F4U-2 Corsair Night Fighter

Tamiya, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Pei Chi

Tamiya's 1/48 F4U-1/2 Corsair is available online from Squadron.com

This is the Tamiya 1/48 Vought F4U-1 bird cage Corsair cockpit built straight from the box with one aftermarket component: the seat harness. In addition, some items were scratch-built or modified including the brake lines, ignition wires, and repositioned empennage control surfaces.

This is a very straightforward build with that typical Tamiya engineering. The cockpit is nicely represented with beautiful details negating the necessity for after market add-ons. The kit comes with the radar pod giving you the option of building an F4U-1 or F4U-2 night fighter.

The addition of a radar pod on the starboard wing necessitated the deletion of one machine gun on that wing. A cover plug for the deleted gun is provided in the kit.

The wings can be built in the folded or extended positions. I have always loved the folding wing features of US naval aircraft so I chose this position for the build.

This is one of many great features of this kit.  All of the required parts for a folded wing are provided without the use of troublesome aftermarket parts. Moreover the folded wing is proper in terms of its alignment. When folded the outer wing panels have a forward tilt and a bit of toe-in. Tamiya got it right!

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

Thumbnail panels:

The kit was painted with Tamiya acrylic paints oversprayed with a coat of Future floor wax prior to decal application. Here is the only down side of this kit: the decals. They are thick and stiff even after micro sol was applied. Moreover some silvered in spots but luckily they’re not too conspicuous. The finish was sealed with a final coat of Tamiya Flat.

I really enjoyed building this kit. It builds into a very respectful model straight from the box. If one wishes to take it to a higher level, there are numerous aftermarket parts available but they’re really not needed for such a beautiful kit straight from the box. Happy modeling!

For more on this review visit Modelpaintsolutions.com.

Kit purchased by the reviewer

Review Text Copyright © 2018 by Pei Chi
Images Copyright © 2018 by John Miller
Page Created 9 March, 2018
Last updated 9 March, 2018

Back to HyperScale Main Page

Back to Reviews Page