David Hansen

Looks Murph-a-licious, man. K, now i bought 2 of em, John B bought 3. You reckon this kit has scored more with the American market than the P-51D or the Spitfire VIII/ IX? i can't prove it but i get the feeling this kit has generated more of a response than the other 32nd Tamiya offerings. -d-

Looks awesome Murph. I had some concerns about the intakes in the wings but they look OK now. I like your interpretation of the three tone scheme. Weathering (so far) is nice and restrained. Progress continues on my FG-1 but i don't have anything completed to the stage where its worth photographing. Looking forward to the big finish! -d-

Stinger, i agree with Monkeysee. I used a light gray for the inside of the "Nose Bowl" and used my mix of light greenish yellow zinc chromate for the cowling panel interior. I'm doing a Goodyear FG-1 so i'm avoiding the use of Salmon primer altogether. -d-

Murph, my cowling panels fit with each other OK, and butt up against the front nose bowl just fine. However i haven't done a fit check to the engine yet, and i'm nowhere close to installing the cowl flaps. I was very careful to keep the YZC primer off the mating surfaces of the cowling. I think Brett Green over at Hyperscale may have had similar issues; his close up photo of the cowling front end had lots of Mr. Surfacer on it, so he did his with the cowling sections closed too. -d-

Thanks for all the answers. I'm gonna add some white to the MM 36081 and repaint. I'll shoot it with Future to give it some gloss and protect it for a wash. I'm aiming to build a factory-fresh Goodyear FG-1. david

Yeah, Tim, that's the photo i was talking about. Maybe its the flash but it looks lighter than the MM Engine Gray i have on the engine now. Perhaps i should just add some white to it. I WAS pretty sure the actual colour was gloss engine gray, but i've seen variations on different R-2800-8s and -10s. Thanks, David

Me Likee!!! (Duh.) Beautifully photographed too, Paul. Hope my Corsair turns out looking as clean as your P-40. Thanks for posting!! D-Smack

Hey Everybody, Like a lot of you, i have a Tamiya Corsair in the works. i was looking at B&W imagery of Goodyear FG-1s, and i'm trying to figure out what the best colour would be to paint the reduction gear housing and distributors. I shot some MM Engine Gray (FS 36081/ 16081), and it looks....OK, but i'm wondering what the other opinions might be out there. I've seen the colour photo of the P&W engine on the production line and the gray looks a bit lighter than Engine Gray. Of course, that one was a Pratt & Whitney engine with the early Bendix Scintilla ignition system. As far as i know, Goodyear Corsairs probably got the bulk of their R-2800-8s from Nash Kelvinator. The good photos i have show the crankcase to be pretty dark, but of course i'm going from B&W imagery. Its certainly not too late to re-paint it. Thanks in Advance, david

As Mr. Mackie from South Park would say, Mmm-Kay. -d-

Murph, are the gear doors just shown in place for illustrative purposes? Tamiya has got some weird steps in terms of systems integration and i can see some assemblies really getting in the way of a uncomplicated painting process. But the wheel wells look great! -d-

Murph, it looks great. If you haven't gotten this far yet, MM non buffing aluminum, applied over gloss black works very well for the stainless steel "Dishpan" behind the engine. Also the cowling nose bowl attachment ring fits perfectly. The secret seems to be keeping paint off of the mating surfaces. Wicked close tolerances engineered into this kit. -d-

Nige, based on precedent and evidence from the Lake Michigan Corsair, Dark Green, FS 34092, is a very close match for a Vought Corsair. Not much is known about Brewster or Goodyear cockpit colours, but my guess is Brewster followed the Vought standard, and Goodyear delivered its first Corsairs late enough that Interior Green may have gone into use. HTH, david

Nothing wrong with pausing to take a break and re evaluate. You could search around for more FAA Corsair pictures, and while it may be an odd suggestion, check out David Rapasi's FAA Corsairs on Aircraft Resource Center. Might be a good source of inspiration. That guy is a Corsair building monster. -d-

Hi James, i should start off by saying, i don't know nearly as much about the FAA "Slime and Sewage" paint schemes on the Corsair as i do about the Navy 3- tone schemes. Others know more. If i had a criticism it would be i think the separation between colours should be just a little bit more sharp. As it looks right now the paint looks like it was put on in a hurry; the coverage looks uneven and the green that goes up to the leading edge of the right wing looks a bit incomplete. You could add some variety by adding one drop of white to the base colour and over spraying both the slate gray and the extra dark sea gray. Painting on the wing walkways (if they had them) and the chord wise anti skid areas will also add mofre visual interest. Lastly, i'd seriously consider painting on the national insignia. Maybe its because there is no wash in the panel lines, maybe its because its devoid of markings. Right now it just looks a bit bland to me. Not to sound too critical, but painting is my bag and when it comes to Corsairs i'm rather opinionated. But keep on posting the pics. I'm excited to see it finished. david

