In-boxed: 1/32nd scale F4U-1D Corsair from Tamiya (Pt I)

The Corsair family in 1/32nd scale is nearly complete with this new F4U-1D model from Tamiya. A popular aircraft from a popular model maker - what other excuse do we need to review it and make it up for you? Next week we have a build article for the major sub-sections and walkthrough of some of the more difficult parts. Today we give your our In-box review with comparison shots of the real thing.

In-boxed: Vought F4U-1D Corsair
From Tamiya
1/32nd scale
Aircraft Series No.27
Item No# 60327
Price: ¥11,840/ $109.04 USD/ €92.89/ £81.66 GBP
Product Link on HobbyLink Japan's website

This kit
This kit is a combination of the new (-ish now) 2013 tool Vought F4U-1 Corsair "Birdcage" initial release in 32nd scale from Tamiya. In 2014 that kit was then added to with the F4U-1A Corsair Kit Number# 60325 which gave us the familiar first of the “Bubbletop” versions of the aircraft.

This year (2017) the new 32nd scale F4U-1D Corsair Kit Number# 60327 was released. Adding new decals, weapons and options to the series in six new sprues. This three-blade version will no doubt be added to with the F4U Corsair model in the future - but that is something for another review if that ever happens...

This kit Replicates the "D" variant of the popular Corsair World War II fighter plane. It uses new parts to recreate features specific to the F4U-1D, which was the first Corsair to be cleared for use on aircraft carriers. This fighter-bomber could carry drop tanks on new hard points under the wing root, and up to 8 rockets under the outer wing. It provided invaluable close support for ground troops during landings in places such as the Philippines and Okinawa and continued to serve after WWII.

Some F4U-1D detail differences from previous variants included in this kit:
- The semi-bubble canopy was altered during production to remove upper side frames and improve visibility.
- Propeller blades were thicker from the root.
- Hardpoints under the wing root allowed carrying of bombs and drop tanks.
- The tail wheel cover had a new fairing to improve aerodynamics.
- Outer wing sections had extended metal areas with mounts for eight rockets total.
- Cockpit floor window was covered over.

I will use some pictures of restored birds in this review where I could not find period pictures to compare the kit's details

People familiar with the earlier two releases in this family will see a lot here that is familiar, but for those who do not have this kit and have selected this as a starting point will find out what is in this box in this, the first part examination in our in-box review. 

We have already seen lots of reviews of the earlier kits in the 1/32 Corsair family of kits from tamya. These have verified the accuracy and dimensions, so where to go in this review where there are only six new sprues? We thought to look at the whole kit, the new sprues and why they are added and with what has been added to them might be a good way to start.

I have also already started to dry fit and build the major construction parts and some things that may be considered obstacles in the build of this kit. After the completion of this review, I will give you a look at how the kit goes together in a second article giving you all of the major build sequences and how they go together, what to look out for, and how the kit feels rather than just how it looks and the contents of the box. Hopefully, in the combination of these two parts, you will know a lot more about this release.

First, let’s set the scene...

From Tamiya:
"Carrying on the Fight
With its combination of high speed and heavy armament, the Corsair was a formidable aircraft active in the latter half of WWII. As a versatile bird, it had a number of variants, among them the F4U-1D, which was the first Corsair to be officially deployed on U.S. aircraft carriers. Features unique to the F4U-1D included a frame-less semi-bubble canopy, thicker propeller blade roots, a raised pilot's seat and more. Armament took the form of six 12.7mm machine guns mounted in the gull-wing with a pylon under each side of the root allowing it to carry two 1,000lb bombs or drop tanks. The outer wing could be fitted with 4 rockets on each side. The F4U-1D was an important presence on its carriers, joining attacks on the Japanese archipelago in February 1945 as U.S. forces advanced."

