Thank you to Tamiya, Inc. for providing this wonderful kit for review and to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to document my build experiences. The sharing of this review with the scale modeling community would not be possible without the exceptional support of the IPMS Reviewer Corps. Thank you everyone!

Summary

The F4U Corsair needs no introduction as one of the iconic naval fighter-bomber aircraft of World War II and Korea, primarily operated by the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps. A list of publications I found useful during this build may be found following this review. The kit is very well-researched, with numerous subtle part choices to allow one of three variants to be completed with either folded or extended wings.

Last we spoke, the frames and interior were done and it was time to finish the plane off by adding the outer skin and finishing all the details. Prior to starting, I sprayed the top and some portions of the bottom RLM 02 as these are visible when the plane is complete. I quick test fit can show you which areas to paint. Starting with the center fuselage, the top is added and there are placement indents where the frame fits into the skin. Also, the engine covers are added at this time. As a side note, the skin is molded clear and you could leave it as is to see the superb interior detail. I next added the front section with the intakes and they matched up well. Take your time here and get a good fit so you don’t need putty. Mine dried a little crooked and it caused some issue later. In hind sight, I would probably glue the front end to together to get perfect alignment and then add to the frame. Not sure how tight it would be but it would preserve the excellent surface.

History

The Browning M1919 was introduced after the end of the First World War and soldiered on for several decades. It saw action in WWII, the Korean Conflict as well as in Viet Nam. It was used as a light infantry support weapon, mounted in aircraft and vehicles as a self-defense weapon and used as an anti-aircraft machine gun. It was used by several countries. It can be seen sticking out the frontal armor on all US tanks, as well as being the common coaxial gun alongside the main gun in US built armored fighting vehicles. These sets will be a welcome addition to modelers wanting to update their .30 caliber crew serviced machine guns. Each set includes two turned brass barrels with perforated cooling jackets. Set 35-004 has the two piece conical shaped muzzle and 35-005 has the one piece cylindrical shaped muzzle. Set 35-004 represents the early gun muzzle and 35-005 the later type. Each set comes with two turned barrels and cooling jackets.

Photo Etch. Some love it, others hate it. This guy has a love hate relationship with it as well, but this was one set that I was more than capable of using without any serious issues. To my knowledge I only created 4 new cuss words, but they were my own doing and not the products fault. With that being said, let’s look at what the folks at Eduard sent my way.

This set is for the exterior of the plane. I didn’t use all of the included pieces, but did use probably 95% of what came on the two brass frets. Looking over all the pieces and where they go showed that it shouldn’t be as daunting as I thought. Yes, there are lots of them, but what parts I did use, all fit extremely well. There were some areas where I would skip using the PE if I were to do this again (I will get the chance by the way) as the kit parts would do the job just fine.

The usual thanks to Ross and his team at SAC for passing on this set to IPMS USA and to our leadership for sending it my way!!!

This set is, as usual, a simple SAC upgrade (as they all are), targeted for the new Hasegawa F-35A kit. Among the big three 1/72 F-35 kits that I have now constructed, (Academy, Italeri, and Hasegawa), the Hasegawa kit is by far the simplest. In many ways I like the detail better, particularly the use of decals for the external RAM panels. No external stores or open weapon bays… this one is the clean, closed up and stealthy model. The cockpit itself contains an excellent crewmember figure if you choose to use it (I did).