A Corsair Affair Pt. 1, Tamiya 1/48 F4U-1a

So after following bvallon’s wonderful F4U-1 birdcage Corsair build I got a lot of jelly goin on. I absolutely love the Corsair and have for as long as I can remember. I’ve always wanted to be able to build a nice looking Corsair and his build thread has really motivated me to try. Now I don’t expect to have as great an outcome but I’m sure gonna do my best and then do it even better on the next one. While I have the birdcage version in my build pile I’ve decided to go with the -1a model for this.

I decided instead of using any P.E. details that I’d scratch build it all myself. At first I was just going to do a straight forward build but as stated before I got motivated. I figured that I have some good reference material so I mine as well make use of it. Along with the printed reference material I’ve also collected a few hundred images from the internet as well. 

First thing I did was make trim tab controls and a new throttle control. I also decided to make the cockpit lights. For the coiled cable I have a roll of thin wire that I wrapped around a sewing pin. I then took a piece of stretched sprue and drilled, with a fresh blade in my knife two holes. One hole I drilled in the side and one in the end. The hole in the side I glued a thinner stretched sprue piece into for the bracket that holds it to the cockpit wall. The hole in the end is where I glued the coiled “power cable”. I also carved the molded elevator trim wheel into something resembling the real trim wheel and scratched the cooling flap controls. 

The seat was next. I sculpted it down and added a couple details out of some very thin polystyrene. The frame I cut out of a sheet of polystyrene and then sculpted it to look round. I sized it to fit between the seat and armor plate while the seat was mounted on the models actual seat frame. I cut this off afterwards and glued the ones I made into place. It’s not perfect and I may change it now that I have some thin polystyrene rods. The interior pieces have been painted with Model Masters green zinc chromate. 

Now for the instrument panel I’m going to break my “no PE” decision. I have decided to buy one that’s detailed. I don’t like the Tamiya instrument panel decal and the IP itself has no real paintable features other than the instrument bezels. I have ordered a Yahu IP for it but it may be a month before it arrives.