Peterpools

Hi Scott I used to do the same and when I used the ketchup cup with solvent based paints, the solvents melted the cups to my surprise.

Martin I took an honest look at the Magic Factory Corsairs and compared them to the Tamiya Corsair on the bench ... it's no contest. I never thought I would say this but Tamiya in this case has only won the silver medal and the gold goes to Magic Factory. The MF Corsairs are state of the art, detail is in another league, where a lot seems to have been borrowed from Tamiya 32nd scale kits in concept. Decals are gorgeous Cartograph, two sets of markings per version and there is a full-size color painting guide for each of the four aircraft. I'm sure MF will be bringing out more Corsairs and that's where I'll be going. Will be using one of the decals sets from the Magic Factory kit on my Tamiya Corsair as well. I've also took a quick look at the MiniArt P-47D and having already built Tamiya's Bubble Jug, the Mini Art kit looks as if it also will de-thrown the king for this aircraft as well. Times are changing and both Tamiya kits while awesome fall a bit short of the latest kits.

Peter Thank you and very much appreciated.

Peter . Holy Cow, simply astonishing work ... the detail and precision are beyond amazing. Surely by the end of this build I most likely will stop having anything to say as I will have completely run out of compliments. Might just need to keep increasing the number of OMG

Oliver Very much appreciate the 'How To". I should have asked myself years ago.

Martin I'll check it out later today as there are two kits in the box: F4U-1 and a F4U-1A - the box is big, heavy and seems to be jammed with loads of sprues.

Just arrived and still waiting for one more kit to arrive. 200 of each, should hopefully last for a while. Just grew tired of cleaning out glass eye droppers and s/s mixing tinlets.

Thanks Kev, very much appreciated. A wonderful kit for sure and what a way for Kotare to break into the market.

Thanks PW and completely agree ... back in the 90's Tamiya raised the bar for precision and detail. Thoroughly enjoying the Corsair and the only part so far that had a few fit issues was the front windscreen. Yup, had to clean up molding lines and some injector marks that were where they shouldn't have been but other then that, a gem. Looking forward to seeing your Mossie build - how about doing a build thread for us.

Thanks John very much appreciated. Going to do the few redo's this afternoon so I can start the tri color cammo scheme tomorrow if all goes well.

John Got ya and still a good roll for sure.

PRIMING IS DONE For me work continues at a nice pace, some filler being needed – most likely the builders’ doing. The biggest decision at the start of the build: wings folded or extended and I finally decided to go with the wings folded. Plastic card was used to block off the ammo ejection chutes – a good call for sure. Tamiya seems to be using the same basic fuselage for the three Corsairs versions they offer in 48th scale and care needs to be exercised which of the very similar looking parts are used, what holes need to be filled in and which need to be opened up. I missed a few and had to go back and correct what I missed. The F4U-1A cowl interior was painted ANA 601 Insignia White and the insides of the cowl flaps ANA 602 Light Gray. I spent a good deal of time adding the ASK windscreen and canopy mask set and a few of the masks seemed a bit small, requiring some strips of Tamiya tape to fill in the ‘short’ areas. I know I’m spoiled with how Tamiya engineered their 32nds scale prop fighters’ windscreens to be installed and on my 48th scale Corsair, the attachment point was just the bottom of the windshield framing and after priming now, some additional filler is needed to try and smooth things out a bit more. I addressed all the panel lines and rivets I lost in sanding and then the Corsair was primed with MRP Gray Primer. So far, so good. A few spots need to be polished a bit more and then it’s time for the cammo. All the parts are primed and drying.

Thanks Smitty I have mine as the winner of last year's Christmas Raffle Grand Prize and Ernie's incredible generosity. I've only built up one of the Merlin's so far and over the course of this coming year, will be working on the kit in between other projects. Biggest drawback is the instructions and complete lack of color callouts. An incredible model and at a great price. SB must be sitting on a load of them.

John WOW ... Another beauty done and in the books. 🏆

John Awesome build - fit, finish and weathering is spot on the money and looks fantastic.🏆

Carl Completely agree and I do remember all the costs and hoops we had to jump through with the Apache kit.

Rob Fully understand and appreciate the 'necessities' of living on a small island - guess it just comes with the territory. From how you have described your small island over the years, all the difficulties in ordering hobby supplies are well worth the time and extra work. Engine exhaust fit from my limited knowledge and experience in building race cars, have always been temperamental and quite finicky, both to paint and install. Fit looks spot on to me but as with Carl, I'm not seeing the heated metal effect at all.

Brilliant and wonderfully weathered.

Rob I feel your pain ... while I live on Long Island (NY), with millions of people, incredible traffic jams, most of my local hobby shops are long gone and driving to one of the few remaining ones in Nassau County is a long and frustrating trip, with no guarantee what I need, they have. Pretty much buy 99% of my kits and supplies online and rarely place an order where everything I need is in stock. I refuse to buy the remaining items from another vendor and wind up paying twice the shipping. Paint wise, I'm going back to Tamiya being my go-to paint as it is sold by most every online vendor and now as you, before starting a project, I buy and have on hand all the paints supplies I need for the project, otherwise it remains unstarred. Surely takes a lot of the enthusiasm out of the hobby for me - it's almost a full-time job. Gee, I remember the good old days, a trip to the LHS (back in the 70's it was the Squadron Shop in Syosset) and they always seemed to have everything I needed, kit and all. Paints were Model Master Enamels, Poly S and Pactra; racks were full, the coffee pot always had fresh brewed coffee and loads of guys to talk with. Belonged to a club, local IPMS chapter, which met once a month, with a few competitions a year and the IPMS Region One Noreastcon - loads of fun and the emphasis was on building and no building mistakes, not detailing or accuracy - I surely long for the good old days. No internet, no online forums, no pc's and no cellphones and once a month I received the Squadron mail order flyer and actually bought a few modeling magazines. Models were nowhere as detailed, raised panel lines and we were happy campers. Time to get off the old soapbox before I lose my balance and falloff.😉

Carl Awesome work and progress on your Sea Fury ... wheel by weathering looks spot on the money. I have my fingers crossed that the rumors/CAD photos of a new 32nd scale Sea Fury are true and we'll see it this coming year ... I'll be buying at least two.

Carl See sure is a beauty ... what an awesome paint scheme. 🏆

Awesome

PW Very nice progress on a brilliant kit.

John Nice progress ... looking mighty good.

Got ya ... shipping seems to be a key factor these days and getting worse. 🚛