There are days it is positively dangerous to walk into my LHS and look at the shelves in the Estate Sale section. Found this Hasegawa AU-1 limited release there for a price I couldn't say "no" to, and...

Got home and looked through the decal dungeon and didn't have what I remembered I did, so went up to eBay and Scott Zuiback's store - Rebelalpha - and there was the out-of-print Print Scale Decals "Korean War Corsairs" sheet with a VMA-212 AU-1 as one of the options. Also for a too-decent-to-refuse price.

If you're ever looking for an oddball sheet of decals, you should always check Scott's shop at eBay. I can tell you his decal collection is giiiinormous!

So, a nice well-used "bomb truck."

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Hard to say "no" at opportunities like this, Tom.
I cannot recall having seen this boxing before; love it!
Quite spectacular weathering is observed at the last pic.
Looking forward to this!

Tom, @tcinla
I agree with what has been stated above. The F4U is my favorite plane, and I will be looking forward to seeing your "bomb truck" as it progresses. I was online and looking at those exact same two photos you posted several days ago. In particular, I was studying the dirt and grime that is almost always seen on ground based wartime planes. These two pictures show it well...

Scott is a great fellow. I told him I was going to write up a review on a set of Xtradecals, for the new Tamiya P-38 Lightning that I had recently purchased from his online store. I need to do this now, as I always keep my word.

By the sounds of things, I could spend hours there digging through his extensive collection. You guys are lucky to have an actual "brick and mortar" store to go to. Our closest one is now almost an 80 mile round trip from our home...

The next time you see Scott, please let him know that I said hello...

Well, any doubts that the model is easy to assemble should be assuaged by these assembled photos. it's actually a very simple kit, I had forgotten in 17 years how simple.

The strange thing was, when I attached the wing sub-assembly to the fuselage sub assembly, the front of the wing assembly that attached to the fuselage nose was about a 1/16" wider than the fuselage. But when I widened the fuselage by pulling it apart to fit, it ended up being "right" when I attached the parts for the engine and cowling assembly. Go figure!

As you can see, no putty or other filler anywhere, I was even able to sand that ferschlugginah "crease" in the forward fuselage into non-existence with only a very narrow 1/8-inch wide band to rescribe detail through.

I cut the elevators off and posed them "drooped" slightly, per the two photos of the real thing I am using.

A nice thing I had forgotten was that the vertical fin is offset to the left as it should be on the Corsair and often isn't in kits.

Assembly might have been slower if it weren't for the fact everything external will be Glossy Sea Blue. I'll do some fading and ultimately try to "distress" the finish per those two photos.

So, paint it tomorrow with Xtracrylix GSB (the best rendition of that color, in my book) and then the decals from Rebelalpha will arrive tomorrow and go on over the weekend.

I'm thinking of robbing all my P-51 kits for 250-pound bombs to hang underwing and make it a real "bomb truck."

Oh yeah, the two pieces of Evergreen sheet styrene on the belly are representations of the armor plate that was welded on to the lower fuselage of the AU-1 and F4U-7, as I recall from working on the restoration of F4U-7 BuNo 133722.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Tom, @tcinla
I have heard that Scott has a very nicely stocked store... and you guys are very fortunate to have it close by. I'm sure that you are correct, it sounds like I could spend hours... even days there looking through the decals alone.

You're not wasting any time with this F4U build. I like how the Hasegawa kits go together. They are very "builder friendly", and look great once assembled. Which Mustang kits are you getting the 250 pounders from ?

Like Spiros, I will be looking forward to seeing some blue paint sprayed on this one... and the additional armor looks good too.

Painted. I used Xtracrylix Gloss Sea Blue. To me Xtracrylix is one of the best acrylic paints out there. The colors are all dead-on accurate. The problem nowadays is getting them here from the UK.

The paint is water soluble, and I found that thinning with water works even better than using the Xtracrylix thinner (which I no longer have). This was done with the paint thinned about 30-35% with water. Dried to touch in about 10 minutes, set up and thoroughly cured by morning. It's nice and thin, dries super smooth in a semi-gloss.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Spiros @fiveten:

Everyone starts out not liking acrylics, because it's something new to learn - they don't go on like enamel, they have to be treated differently, etc. I know I had the exact same attitude. The reason I got into using them in 1992 was the odor factor of enamel, since I was sharing living space with an Important Someone who really didn't like "the stench." Once I figured them out, and realized the model didn't have to sit for a week between colors, I was sold sold sold.

Decals done. I was sure glad to find the remains of my Victrory Productions F4U-5/5N/AU-1 sheet, because the Print Scale sheet had all kinds of mistakes: the serial was transposed - 192359 instead of 129359, and in the wrong font, not to mention the designator was "F4U-4" instead of "AU-1". The font for the "MARINES" wasn't quite right either. Fortunately the VPD sheet was right (it was designed by Jennings Heilig, so of course it was). It's 17 years old, and I had to float the decals to avoid tearing. (the sheet is long OOP and selling now at eBay for $80.00 - nope). Fortunately the PrintScale insignia was good. Used the kit decals for the stencils.

Now for a coat of Satin, then some exhaust stain and a really really thin wash of "rained-away dirt" over the airframe.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.