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Best Corsair F4U-1 In 72nd Scale?


fishplanebeer

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49 minutes ago, fishplanebeer said:

This link is reassuring in that I'm not the only person to find this kit a complete nightmare, although clearly if you are skillful (and patient) enough a good result is possible, eventually.

It’s a sad story, I think.  The ambition was there and, if the dice had fallen slightly differently, we could have had a kit nearly as good as the Tamiya one for about half the price.  But the product was compromised at both ends of the process: by poor initial research which gave us a kit with a mixture of features from various variants and by poor mould making, which meant an unnecessarily complex breakdown of parts which don’t fit together without a lot of fettling and filler.

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7 hours ago, Denford said:

I have a hunch that Airfix will tool a new 1/72 F4U-1 with folding wings, which will be on a separate sprue.  First will be FAA with rounded tips, to be followed by US with 'full' tips.

A 'follow on' from the Spitfire Vc and yet to come Tempest V.

To be released within the next year or so, to be well ahead of the next 1/24 subject:  F4U-1.

Is this an 'informed' hunch or just wishful thinking?ie,can i get my hopes up lol

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On 3/20/2021 at 2:22 PM, Tbolt said:

I would get the Tamiya kit. You can get it for around £15

Actually HLJ shows all three 1/72 Tamiya Corsair variants, the F4U-1 birdcage, F4U-1A, and F4U-1D for 8-9 Pounds Sterling, depending upon which kit you want. Downside being, with Covid mailing restrictions, the postage/shipping is not nearly as cheap as before.

Mike

On 3/20/2021 at 2:22 PM, Tbolt said:

I would get the Tamiya kit. You can get it for around £15

Actually HLJ shows all three 1/72 Tamiya Corsair variants, the F4U-1 birdcage, F4U-1A, and F4U-1D for 8-9 Pounds Sterling, depending upon which kit you want. Downside being, with Covid mailing restrictions, the postage/shipping is not nearly as cheap as before.

Mike

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On 21/03/2021 at 03:43, 72modeler said:

Tamiya by a long shot- the F4U-1 birdcage, the F4U-1A, and the F4U-1D. Fit is outstanding, cockpit and engine are very nice, and the wheel bays are the correct depth. Only downside is they don't have poseable  flaps like their 1/48 big brothers, but Aries and CMK both do resin flaps, if you so choose.

 

I have built the Hasegawa F4U-1 birdcage and it was a very nice and easy build- raised panel lines, fits very well, but the cockpit is simple and not correct, as it comes with a floor, but can be modified or you can use the True Details resin cockpit, if you can find one. The belly observation window is not molded, but can be made pretty easily; the biggest downside for me was the too-shallow wheel bays, but they were actually pretty easy to fix- if you get the Hasegawa kit and want to fix them, pm me and I can talk you through the process. The prop hub is a little under scale, but the blades are good.- you only get one blade style, and depending upon the version, there were two different blade shapes and lengths, but the lengths only differed by an inch or so, IIRC.  tHasegawa also did an F4U-1A, F4U-2,  and F4U-1D boxing and I think all  are available pretty cheaply except for the night figter boxing. Hobbylink Japan has the Tamiya kits listed for $11-12 USD, I think.

Mike

A TAM F4U-1 with Quickboost -2 radome maybe cheaper than HAS?

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35 minutes ago, fernandocouto said:

A TAM F4U-1 with Quickboost -2 radome maybe cheaper than HAS?

Maybe, but you would need to scratchbuild the suppressed exhausts and a small air scoop for  generator cooling on the RH side of the forward fuselage. My suggestion would be to wait for the release of the resin F4U-2 conversion for the Tamiya kit that was recently announced by AML, which has all of the parts described above. The Hasegawa F4U-2 was a limited edition release and was expensive even when it was available- plus, the Hasegawa kit is not nearly as nice nor as accurate in the wheel bays or cockpit as the Tamiya birdcage F4U-1 kit.