That Tamiya "feel"
When I see a box of an older Revell, Hasegawa or Tamiya kit, and then open it up, there is a lot of nostalgia that is felt. The most recent Tamiya kits remind me of that sweet feeling of having something you can only JUST afford to buy and that you wonder just how you can put it all together.

Times change, people grow older, some even mature, wallets and money for models comes easier (sometimes), but with that comes the stress of adult life and “Growing Up”. However, the feeling I get when I opened up the box of this kit when I first read the instructions and first looked at the details of the kit remind me of an earlier, quieter time in my life when other priorities were not as pressing. This is one of the reasons I make models so it's a more than welcome feeling to me to get that instant “Tamiya Feel” when I opened the box.

Opening the box
When you open up the box you are met with a full square of grey plastic, red white and blue Tamiya brand compartmentalised box that isolates the more fragile clear sprues and keeps it all looking very nice and safe for first impressions. I look the part of something special. All of the sprues are in their own clear plastic bags which ensure the parts arrive safe and sound inside the box. This is so very important with such a fine surface detail on the kit to protect as we will look at in our review.

Box contents
In this kit, there are twenty sprues in plastic. One of these is clear, another is the black plastic stand. The rest are injection moulded in a mid – darker grey colour. These are added to with two small metal etch sheets, two vinyl tyres, and a clear sprue is included also. Decals are provided for two Aircraft in 1944 from the Navy and the US Marines in nice schemes.

There is a colour booklet as well as an instruction guide in glossy colour and paper black and white pages for the main part of the instructions. Another fold out poster/camouflage plan of both of the selected aircraft included in the instructions and decals are included.

Colour Guide Booklet
From what I have seen of Tamiya’s WWII aircraft in the past they do try to make an effort to let you know about the subject, and in this case, it comes in a 12-page B5 colour booklet.

This booklet is a really helpful tool to modellers. It explains the history of the Corsair in both Japanese English languages, with period photographs of the incremental variants shown.

The booklet then moves on to show you a series of plan views showing some of the differences of each of the variants to each other from the XF4U-1 through to the F4U-7. Small pictures of the areas of changes between the variants, guns, cockpits, engine cowlings are all represented as a smart guide to showing you how the bird changed visually through its development.

Something of a massive help to those unfamiliar with the bent wing bird - you will become an armchair expert in a jiffy.

The other thing I found tremendously helpful was the inclusion of a walk around showing the Corsair at close quarters. There are not many original F4U-D aircraft still in a decent original condition without additional features, colours or paint to throw the modeller off the real period features of the aircraft. It is telling that a smaller walkaround of an F4U-4 is also included showing just how rare the F4U-D is nowadays. I found a few walkarounds online of the Goodyear built FG-1D that suffice for this aircraft that could have been used. I am not sure why they included this F4U-4 aircraft here apart from it being an oversight.

Instructions
The instructions are dense! Fifty-one pages in one hundred and twenty three steps in black and white of a very typical Tamiya style in the width and breadth of the information inside them, and although not as charming as their old-skool armour models with those little drawings of several figures giving tips these instructions just as effectively cover every part of the build so you needn’t look anywhere else to put your kit together.

The angles shown to build the kit are smartly presented to show the bits you really want to see; the instructions are separated in the parts that need heavy scrutiny. For example, the sections to show how to build the kit with bet wings are a separate section. If you want to bend the wings then follow that section, if not, there is a section for that. If you want to do one bent and one not bent, then like me you will have to take a bit from each. I will cover the more complex part of the builds like the wing folding in the second part of this article where I build up all of the major sub-sections of this kit.

I would say that you need to follow these instructions pretty closely especially of this is your first Tamiya corsair in 32nd scale to avoid oversights ruining your build sequence. Take your time building the kit and enjoy the process would be my suggestion. It is all there laid out in front of the modeller pretty sensibly. Read, plan and enjoy – what do we say as woodworkers? "Measure twice – cut once!"

