Tamiya 1/72 F4U-1A Corsair

Well who can't resist the temptation to build a WW2 corsair, especially one that depicts Pappy Boyington's plane. During this wave of motivation I have to build WW2 fighters, this one has to be close to the top of all time favourites.

Box Art

Finished Model

Comments
I actually had a tough time on this one. First of all, after having done the Airfix kits and being lulled into a false sense of security with parts fitting together, the corsair fuselage halves dried together slightly out of alignment. Something I should have picked up if I'd paid better attention. Good thing is its only noticeable by the guy that built it. The wings also suffered from the same problem, it was only after the halves dried that I noticed the gun ports were not right so a bit of drilling fixed that.
I also had a tough time with the Tamiya matt white. I oversprayed it and it dribbled everywhere making a bit of a mess over the top of the fuselage as I had the model upside down while spraying. Damn annoying but I have to learn to spray matt white sparingly as its so damn runny.
The cockpit on this model is incredibly well detailed for this scale. I was very happy with the way it turned out. Overall, its not one of my better efforts but it'll do. Who can resist having a Pappy Boyington corsair in their collection. :)

Rating:
Instructions - 3 - very easy to understand - designed for beginners

Assembly Complexity - 3 - very easy to assemble, good for beginners

Quality of Molding - 3 - Fantastic, which is what I expect from Tamiya

Part Fit - 2.5 most parts were perfect but you have to be careful to align the body halves properly and the wing halves carefully, its not an automatic fit or snap together.

Overall Score 11.5/12

Paints Used
Underside - Tamiya TS-27 - Matt White, Tamiya AS-19 - Intermediate Blue
Fuselage - Tamiya AS-19 - Intermediate Blue, Tamiya AS-8 - Navy Blue
Cockpit- Tamiya XF-71 - Cockpit Green
Wheel wells - Tamiya XF-4 - Yellow Green