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George Damian
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1/48 Tamiya F4U-1 Birdcage Corsairlittle to no weathering

June 19, 2022 · in Aviation · · 23 · 1.3K

This is my second attempt to build a , I tried something new to me: highlighting with the airbrush. Started from a black base, kept the paint inside the panels as tight as possible along the panel lines, than added some tan to the base color and covered with it a smaller area of each panel, all in all four passes adding more tan each time. Next step was a black pin wash and then a gray enamel filter. To me it looks like bleached by the sun. The build was out of the box, no problems and no improvements as far as I didn't know how this highlighting will go. Hope you'll enjoy the pictures.

P.S. I forgot to "bleach" the canopy, there is visible the base color, XF-18.

Reader reactions:
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8 additional images. Click to enlarge.


23 responses

  1. Looks wonderful, George!

  2. That's an excellent looking hog! Obviously the canopy was damaged at some point and was recently replaced.

  3. Turned out great, other George

  4. Great look, George. Well done.

  5. Looks really good, it's very tempting to go with all the weathering options but a clean Corsair model is a great piece to see. Makes me want to do another Birdcage, something about that early scheme looks so good on the American birds.

  6. The paint job looks excellent, @georgedamian. I'm going to try your paint idea myself.

    If you add in some oil and exhaust stains (assuming you would want to, it looks fine as is) you would have a "Solomons bird" for sure. Here's a couple photos of what I did with mine awhile back.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

  7. Looks like you did a fine job. Here's a picture of a Corsair taken at the National Museum of the Marine Corps last week. No weathering here (nor on the Dauntless in the background)...

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

  8. That is a great weathering technique, one I might try on a project soon. Beautiful Corsair!

  9. Looks fabulous. Thanks for sharing the info on the technique you used. Like many of the other comment I will have to give this a try!

  10. Nice and clean airbrushing. Terrific looking birdcage.

  11. Looks lovely - very nice use of airbrush weathering for tonal variation! Love it!

  12. That is a really excellent looking Corsair, I love the effect you achieved. It really does look great, and has that sun faded, worn out look that you would expect in the South Pacific. Great job!

  13. Excellent result, George @georgedamian
    The bleaching effect looks really nice.

  14. Spiros, George, Gary, Harvey, Steven, Tom, Greg, Robert, David, Eric, Justin, Walt, John - thanks guys, glad you enjoyed it!

  15. Nice work, George.

  16. I like it - that technique came through for you! I'll try it as well - working on a S. Pacific P-40 right now, so that seems like a good canvas for the sun-bleaching.

  17. Great Corsair George. And with your technique has a great finish.
    Congratulations

  18. Your technique produced great results, George (@georgedamian). Looking forward to your next build.

  19. John, Greg, Enrique, George - thank you guys, glad you enjoyed it!

  20. I really like what you did here. Congratulations

  21. @georgedamian, Great looking Corsair! ? I like your results from the painting technique too; so many ways to skin a cat! Thanks for sharing her with us here. ?

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