At Jaxcon earlier this year I picked up a couple of Tamiya kits that the previous owner had stripped out the decals and a few parts, a Thunderbolt and a Corsair. Here is the Tamiya F4U-1A Corsair as a “what-if.” Sometime back someone wondered in a thread if the Army Air Corps ever took delivery of the Corsair. When I read that, I too wondered if that had ever happened and what would the airplane have looked like. In my stash I have an Academy P-47D of the 527 Fighter Squadron, 86 Fighter Group, Pisa, Italy, 1944. Cool. Now I had a plan.
This Corsair kit is an old kit, Copyright 1998, but it builds up really nice. Many of you have built this kit so I don’t need to go into assembly details. When it came time to paint, I primed the airplane with StyNylRez black primer. I waited 24 hours before I wet-sanded the primer to get the surface as smooth as I could. After the primer came AK metalic Duraluminum. I had already painted the tail surfaces with red and white stripes and masked that off. Next came the red cowl ring and the O.D. anti glare panel. I’m still having to master applying a NMF finish. After sealing the paint with Tamiya Gloss Clear it was time for decals. The markings are combination of the kit decals and Techmod national insignia. The whole thing is sealed with Alclad Semi Matte varnish. The wheels are from a Revell P-51D kit. I still need to add the radio mast and pitot and the tail wheel doors. They’re in a box somewhere, I just need to find them so I can call this build finished.
