1/48 Tamiya F4U-1D Corsair

Gallery Article by Lorenzo Cassinadri on May 13 2009

 

This is my F4U-1D Corsair  I built a couple of years ago representing the famous wing 167 of VF-84 aboard USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) during February 1945.

Much has been said about the quality of this kit and it really was a pleasure to build. The only minor hitch were the decals which were a bit too thick, but MicroSet and Sol solved the problem.

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I built the kit out of the box, adding only wiring and scratchbuilt details to the cockpit, engine, landing gear and folded wing area using copper wire, clear acetate and styrene sheet.

I painted the model with Tamiya acrlyls and weathered it with touches of the base color plus a little white on some panels and a light post-shading with black and burnt sienna oils sprayed along panel lines. Chipping with Humbrol Aluminium,  machine guns and exhaust stains and a final coat of Humbrol Satin Cote ended the process.

The attentive observer may have noticed that the pitot tube is missing: I snapped it while dusting off my models and always forgot (read: always was too lazy) to replace it.
All in all it was a fun and rather quick build
. This kit is good bang for the bucks, highly recommended particularly for beginners that will surely get an outstanding warbird.
Best,

Lorenzo Cassinadri

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Photos and text © by Lorenzo Cassinadri