Seems like everyone in this group is building a Corsair which appears to be the late Jim Sullivan's fave plane. I'll toss my hat in the ring and honor Jim with my build of this venerable Tamiya kit using references from his "F4U Corsair in Action" book.

I've already built this kit once before when I resumed building models again back in the 90's. Tamiya's Corsair kit was one of the first I tackled but I was rusty and it turned out just so so. I booted it out of the case years ago. I picked up this kit from a vendor at the annual Silicon Valley Scale Modelers' show in San Jose about 15 yrs ago.

• Eagle Strike decals

• Aires resin cockpit set

• CMK resin control surfaces

• UltraCast resin seat

• UltraCast late style wheels (probably won't use them)

• True details - early wheels - definitely won't use these

• Eduard canopy mask

Looking forward to starting this kit very soon.

Eric Berg (@eb801)
One can never have too many Corsairs. By the sounds of things, this one should be a real looker with all of the extra stuff you have for it.

Like our friend John, I too will be watching for updates.

LET'S GO! 👍👍

A nice choice, Eric @eb801
Not sure about the possible damage. At first I thought it could be a scfratch on the photograph, but than the entire picture should have more more smaller damages.

A great choice indeed, my friend @eb801! I am also not sure about the possible "damage" at the rear.

The Build Begins

I finally got around to starting this Tamiya Corsair build. Of course I started with the front office. I had intended to use an Aires resin cockpit set that I must have acquired back in the 90's. The parts had turned yellow and seemed very brittle. After reading Tom Cleaver's "Corsair 101" article from years ago over at MM, I have to agree, Tamiya's cockpit is excellent as is, so I went with that. For the instrument gauges I used decals from Mike Grant and Airscale. The resin seat with belts is an old one from Ultracast. I decided to use Chromate yellow for the lower parts and an early "interior green" for the rest (Taimya XF-5). I really enjoy constructing cockpits - my fave part of a build. Next up: preparing the fuselage and adding some resin parts.

Awesome interior, my friend @eb801!

@eb801: The actual color for a Corsair "birdcage" cockpit is Dull Dark Green (according to later research that came out after "Corsair 101"), for which Tamiya VF-71 "Black Green" is a good approximation.

Do note that that trainer is such an early airplane that it still has the all-round cowling flaps, which likely means it has Salmon wheel wells and rear fuselage interior - that might have been overpainted with the underside color, and that might allow Salmon to show through.