This is Tamiya's 1/48th kit. Even though I know how these kits are engineered I'm still in awe of how well things go together. However, this kit had a quirk that I've not seen mentioned in reviews and builds yet.



The kit is designed to be built with the wings folded or extended and I decided to go the extended route. I'm a fan of the lines of the plane and folded just don't do it for me.



There is a supplied spar that is to be used with the wings extended and it fit well but there is what looks to be a locating pin on the inside of the wing fold that is to be removed if the wings are folded. The pin misses the hole in the adjacent panel inside the wing fold by a large margin and it makes me think I messed something up. But after going over the instructions many times I think I have it right. So I still had to remove the pin in spite of what the instructions lead me to believe. I used sheet styrene to add a ledge inside the wing fold area to add strength to the wing since the little spar is the only thing that holds the wing on.



I'll admit that I've done little research on the F4U and decided to use my own preferences for cockpit and wheel well color. The belts are from Eduard, the rest is OOB.



My only other addition to the kit at this point is some wiring on the engine. I was going to go OOB with the whole kit but AMS kicked in so in went the belts. And after I test fit the cowl to the engine and saw how much one could really see AMS kicked in again, though only after a few agonizing minutes while I fought with myself, and on went the wires.

After a trip to the LHS to replace a bad bottle of paint I managed to shoot some of it into the atmosphere all the while getting some on the plane.



And here we are with some shading and a flat coat. Can't seem to get a decent pic tonight, they keep coming out grainy.



Managed to start some weathering a while ago but will make better progress before I take anymore pics.
Comments welcome! Thanks!

This one brings back memories...from all of last week! My most recent build was this kit for the Rumble in SE Asia campaign. It reminded me that Tamiya engineering is still number one.

I like the job you've done on yours.

I have to say that i didn't encounter the problem with the wing locating pin. The reason being very simple...i completely missed the part of the instructions telling me to open up the locating hole! I ended up simply mounting the outer wings onto the spar and glueing with CA, it turned out strong enough for me. Good to know then that my mistake probably made no difference- if the hole was in the wrong place anyway.

Also i didn't go too in depth about researching the colours of the wheel well interiors either. But it seems Tamiya got it right...the wheel wells themselves from pics i've seen of all blue late war aircraft still seem to have been interior green. But the insides of the doors themselves are blue, not green. Later on for post war (or maybe very late war) aircraft the wheel wells became blue as well. I don't know exactly when that started happening.

Andrew

Worked on the gear today. The kit gear is nice and potrays one version of the gear that I have pics of. I have some pics of a different plane that are different though. There must be some changes in the gear with different versions of the plane. Here is a shot of the one I went with.



I wanted to primarily replicate the springs that seem to be prevelant on all versions I've seen. Here I bend brass wire. After this one I switched to copper, made the job much easier.



Springs are in place.



And now some brake hoses. The retainer rings were made from copper wire. After this the wheels go on, bits get paint followed by a wash and flat coat. Hopefully the end result will pass as corsair landing gear.



On she goes!

Looks great - the cockpit and the extra detailing really looks good on your bird. You should consider entering this one into the Pacific war campaign.

Looking forward to see more