1/72 Tamiya F4U-1 Birdcage Corsair

by Jerry Hawhee (Old Blind Dog)

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This is the Tamiya 1/72 Birdcage Corsair, built completely out of the box, solely for my own enjoyment. I was away from aircraft modeling during all of 2008, concentrating on my other great love, classic cars in 1/24 scale; I needed something that would be mostly trouble-free and fun to get back into doing things with wings and this kit proved just the ticket.

 

I chose the fairly simple Intermediate Blue over white scheme of Lt. Kenneth Walsh’s mount (#13) from VMF 124. I used Tamiya TS 45 Pearl White straight out of the rattle can for the underside (including main gears and struts), and Polly Scale US Navy Intermediate Blue shot at approximately 12 PSI through my Badger 360 for the topside. A pre-cut Kabuki-tape mask from Eduard was used for the canopy and windscreen. I experimented with masking off the white on the cowl and undercarriage with strips of newspaper in an attempt to get a nice feathered look on the color separations—what can I say? Better luck next time. Wet paper towel masks protected the Interior Green wheel bays and engine compartment during application of the main exterior colors.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

 

Polly Scale US Interior Green and Engine Black and Citadel Mithril Silver were used for the cockpit. Endeavoring to keep things simple, I applied the kit-supplied seatbelt and instrument panel decals. For the R-2800 engine I used a combination of colors including Citadel Chainmail, ModelMaster Gun Metal and Tamiya (acrylic) Metallic Gray.  The Detailer, black, was used to highlight engraved features in the cockpit, engine and underside exhaust ports.

 

I used a set of US Stars and Bars from an Eagle Strike sheet since I didn’t like Tamiya’s overly-thick kit-supplied two-part markings. I must admit, though, that the Tamiya decals I did use (ID numbers, walkways and navigation stripes) behaved very well over a couple buffed-out coats of Polly Scale Clear Gloss and gave me next to no trouble.

 

 

A thoroughly enjoyable build; the Tamiya kit is a delight from beginning to end and it made for a pleasant transition back to aircraft modeling after more than a year away.

 

Jerry

Photos and text © by Jerry Hawhee (Old Blind Dog)