Colour callouts are in Tamiya acrylics, of course, the stencil placement and decals are shown in the right places, these instructions are chock filled, so double check you have everything covered before moving on is my advice. I will include the full instruction guide at the end of this review...

Marking Scheme Poster
Both of the aircraft selected in this boxing are here on an A3 poster in colour that not only shows you decal placement but colours of the exterior, the marking pattern and the peculiarities of the aircraft as opposed to each other.

The first aircraft is an FG-1D Corsair. Bu no. is unknown. Yellow "FF75" from VMF-351. This Corsair was flown by Lt. Col. Donald K. Yost from USS Cape Gloucester in the East China Sea, in August 1945. This aircraft was painted in overall Glossy Sea Blue with white and yellow tactical markings.

A SIMILARLY marked Vought F4U-1D Corsair with our bird - number FF75 in the background...

The second aircraft here is F4U-1D Corsair #183, Lt. Dean Caswell of VMF-221, from USS Bunker Hill, in 1945

Here is "183" in a dramatic shot touching down on the carrier deck

This poster also works for me as a great little motivational poster and talisman to pin up in front of you so you “Stay on Target” throughout the build.

The Two Decal Sheets
There are two decal sheets supplied with this model kit. One of them covers the stencils, smaller decal style logos on propellers and the cockpit instruments, the other covers the individual markings of each of the two Corsairs and the national markings supplied in the kit, the F4U-D & the FG-1D both in gloss sea blue.

The Stencils have not only the datasheet writing but cockpit instruments, placards and the smallest of lettering that you could find on a Corsair, they also have the simple “walkway” lines for the wings, canopy jettison stencils and three Hamilton Standard propeller markings.

Here is a closer detail shot showing the size of the tiny lettering and cockpit dials. A These dials of the instrument panel in reverse - You apply these on the back of the instrument panel still in the pattern they are on the sheet (not individually) and these locate with the dials facing forward in a very simple to execute manner. Smart thinking Tamiya.

The Stand
The model can be assembled to depict an aircraft in flight (landing gear and tail wheel retracted) or parked (landing gear down). to enable this, there is a very simple stand included with the kit. It is a simple black plastic V-shaped deal that is pretty “vanilla” (to the extreme?) and only a little wobbly with the kit placed on top of it. You can angle or position your Corsair in any inclination within reason on the stand. It’s not that attractive past a basic display stand. I know those of you out there that will find even better ways of showing off your own kit in flight...

The stand includes a nameplate and the kit has the choice of two stickers which you can be used to add to the stand. Both with Tamiya branding, one in a brushed silver and the other in a black and silver theme.

Self-adhesive Canopy Masks
Speaking of stickers, Tamiya self-adhesive masks are included in this kit. You do have to cut these out yourself which is a little chore but not really a big problem. I know several people who take cut these out pretty easily. However, if you are not sure of your own hands' accuracy then I am sure Eduard will solve that with a new mask set. The small mask panels are numbered to make them a little easier to locate for anyone challenged by something like this.

The Clear Sprue
An “L” shaped clear sprue is included with is boxing. The plastic on this part we will look at in a second, but first, the parts included are the clear inserts for the instrument panel, the landing & formation light transparencies, the armoured glass in front of the pilot and a few other smaller bits of clear.

The main part of this sprue is the clear canopy parts. Two parts of very clear plastic mimic the “semi-bubble” nature of this canopy in real life pretty well in shape to me.

The thinness, clarity and next to zero distortion of the plastic can be seen here when I place the part over the back of the instruction booklet.

And in detail…riveted aircraft aluminium is replicated here neatly and the front frames of the cockpit are at the right angles.

Those Vinyl tyres…
Your parents always said “if you can’t say anything nice – don’t say anything at all” look at these and tell me if there is anything nice to be said about them… Look at that tread ruined by that big bad seam down the middle – soft so you cannot cut it very easily. I’ll be quiet I think you have worked out what I think.

