Andrew's 1/72 Tamiya F4U-1D Corsair

[Richard48]

Coming along a treat mate.I did see one done as an Argentinian one at Littleport show the other week.Looked really great along with a Buckeye.Im sure i remember in an old Military in scale magazine somebody did an article called The Football war and had honduran airforce aircradt etc.Will shut up now im rambling

[flyjoe180]

Nice progress Andrew.

[colin m]

The floor window on earlier F4U-1s was meant for bomb aiming and was deleted as production progressed. It certainly wouldn't be present on the -1D version Andrew is creating.

Ah, nice one Joe, I thought it was mad to look down at your feet when trying to land on an aircraft carrier.

[adt70hk]

Fantastic , love the Corsair and love these excellent Tamiya 1/72nd kits ! Looking forward to this one andrew. Like you I’m surprised Tamiya dont offer a Fleet air arm decal option on any of their 1/72 corsairs . I know Revell do on their recent tooling ( 2014 tooled kit no 03917 ) f4u-1b , which is regarded as a very nice little kit and will be well cheaper than getting a Tamiya combined with aftermarket decals . Downside is theres only one option for an overall sea blue machine so if its the dark slate grey / extra dark sea grey scheme you fancy then aftermarket decals is the way to go . Anyhoo enough waffling , on with the build!

Coming on nicely mate.

Coming along a treat mate.I did see one done as an Argentinian one at Littleport show the other week.Looked really great along with a Buckeye.Im sure i remember in an old Military in scale magazine somebody did an article called The Football war and had honduran airforce aircradt etc.Will shut up now im rambling

Nice progress Andrew.

Ah, nice one Joe, I thought it was mad to look down at your feet when trying to land on an aircraft carrier.

Good to have you all on board chaps!


Tony - sorry, think I forgot to acknowledge your post on Revell's Brit Corsair kit. Good to know and I'm watching a couple on Fleabay at the moment!

Richard - My book actually covers the so called Football wars....in fact it was the last time Corsairs saw combat....somewhat ironically fighting other Corsairs. It's also likely to have been the last dogfights between piston engined aircraft!

Joe - Thanks for the contribution on the bombing, you got there before I did!


Ok chaps, so a bit more on the bombing front, my Warpaint series book on Corsairs has this to say on the topic from a design perspective:

"At the time a theory existed that a fighter could fly above an enemy formation on which small fragmentation bombs could be dropped. For this purpose the V-166B [prototype Corsair]. was designed to have a teardrop-shaped sighting window in the lower fuselage beneath the pilot to enable him to aim and release up to forty 5.2lb (2.36 kg) bombs stored in two small bomb bays within the wing outer section . This feature explains why the Corsair remained with a floorless cockpit throughout the production life of the F4U-1 until the F4U-4 arrived."

The book then goes say that this was changed to the square one and moved slightly aft for the production version.

Oh and for those of you that may not be aware, dropping bombs on enemy formations was something some Luftwaffe units tried....successfully....as things got desperate towards the end of the war.

One of the books I have by a German pilot who lived to tell the tale, tells of his unit experimenting with the concept. I'd need to check back how successful it was overall but I do remember reading of what I think was the first test, when they dropped either a 250kg or 500kg bomb over a US formation......with it hitting a plane. I can only imagine the impact the force of such an explosion would have had on an aircraft.

Thanks again chaps!

ATB

Andrew

[adt70hk]

Hi chaps.

So the cockpit is done, along with some dry fit pics below.

Since I took these the fuselage has been joined and the wings attached. Pics to follow in due course. Just a shame that you won't see much of the detail once it's buttoned up!

Oh and that finger in one of the shots is my little finger.....

ACW as usual.

ATB

Andrew

[adt70hk]

Ok chaps. So got the primer on last weekend but since the below shot was taken the pre-main coat mottling and main base coat have gone on - the main coat less than hour ago, so more pics to follow in due course.

ATB

Andrew

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Lovely paint job on the office Andy. In 1/72 its not an easy job to get a good result but that is really nice.

[scottie3158]

Nicely done mate.