John1

In this age of competitors announcing identical kits within days (hours?) of each other, I'd say those procedures are absolutely critical.

Hi Alfonso, I'm just going by Dana Bell's book. As I read his summary of design changes, the flare pistol wasn't added until 50040 and later BuNo's. If correct, 740 never would have had it in the first place. With regard to the rudder troughs, again, I'm just going by Dana's info, in which he states that starting with 17930, rudder trough superstructures were added. Not exactly sure if that means they weren't present at all prior to this? I'd assume there had to be something to support the pilot's feet.... To anyone with even a passing interest in the Corsair, I can't highly recommend both of Dana's books. Indispensible references and quite reasonably priced. Now if he'd just finish the series one dedicated to the -4/5/7! John

Correct. Your Corsair was a pretty early -1A, so according to Mr. Bell, it would not have the following bits that were introduced on later vintage -1A Corsairs: Stall warning device (no idea if Tamiya even included this), rudder troughs, 32" radio mast, under fuselage tank/bomb mount, VHF mast, forged tail wheel yoke, "half-round" canopy release, locked center (top) cowl flap and cockpit flare pistol. It would have the landing light still installed. Hope this helps a bit, keep up the great work on your Corsair!

According to Bell, the bombing window was deleted somewhat late in the -1A production run, starting with BuNo 50066.

Just reading this thread for the first time, my compliments on your work. Question on the Eduard part - when did "denim" start be used on Japanese instrument panels?

Looks like a million dollar environmental remediation project. The hot ticket issue in the environmental field these days are PFAS, which are now known carcinogens, commonly found in fire suppression foam. The military is spending billions to remediate groundwater contaminated by years of fire pit training and accidental releases like the one above. As I’m in the environmental field, that picture above fills me with happiness (and probably near-lifetime job security). Keep it up lads!!!

You are correct - That cone-thing is a relief tube. Believe it's just clipped onto the front of the stick. Pilot would remove it, "do his business" and then put it back in place. For maximum realism, I drilled out the top of mine (not that it's even visible). Great work so far!

So in doing some research (I'm a novice on this subject), I purchased the Combat Colours magazine dedicated to the colors and markings of the Zero. I wasn't aware that the Model 21 was used in Rabaul but they have a really nice profile of just the aircraft I'd like to model: It'd be a great build with that green overspray and some really nice weathering opportunities. However, unless I've missed something with my Google-Fu, it appears that there are pretty much nothing out there for aftermarket decals for the Tamiya kit. Is this really the case?

Just shows that hate isn't exclusive to one nationality, religion, race, demographic, etc. Need to keep this in mind when those factors are drummed up for political reasons. What happened yesterday in NZ was heartbreaking.

Way down on my wish list but I'd probably buy the damned thing just cause it's Tamiya and the quality would be mind-blowing. That and the fact that there are thousands of interesting and colorful markings options available. I would just hope that they would include the "late" G-6 bits in this kit (Erla canopy, tall tail, tall tailwheel strut, etc) and not just do the earlier version and leave us hanging for a few years (or forever). I swore off 109's after my battle with the Revel G-6 but if T does this, I'll be all in.

Aside from my Huey fetish, I’ll table an F-86 or an F6F series. Either should be within T’s comfort zone and in theory, should have pretty broad appeal, especially the -86.

In my case Mike, I have a dream. In this dream, Mr. Tamiya will be randomly surfing the net and comes across this thread and specifically my post. He then jumps off the couch and shouts - "My God!! This guy on LSP is a genius! My next large scale kit will be a UH-1D/H!!!" I believe in dreams coming true. Just gotta have faith!

Undoubtedly they will be considering a 35th scale UH-1D/H Huey. Only the most iconic helo ever developed, used by hundreds of nations (including Japan) and civilian agencies and there will be a huge range of markings available. Plus it has that "Nam" pedigree. Literally a license to print money!

If he's providing art for a book, it's gotta be pretty good. Any details?

What's are those oval shaped fairings forward of the windscreen? Never noticed those before on any F's. Was that something unique for Galland's aircraft?