AREA 88 : "Shin Kazama" (F4U-1 Corsair)

The Box... 

A bag of sprues 

Nice clean sprues 

Cut and dry fit 

Cut out and scratch built the exhaust port 

Drilled some exhaust pipes 

Some small parts painted 

Exhaust ports installed 

$#%?! 1/72 photo etched parts! 

Drilled out vents, ready for PE 

Should've dry fit the mesh 

Cockpit coming along  

Instrument panel too 

Photo etched all attached or painted 

Cockpit painted and assembled 

Cockpit side views 

Cockpit glued into half the fuselage and dry fitted to cure 

Cockpit installed and waiting for wash 

Coat of Future and ready for a wash 

Slight do-over on the wheel wells 

Scratch built better wheel wells 

Scratchbuilt vent flaps 

Improved exhaust, vents and wheel wells 

Putty applied to the seams 

Sanding complete... will check for mistakes after primer is applied 

Wing joints look good. Added a bit of copper wire to the tail. 

More sanding, and I drilled out a landing light... mainly because John did. 

Engine details added  

Puttied, sanded and primed. 

Good enough is good enough. 🙂 

Had to do two rounds, but no more seams now. 

Leading wing edge looks good to go. 

A little pre-shading... let's see if this'll work. 

Painted the engine and added a few details along the way... last stop, some itty bitty copper wire... 

Engine finished... except for a accent wash. 

The picture is a bit dark, but the wash worked well and added depth to the details. 

Would you believe the cowl didn't fit!? I had to pull off all the little caps, trim them and glue them back on. I was freaked that I was going to lose a piece, but I managed to get back on track and everything fits now. 

Undercarriage given several coats of white paint. I hate painting with white... but I think I survived. 

I'm trying to decide if I need a few more coats of white or not.... hmmm... 

First coat of blue paint on... but the tape marks are highly visible. I'll need to fix that somehow. 

Ok, a coat of grey and another coat of blue. It looks better, but that cowling looks like way too much white. Maybe just the prop should be white... with blue trim? 

I do like the two-tone canopy though. I think I'll keep that. 

It seems no matter how carefully I tape... there's always some tiny masking errors. Grrr... 

Needs more grey. I'm note sûre I've got this "pre-shading" business mastered yet. 

Starting to come together. Cowl and landing gear glued on... other small bits waiting for more paint.