Tamiya 1/48 F4U-1A Corsair

[Peterpools]

TAMIYA F4U-1A CORSAIR

1/48 SCALE

With the Kotare Spitfire being finished, I wanted to hit the bench running with a few more 48^th scale projects, with the Tamiya Corsair being the first on the list.  

A quick word on Interior colors; my go to reference for US WWII Interior colors for years and what I consider one of the definitive online resources:

Interior Colours of US Aircraft 1941-45 by Martin Waligorski, IPMS Stockholm.

I always take the time at the beginning of a build to write down my paints and colors in the instructions, as I try to be as accurate as possible, using Martin Waligorski reference as my guide.   

During the Vought’s 1A’s production run there were a number of interior paint color changes and for my Corsair the cockpit was Interior Green, the tailwheel gear bay was Yellow Zinc Chromate with both the Pink Salmon and Bronze Green no longer being used. The tailwheel/arrestor hook assemble were built up and the assembly painted ANA 602 Non-specular Sky Gray.  

As long as I was painting the all the interior colors, I finished up with the interior of the engine cowling. On later model F4U-1A’s leaving the factory, they were painted ANA 601 Insignia White and no longer interior green.

I followed Tamiya’s instructions reasonably closely, with part fit being excellent. Only additions to the front office were a Quinta cockpit set and an Eduard PE seatbelt set (I had previously used the Quinta Seatbelts for another project). Before closing up the fuselage, I still need to add the throttle, prop and mixture lever, with the gun sight and armor-plated glass to be added later in the build.

New ground for me: Light weathering. I wasn’t that happy with using Tamiya Panel Line Washes for the interior and decided to just make my own oil washes, which worked perfectly. When dry, I highlighted all the raised areas with a light yellow green color and the effect worked quite well.

 

First test fit: Tamiya Perfect.

Test Fitting the Front Office - detail with the Quinta set is awesome

Oil washes and yellow green dry brushing

A good deal of all the parts have already been assembled. Inside of the engine cowling NA 601 Insignia White

 

 

[JohnB]

A good start Peter. Gonna be a beauty!

[Peterpools]

Thanks John. I'll be following your email suggestions on the cowling color as well.

So far, a very enjoyable build with no issues at all.

 

 

[DocRob]

Nice little Birdie, Peter. Your interior work looks spotless. Sometimes quintaed cokpits look a bit strange to my eye, but that's not the case with yours. All blends in perfectly. I also use self made oil washes more and more, as the effect is much more controllable. With Tamiya's panel liner, I sometimes had problems with removing unwanted stains.

Cheers Rob 

[CANicoll]

Looking good and thanks for sharing about the Tamiya panel line washes.  I have not purchased any and tend to just use what I make.  Your interiors look awesome, as always.

Chris

[Peterpools]

Thanks Rob, getting back into 48th scale as alternate builds to keep everything fresh and the juices flowing. Very much appreciate the comments on the front office, as I tried a bit more blending then usual with the Quinta 3D set.

Completely agree oil washes as so easy to use, with an unlimited choice of color and strengths. Going to be my preferred method for washes and even doing panels lines as well.

  

[Peterpools]

Hi Chris

Good to see you're back and following my progress.  Very much appreciate the kind words on the front office - as it's my favorite part of a build.

 

[belugawhaleman]

Hey Peter, thought about getting that one myself, I'm sure you'll do a great

job!

[Peterpools]

Thanks Paul - pure Tamiya and so far, a joy to build.

I have my eye on both the Magic Factory 1/48 Combo Corsair kit and the Mini Art P-47 - both kits look spectacular. Hardest thing these days is finding all the paints I need at the same time from the same vendor - just don't understand why it's so hard to find what I need. I use mainly MRP paints and I don't want to split an order between two vendors and pay double for shipping. 

[CANicoll]

Peter,   Who do you buy your MRP paints from?  Chris

[Peterpools]

Hi Chris

I've been buying my MRP paints from SB for years and almost never am able to purchase all the colors I need as the dreaded "Out of Stock' red label keeps popping up. Who do you use for your MRP paints?

