This is at least the second time I've attempted to build this kit, and I almost gave up, just as I did the first time. I had purchased Xtradecals set 48102 Yanks With Roundels part 1, some time ago, as I wanted to do a Royal Navy Corsair. Based on this post on Hyperscale, I purchased some Hataka paint for it. More on that below.

The kit went together reasonably well, as you expect from Tamiya, but a couple of areas were a little tricky. First, I had difficuly getting the fuselage halves to close (as I often do). Also, attaching the wings extensions is a bit awkward, at least to me, as the kit allows you either have the wings folder or extended. Based on past experience, I used epoxy to secure the wings. It was also a pain to attached the tailwheel doors - it might have been easier to attach the doors before attaching the actual tailwheel.

Regard the paints, I first primed with Tamiya Grey Primer, from the 40 mL jar. Then I sprayed Hataka C048 Light Gull Grey (FS36440/ANA620) on the bottom. That looked fine. After masking I then sprayed Hataka C031 Gunship Grey FS36118/ANA603 on the top, and was very disappointed - it had a very purple hue to it. I ended up overpainting it with Tamiya XF-54 Dark Sea Grey, which looked much better. After the experience with the Gunship Grey, I did not trust the Hataka Olive Drab I had purchased, so I used my Tamiya mix for Olive Drab for the disruptive camouflage.

I painted the propellor with X-18 Semi Gloss Black. One nice thing about this particular Corsair is that the propellor hub is the same color as the blades. The canopy was masked with Pmask Pk48048Y, which fit very well. I forgot to put the decals on the propellor blades. As I mentioned, I used Xtradecals 48102, with Microset, and they worked beautifully.

There are a couple of historical inaccuracies. I didn't bother to trim the wing tips (Royal Navy Corsairs had their wings clipped so they would fit on British carriers). Also, I followed the kit instructions regarding the antenna mast, and I think the actual plane had the mast in front of the cockpit on the starboard side.

Page last updated June 15, 2023.