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Tamiya's F4U-1 CORSAIR


TheScaleWorkshop

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Hello all!
This will be my very first post on LSP, though I'll admit to being a voyeur for quite some time now. It goes without saying that the quality of work shown here is nothing short of inspiring!
So inspiring that I've decided to build the first WWII plane in the beautiful scale of 1:32 since I was in my early teens, some 18 years ago.
And though I have Tamiya's fantastic Spitfire Mk.IXc, the kit that reestablished the benchmark, as well as their gorgeous P-51D Mustang, I've decided to build their new Corsair kit.

This is an absolute gem of a release and loaded with detail. Upon first inspection I had the brief feeling that Tamiya had been a bit stingy: where were the magnets and no secondary boxes containing special parts like their previous two releases? But then I went through the bags of sprues and landed on the instructions. I'll admit at first pass I thought I was over my head with this build. But after a few (half dozen) read-throughs, things seemed to make sense. What became apparent was the shear detail of the kit! In no way is this a simplified build, nor has Tamiya been stingy in any way. To put it into perspective, the pages devoted to the assembly of the wings makes up more than half the instruction book!
Anyways, no need to go on for too long - let's get this build started!

_pL

 

lsp_corsair_01.jpg

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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

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Gentlemen,

 

I have to agree! - this is a GEM of a kit and YES, I am 'lovin it'. Personally I prefer the control surfaces fixed in place, not posable (save that for action figures...loL). Hoping to post some process shots before the end of the day.

 

Happy Modelling

 

pL

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Tim is correct, you are gonna love it! It's a real pleasure to build with no fiddly BS like funky hinges and such.

 

John,

 

Forgot to say your Corsair (build 01) turned out great! Looking forward to getting mine in the 'ready for inspection' forum :)

 

pL

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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

Hiya David,

 

I've notice that Tamiya is doing that a lot more on their recent releases (attachment points) and I think it makes for easier cleaning (as long as you have a good set of sprue cutters) Thanks for the tips! I've had some sucess with an initial cleanup with an x-acto followed by using a flat surface and some sandpaper.

 

Hope the build is going well for you. She's a beaut!

 

pL

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Great to see this kit being built in droves. Looks like this may be Tamiya's most successful wunderkit so far! Glad to see you sharing your build with us mate. Must get cracking on mine...

 

Kev

Kev, Have you given any thought to a special "Tamiya Corsair Works In Progress" thread with all the builds going on ? Looks like this is a hit.

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