So, my Magic Factory kit arrived last week, direct from China via eBay, 5 days enroute for only $5 for a total of $72 on my porch.

As has been noted, the World's Greatest Modelers over at the World's Greatest Modeling Site (ask them, they'll tell you) have declared the kits to be no good, terrible, not right, unworthy of being touched, for their transgressions regarding the detail in the fabric-covered outer wing, elevators and rudder.

To which I say "horsehockey!"

Herewith is the F4U-1 built. I decided not to do an F4U-2 since I already have a nice F4U-2 done from the Tamiya kit, and because I have some interesting markings for an F4U-1 I have wanted to do for awhile.

The kit gives you both folded and extended wings. That is not set of both for each kit option - it is a set of both for the kits. You can do either one wings extended or wings folded. One of each.

Except I am not a big fan of folded wing models. I wanted extended wings for both. It turns out, it's not hard at all to get there from here.

Instead of putting the wings-spread spar in the wings-spread option - which it doesn't really need all that spar, I put the wings-spread spar in the folded wing version, and then assembled the wing around that. Yes, it's a bit fiddly, but if you have the hand-eye coordination to touch the tip of your nose three times in succession with your index finger, it's merely time consuming, not hard. Certainly not as difficult as assembling a Tamiya Corsair wing in the spread position.

The wheel wells are nicely detailed. Like the Tamiya 1/32 kit, the pieces for the wing surface to either side of the forward section of the well are separate and are attached after the landing gear is installed.

The fuselage assembles much like the big 1/32 Tamiya kit, with separate parts for the upper forward fuselage, the upper rear fuselage, and the lower rear fuselage, that are separated on panel lines. There's no centerline seam to worry about. Taking care of the centerline seam on the Tamiya 1/48 kit often leads to loss of surface detail, so this solves that problem.

There is about 5-6 hours of work involved to bringing the kit to this stage of assembly.

There is nothing difficult about this kit if you follow the instructions and take care in assembly. As with most kits that come from CAD design, tolerances are tight and you MUST remove all sprue numbs and be sure the mating surface is clean as the proverbial hound's tooth. Do that and assembly will be easy.

The wings have different flap options - the wings-folded option has the flaps retracted, while the wings-spread has them dropped. There are a right inner flap for each kit that doesn't have the cutout step. As we all know, Corsairs sat on the ground with the flaps in either position.

The cockpit is different in detail for each sub-type. It is more detailed than the Tamiya cockpit. I would suggest getting the 3D instrument panels, they will look good; there is an option for each part that has instruments or switches on them for a blank part to use for that kind of decal. I used the 3D parts and applied the kit decals over them. They settled without problem under some Solvaset and look good enough for purposes of a review kit.

And as you can see from the photos, the wing ribs are not "planks" and are not no good terrible awful unworthy of being touched by real modelers. The World's Greatest Modelers still store their heads in the mobile head storage locker.

11 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Here it is fully ssembled. Next step mask the clear parts and paint.

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Coming along nicely, Tom @tcinla. Nice to see the kit comes with two flap options. Wish Tamiya had thought of that. What is that green color you're using in the cockpit area called? What's the reason for using red primer?

@eb801 - it's not red (though the camera thinks it is), it's "Salmon" (basically a greyish red primer) that was used on F4U-1 Corsairs in the fuselage interior over the initial yellow zinc chromate to deter corrosion and also in the wheel wells. In the wheel wells, it was frequently overpainted with the underside color.

The green is Tamiya IJN Geen #2, used as faded Dull Dark Green, which was the color F4U-1 cockpits were painted. That changed to Interior Green with the F4U-1A.

Tom, another inciteful review. This is why I always see if you've done a review, before I start a project. Thanks

Great entry and some impressive work already done, Tom @tcinla

Here it is, painted.

This is a field-applied tri-color camouflage for early F4U-1s that were originally in Blue-Gray Light Gray, with Sea Blue applied over that when the airplane was sent back from Guadalcanal to Espiritu Santo for major maintenance.

The scheme was done with Gunze Sangyo Light Gray - Navy Aircraft, Blue-Grey, and Navy Blue, each lightened and sun faded.

Once the decals are done, it will get a major "dirtying up" with exhaust stains, dings, fuel spills from the main tank, etc.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

The camo came out well and looks suitably sun-damaged, Tom (@tcinla). The more you work on this the more I think I may need to grab a pair of the kits.