To go directly to Young Park's page, click here.
Just a few of the many photos of his models:
An overall view of the corsair. Part of one side is skinned while the other side is left as a cutaway so the viewer can see everything that goes on inside the airplane. The wings fold, the wheels and hook retract and the controls work. This aircraft took about 6000 hours over a period of 5 years to build. (Photo: Augie Salbosa)
Using a tweezers, the controls can be moved. All cables and linkages are in place to work the wing control surfaces as well. Young Park has since carved a pilot's face and hands from solid aluminum and built an articulated pilot to sit in the cockpit. (Photo: George F. Lee, Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
This second model is the same scale, but is built differently. For one, Mr. Park felt that his skills had increased in building the first model and he could make the second one better. On this one, the fuselage comes apart if five sections much like the real aircraft was built.
A detail of the landing gear shows the many parts needed to get the gear to fold and rotate into position while the doors close into position. Slight depressions in the inside panels of the gear doors had to be made just like on the prototype so that the doors would close without hitting the tires.
P-51 Mustang
The Mustang with gear up is one of the prettiest planes every designed. This model reproduces every detail inside and out down to the rivets.
The Mustang with gear down can be seen with the first Corsair. Though built to the same 1/16 scale, the Mustang is a much smaller plane, adding to the difficulty of making everything fit inside.
Though the engine doesn't run, it sure looks like it could. It is fully plumbed and, like the Corsair, all the cockpit controls are connected to the appropriate functions on the engine and control surfaces.
Inside the left wing you can see the .50 cal ammunition threaded into the three wing guns. Each round is machined in 3 parts—brass cartridge with copper bullet and primer and is held together with a small copper feed jacket.
Each panel is hand formed over a wooden shape. The metal is annealed to the proper softness and then pounded and bent into shape. The plane is made up of many individual panels, and the fits between panels are just about perfect. (Y. Park photo)
Here we see the panel above in it's final position. Looks easy now, doesn't it? (Y. Park photo)
The form for the air intake and the final part. As is often the case in machining and model making, fixtures can take a long time to make and are never seen by the public viewing the finished model. (Y. Park photo)
Many more photos here.
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