Reviews : Trumpeter F4U1D Corsair Aircraft

When the Trumpeter F4U kits came out I had high hopes that they would be more accurate than the 50+ years old Revell offering. I was disappointed by very visible errors in the cockpit, cowl and flight surfaces. The F4U Corsair cockpit had no floor until the dash 4 model and this has a floor which it should not. Fortunately Aires Resin makes a corrected cockpit set for this kit at around $30 and for those who might be wondering, yes it can be used in the Revell kit with a little fettling. The cowl flaps have massive gaps that were not present on the real thing and on model of this size there should also be flap actuating rods too. I used the cowl flaps from the Eduard photo-etch set for the Revell kit to correct this area. The awful metal hinges for the flight controls were used as templates to make plastic ones since I prefer to paint the surfaces separately and I don't want them to move anyway. I fixed the wings down to avoid any issues with the wing fold area. I used resin wheels because I have had problems with the vinyl tires melting the plastic wheels in the past on other model brands so I went with Barracuda Studios wheels for accuracy and the variety of tread patterns available. I used the kit decals and they settled in with just a little setting solution. Considering how far Trumpeter went to fix their F4F Wildcat kits after they first hit the market why didn't they do this for the Corsair?

OVERALL I'M A FAN OF TRUMPETER KITS, THIS ONE IS NO EXCEPTION! STARTING WITH MY LIKES=THE KIT HAS A TON OF DETAIL, THE TAILHOOK/REAR LANDING GEAR WAS A NICE FEATURE. I LOVE THE SEE THROUGH COWLING AND LEFT HALF OF IT CLEAR TO SHOW OFF THAT BEAUTIFUL RADIAL ENGINE DETAIL! THE COCKPIT WAS DECENT FOR A STOCK SETUP. ALSO LIKED THE RUBBER TIRES, I HATE PAINTING THE PLASTIC ONES! I PERSONALLY DON'T CARE FOR TRUMPETER'S METHOD FOR FLAP AND AILERON HINGE POINTS SO I JUST GLUED THE FLAPS IN THE DEPLOYED POSITION, ADDITIONALLY I DID NOT HAVE THE WINGS FOLD, AND I GLUED THEM IN THE FLIGHT POSITION. (I WANTED LONGEVITY OVER FUNCTION) (PERHAPS MY SKILLS NEED IMPROVEMENT) THE ONLY REAL NEGATIVE WAS THE DECAL SHEET, THE WHITE STARS ARE ALMOST TRANSPARENT AND THE BLUE FUSELAGE COLOR BLEEDS THROUGH. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS KIT AND OBTAINING AN AFTERMARKET DECAL SHEET

This was the first model I've built in about 10 years, so at first i thought I bit off more than I could chew. There were some frustrating aspects of it, but overall it was a fun build. The engine by itself took me a few sessions. The hinges on the wings were a pain. You have to place a .08mm wire through a hinge that appears to have a hole of .07mm. I ended up just gluing those pieces together. As I was reading in other reviews, the wings are not capable of folding, which was disappointing. Unfortunately I made a huge mistake towards the end-after I had everything assembled, I shot a coat of gloss clear over everything, which apparently didn't react well with the model masters paint and wrinkled it a bit. Overall, I'd recommend this and build it again. I'm looking forward to building other trumpeter models now.

I built this model a few years back. It has great detail and goes together easy.

Good details and complexity, really enjoyed putting this one together