Mike

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3 hours ago, 72modeler said:

Actually HLJ shows all three 1/72 Tamiya Corsair variants, the F4U-1 birdcage, F4U-1A, and F4U-1D for 8-9 Pounds Sterling, depending upon which kit you want. Downside being, with Covid mailing restrictions, the postage/shipping is not nearly as cheap as before.

Mike

Actually HLJ shows all three 1/72 Tamiya Corsair variants, the F4U-1 birdcage, F4U-1A, and F4U-1D for 8-9 Pounds Sterling, depending upon which kit you want. Downside being, with Covid mailing restrictions, the postage/shipping is not nearly as cheap as before.

Mike

 

Yes and the shipping is £8.15 making them around £16-17 plus several weeks shipping, plus they don't have any stock. Jadlam are in stock, £16.25 delivered and you'll get it in five days or less.

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10 hours ago, fatalbert said:

Is this an 'informed' hunch or just wishful thinking?ie,can i get my hopes up lol

Don't seem to be able to get the full (original) post.  It is a prediction, based on the sort of subjects that Airfix are currently tooling. 

I was going to keep this till somebody started an Airfix 2022 thread!  However since we are still more-or-less 'on thread' I'll continue by asking by asking 'What will be Airfix's follow on subject to Spit' Vc, and Tempest?'  Initially quite a choice, but:

- Many (Buffalo, P-39, F8F, Japanese, Russian, French) not well enough known by general public who make most of the purchases.

- Too large (P-38, P-47, Avenger): remember we are looking for something to sell at £9.99

- Possibly F6F, but tricky wingfold (though they did tool a F4F) and of course available in 1/24.  Maybe Sea Hawk (easy wingfold), Sea Fury (already available in 1/48 )

Others may be able to add, (please do, but keep it to commercial viability, not personal wishes).  To me the F4U is there almost by default.  Separate outer wing would allow both folding and issue in FAA and 'others' service.  Also to predate the 1/24 release presuming the F6F sold well.  Example(s) available here in UK.

I rest my case.

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59 minutes ago, Denford said:

Many (Buffalo, P-39, F8F, Japanese, Russian, French) not well enough known by general public who make most of the purchase

Surely the success of the Beaufort counters that argument. It is hardly a well known aircraft amongst the general public. I'm hoping the success will give Airfix the confidence to do a Battle

 

Cheers

 

Colin

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1 hour ago, ckw said:

Surely the success of the Beaufort counters that argument. It is hardly a well known aircraft amongst the general public. I'm hoping the success will give Airfix the confidence to do a Battle

 

Cheers

 

Colin

Well we don't know what the popularity of the Beaufort kit is yet, sure they have sold a lot of the first shipment but it appear the shipment might have been quite small. I hope it does sell in great numbers though and a Battle would be great.

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I have both Academy and Tamiyas Corsairs and I have considered the Revell kit for a while... I can only echo what others have said: the Academy kit is nice, could be nicer in some areas (the engine is poor while the cockpit looks nice but it's inaccurate) but for a quick build is good and for the price is not a bad choice... Tamiya's kit however is in a different cathegory, better in every aspect. That is not really surprising: Tamiya kits from the last few years are great ! They may have their accuracy issues but when it comes to having a very good looking model with very little hassle during the assembly phase Tamiya is still one of the very best. They may be more expensive than the competition but that price difference is well deserved.

The most recent Revell kits, like the F4U unfortunately tend to be not particularly good in terms of engineering and fit. Their contemporary Spitfire II and V suffer from similar issues and even the Hawk, that is otherwise a very nice kit, does not shine when it comes to mould finesse.

Edited by Giorgio N
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If Airfix ever get around to updating their 1960's F4U Corsair I'll definitely get one, especially if it can be built as a clipped wing tip FAA version to go along side the Tamiya F4U-1A I'll be doing in a few weeks time. The example at Yeovilton should provide them with a pretty decent data source if they decide to go this route so one could expect it to be pretty accurate and also fairly straightforward to build in keeping with the recent releases, with their A6M2b Zero being a little gem.

