Pavla 1/72 Vought F6U-1 Pirate

PAVLA 1:72 VOUGHT F6U-1 PIRATE

Reviewer: Myself (smakr@bigpond.com)
Kit Built and Review submitted: April 2001

Aircraft:
With its F4U firmly established in production and service, Vought was well placed to respond to the US Navy's request for an interceptor powered by a single 3,000 lb thrust Westinghouse turbojet. The response was a conventional straight-winged plane with a skinning of Vought's patented Metalite, a core of balsa wood sandwiched between two thin layers of aluminium alloy. The Navy ordered three XF6U-1 prototypes, and the first of these flew in October 1946 as a low-wing monoplane with retractable landing gear and its cockpit sited toward the nose of the bluff fuselage.

During its trials, the XF6U was subjected to five major modifications. These were required mainly to remedy a lateral stability problem, especially after the installation in a lengthened rear fuselage of the Solar afterburner required to boost performance to acceptable levels. The Navy finally ordered 65 F6U-1 production aircraft, but these did not enter service until August 1949. Development was so slow that the type was obsolete even as the first production aircraft were being delivered. Only 30 aircraft were delivered and these were mainly used for training.

The Kit:
This is - believe it or not - the first kit I have built that I have actually done an INBOX review for! For all the information see the INBOX F6U Pirate review - a quick summary appears as follows:

Comes in a plastic bag containing one sprue of about 30 light grey short run injection molded parts with a bit of flash encumbering them - and thick attachment points to the sprue in some cases which will require careful removal. Two clear vacform canopies are provide in separate small plastic bag as well as a 34 piece brass etched detail set (making up most of the cockpit interior plus more) and a photo-etched console film for the instrument panel. Surface detail is very finely engraved into the styrene. Crude ejector pin marks riddle the kit a bit on the interior side of most of the parts and in some cases (eg: cockpit, wingtip) will need a fair bit of effort to remove.

Instructions:
3 A4 double-sided sheets folded to make A5 sized booklet. Includes aircraft history, diagram of sprue and brass/photo etched parts. Quite clear assembly steps with many additional small diagrams showing things like exact positioning of parts, seat assembly, wing angles and inside the cockpit, etc. The only downside is that it is a bit vague with actual positioning of most of the cockpit components as well as how to manipulate the shapes of the brass etched parts. Colours noted for individual parts as well as external colour scheme (Humbrol & Agama names/numbers quoted). Adequate decal placement and colour scheme sketches with page devoted to each of both the examples produced in this kit (top, bottom and both sideviews). A small list of other kits available with sketches adorns the last two pages.

Construction:
This begins in the cockpit and you will need to have some experience with brass etched components behind you, as this essentially makes up the whole cockpit. As with most Pavla sets these are mainly too large and need trimming, although the seat is a good size. The seat is split into various components and needs folding, as does the rear armor plate that affixes to the back of the seat. In styrene plastic there is only a floor, control stick, rear wall and side panels - but again the side panel detail is by way of the etched set. A fair bit of work and effort will be required to get the cockpit both up to speed and also to fit! The instructions are pretty useless in regards to exact placement of anything and in some cases is also difficult to understand exactly how an etched component is bent into shape. Origami experts anyone?

I used superglue to attach all etched stuff which is difficult in itself. The etched instrument panel console was superglued onto the whole film with gauge detail on it. Once this was dry, I then traced around the film to trim it to size. On a cheese chopping board I used a sharp blade to remove the etched bits. By my best interpretations I constructed the seat rather well but in order to get it onto the floor and not be too high as to stick out the cockpit opening I had to lay it back on an angle a little more than what it should be.

The cockpit floor was attached to the rear oval shaped cabin wall, which has a tiny line on it where the cockpit floor is affixed. But alas the floor is wider than the wall piece at this point, and likewise, the small groove in the floor for the control column will result in that being a touch too far forward. Furthermore the side panels are also too large for the cockpit and need trimming to fit - the etched set for this is only half the size as well. With a fair bit of coaxing, dry fit testing and a bit of scratchbuild/improvisation techniques the components fitted and the fuselage halves could be closed around it without too much hassle.

Inside the fuselage half after the cockpit unit had been attached the exhaust fan needs to be placed, which is another etched part. The instruction sheet gives some indication for placement but there are no alignment lines inside the fuselage half to assist, so it is a real case of getting it in the right position, so the fuselage halves can still close around it, and affixing with superglue. For those building wheels down, nose weight is needed before fusing the fuselage halves together. Clamps (incl: pegs, rubber bands etc) are needed to keep the halves closed. A thorough sanding of the join lines is required afterward.

