David Hansen

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

Hey Ken, Not only one, but two completed F-82 restorations may provide the requisite "Spark" to ignite some interest in this subject. Korean War aircraft have been represented somewhat unevenly. F-86es, MiG-15s and more recently F-84s getting plenty of love. Not so much with F-82s, F-94s, F3Ds and F4U-4s d-bot

Hi Ken, This is more a brainfart than anything else, but since you went to all that work to create F-82 drawings from scratch, have you been keeping up with developments in 3-D fabrication technology? i'm not sure if the level of sophistication is quite there yet, but given all the "Heavy Lifting" you did on the F-82 Shapes, i was wondering if a forthcoming "MK II" version of the kit might be making use of some newer technology. I'd imagine its a lot easier to correct errors, once you identify exactly where they are. Perhaps its not the direction you want to go in, but it seems like it would be a great way to fully exploit your efforts. Purely speculative, david