The good news is that Barracuda Studios has some great wheels of all different treads to fit the Corsair, they are no mess, no fuss and a great, and not to mention a weighted look alternative.

The Light Grey Plastic Sprues
There are twenty sprues in a light grey colour that we will look at now. At each sheet as a whole and in detail at some of the smaller parts. I will point out the differences in this boxing in the newer sprues also.

I found the plastic in this kit to be moulded in a very skilful way. There is practically no flash at all if I did see any, some seam lines on the figures are about the worst of it here, some small ejector marks are mostly hidden or in hard to spot points and if so aren't very thick to remove. Every sprue is bagged in its own individual bag, and some of the more delicate sprues are boxed in to protect them in the box.

The fine rivets of this kit are almost too small and a lot of them will be lost under too thick of a coat of primer, so spray finely on this kit! The fine nature of the excellent surface detail really impressed me and scared the hell out of me while I was gluing parts of this kit.

An example of the varied rivets and panel lines on this kit

The cost of potentially having to reproduce surface details as fine as these after making an error did make me nervous and very careful of my gluing work - as we will see in the second part of this in the build article.

Let’s take a look at what we have here…

Sprue A
This runner houses the top halves of the wing from the root outwards to the tips. These are dominated by the four large upper wing sections. Each of these has the finest surface detail you could ask for on an aircraft while still being visible under a coat of paint (two coats I am not so sure) but anyway the surface detail here and other places on the kit impresses the hell out of me.

You can see closer here on the inner part of the upper wing half the details of the larger and smaller rivets. The only thing this kit is missing is slight stressed skin effect.

The outer wing panels featuring more than enough panel and rivet detail that most modellers would expect. If you do not like this much detail it would be a cinch to lose it with another coat of primer. I would go very thin on with my paint if I were you all out there. On the outer parts of the wings on the top were fabric covered as you can see here represented by the raised spines and lack of rivets. Again, if you think this is too pronounced you can always sand these ribs down a little.

An example of the wingtip fabric ribbing on the real aircraft - a little more refined than on the kit. You may choose to flatten the appearance of your wings a little, maybe not. There isn't much in it but it is of note

Sprue B

This is a large amalgamation of pretty much two sprues in one. Containing both of the revised fuselage halves for this marque and the under-wing section centre which also houses the exterior of the main gear bays. First the larger part of the sprue with the fuselage halves.

Again, as we saw with the wing sprues the surface detail is something to be admired. The panel lines, rivets and are finely inscribed in the plastic. The laser cut rivets especially are so thin they will take little to no paint to fill them up so you may have to re-scribe if you fill them up! Take a look as the light catches the surface detail here.

The picture below shows a good bit of the sprue in more detail, the air intakes with the riveted surfaces and the external panels of the engine similarly detailed. The grated intake surfaces here will detail up nicely.

The interior of the inside of the rear of the fuselage half shows the ribbed internal structure where only those with a head torch at a model show will be able to see. There are slight ejector pin marks here but these will file out easily, not that anyone will see them on the finished kit but ohhh - you know don't you?

Moving on to the front of the cockpit internal walls. The ribbing is again here so no need to recreate it. Again, some ejector pin marks which will need a little more careful sanding here. The larger locating holes in the front are for the braces that keep the large fuselage in shape when you are gluing it all together.

Now looking at the revised sprue on the underside centre section of the aircraft. This is a new part that houses the ordinance mounts for the F4U1-D model. The previous two releases did not have the location points for the underwing pylons for bombs and drop tanks.

You can see by this picture again the excellent surface detail of the kit which will detail up really well, it is an area that catches the eye so I am glad it is so well detailed.

Laser cut rivets! But be careful of the detail you wish for, you will need to be careful when sealing it all up with glue and sanding and with too much paint on the kit also...