Agreed about the working features. The metal hinges are probably the biggest reason why my Tamiya Mk. VIII is still on the sprues. On the other hand, the first thing i did on the Corsair was build up the tailplanes with the drooped elevators. Have done the chore countless times in 72 and 48th scales, and it was like pulling teeth. On this 32nd scale Corsair it was a blast to put all the tail feathers together inside of an hour. david

Well, i was gonna say that you would probably feel better after hosing it down with a coat of primer but...... seems like you beat me to it. david

Are you going to use paint or decal for the walkway stripes and non-skid areas? -d-

Robin, the Tamiya kit represents the F4U-1 version that had a "Floorless" cockpit with troughs that the pilot's feet rode in. It wasn't until the F4U-4 series and subsequent that a floor was added making the Corsair cockpit look more "Normal". Believe me, the Tamiya cockpit is authentic. david

I'm presently deep into mine. i just wrote a review of the thing over on Amazon and made specific mention of the fact Tamiya is getting rid of the silly "Gee Whiz" features. One observation i'd like to make: A lot of the sprue attachment points are on the mating surfaces, so a bit more "flat sanding" is called for in order to get a nice gap-free fit between parts. I'm using a curved x-acto blade to carve away most of the stub, and then either using a 320 grit sanding stick, or sanding the part on a piece of 400 grit paper to get a nice flat mating surface. d-smack

Having done 2 48th scale Corsairs with Cockpit Black interiors, i'm using Dark Green (MM FS34092) on this one. I may be doing a Goodyear FG-1, so i'm not launching into construction just yet. I want to see what Dana Bell comes up with. I have a Late Brewster F3A-1 under construction using Interior green. My guess is when the Navy took over the place they instituted use of Interior green if Brewster hadn't switched over already. david

My first one arrived from Lucky Model today. My local hobby shop got them in last Thursday. Wow, what a kit. david

Speaking as someone who has done two of the 48th scale Birdcage Corsairs in a variation of black (MM Cockpit Interior Black with some red added), it doesn't exactly wind my watch. I'm doing a 72nd scale one using Dark Green FS 34092, and i think personally it looks better. Makes it a little easier to see all the stuff in there. i'm also doing a 48th scale F3A with an interior green inside. It looks sort of "Meh". For my Goodyear Corsair i haven't decided what i'm gonna use. I will do the tail wheel well in salmon. Wheel wells will probably be in salmon with gray applied over it so you can see traces of the primer underneath. Finally, i'm gonna see what Dana Bell has to say in his book about this... Pictures of my 32nd scale Corsair to follow..... once i get my hands on one.

Looks like it will definitely be worth the wait. The incorporation of the wing carry thru spar was a great innovation. Structural weakness was a big failing of the old Revell kit, and that one piece is the big reason why you don't see more restored Corsairs out there. Just about everything else on the aircraft could pretty much be replicated without too much trouble, but the construction of the wing carry through spar is very difficult. Made up of lotsa small detail parts, and the tolerances required were very, very tight. I know the folks at Connecticut Corsair are trying to reverse-engineer the spar, but i don't know what the latest progress is. Don't agree with Tamiya's choice of interior colours but that's really minor. I for one, am excited david

I petitioned to Fisher Model and Pattern to make an RF-8 Conversion for the Trumpeter kit but...... Ironically enough , my friend Doug flew the very aircraft that Ben modeled. david

Actually, the date of the switch over to the three-tone scheme on the Chance Vought F4U-1 is a little uncertain as to what BuAer No. it began with. Its origins may go back to the early experiments with three tone schemes done at NAS Norfolk (early iterations of the three tone camouflage application are informally referred to as the "Norfolk Scheme" as coined by Tommy Thomason). However Chance Vought was delivering F4U-1s to the Fleet (Marines) in three tone before the changeover to F4U-1A production. Goodyear on the other hand, delivered FG-1 Birdcage Corsairs from the very get-go in the three-tone scheme. I think Goodyear had a distinctly different method of applying the three-tone scheme from the method used by Chance Vought, but i'm having a tough time proving it conclusively. If my theory were proven it would be an easy way to differentiate between an F4U and an FG-1. And as for Brewster, anybody's guess is as good as mine! david