a master pattern for vacforming an oversized teardrop canopy.  That's where this project stalled (same thing happened with my Sentinel trainer conversion from a Mustang )

A couple of years later, Special Hobby or someone released an F-2G SuperCorsair (just re-released by Accurate Miniatures, too) and that kit comes with an extra vacformed canopy that I think I can modify.

You'll see where there is a significant step-up/gap b/w the vacformed canopy edge and the lip of the custom cockpit aperture I had cut out of the Morsair but this would have happened with my own vacformed canopy, too.

From a distance, the mock-up looks quite promising, eh?



But, as you get closer, you can see the issues to be resolved:





The closer you get, the worse it looks, too:

[Captain Canada]

wowee-wow ! Love that one, Baz ! And a little battle damage never hurt anyone. Just say some crazy canuck pilot on exchange broke her while beating up the airfield !

[B777LR]

Pure sexiness! Just place the rear part of the canopy in the open position. Nobody would notice!

[wolfik]

one of the best build what-if things ever seen...was wondering if it was finished allready...
stunning!

[Brian da Basher]

It's great to see you pull this one back out, Mr Howling Mouse! It looks like you're well on the way to repairing the cracks in the wings, but that gap between the canopy and the fuselage looks to be a real challenge. If this were 1/72 I'd suggest using a lot of white glue maybe or some putty. Those canopy gaps are the bane of whiffers world-wide!

Brian da Basher