Sprue C" Control surfaces ahoy!" on this next sprue. The new sprue for this has all of the posable surfaces of the kit including the horizontal & vertical tail sections, flaps ailerons and the internal sections which make these hollow parts appear more realistic. You can assemble the model with flaps and elevators up or down as you prefer and these parts look just like the real things in scale once completed. 

This sprue includes the underwing pylons and the flaps, some with the option of the step cut out for the pilot is on a later sprue in the box. For this version of a wartime Corsair, this hole would not have been used as this F4U-1D used a spring-loaded step so use the ones on this sprue for this model of Corsair.

The horizontal movable rudder is seen here, the fabric reproduction is a little heavy-handed but not too bad. Again if you do not approve simply sand this down a little. The rudder cannot be posed anything but straight right out of the box. You will have to do some alterations to pose them at an angle, this includes the trim tab which has a separate activator.

The tail surface detail on the real aircraft

The flaps and posable wing surfaces are mostly made of two parts each, both with some side parts and sometimes additional etch details to finish them. They are all fully able to move which adds so much to this kit and give those wings that extra depth. The riveted and ribbed details are nice also. 

More of that fine rivet detail in the ailerons.

Sprue D
We move to the insides of the aircraft next. the internal firewall and cockpit side walls and bulkhead dominate this sprue. The pilot's seat, the controls and other details are also to be had here

 Just check out the side consoles in this kit. the switches and buttons are really (really) outstanding and any painter worth his salt could pick out the detail very easily on this kit. wow...

 The internal firewall and rear cockpit bulkhead are chocked full of detail and in the front bulkhead's case, there is just so much in there for an injection moulded part this will look great with all of the cabling and other engine parts added.

 A close up of the pilot's seat and other cockpit side panel and controls. You need nothing else to make this into a very nice reproduction of the real thing.

Sprue E

The landing gear - Internal bulkheads, the main and tail wheel and tyres on the tail along with gear struts and oleos, rugged supports, the tail hook. It is all there in the one sprue, I like manufacturers who put everything in close proximity for an easy build.

The most interesting part of this sprue of the gear bay doors, the metal detail is nice. I will spare you a blow by blow of all of the other smaller parts as I am putting the landing gear together in the build section of this review.

Sprue F
The front engine coverings are on this sprue. The cowling in two parts, the prop hub and spinner. The open and closed cowling exhausts, and the inside of the air intake bulkhead (that's what I call it anyway).

The prop hub and spinner are here, they simply hold the propeller in place with come locating nubs (on the rear side of the picture.

This part of the cowling looked odd - then I realized there are two halves here in the one part - simply stuck on top of each other. These two halves use interleaved tabs which pop together as you can see here on the picture on the right without even glue.

The one-piece front cowling ring and the open version of the cowling flaps are here in this picture (you get the closed version also). Again the simplicity of the rounded shape and surface detail with the correct shape of these make a winning combo. Eduard has made some smaller, thinner actuators with Photo-Etch for the inside of the cowling, but I think these are just fine. 

Sprue G
This sprue houses all you need for the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp 18-cylinder, air-cooled radial aircraft engine on this Corsair ( this is the A/B early version up to the F4U-1D). The pistons, the exhausts that interleave through the structure, the governor - all of the parts of the engine are here in the one place which makes it so easy to make. In the second part of this review, I build the engine up so more on how it goes together later.

The lovely detail is again displayed on the pistons, unfortunately, these go together in halves, so you will have to do some clean up when the glue hits the fan and you end up with seam joints against the thin cooling veins of the piston casings. The engine pushrods are below the pistons in this picture below. 

 The reduction gearbox, distributors and generators are here on this sprue. The shapes of the distributor covers are right for this model, and the internal root of the spinner sits inside the gearbox and allows the prop to rotate (if that is your thing).

The exhausts which twist and turn through the engine are hollowed out at the end so no other substitute is needed. They are a complex production in life, but fairly simple to put together on the kit as we will see in part II.

