1/48 Tamiya F4U-1D Corsair

Gallery Article by David Hill on Nov 24 2010

 

Well...my first airplane in over 20yrs is finished.  After assembly and minor sanding ( no filler!!! ) of the fuselage it was time for paint.  I started with a base coat of Metallic silver then Dk. Sea Blue lightened with a little Neutral Gray then masked for the yellow cowl band and the wing walks letting each color cure overnight.  Finally I used Testors Dullcote tinted with a few drops of Lt. Ghost Gray concentrating on the centers of fuselage panels and fabric surfaces to give the Sea Blue a sun faded look. After studying reference photos it seemed that USN aircraft suffered mainly from the tropic sun and salt air more than anything else, so I tried to keep the paint chipping to a minimum and weathering subtle.  Paint chipping was done using a new X-Acto blade and simply flaking off the blue then I used artist’s charcoal for exhaust stains and gunfire residue on the wings.

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Next...I coated the model with Future and applied decals from Eagle Strike’s Corsair Collection Pt.IV which worked well with setting solution choosing the markings for a Bunker Hill plane.  The tape on the forward fuselage was thin strips of white decal I cut in irregular lengths to give a more realistic look.  After the decals dried overnight, I sprayed the model with one last coat of clear Dullcote and chipped more paint to simulate two types of chips, "new" chipping and chips that I wanted to look "old" like tarnished metal.

After years of ship building this was an enjoyable build which brought back many memories!!! 

I used the following for this build: 

  • Tamiya 1/48 Corsair w/"Moto Tug" kit
  • Eagle Strike Corsair Collection Pt. IV decals
  • Eduard colored and detail F4U-1D p/e sets
  • Eduard canopy mask

David Hill

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Photos and text © by David Hill