ModelArt Spring 2011 No. 39 is entirely devoted to US Light and Escort Carriers in WW2. Armor, aircraft and car buffs will only have a few small ads to peruse, with one exception. Aircraft modelers will love the section on aircraft markings for individual carriers. No. 39 turns out to be an excellent reference work on US Navy WW2 smaller carriers, but as usual the text is entirely in Japanese. However, the historical data section is still useful, and the usual scrutiny of recently available kit builds are very helpful for modelers. This format is larger than regular monthly ModelArt magazines, and the printing quality is of high standards. The book measures 210 X 296 mm (that’s 8-1/4 by 11-3/4 inches). The majority of the article photos are in color. My chief complaint with their layout is that many larger photographs of ship models cross pages, resulting in a dead zone where the spine is – it really breaks up otherwise spectacular photos.

Quickboost has provided modelers with a means to attach P-51 propeller blades to the spinner for the Hasegawa kits in a repeatable manner. The resin pieces were cast in a fine grain resin without flaws and with very little clean up. What one has to do is to remove the casting gates off the bottom of the spinner and the blade setting tool. I used a disc sander for that and a snip to remove the blades and shaft from the casting block.

Introduction

There have been many books published on the Vought F4U Corsair over the years, so why, you might ask, has another one appeared? The reason is that this is not only a comprehensive history of the development and combat career of the Corsair, but it is also a very complete modelers’ guide to all Corsair kits in 1/32, 1/48, and 1/72 scale. I don’t know why they left out 1/144, as there has been at least one kit issued in this scale. In any event, this is a really complete history of the type, and it explains the developmental problems and how they were solved, with the Corsair evolving into not only an outstanding fighter but also a highly effective close support aircraft, with a production life beginning in 1941, and continuing until 1952, when the last Corsair, an F4U-7, was rolled out of the Dallas plant.