 

We all have our own wish lists for Airfix including such types as the P47, P38, Fairey Battle, Meteor, Halifax, B29 to name just a few, plus any WW2 Italian and Russian aircraft and RAF inter-war types, but I think a new Corsair at their price point of just under a tenner would probably sell well. In this regard Revell may have done Airfix an unintended favour by making such a hash of their own offerings which are nigh on impossible for anyone other than an experienced modeller to build with any degree of success.

 

Regards

Colin.

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1 hour ago, ckw said:

Surely the success of the Beaufort counters that argument. It is hardly a well known aircraft amongst the general public. I'm hoping the success will give Airfix the confidence to do a Battle

 

Cheers

 

Colin

Indeed yes, but what I was trying to say that among single seaters there's a limited choice.  And there is (or was) a Beaufort at Hendon.  Not too hopeful of your Battle though.  Also the Corsair had, like the Beaufort, UK users.

The point I was trying to make (you are welcome to disagree) is that an F4U would be a natural, next to follow the Tempest.  Alas I fear only an F4U-1 with, like the Spitfire Vc, no inbuilt follow-on potential.

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Just to conclude that my Tamiya F4U-1A arrived this morning and everything previously said about it is spot on.

 

It's not the cheapest option but having only checked the sprues and instructions so far it is worth every penny and a world away from the Revell abomination, so thank you for pointing me in the right direction and I now can't wait to get started on it.

 

Regards

Colin.

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I can only agree with the previous posts. When it comes to a decent 1/72 F4U-1 Tamiya is in the pole position. I also considered buying the Revell Kit some time ago but I shied away from it for several reasons, First, the rather complicated engineering that clearly results in some fit issues. Secondly, there are some other accuracy issues. The Revell FAA Corsair is depicted on the box with post war USN drop tanks which are included in the kit. So they just put the same sprue into their FAA box like in their F4U-4 box. Revell´s 1/72 F4U-4 has the right wing tanks but it turns me off that for some unknown reason no underwing rockets and rails were included. Even the USN Reserve F4U-4s had rocket rails. Without aftermarket stuff it is impossible to turn the kit into a Corsair that flew in the Korean War, which already points to another problem you are facing when trying to build a nice 1/72 F4U.

 

Although there are some nice F4U-1, F4U-1A and F4U-1D models there are no accurate late type Corsair kits in 1/72. The Italeri kits have numerous issues and so far no other company has released decent Korean War era Corsairs in that scale.

 

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I promise you will love the Tamiya Corsair, Colin.  If you need filler anywhere , it's your fault*.  There's no need to add aftermarket unless you really want to.  A really enjoyable build.

 

Be careful removing the joystick assembly, if it pings off you will need to find it as you will never scratch up a decent replacement.

 

Now for the joy of figuring out the proper interior colours!  🤔

 

*  I needed filler on one of the ones I've built as a result of working too fast and taking the excellent fit for granted, but a little PVA got that sorted and now you can't tell there was ever any problem.

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22 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

I promise you will love the Tamiya Corsair, Colin.  If you need filler anywhere , it's your fault*.  There's no need to add aftermarket unless you really want to.  A really enjoyable build.

Yes.  When people say, "There is no such thing as a perfect kit," this is one of the kits that immediately spring into my mind as evidence for the defence.  Especially if you get the F4U-1A boxing which will give you some spare goodies like a prop for tarting up the products of lesser manufacturers.  Mind you, I did read somewhere that the seat is 1mm or so too far forward.  And the fuselage spine behind the cockpit needs fitting with care for a perfect fit.  And it doesn't have a droptank of the pattern almost invariably used by FAA Corsairs.  And....

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x1YhnjAxtTI

I don’t know which kit is a good one. I’ll see what is said here. I did find a video on an early-1 being restored which should help with interior colour and some details.

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