The Vought F4U Corsair is one of the most celebrated aircraft of WWII. Operating from land bases and aircraft carriers, the Corsair was known as “Whistling Death” to the Japanese, who rightly feared it. The 1970’s TV show “Baa Baa Black Sheep” dramatizing the exploits of Gregory “Pappy” Boyington and his squadron of misfits catapulted the Corsair into popular culture. The US Marines and Navy inflicted heavy loses on the Japanese with the Corsair and it was employed by British Royal Navy and New Zealand Air Force as well. The Corsair’s performance was sufficient that it played a ground support role in Korea as well.
You can read more about the Corsair
here.
This is the Tamiya 1/72 scale kit, you can read more about the kit
here.
Here we go! As usual, a Tamiya kit looks good out of the box with a minimum amount of flashing or defects.
Got the cockpit assembled (use some masking tape for seatbelts). The way the control stick was mounted was a bit of a pain, but everything went together reasonably well.
All the main bits are put together. Fit was very good, used a bit of putty where the wing joins the fuselage. Time for some paint!
You can see the Vallejo acrylic airbrush paint. This is a great paint for airbrushing — pre-thinned with a dropper applicator.
Getting started with the decals. I chose the Navy version flying off the USS Bunker Hill in early 1945.
I got the propeller decals oriented wrong!
Paints
Tamiya Acrylics
XF-1 Flat Black
XF-2 Flat White
XF-4 Yellow Green
XF-16 Flat Aluminum
XF-19 Sky Grey
XF-71 Cockpit Green
X-7 Red
X-8 Lemon Yellow
X-10 Gun Metal
X-11 Chrome Silver
X-18 Semi-gloss Black
Vallejo Acrylics
71.300 Glossy Sea Blue
