This is my second
Tamiya 1/48 Corsair F4U-1D. It represents a well used member of VFA-84 on the
USS Bunker Hill in Feb., 1943. Before getting back into scale modeling I
had no appreciation for aircraft from WWII. However, inspired by many of the
wonderful examples of aircraft being submitted to ARC, I researched them more
and the Corsair stands out as one of my favourites. It’s sleek gull wing
design and the fact that it was one of the most advanced fighters of its time
make this an easy pick for modeling. This model was built for a work colleague
whose father flew Corsairs during WWII. I haven’t managed to keep any of the
Corsairs I’ve built….always giving them away :-)
The
Kit
The Tamiya 1/48
Corsair is an absolute dream to build. The fit is excellent and it very hard to
not make this kit look gorgeous. Panel lines and detail are abundant through out
and every kit provides the option to have the wings folded up or down. I
highly recommend this kit for beginners or people who would like to break into
their first 1/48 scale kit.
Construction
Started with
the cockpit as is common with most aircraft. The interior was sprayed with US
Interior Green from Gunze Sangyo and then control panels were painted black and
various details picked out and coloured. The whole cockpit was drybrushed with
silverpaint.
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Once the
cockpit was in the fuselage was assembled with only a little filler required
near the nose of the plane. This is how excellent this kit is..the fit is really
quite good and with some patience only a little sanding is required. The
fuselage was assembled by gluing small pieces of it at a time using Tamiya Super
Thin cement and prying open the fuselage.
As I modeled
this Corsair with the wings folded up I assembled them separately and they were
left alone for the remainder of the project until painting time. Gears are very
easy to assemble.
The engine was
painted with Gun Metal, given a wash and the engine cowling was painted interior
green before the engine was placed in the cowling. Then the whole assembly was
glued to the fuselage. The problem I had with this project was how to protect
the interior green of the engine flaps. The color was painted over in this
project but I think by simply using some liquid mask I can preserve the color
next time. And the liquid mask will be easy to peel of with some tweezers when
the whole plane is painted blue.
Painting
The whole plane
was given a coat of Tamiya Sea Blue. This is a matt paint and at the time I
thought this was a far cry from Glossy Sea Blue color I was aiming for. However,
with a coat of Tamiya Clear Gloss Coat X-22 it really did resemble the true
color and my fears were put to rest.
Gear were
painted Tamiya Flat Aluminum and given a dark gray pastel chalk wash.
After painting
the fuselage I masked off areas around the wheel bays and sprayed more interior
green. I also masked the wings to leave the wing fold area exposed and painted
those after spraying the fuselage.
Finally the engine cowling was
masked to spray the yellow band and the propeller was painted black and yellow.
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Weathering
After decals
were applied (kit decals are very thick btw…and don’t settle down all that
well) I began weathering the aircraft with a dark gray (with touch of brown)
pastel chalk wash. I also began to rub pastel chalk onto some decals and onto
various dirst areas of the plane like the bottom of the fuselage and the
cannons.
In the next
step I added the silver paint chips with a silver Pentel Gel Rollerball pen.
The final step
was to load up the airbrush with Tamiya Sea Blue Again a lightly spray over some
of the decals to give them a faded effect.
Although some
of the weathering worked well I really think I went overboard, adding too much
chipping to the overall plane. Another lesson learned in keeping weathering to a
subtle minimum. Overall, happy with the build…except for over
weathering. Hope you enjoyed this article.
Jason
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