Profile Photo
Tom Bebout
142 articles

1/48 Hasegawa F4U-5N Corsair

June 21, 2021 · in Aviation · · 18 · 2.1K

Latest off the bench as part of Jeffrey Kolln's @421stwidow Night Fighter Group is Cpt Eugene Derrickson's VMF(N)-513 . The -5 Corsair was considered the ultimate model in the Corsair line, with the -5N adding a radar dome, extra radio antenna on the vertical stabilizer, an autopilot, flash suppressor pipes and plates above and behind the exhause stacks to preserve the pilot's night vision. Add the Pratt & Whitney R-2800-32W radial with a redesigned engine mount, that pushed the cowling forward, giving her stretched out appearance but also made her very fast.

The kit has been around for quite some time and has been sitting on my shelf for years. The Night Fighter GB was just the inspiration I needed to build her. I wanted her to be OOB, but there were somethings about this kit that needed improvements. First, it does need a cockpit upgrade as nothing is represented on the cockpit side walls. Therefore, I added an Untracast seat and raided the spares box for additional items to beef her up. Not really accurate but it does looks a lot better IMHO. The dash leather crash pads are also missing so I fabricated some using stryene rod. Additionally I cut out the wing tip lights and replaced them with clear sprue.

Fit of the engine, fuselage, and wings was very good and required no putty, so sprayed her with TS-14 Gloss Black from a rattle can. I figured I would need the gloss finish for the rather thick kit decals. The one decal I didn't use was for the tail hook, totally worthless. Instead I painted the tail hook white then used Fundekals' black stripe decals spaced accordingly. Finial dull coat was Model Car Works lacquer sprayed with my air brush. Nylon thread was used for the antenna, pastel artist chalk for the exhause staining.

Altogether a fun build but if I built another one I would do the following. After painting the rockets and the wing stubs, I would attach them together then glue them to the finished wing as a unit. The locating points for the rockets are minuscule and aligning them correctly can be a PITA. They were for me, and another option would be to buy some after market wheels. For some reason the kits wheels just look a little small to me. One man's opinion.

Reader reactions:
10  Awesome

13 additional images. Click to enlarge.


18 responses

  1. Stunning corsair. I love that red against the dark blue!

  2. Nicely done, Tom.

  3. Very nicely done Tom.

  4. Great looking Corsair!

  5. She looks great, Tom!

  6. Well done. Love the-5N. Wish there was one in 1/32 scale. It would definitely be on my work bench.

  7. That turned out nice, Tom. I agree about the wheels. I built all three versions of that kit when they came out and ended up replacing the wheels on all. Why is it so hard to get Corsair/Hellcat wheels right? Eduard’s Hellcat features an anemic rendition of that wheel too.

  8. Oh man, that looks great @tom-bebout! Fantastic scale model plane sir! Wow. 🙂

  9. Looks good Tom. It's well-known the wheels are a tad small.

  10. That looks Great, Tom! I have 2 of these kits in my stash and now I have some inspiration to build one!

  11. Awesome result, Tom.
    Great detailing and paintwork.

  12. Splendid Tom. Always wanted to build a Corsair. Thanks for sharing.

  13. Turned out great, Tom!

  14. Beautiful job, Tom! A great looking base as well.

  15. Nicely done Tom, my compliments on a quality build.

  16. Looks great! That's a scheme not often seen for the Corsair, but you really made it shine.

  17. Tom, This turned out really nice, and being I have a couple of these kits on the shelf, your tips will come in handy when I get to them.

  18. Beautiful Corsair, Tom. The Korean War may have proven just how great this airplane was; not that we needed any more proof. Great paint scheme.

Leave a Reply