Sprue K

This sprue is a little more varied in its parts. The horizontal tails and control surfaces, the main wheels, the cylinder head covers (which cover up a lot of potential damage on the seams of these pistons) are all here on this sprue. The four propeller blades here are for the earlier model Corsair. Sprue V houses the F4U-1D prop blades.

The tails with riveted detail as fine as the rest of the kit are here along with the posable surfaces for each side. The trim tabs and actuators are here and can be changed depending on how you show the tail. 

 The posable surfaces are just that little bit thick as you can see in the picture below the sprue part, again a slight sand will fix this.

These main wheels and hubs are the correct ones for this kit and they show some nice cast on writing details.

Sprue M

This sprue houses the interior of the gear bays, the main gear by doors in the closed version if you want to show your Corsair in flight, the main wing spar is massive here and the conical shape of the rear fuselage insert that sits on the rear of the fuselage is present here also.

 Both sides of the sides of the gear doors are here, again with riveted surface detail present, also the ribbed internal gear bay is here also.

The rear spine section insert matches the rest of the fuselage in surface detail, and it has the insert for the mast aerial also for this model Corsair.

The structure of the main wing spar is immense and as you can see is made from one part in this kit. It is on the ends of this the wings either sit or pivots - your choice, but I think that this structure is pretty well replicated here.

Sprue N

This is an important sprue, it houses the extension of the internal spar of each wing. Also the internal structures of the wing that are exposed when the wing folds. Lots of mechanical parts in here, but a sprue that your build will "pivot" on (geddit?)

The internal structure of the wing fold, detailed with rivets & bolts in the covers for the inspection panels. hooks to keep the wing down in place can be seen here also. See the slide mould in effect here to create such detail in depth.

The choice of folded or unfolded wings are in this kit - these are the two main extensions.

Sprue R
Some of the closer parts to the pilot's cockpit are here, with the front instrument panel shroud, the rudder pedals & attachments, the pilot's instrument panel and his hand controls, right down to the tail wheel strut are here on this sprue.

Rivet detail is not spared on internal parts either

Oxygen bottles, control arms, switch panel, trim wheel and the bulkhead that joins the pilot's rudder controls are here, again the details are easy to pick out by even the most lacklustre painters amongst us.

Sprue V
This is one of the new sprues - There are two new sprues full of ordinance house the new propellers for the F4U-1D model, a pair of drop-tanks, the eight HVAR rockets, two x 1000 lb bombs and the HVAR rockets that are a feature of this kit.

One of the features of this kit is the upgrade to the armament with rockets. The kit features, just like in real life the late production F4U-1Ds and FG-1Ds four launch rails on each outer wing for eight x 12.7 centimetre (5 inch) "High-Velocity Air Rocket (HVAR)" projectiles. The rockets were sighted through the gunsight and proved accurate. These are made up from the main centre body of the rocket and four fins for each. These are added in a sort of convoluted way and you must follow instructions to get the fins at the right angles. These bodies of the rockets are made hollow with the aid of slide moulds, and the rear exhaust has a small piece of photo-etch to fit to the rear of each of them. Unfortunately, these fins also feature a pair of ejector pin marks on each of them (you can just see them in the picture below on the right). Not a massive problem but a pain in the bum no less to sand off.
Drop tanks - the friend of the long distance Corsair are included in a pair - split down the seam on the flap of the tanks which is nice meaning no mess or fuss in construction.
This sprue houses the parts to depict two x 1,000lb bombs. These are in halves with a plug in the rear of them from which a stalk extends that houses a small photo-etch fuse spinner - impressive detail afforded there.

This model's thicker propeller roots are accurately captured as you can see in the picture below right. you can see the curve of the Hamilton standard blades on the picture below left.

Sprue W
The underside of the outer wings dominates the space on this sprue. It is another of the new plastic runners developed for this kit to house the changes of the underside of the wing's points for rockets and the metal skinning on them.

