As a modeller who tends to have something like three dozen
uncompleted projects at any one time, it’s always nice to get an older one past
the finish line. This was a 2017 build that’s been playing shelf queen waiting
for final details and paintwork ever since (it was a matter of display space,
which opened up not long ago when I boxed for storage a batch of projects from around
five years ago.)
This is the 1996 kit from the grand masters in Shizuoka City, and a sweet build it is. It can
pull the odd surprise, but overall is a pretty friendly kit. To wit – the ovoid
transparencies for rearward view on the fuselage sides are incorrectly
identified in the plans, the numbers are reversed – swap them port and
starboard and the parts fit perfectly. Interestingly, the masks for these parts
on the Eduard sheet are also reversed!
The cockpit is quite well detailed, and if the canopy is to
be closed you’ll see little enough. I used the decal seat harness supplied, and
painted everything a dark bronze-green, as research suggested the cockpit shade
of the time was somewhere about FS 34092.
I decided to depict a bird from VMF-213, companion squadron
to -214, which became the Black Sheep,
when they entered combat in the Solomons campaign in February, 1943, the first
Corsairs in-theatre. This is the two-tone scheme, which later gave way to
three-tone, and finally to overall Sea Blue Gloss and its variations. I’m
currently enjoying the 1976 series Black
Sheep Squadron, which, though unavoidably compromised at a historical
detail level, gives you a look at Corsairs in the field and the kind of effects
the conditions created in their appearance. Solomons Corsairs were battered and
heavily weathered by the elements, caked with dust and mud – one can certainly
go to town on the weathering process, though I fancied something a little
cleaner. Okay, a bird fairly fresh on the line!
The Tamiya Corsair is very well engineered, when it came out
I recall reviewers raving about its click-fit precision. It’s not quite that easy, the folding wing option
is a PITA to avoid an obvious joint line if building with wings extended, as I
always do. The landing gear is very solidly engineered and fits into big
receivers, but somehow the legs managed to be at different angles, meaning the
wheels were a few millimetres out of alignment…
The paintwork is Tamiya Acrylics, mixed as per kit specifications
– XF-18 + XF-2 (3:1) for the topside blue-grey, and XF-19 + XF-2 (2:1) for the
underside grey, with soft-masked demarcations. I used Miscroscale Satin to seal
both the paint and the following Florey washes, and Flat as the final low
lustre after decals.
I made standby decals in case the masks pulled the paint off
the canopy struts, but they were unneeded. This means I have 1943 blue-grey
over black, with clear, decal material in stock in case any future USN/Marines project
develops the issue!
Decals in this edition were by Scalemaster, printed by
Vitachrome, and behaved generally well – I say generally as they did not offer
to pull into engraved detail at all and did not seem to react very well with
Microscale chemistry, wrinkling patchily. The roundel on the right fuselage
side broke up somewhat after application and refused to settle in, being still wrinkled
when dry. I removed it with the old tape trick, and replaced it with an
identical item from a Superscale sheet; the blue is a fractionally different
shade, but nothing the eye really catches. The Superscale item of course snugged
down perfectly – I’d expect nothing else.
Oil wash and Mig pigments comprise the weathering – when I
get a Prismacolour silver pencil I’ll take a crack at chipping but I aborted
the attempt in paint when it became clear I had no control over the process at
all. My hands seemed to do anything they liked, and I knew to quit before I
made a mess.
The radio antennas were rigged with EZline, usually the last
task of a model and not my favourite activity. I set the long piece first,
pegged the mast end and managed to hold the thread in tweezers to secure the
tail end (despite cramp in my right thumb…), then pegged the fuselage end of
the short piece to dry over night. The upper juncture of the lines I found I
did not have the dexterity for, no way could I hold the line in tweezers long
enough for superglue to get hold. I made up a contraption of tweezers, two
bulldog clips, a sanding block, a CD and two thicknesses of card that brought
the end of the short piece into contact with the long, and left it to set. The
applications of glue created a thick spot on the line, which suggests a ceramic
insulator or some such, but of course there was nothing there on the real
plane. The line was painted with black, some hull blue was used to touch up
around the glue points and clear flat added to even out the lustre.
I hope to fit the 1000-pounder on the centreline rack, but
the olive drab I sprayed it a year or more ago is very dark under a clear coat,
dark enough for black decals to probably be waste. I’ll respray it in lightened
olive drab when I next mix that shade, then apply the ProModeller decals for
WWII ordnance and hang the bomb.
So, some work to do on her in future – hang the bomb, add
the missing pitot probe (the entire project was complete and photographed when
I spotted the omission – d’oh!) plus do the above-mentioned chipping.
Last year I built all 72nd scale for reasons of
storage space, and it’s nice to get back to something larger. I’ll be
completing a 1:32nd scale Bf 109 in the months ahead, too – at least
that’s the plan!
Cheers, Mike Adamson
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