Tamiya 1/48 F4U-1D Corsair review

Years ago, I read Zero by Martin Caidan and Saburo Sakai. Sakai talked about bouncing some aircraft that were painted green. Turned out to be Avengers, and they were waiting for him. Caidan noted that the planes were not painted green, but were weathered by sun, wear, and sea air. I have thought of, but haven't tried yet, of misting the top of the spine and wings with a green over the sea blue to see what the effect might be.

Some other minor things to watch out for if you are going to do an F4U-1A. Early production F4U-1A's carried over some features of the F4U-1 birdcage:

1. Short tail wheel strut.

2. Cowl flaps that go all the way around the cowl. I just recently noticed this looking at photos of VF-17 Corsairs. VF-17 received the very first F4U-1A's off the Vought production line. I believe one of the resin add-on manufacturers will be releasing a set of the full cowl flaps for the Tamiya kit.

3. Also I read that some early F4U-1A's had the belly window. There are probably photos that confirm this, but I have not seen any yet.

The cowl flap/tail wheel strut/belly window changes did not necessarily coincide with each other. I have seen many photos of F4U-1A'a with the later cowl flap configuration that ahd the short tail wheel strut.

As has been said many times before, check individual aircraft references !

Jim

Hey Lancaster,
This is one technique that you could use to help out in the weathering process.
When I do my washes, I use a mixture of paint(water based paint/acrylic) and distilled water.
The ratio of paint to water is up to you my friend!!.
First step to applying the wash is to make sure your model has a gloss finish. I guess you can say this step kills two birds w/ one stone!!(no actual birds were harmed in this post) One applying decals and the other is the wash.
This coat helps in the application and control of the wash. Use a fine brush when you apply this method.
After applying the wash to the areas that you want(landing gear, gear doors, panel lines and the like), let the wash sit for about 6 minutes or so.
Now go back over the areas w/ either a moist Q-Tip or a moist soft cloth. I prefer to use a cloth myself.
Once is all said and done w/ the application, you can always repeat the process as many times as you would like or until you are satisfied w/ the results!!
This method may seem a little long but believe me the results are awesome. Also its one of the easier ways of weathering/ highlighting a model
If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me at Falcon42177@yahoo.com or Falcon174th@aol.com
Hopefully this helps ya out me friend.
Flaps up, Mike

Lancaster,

Great kit, you shouldn't have any problems assembling this bird. This is probably one of the best releases from Tamiya as far as engineering and fit of parts is concerned. Excellent cockpit detail, no need for resin replacements here.

Just a few things to watch out for. Tamiya uses an insert on the dorsal spine behind the cockpit. This was done because Tamiya uses a common fuselage on all three of thier Corsair kits. The early Birdcage Corsairs had a different spine arrangement than the later Bubble Top Corsairs. You would probably do better to attach the insert halves to thier respective fuselage sides rather than attaching the completed insert to the completed fuselage as per instructions.

If you do the extended wing option, some thin strips of plactic under the inner and outer wing panel joints will aid in alignment and avoid gaps in that area.

Also, check your references as to whether or not the aircraft you are modeling had the step cut out in the port inner wing flap section. Only late model F4U-1D's had this feature. Most Corsairs didn't have this cut out and it will need to be filled in if your subject aircraft didn't have it.

Other than these small snags and a few nit pics on airframe accuracy, the Tamiya F4U-1D is an excellent kit. You won't go wrong adding it to your collection.

For great Corsair advice, go to http://www.hyperscale.com Click on the forum buttton. Put a request in for Corsir help from Snake. The man is an excellent modeler and the definative source for Corsair information.