¹⁄35

Pacific Corsair

Final Assembly

Basically all the dangley bits left off during the weathering process, so they didn't get damaged. Don't forget to include these bits during weathering. Sometimes they will require temporary attachment during weathering, like the flaps for the cordite staining. There were no real problems, but I should mention a couple of things. The folded wing assembly is very neat, before sliding the outer wings on to their respective arms, make sure that the slots aren't to tight. If they are and you have to force the wings you will probably break off the arms. I don't think you will have a problem, apart from the last 1/2-1mm, which is tight. I think this is just the excellent engineering, a little "force fit" to hold the assembly. The wings were very slightly out of alignment, but adding the braces, which aligned the wings perfectly, solved this. Before adding the wings I attached the antenna wire. I wanted to try and replicate the prototype assembly; this consists of a hook fixed to the rudderpost, holding a spring that the wire runs through. One end of the wire is fixed to the mast, in front of the cockpit; the other end enters the fuselage behind the cockpit. I could make the hook, but it was either out of scale or not strong enough. As it was very small I settled on a ring, made from 0.005" stainless steel wire. To make the ring I wound the wire around the shaft of a 0.2mm drill bit, then twisted the ends together. I drilled a 0.2mm hole, through the rudderpost (this should have been done before any paint was applied) and super glued the ring into position. I wanted a working spring, but settled for wrapping the invisible thread, used for the antenna wire, around itself, after passing through the ring. The 2 ends of the invisible thread were anchored in position using super glue, with a modicum of tension. A pin, held in self-locking tweezers, was heated to red hot, and passed under the thread neatly shrinking it and causing it to become nicely taught.

Will I build another Tamiya Corsair? You bet, I have the 1D version, nice overall Gloss Sea Blue with a yellow nose. I will be obtaining the 1A version as well. If you like the Corsair then you will love building this model.

More pictures can be viewed here.