Academy 1/72 F4U-1a New Zealand

I had decided to join the Jim Sullivan group build with a Corsair, and then saw a couple of other iModelers post builds of this aircraft assembled from the remains of two damaged aircraft that had worn different paint schemes. I found a set of decals of New Zealand Corsairs that included this aircraft, so good to go!

The Academy kit is simple and pretty nice, with engraved panel lines. The only two issues I wasn't satisfied with were the exhausts, which were just an awkward attempt at some base relief representing the exhaust nozzles, and the missing stub on the vertical fin to which the ariel was attached. I dremeled off the relief, cut up some 1/72 HVAR rockets and glued them in place and then hollowed them out for the exhausts. They seemed just a tad larger than scale, but much better than what was there. A small piece of styrene created the fin stub. I put just a couple of additional components into the cockpit on the sidewalls, knowing not much in there would be visible, along with a PJ Productions USN pilot (they don't produce a Kiwi!). I also had to carve out space for the tail wheel to protrude from the gear doors, per reference files, and figure out a way to get the tail wheel glued into the retracted position. The only other "not in the box" addition was riveting.

Paint was all mixed from Tamiya colors (except for MRP white on the bottom). I blackbased with white beneath the white and lighter blues of the tail section, and followed some cool ideas for blackbasing beneath dark surfaces from a Doogs Models video, using eggplant, hull red, and brown. I LOVED the result of this beneath the dark sea blue, and will use it again soon on a Hellcat so it is more visible. In the end, it is almost impossible to see on a heavily-weathered land-based bird like this Corsair.

I threw in the kitchen sink in the weathering department, using oils in various viscosities, AK weathering pencils, Testors Metalizers and enamels for the metal and zinc chromate chipping, pastels and Tamiya Weathering masters. I didn't do a final clear coat on top of the oil dot filtering so as not to diminish the patina created. My only "fail" was to not create quite enough distinction between the two tones of blue on the tail section, but overall, I'm pleased with the result.

15 additional images. Click to enlarge.