1/72 Tamiya Vought F4U-1A Corsair

by Peter Valica 

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Another beautiful bird by Tamiya.  I always liked fighters which are interesting.  One of them is definitely my lovely "corsair ".   With a powerful engine and strange shape to the wings, it was one of the most beautiful planes from WWII.  As usual,  Tamiya has done a great job on it first as 1/48 and then in 1/72 scale.  However, my "scale" is 1/72 so I decided.....

First a little bit about this version, Tamiya has offered us F4U-1D, there are just little differences are between the 1A and 1D.

1. Late versions of 1A didn`t had a landing light above left wing.  Detail and Scale part 1 

2. The foot step on right wing was introduced for the 1D version only.

These are the main differences between the two versions.  Now a little bit about building it.  Everything fit together perfectly, I didn`t use filler anywhere, just the radiator flaps made me bit angry, but I solved this by cutting a piece from the back of engine, because between engine cowling and flaps was a small spare.  The cockpit is build OOB and just seatbelts were added from Eduard colour photoetched set of USN WWII.  In the wheel wells I added some pipes and brake lines.  The arrester hook and rear undercarriage was rebuilt and some holes were added.

Gunze paints was used for whole model, except the undersurface where Tamiya was airbrushed.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

For weathering I used technique which I first red on ARC :) as first I used metallic AGAMA paint and after it was dry, certain areas of the surface was covered in salt. Result as you can see is quite good.  I was impressed by this.  Highly recommended.  For other weathering I uses chalk and artificial mud.  Eagle Strike decals were used for this "patriot" plane. 

It`s Doris " Chico" Freeman`s plane from VF-17 " Jolly Rogers" squad.  Probably late summer / or autum / 1943 Guadalcanal.  Freeman was killed in 1945 by an attack on Bunker Hill aircraft carrier.  

Hope you like it.

Peter

Photos and text © by Peter Valica