F4U Birdcage Corsair

Member Bob Ulrich made this gorgeous Tamiya 1/32 Birdcage Corsair. The cockpit features a scratch built throttle assembly, much added wiring and plumbing, Barracuda cockpit stencil decals, HGW seatbelts, bolt heads added to armor plate, canopy release handles added, and an oxygen mask lifted from the Hasegawa 1/32 P-40E. All gear well plumbing is scratch built. The engine is corrected with Barracuda magnetos and ignition wire ring, ignition wiring is .010 lead wire, and I added the oil return piping and generator to magneto wiring. The inner cowl flaps were detailed using the Eduard photoetch set, except that I made my own torsion springs from fine wire rather than used the flat and unconvincing PE parts. I made a small jig to wind the torsion springs. Paints are Model Master and some old Floquil Military colors. The ‘salmon’ primered areas are Floqui Zinc Chromate Primer straight from the bottle. Markings from Eagle editions with kit stencils. Weathering includes pre shading and post shading, dark water color washes, paint chipping with sliver pencil, and generous use of pastels. Heavy wear areas on the upper wing were also treated with a light dry brushing in spots with zinc chromate primer to simulate partially worn through paint.
Bob stated “In 40+ years of modeling this is the finest kit I have ever worked on. Not a single fit issue.”

Beautiful work Bob!