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Jim Sullivan
45 articles

1/48th Tamiya F4U-1A

February 21, 2019 · in Aviation · · 24 · 2.7K

This is modeled in the markings of VMF-422 as seen on Engebi in May of 1944. The kit was great to work with and went together smoothly with the exception of the joint line where the wing outer panels mate with the wing center section. Some of that problem was likely self-inflicted but I did manage to finally get it together. MM enamel paint was airbrushed and the decals were from a PYN-up set which were great to work with. The build was mostly from kit parts with the exception of Ultracast wheels and the pilot seat and an instrument panel from YAHU. Any comments or questions are most welcome.

Reader reactions:
8  Awesome

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24 responses

  1. Good looking Corsair!

  2. Great looking build!

  3. Good to see you back on the forum, Jim...and a nice Corsair to boot!

  4. Been a while, Jim, and a fantastic way to return to form. This is every bit as good as your 32nd scale Corsair- great colours and wonderful finish.

    ‘Liked’

  5. Thanks David. I've been doing some scanning work on military aircraft which kept me away from the modeling table but I'm back to modeling now at least for a while.

  6. Glad to see you back. Gorgeous work on those blues.

  7. Really great looking Corsair with a nice subtle paint finish.
    I've always loved this aircraft. Well done Jim.

    • Thank you Julian and I share your love of the ole Corsair. I've lost count of how many of them I've built over the years. I'm still hoping that one of the mainstream model companies will release a quality state of the art accurate 1/48th F4U-4.

  8. Mr Corsair, it's nice to see you back with a great looking F4U. Nicely done, she looks really great. BTY, the rebuild of the Corsair at the Tri-Stare Warbird Museum is slowly coming along. She'll be decked out as Col Glenn's F4U when he was based out of Columbus.

  9. Masterful work, sir! Did you ever do that book on the A-1 Skyraider?

    • Thank you Robert, it was a fun build. As for the Skyraider book, the only one I wrote was the Skyraider In Action book for Squadron/Signal that published back in 1983.

  10. Nice & clean. Great Corsair

  11. Hello Jim! @bentwing
    Beautiful Corsair, Sir! I just KNEW this was yours even before I saw who built the model & wrote about it. i LOVE that 3-tone scheme with the red outlined insignia.

    Bravo!

  12. Thank you Jeff and I share your thoughts about the tri-color scheme with the red surround national insignia.

  13. This looks very nice. I love the corsair, and I have built three. I will have a post coming soon to the site about my most recent one. I dont think its anywhere near your skill level on this particular plane, but I just love the way it looks. Also, a question. How do you use the glue properly when given the option to fix the wings to the plane or have them folded? Whenever i do mine, i always seem to have a raised area at the connection point. Good job!

  14. Thanks Jordyn and I look forward to seeing your Corsair. As for how to apply the glue properly I suspect there are several methods but on larger areas like the wing fold area I use the Testors tube glue. I put a small amount on a piece of index card and work with a flat toothpick to sparingly apply the glue to the edges I want to bond. I wait about 30 seconds to let the glue soften the plastic a bit and then I join the two surfaces. They usually bond quite quickly. If too much glue is used then you get a 'glue seam' that is often difficult to work with. I think I've had problems with the wing fold line of every Tamiya Corsair I've built. While it's an excellent kit I think it is engineered more toward a wings folded build.

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