 

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Looking great Peter!  With all the Corsairs on here - *cough* @JohnB *cough* - I broke down and picked up a 1/32 Tamiya Birdcage off one of the FB auction sites.  Will be eagerly following your build for tips!

[CANicoll]

3 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Hi Chris

I've been buying my MRP paints from SB for years and almost never am able to purchase all the colors I need as the dreaded "Out of Stock' red label keeps popping up. Who do you use for your MRP paints?

 

 

Same and keep having the same problem.  I've had some success with Hobbyworld USA but looking at a random sample of colors, seems like they are also having the same issue SB has with availability.  Any specific colors you are trying to find?  

[Peterpools]

Thanks Mike. much appreciated.

Can't wait to follow your Tamiya Corsair build - going to be a terrific build for sure.

BTW, I just ordered two new 48th scale kits:

Mini Art P-45D Thunderbolt (Basic as the advanced kit isn't available yet)

Magic Factory F4U Corsairs - dual Boxing - F4U-1 Birdcage and an F4U-1A

Can't wait to get them on the bench.

 

[Peterpools]

Thanks Chris for the offer.

I already substituted what I needed in MRP with Mr Color which is also a go to paint for me - the big difference is you have to thin Mr Color as compared to MRP which is shot straight from the bottle. But it's offset and a huge advantage of Mr Color - every one of my vendors carries it. 

 

 

[Peterpools]

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 48^th 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 48^th 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.

 

[JohnB]

Looks to be coming along fine Peter.

[Peterpools]

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. 

[PanzerWomble]

Those mid 90's 1/48 Tamiya kits really raised the bar in terms of parts fit for my money . 

I've not built the F-4 yet , but did the Spitfire from around the same time and also recently the Skyrider, and currently am tackling the Mosquito . Clean the tooling gate marks, line stuff up and apply some extra thin, maybe a little correction later ...try that with a similar age Airfix kit. 🤣 Japanese precision where you want it . 

Your 'pit looks great , I'm having a pop with a Yahu panel for the Mossie as I don't use Quinta. Look forward to seeing this on on the line . 

 

[Peterpools]

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. 

 

[Peterpools]

IT’S CAMMO TIME

I was ready for the cammo work and as confused as ever about paint color and what paints to use. The three colors I would need:

ANA 608 Intermediate Blue

ANA 606 Semi Dark Sea Blue

ANA 601 Insignia White

I started the search with Intermediate Blue, went through my paint stash and was amazed at how many different color versions there were for just this one color.

After first using Mr Color 72 as shown on the Cybermodeler’s Color Charts, it was way too blue and I sent a few photos to John b and he felt the same. John sent some documentation about the correct color and I was floored at how far off I was.

I corrected the Intermediate Blue and finally settled on these three for the Corsair:

ANA 608 Intermediate Blue…    AK Real Color RC 235

ANA 606 Semi Dark Sea Blue … Mr Color 14

ANA 601 Insignia White …          Tamiya LP-35

I would have used the paints John had but they were enamels and the only two bottles of enamels I have in the stash, both being MM Interior Green.

Getting used to doing free hand cammo in 48^th scale took a bit of time, as the smaller the scale there sems to be less wiggle room and you are working in a tighter area as compared to 32^nd scale. The cammo has a few glitches but I’m happy with the results. Hardest part of the cammo work was the soft edge between the Insignia white and intermediate blue – too very light colors to my eye in the paint booth.

I’m just always amazed how a specific color can vary so much from one paint brand to another, just never actually understood why.

And of course; Thanks John, for all the help, you helped save the day.

I see a few touchups I want to go back and correct but other then that, a few more parts to paint and it's time to gloss and decal.

 

 

[CANicoll]

13 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

IT’S CAMMO TIME

AMMO BY MIG

I was ready for the cammo work and as confused as ever about paint color and what paints to use. The three colors I would need:

ANA 608 Intermediate Blue

ANA 606 Semi Dark Sea Blue

ANA 601 Insignia White

I started the search with Intermediate Blue, went through my paint stash and was amazed at how many different color versions there were for just this one color.

After first using Mr Color 72 as shown on the Cybermodeler’s Color Charts, it was way too blue and I sent a few photos to John b and he felt the same. John sent some documentation about the correct color and I was floored at how far off I was.

