Academy 1/72 Corsair F4U-1A, Tommy’s Big Hog, Ondongo, 1943.

[speedgraflex]

[Modelcrazy]

Awesome idea.

[Stikpusher]

indeed! The wall thickness is perfect!

[LyleW]

But, the real ones didn’t have stripes!

[speedgraflex]

Lyle! First idea; drill holes, check with graphite paste:





Keep it simple, stupid. My Dad’s mantra. Note: I still have to clean up the burrs from drilling.

[Floki]

Great idea bruce! They look like perfect exaust.

[speedgraflex]

Thanks so much, Clint! I am jonesing to read your updates, and I have a job proposal to finish as well, but I actually feel this admittedly small modification will work. I will try the other side next to see if I get the spacing done correctly. Cheers. Also it is very cold in Los Angeles and my crappy apartment feels like a refrigerator at the moment. Time to crank up the heat.

[jkim]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the cold either. The older I get, the warmer I like it.

So... are you eschewing the straw idea for now and going for the drilled approach? I'm not sure how close you want to match the real exhausts but one of the issues with the kit is that it represents the exhaust pipes as being parallel to the surface when in reality they are coming in at an angle. And the elliptical shape of the openings may be difficult/impossible to achieve. It IS possible with the straw approach although cutting them at a consistent angle might be tough. Ask me how I know! If the drilled approach doesn't satisfy, maybe you could glue three straws together and then cut all three at an angle with scissors? How are the straws diameter-wise to the exhausts?

[speedgraflex]

The stirring straws are too large, sadly. I do not know if they would work for quarter-scale even. Straws are not workable at this scale. What a disappointment. Not wanting to throw this in the trash, I spent about an hour executing several key structural ideas for the cockpit section:



Not final but I am using this to gauge positions. I want to write a bit more about this. The wire behind the seat is a placeholder. The seat itself may be too wide. The upper half of the rear bulkhead is too far forward and does not fit very well. There is a slight step between halves. So I am going to remove or decouple seat and wire, add bit of card to even up the top and bottom, create the forward bulkhead with the supports for the pilot’s feet.

[Stuart]

Stuart, I have a feeling you are spot on that this might share DNA with a kit like the Italeri..

It wasn't a bad kit if I recall - it went together pretty well.



I'm just trying to remember what I did with the Exhausts...