The rear fin is butt joined to the top of the fuselage and the mating part was sanded first. A small diagram on the instruction sheet shows the fin is 90° to the fuselage, the tailplanes are 90° angled on the tailfin and the small finlets 90° to the tailplanes. One has to be extremely careful in affixing the tailfin to the fuselage, it is very easy to have it off centre, so I traced a very small outline in pencil where it should be placed, and reference material is also needed to place the tailfin correctly. It almost reaches the very rear of the aircraft. Filler was needed to plug up the gap and then required sanding. The tailplanes were added once the fin was dry, which did contain small locating lines and I positioned playing cards eitherside to keep them angled correctly while left to dry - again filler and sanding needed at the roots. Finally the finlets were added onto the tailplane. These are etched parts and proved to be rather difficult getting onto the tailplanes as they are very easy to bend and ruin. Superglue was needed to fix them in place.

The wing is made up of a single large underpiece and upper halves. Being a LRK (Limited Run Kit) of course, these parts are quite thick in scale. A thorough sanding of the belly area of the fuselage where the wing would be attached to, as well as the parts on the underwing that go into this area was needed and plenty of dry fit testing in between. In fact the front of the wing compared to its mating spot in the fuselage, and likewise the rear section, were almost reverse in sizes! I attached the underwing half to the fuselage belly. It is also important to add that you do not push it right into place, otherwise the wing will sink into the fuselage and will result in an uneven underfuselage alignment (as if the wing section is lower than the fuselage, if that makes sense), so you need to line it up correctly and leave to dry, or put a small dob of filler on the edge of the mating parts to help out.

Next I added the blank plates in the small wing air intakes (there is a locating line on the underwing piece where these go), and providing one does a bit of trimming, cleaning and test fitting with the upper wing halves, these go in well. I painted the plates black and the inside of the intake area. Small etched parts are added near the front of the intake as grill plates and these certainly need a trim and test fit before putting in place. The upper wing halves were finally added, filler needed at the wing roots. The wingtip tanks were assembled and then added, with a slight enlargement of their locating holes needed to fit properly.

The main parts of the undercarriage are in styrene and they are quite basic in replication. Small struts are from the etched set. Likewise all the gear doors are etched parts as well, making it highly difficult to portray a wheels up model, much dry fit testing and trimming is required (plasticard cut to size would be better). Care is also needed when identifying these parts as I almost mixed up the gear doors with the inner intake plates! There is no wheel well detail, and one has to clean the areas on both the undercarriage and bay before affixing them into place. The rather basic and ill portrayed arrestor hook, which needs to be thoroughly cleaned and mating areas sanded, can be placed on the outside of the fuselage and reference material will need to be consulted for correct placement as will the small fairing just behind the wheel bay which my reference material suggests is slight off centre to starboard.

In the final step the fin mounted antenna was glued into place, again an etched part with care needed, the instructions direct to place it 7mm from the tip of the fin. The canopy is vacform and was cut to size, I have this down to a fine art now, so it fitted without any problems at all. Chin mounted machine gun fairings were placed on the nose of the aircraft and will need hollowing out at the end to portray realistic gun mounts. Again, the instructions are pretty vague and poor in exact placement so it is a good idea to consult other references. These needed sanding before being placed on the nose.

Versions & Decals:
Two examples are provided by the kit, both in overall Glossy Sea Blue (FS15042) scheme with steel coloured (polished aluminium) plates near the rear exhaust (as depicted in the boxart above). An F6U-1 Pirate, "19", VX-3, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland and an F6U-1, "481", NATC, Patuxent River, 1950.

The decals are produced by Propagteam and are in excellent register. As with this company you need to take plenty of care when applying them to the aircraft and not to leave them too long in the water. I had no problems (now quite accustomed to their delicate handling requirements) and they went on very well. They set well with Decalfix.

Accuracy:
The kit measures up quite well and providing one uses reference sources to assist in the building process, then the kit will build into a very acceptable depiction of this unique aircraft. Being a LRK many components are a bit thick, but aside from this it is actually quite good. But ultimately you need to put in the effort and research to produce it.

It is also pertinent to point out that this kit will only provide a production F6U-1, the prototype (see aircraft history above regarding slow development) is quite a different looking aircraft, with no finlets and a different fuselage where the rear exhaust sits further down the fuselage underneath the tailfin (similar to the F-4 Phantom).

Overall:
As with all Pavla kits that I know of, this is not one for the faint hearted or inexperienced modeller. You will need to have advanced skills in the hobby and be skilled with etched sets and super glueing components! Considering, to my knowledge, that this is the only 72nd Pirate on the market one does not have much choice if one wants this plane in their collection. Make sure you have all your reference material by your side and you take your time making this model, being careful in particular with positioning etc during construction. You will be rewarded with a decent replication of this unique fighter providing you put in the extra effort.

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