I corrected the Intermediate Blue and finally settled on these three for the Corsair:

ANA 608 Intermediate Blue…    AK Real Color RC 235

ANA 606 Semi Dark Sea Blue … Mr Color 14

ANA 601 Insignia White …          Tamiya LP-35

I would have used the paints John had but they were enamels and the only two bottles of enamels I have in the stash, both being MM Interior Green.

Getting used to doing free hand cammo in 48^th scale took a bit of time, as the smaller the scale there sems to be less wiggle room and you are working in a tighter area as compared to 32^nd scale. The cammo has a few glitches but I’m happy with the results. Hardest part of the cammo work was the soft edge between the Insignia white and intermediate blue – too very light colors to my eye in the paint booth.

I’m just always amazed how a specific color can vary so much from one paint brand to another, just never actually understood why.

And of course; Thanks John, for all the help, you helped save the day.

I see a few touchups I want to go back and correct but other then that, a few more parts to paint and it's time to gloss and decal.

 

Peter, really nice work as usual.  The soft lines between colors look perfect.  What brush/needle/pressure did you spray at?  Also, I am totally envious in your collection of clips and holders!  The corrugated cardboard is brilliant.   I seem to see a few tags on some of the holders?  Part numbers?  Again, really smart!

[Martinnfb]

Top shelf as always Peter. Clean and crisp. 

[JohnB]

1 hour ago, Peterpools said:

IT’S CAMMO TIME

AMMO BY MIG

I was ready for the cammo work and as confused as ever about paint color and what paints to use. The three colors I would need:

ANA 608 Intermediate Blue

ANA 606 Semi Dark Sea Blue

ANA 601 Insignia White

I started the search with Intermediate Blue, went through my paint stash and was amazed at how many different color versions there were for just this one color.

After first using Mr Color 72 as shown on the Cybermodeler’s Color Charts, it was way too blue and I sent a few photos to John b and he felt the same. John sent some documentation about the correct color and I was floored at how far off I was.

I corrected the Intermediate Blue and finally settled on these three for the Corsair:

ANA 608 Intermediate Blue…    AK Real Color RC 235

ANA 606 Semi Dark Sea Blue … Mr Color 14

ANA 601 Insignia White …          Tamiya LP-35

I would have used the paints John had but they were enamels and the only two bottles of enamels I have in the stash, both being MM Interior Green.

Getting used to doing free hand cammo in 48^th scale took a bit of time, as the smaller the scale there sems to be less wiggle room and you are working in a tighter area as compared to 32^nd scale. The cammo has a few glitches but I’m happy with the results. Hardest part of the cammo work was the soft edge between the Insignia white and intermediate blue – too very light colors to my eye in the paint booth.

I’m just always amazed how a specific color can vary so much from one paint brand to another, just never actually understood why.

And of course; Thanks John, for all the help, you helped save the day.

I see a few touchups I want to go back and correct but other then that, a few more parts to paint and it's time to gloss and decal.

 

I was glad to be of help Peter. Your Corsair is looking great!

[Peterpools]

19 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Peter, really nice work as usual.  The soft lines between colors look perfect.  What brush/needle/pressure did you spray at?  Also, I am totally envious in your collection of clips and holders!  The corrugated cardboard is brilliant.   I seem to see a few tags on some of the holders?  Part numbers?  Again, really smart!

Thanks Chris Very much appreciated.

All the air brush work has been done with an H&S Infinity Plus with a .2 tip @ 15 psi. working pressure.

The clips are a builder's best friend. The short metal clips come with the Tamiya circular paint stand that I used mainly when do cars - the clips are awesome. Also with the set is the car holder base - well worth the money just for the eight clips.

The tall alligator clips are the ones with the metal rods and not the wood ones as these should be less prone to breaking. The allegator clips even came with rubber tips which I removed but put them back on when I worry about the 'teeth' marking the paint/plastic.

The holder was an idea I picked up from Nigel's Modeling bench web site a long time ago and slightly modified it. Works tremendous and cost me nothing to make.

yes, the tags/strips are part numbers to help from installing the part in the wrong place or out of sequence, which In the past, I was famous for.