Tamiya 1/32 F4U-1A corsair BuNo50165, VMF-321, Guam August-November 1944

zaxos345 · August 21, 2025

Good morning,

New project on the bench, the spectacular 1/32 Tamiya's F4U-1A. I chose to depict a late bird, BuNo50165, VMF-321, Guam August-November 1944, been flown by Lt R.S.T. Marsh and Cpt. G.T. Doster

Vought-F4-U-Corsairs-VMF-321-White-2x-Dy

Vought-F4-U-1-A-Corsair-VMF-321-White-04

This late bird, according to Dana Bell's book Vol.2, had some differences from the early ones...dead cowl flaps, ADI (Anti Detonation Injection), short forward antenna mast, VHF mast, cockpit flare pistol, no wing landing light, no fuselage observation window. I will also use kit parts H15 - H18 and H23 as those parts are necessery for the R-2800-8W, the water injection version of the engine!!!

The tamiya's kit is well known...

And some aftermarkets...

I had also bought the Yahu's instrument panel but finally i did not use it. I chose to use the tamiya's panel but with some modification being inspired by John's (a.k.a. Thunnus) build. I had also Airscale's individual instrument faces at my disposal but strangely they did not fit...so i used mostly tamiya's decals. As tamiya had the instruments facing upside down, i watered the decal, turned upwards so that to punch, as accurate as i could, the instrument faces!!!

I sanded down the domed surfaces on the clear part, not al of it, so that they would fit inside the holes and placed the instrument dials in front. After everything was dry i put a blob of UV resin to immitate the glass, placed the appropriate stencils and washed it with a light oil filter.

I saw the amazing throttle modification John and Wolf did on their builds and i got jealous...so i gave it a try with my trusty JLC razor saw..

For the round heads on the controls i also used UV resin.

Next i dealt with the Vector resin cowl and cowl flaps, a tendious work but i think i managed it, we will judge the outcome when the assemply time will come...

I closed the hole for the bomb or rockets arming panel on the right of the gunsight, as this was not present on my bird and i added the ''defrost-heat'' lever as well as the cable connection of the gun sight...

I also made 4 cockpit lamps like this...

And it was time to throw some paint, varnish, decaling, stenciling and weathering of the cockpit elements....

The seat belts are from HGW but i followed Airscales instruction as in my P-51D build...the oxygen hose is from MDC 0.8mm...

And i finally glued the fuselage...

And final item for this post are the exhausts...i deepened and slimmed them and brush painted them with Mc-214 dark iron...

After buffing them...

and after old rust treatment...

Thats all for now guys, hope you like it, next is engine time....

John

Edited August 21, 2025 by zaxos345

geedubelyer · August 21, 2025

Superb work. :punk:

zaxos345 · August 21, 2025

1 hour ago, geedubelyer said:

Superb work.

Thanks a lot!!!!

John

John1 · August 22, 2025

Great work, I built the F4U-1D a few years ago (also using Fundekals and most of the other aftermarket bits you are using). It was an extremely enjoyable build. Looking forward to following along!

zaxos345 · August 23, 2025

On 8/22/2025 at 4:34 AM, John1 said:

Great work, I built the F4U-1D a few years ago (also using Fundekals and most of the other aftermarket bits you are using). It was an extremely enjoyable build. Looking forward to following along!

Thanks a lot John, sorry for late answer!!!!

John

Ginja Ninja · August 23, 2025

John, the cockpit looks stunning! I'm looking forward to seeing your build come together.

Is it just me, or do the Corsair exhausts look like antlers? 🤔

Edited August 23, 2025 by Ginja Ninja

zaxos345 · August 23, 2025

22 minutes ago, Ginja Ninja said:

John, the cockpit looks stunning! I'm looking forward to seeing your build come together.

Thanks a lot !!!

23 minutes ago, Ginja Ninja said:

Is it just me, or do the Corsair exhausts look like antlers? 🤔

You've got a point!!!😃

John

zaxos345 · January 15

After almost 5 months time from my previous post, this build came to an end!!! I really enjoyed it a lot, one of the most spectacular kits i have ever worked with!! In the mean time a major event happenent in my life... after 40 years of service in the Hellenic Air Force i got retired at the end of August, there were a ton of little things that i had to deal with, so no time to post in between!!!!

Now about the build....

i Started working with the engine with the additions of Vector resin items

Here with the resin cowl flaps...it took some effort to perfectly aligh the resin item to the plastic engine cover but i think the outcome is really amazing!!!!

I had to delete the landing light under the left wing according to Dana's book regarding the various changes that happened to the airplane production BuNos

It was time to deal with the wheel wells, i wanted to add some detail there...i was already lucky enough to aquire the beautiful details from Frank Crenshaw but i wanted some more....

The propeller....

I closed the fuselage and glued the windshield on....

And assembled the kit, fuselage and wings came together....

.....

Edited January 16 by zaxos345

Kenneth Joy · January 15

I do love the Corsair...ill be following this with great anticipation!

zaxos345 · January 15

....canopy details fron Anyz... amazing

And finally, painting time...

I primed the model with my to go primer, mrp, and started to paint the insignia with my own masks. I paint the insignia first so that if something goes wrong with it I wont have to unpaint all the model. And i paint the insignia blue first, as some times the white can been seen under the blue especially if you paint with colors other than lacquers that tend to build. I use mrp, especially for the insignia, is like spraying inks...

I put masks on the insignia, I sprayed Mrp duraluminium for chipping and covered it with 2 light hands of hairspray. I also did some preshading...

Mr Color white on the underside...

After that it was time for the other 2 (3 to be exact but i only used 2) major colors intermediate blue (ANA 608) and Non-specular sea blue (ANA 606). The colors are tamiya mixes, i did not like either the mrp or Mr. color offerings. I searched and found a topic to another forum where some mixes were proposed from a member there, ''Casey'', mentioned having as a base the chips from the book ''The Official Monogram US Navy USMC Aircraft Color Guide vol.2 1940-1949''. I contacted her and she send me the updated tamiya mixes for the intermediate blue (ANA 608) and Non-specular sea blue (ANA 606), tested them, liked them and finally sprayed them!!!!