1/72 Testors F4U-1D Corsair

Gallery Article by Ben Pardini on May 7 2009

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Well after years of reading all the amazing articles here on ARC I finally decided to submit one of my own. This is my 1/72 Testors Corsair. I picked this kit up for about 5 bucks somewhere along the way and built it shortly there after. There is absolutely no cockpit whatsoever, only a flat space to glue a shoulders up facsimile of a pilot. The plane was built in the colors of VF-84 from the USS Bunker Hill in 1945. Mainly because the only color I had at my disposal was sea blue and I didn't feel like buying more colors to build a different version, yes I was lazy. I know I know scandalous, a lazy modeler. I admit it, guilty, however we here in the islands call laziness island attitude, sounds better that way doesn't it. Also you may notice the Jolly Roger flag on the nose of the airplane. Right about now you must be thinking, "Wait a minute that decal doesn't belong on that aircraft, that goes on a F4U-1A of VF-17. This model isn't historically accurate." I admit that I can be stickler for historical accuracy, but I just couldn't help myself, I just love the look of a jolly roger flag. Now you must be saying "Well why not just paint the plane to represent one of the VF-17 aircraft." I would respond by reminding you that I am that aforementioned lazy modeler, and one color is easier than three. Or I suppose I could just claim artistic licence.

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Alright now that the scandal has been addressed we can move on to business at hand. The model went together very very quickly, all within one afternoon. However that was the only easy part. Once together, the horrid fit of the parts was revealed. I filled with putty and sanded down just about every seam on the entire plane. Then came the painting. The overall Sea Blue. That, 'lazy', paint scheme was painted entirely by hand. A clear gloss coat was applied, followed by the decals. After allowing the decals to dry I applied another gloss clear coat to seal the entire thing. Then came the most enjoyable part of putting the model together, gluing the bombs and rockets to the bottom of the wings. The bombs and rockets have no guides of any kind and the 'rails' for them are somewhat rounded, so every time one of the rockets was placed on them they just kind of slowly rolled right off. Over and over again glue, hold, roll off. Glue, hold, roll off. Quite a pain in the okole. Finally they all held in a somewhat respectable position, and that's when my lazy side took over again, and let them be.

Finally this was the first model that I had built that I had attempted some sort of weathering. Hence that is the reason it looks the way it does. I tried to simulate chipped paint by using the simplest (laziest) technique that I could. Simply by applying small dots of silver paint. I found that silver had too much Za Za Zing to it so I used a light gray instead. I then proceeded to attack the model with my gray paint chips applied very liberally, alright, much too liberally. I wasn't happy with the way it turned out, but it was my first try, and so I justified it to myself by saying that it was a good first attempt and that ever present island attitude took over again, and said, great job looks good, lets go to the beach. With that my model was, as they say here in Hawaii, pau.

Ben Pardini

Photos and text © by Ben Pardini