Greetings,
You could say I've been away for a while, about a year and a half, to be semi-exact. I was a regular contributor and group-build junkie, but drifted away last spring/summer thanks to a grueling golf schedule, followed by a kitchen remodel that ate up most of last winter, followed by yet another arduous six months of golf. Only thing I built during that time was Tamiya's Hawker Hurricane, which actually still has a few fiddly bits to attend to.
But with this golf season winding down, I've gotten back to the bench in the past month and managed to complete one build: Tamiya's 1/48 F4U-1A Corsair, done up as the ride of Roger Hedrick, exec of the VF-17 "Jolly Rogers," flying out of Ondonga, New Georgia, in 1943.
The usual superlatives apply to this Tamiya kit. Fit was generally excellent, with only light seam sanding and a couple of tiny spots of filler needed. The engineering of the gull wings make this one a little more finicky than, say, the click-together Mustangs, but it's still a beautiful kit.
I used Tamiya acrylics for the tri-color scheme, white on the bottom, with medium blue and sea blue above, both lightened up a fair amount, as the colors out of the bottle just seemed way too dark. I built the kit basically out of the box, with the exception of some Eduard PE seatbelts and EagleCals decals.
The Corsair was my dad's favorite plane, so this build is in his honor.
I plan to get in a lot more modeling time this winter and get back to participating in the forums here. Next up on the bench is Tamiya's 1/48 Bristol Beaufighter, in night fighter plumage.