1/72 Academy F4U-1 Corsair

by Melanie Koppelaar

--------------------

 

Hi all,

My name is Melanie Koppelaar, I’m 13 years and I live in the Netherlands.

This is the first time I have sent an article on the ARC.. And its also the first time that I’ve made a model.

I’m planned to do another model in the future, but I’m not sure if I’m going to make a propeller or a jet-fighter. 

Normally, I’d like to make drawings from all kinds of different things. I also do like to make some paintings with real oil-paint or pastels. 

I’ve seen my daddy making scale models as long as I can remember.  When I looked at him during the construction of his aircraft I often thought by myself, ‘I would like to make my own model sometimes’.  

In March of this year I asked my dad if he wanted to go with me to the local hobbyshop to search for a nice model which I could make.  It was a little bit difficult for me to make a decision about which plane I would like to build. I saw a lot of big boxes, but these are a little bit too expensive for me.  First I wanted to make a big jet like my daddy did, but he advised to make a little model first. So I could find out if I liked the hobby.

Click on images below to see larger images

I choose this model the F4U-1 Corsair, because of the nice bleu colors/paintsheme. 

When we came home, I couldn’t wait to start working on the model.  My dad and I went upstairs where my daddy’s workbench is.  I opened the box and cut off some plastic parts from the sprue.  That was a little mistake, because I had to read the instruction sheet first and start. 

building by instruction nr 1. 

I glued the model all by myself, and it was really fun to see the model appear before my eyes.

The model was sanded a little bit here and there where necessary.

I built this model myself except for the masking which my dad helped me with, but I painted, drybrushed and airbrushed the model all by myself.  I was already a little bit familiar with the  airbrush techniques because I  did make some paper drawings with the airbrush.  But painting the model was really fun to do.  And especially when I removed the masking.  The final job was to add the decals to the plane.  This was also very nice to do and the model was ready. The last thing I did after decaling was to chip the paint. 

It was very fun to build this model and it has a special place in my own room.

Melanie

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by Melanie Koppelaar