Tamiya 1/32 F4U-1 Corsair "Spirit of 76"

By John Bardwell

I'm happy with the way this turned out and I hope you guys are too. I depicted #76 with the red surround as I think it was when the photos of the actual a/c were taken. However, it IS possible that the red surround had been painted over with blue at that time but, at any rate, I am pretty certain it had red surrounds at one time. It appears to me from the photos of the real a/c that it had dark sea blue field applied over the original USN blue gray/gull gray finish so I tried to duplicate this as close as possible. Fit throughout was exceptional. Paints used were White Ensign and Model Master with a little Humbrol here and there. Decals are a mixture of kit decals and Eagle Edition decals. My photography just doesn't do the model justice as it really looks better "in person". (I see that the right elevator had slipped out of position when I was taking the photos. I'll correct this with a little more cement later.) I decided to pose it with the flaps down because I just hated to not use this option plus I like the way it looks that way. I will replace the kit tires with Barracuda Studios as soon as my order arrives which should be soon. I will plan to build at least one more -1 and when Tamiya comes out with the -1A/-1D (as I feel certain they will) I will build several of those. Just an outstanding kit and a great candidate for kit of the year.


© John Bardwell 2013

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This article was published on Friday, August 23 2013; Last modified on Friday, August 23 2013