This kit fought me much of the way. I actually bought two copies of this kit. I messed up the first one and thought it was FUBAR, so I bought a second kit. Then I FUBARed that one, but in a different way, so I went back to the first one, and managed to salvage it.

Off the top of my head, I can think of three areas that game me trouble. First, the wing attachment. I eventually removed the pieces that fit inside the wings where they connect, and glued strips of styrene to the edges, and used the strips to steady it. After assembly, it was secure enough, although I never stressed it that much. The second issue was the flaps - putting them in the openings, at the right angle, is very difficult for me. I also learned that they should be attached before attaching the outer wings (this is what the instructions tell you to do). Third, inserting the landing gear. I actually had to cut off part of the landing gear struts to be able to insert them. It might have been better to sand a little bit of the opening, but it was too late by the time I got to assembling the landing gear.

So, to sum up, if/when I build another Tamiya Corsair (and I have another F4U-1D in the stash), there are three things to remember: attach styrene strips to the wing surfaces where they attach, attach the flaps before the outer wings, and enlarge the landing gear opening by sanding the rear side of the opening. It may be better to attach the outer parts of the wings to the center section before attaching top to bottom.

This was going to be a Royal Navy subject, the bottom was painted light gray - I used Floquil SP Lettering Gray. The top colors were the same as I used on my Royal Navy F4U-1A - XF-54 Dark Sea Grey and a mix of XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-57 Buff.

The decals came from Xtradecal X48102 Yanks with Roundels, Part 1. However, it wasn't until I was almost ready to decal the kit that I realized that the X48102 sheet only came with insignias for one Corsair, even though the sheet had two Corsair subjects (an F4U-1 and an F4U-1A). I got the insignia from three other Xtradecal sheets (which I bought some time ago): X029-48 for the bottom insignia and fin flash, X48028 for the top insignia, and X030-48 for the fuselage insignia. The fin flash is actually too wide - it shoud not overlap the rudder. I messed up the serial number on the port side - it folded over on itself and I could not untangle it, so I left them off (this gives an indication as to how frustrated I was getting with this build). I also left the decals off the propellor blades, just as I did with the F4U-1A. This time it was intentional, though - I was just too frustrated to care.

I used the Eduard EX061 mask for the canopy - it fit very well.

Page last updated January 5, 2024.