1/48 Hasegawa Corsair AU-1

Gallery Article by Ed Fuquay on Sept 15 2003

 

“ONE MEAN MARINE MACHINE”

The AU-1 was the last Corsair produced for the United States Marines Corps. This aircraft in particular holds the record for the longest propeller driver fighter produced. Its primary role was close ground support. This sturdy machine served well the U.S. Marines during the Korean conflict. The machine depicted served with VMFA-212 “The Lancers” 

 

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The kit is very good, only minor errors. One of these being the position of the upper exhaust pipes which interfered with the alignment of the cowling. Reference photos show exhaust pipes in that location. The instructions do not give you indication of the other exhaust stubs that protrude on the side of the cowling, where there is an indentation that suggests an obvious location for them! I followed my hunch and located the stubs in the indentation and attached thinner pipes where the instructions indicated the pipes location.

The joint of the cannon tubes and the wing is a bit sloppy, but workable. The rest of the kit is wonderful. I had very little filling and sanding to do. The cockpit detail is adequate and with care it looks pretty good. The Clear parts are crisp and thin. A parting mould line is present on the top of the canopy and that must be dealt with. I smoothed it with a sharp blade with an adzing motion. Then I used a fingernail polishing stick to bring back the transparency. A coat of Future wax took care of all minor scratches.  

I used Modelmaster’s Gloss Dark Sea Blue to paint the model. I coated the entire kit with a coat of Future Floor Wax with a soft flat brush and then applied all the decals. A final coat of Future was brushed on to seal the decals. I really enjoyed building this kit. The armament came in the box. Decals were not of the best quality, but workable. Once again happy modeling!   

Ed Fuquay

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Photos and text © by Ed Fuquay