Magic Factory F4U-2 Corsair. 1/48
F4U-2, "White 212", Midnite Cocktail. On April 14, 1944 flown by Capt. Howard Bollman USMC shot down a Mitsubishi G4M near Kagman Field, Saipan.
Wanted to try this Magic Factory kit and was very pleased. Excellent full kit review on this site by Tom Cleaver Nov. 4, 2023.
Built out of the box.
Tried a double hairspray technique which worked out ok for the chipping. Probably more work than needed though.
I purchased the Vallejo Air US Navy and USMC color set 1940-1945. Out of that set I used Insignia white ANA 601, Intermediate blue ANA 608, Sea Blue ANA 607, and Gloss Sea Blue ANA 623.
Tamiya rubber black for wing walkways.
Flory dark dirt and gray washes.
Exhaust stains built up by spraying Isopropyl alcohol with a few drops of brown and black paint added.
EZ line for the aerials.
Wasn't sure if I should use all of the decals provided as there are limited original photos and the examples of finished builds are varied. Some show the white stripes in front of the windscreen and other don't. Same for stencils and wing walkways. In the end, I decided to go with instructions and use all of them. Time consuming but the Cartograph decals were excellent.
Looking forward to building the 2nd kit in the box, F4U-1. I recommend this kit, especially for Corsair enthusiasts.
That is a good-looking Corsair Russ! The weathering looks good. Well done.
Excellent job, Russ!
Really nice Corsair, Russ @rfking
I can imagine you are looking forward to a second build.
Mmmmmmmmmm... Really nice work on this, Russ, and a superb result. If my review helped with this, I'm really glad. This is one of the best completed models from this kit I have see.
Thanks Tom. Yes, the review certainly helped and had some good tips. I always try to find reviews and others build tips before starting.
G’day Russ (@rfking),
What a great build.
The first two 1/48 kits I built when I was young (~1980) were Corsairs - an F4U-1A (Otaki) and an F4U-1 (unknown) - and have fond memories of both.
I recently bought this kit with Christmas/birthday gift money and am figuring out where I can fit it in the pending stack. I have a few (too many) kits on the go at the moment.
I was thinking of building this one as an F4U-1, but your build looks fantastic and is inspiring me to build it as the F4U-2.
Liked very much!
Thanks!
It's a very nice kit IMO. Looking forward to the 2nd Corsair in the box but have a few other kits I want to do first.
Wow this does look fantastic Russ (@rfking)! Great job on all of this build 🙂
I was going to use the IPA technique on the exhaust staining on a previous model but chickened out! So, you thin the paint with usual thinner and IPA, right?
Are you using acrylic paint! Reason I ask is that I use acrylics and was worried that the IPA would affect the main paint already laid down prior to applying the exhaust staining! Not the case and no need to worry?
Well done again Russ a superb result!
Thanks Scott
I put IPA in the airbrush cup (about half full) then dab a brush in the paint then swirl it in the IPA. For this I used a dab of flat brown and a small dab of flat black. You can experiment with the colors. I don't add any thinner. Since it's very dilute, it takes a while to build up the color. I spray it at about 15psi. For me so far, it hasn't affected the acrylic paint at all. Though I add a varnish of some sort first.
Well done, Russ!
Great looking Corsair, Russ.
Love this. Nothing more to say. G