As you can see by the picture below the kit has the replicated aircraft aluminium skin surfaces where the rocket exhaust would otherwise burn the fabric of the wing. In real life, this was simply placed over the existing fabric/metal structure on the lower surfaces.

The front of the wing undersides displays the same fine riveted detail of the rest of the kit, also the opened rocket hardpoint attachments and the machine gun cartridge chutes are in seen here. 

Lower outer wing panels and flaps are included on this sprue, and, one includes the inboard panel flap. The open step is a post-war modification that was often retrofitted to these models later on and often seen on restored birds so unless you are going to do a post-war alteration or retrofitted bird don't use this one on your WWII aircraft.

There are new cockpit details and propeller hub here as well as the rear landing gear stalk. The underwing pylons are what I am looking at here. Both inside & outside halves that can take either the 1000 lb bombs or the drop tanks provided - or a combination of both as the picture below shows.

The Pilot Sprues (Y & Z)
There are two pilots included with this kit. I have already put both of them together for the build article of this kit. The detail is good, but not like a resin figure just say from one of the higher end suppliers out there. This sprue is broken up into two separate sprues of a pilot sitting in the plane and a standing pilot.

Sprue Y
This pilot is depicted in his “office” with his parachute already strapped on. This version shows him already in his harness with the flying helmet on, the oxygen mask connected and the tube for this hose supplied also. The fingers of the gloves are pretty basic I feel so you might have to do some slight detail work with him. He is better than most other pilots supplied by model makers in this scale.

Sprue Z
The second pilot in the box is a standing man in his flight suit with his flight goggles strapped to his flying cap. A fairly classic pose that is pretty generic, however the figure himself is detailed enough for a pass mark for this figure scrutinizer. The pants of the flying suit are baggy at the legs, the “Mae West” is tied around his upper torso making some nicely defined folds in his clothes and his face is basic but nicely detailed. His .45 pistol holster is included also - you can see the "US" marking on the plastic.

Metal Etch "A" & "B" Sheets
There are two small sheets of metal etched thin parts to enhance the details of the kit and give a scale representation of the thinner parts of the kit. The seatbelts, the inner control surface framing, the air intakes and the rocket exhaust nozzles are all there in this thin metal. It is thicker than photo etched brass but still bends pretty well, not that any of thee parts will need to be bent that much. The parts are a good inclusion to the kit and will add that fine detail demanded of this scale and the quality of the rest of the model.

OK so that is all we have in the box - time for "finals"

The family tree
As a progression from the earlier kits in this scale and series, it makes total sense, we are still waiting for a commonwealth Corsair, and although there is still yet no British Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm or Commonwealth birds this can be done from this kit. We are sure that the F4U4 will come, but it will take considerably more work than an FAA bird for instance. The kit will sell, and sell well.

The plastic
The parts are so smartly and delicately moulded in places that I often have been just shaking my head at how nicely the kit has been going together in my mini-constructions I have undertaken (to follow). The surface detail, the cockpit fit out and the parts that have been added are just right to reflect this aircraft really well

Engineering & fit.
We will see more of the fit in the next part of this review where I build up a lot of the major assemblies of this kit and dry fit it. I am positive and a little reserved at the same time but the smart choices taken in the engineering are top shelf.

The Feel?
This kit has most of the charm and feel of my older kits of a childhood long gone. The attention to detail is ever present and the ease of this going together is a joy. The kit is really meant to be built, no additions necessary, just some attention to the instructions, a careful hand in the surface paint job and you will have in your possession one of those great Corsair kits you see at model shows all the time - but this time it will be yours.

Buy it & build it. You won't be sorry you did...

Adam Norenberg

The next part of this examination will feature the kit going together - so keep looking in we will have it to you soon enough...

Thanks to Hobbylink Japan for sending us this kit to review - they have this kit at a really good price on their website - so credit where it is due!

As promised, the full instruction sheet...