Hi Everyone,
Radek, what a lovely Corsair! Wonderfully weathered, and for 1/72nd scale looks extremely detailed, great job!
Once upon a time we had an 80th Anniversary of Guadalcanal campaign. I opted to do two builds, one Marion Carl’s media generated mount taken early during the campaign, and the second was to be Joe Foss’s white 27, which seems to be the bird he was in when encountering two F1M2 “Pete’s”. That engagement resulted in everyone getting shot down and pilots swimming. I figured this would make a nice “Adversaries” display in the case, as I’ve already completed the F1M2.
Most photo’s of Wildcats on Guadalcanal show the elevators in the down or relaxed position, and I thought it would be skill expanding venture to do this on my build. While a bit tedious, it was not a difficult task, and I was able to drop the elevators and make it look fairly convincing, not what I envisioned, but a darned good attempt with plenty of room for improvement. And then, my motivation completely evaporated. With no rhyme or reason the bird took up residence in the que where it remained untouched.
Fortunately for me, I’m easily motivated to model! Determined to get this one finished, I black based the bird with Mr. Surfacer 1500 black, and then mottled various panels with white and extremely light grey.
I then gave the airframe my mix of grey/blue and light blue to aid in weathering of the harsh environment of Guadalcanal. Then using a mix of decals from the dungeon I gave her an identity. Following this up with a panel wash, which the Tamiya kit makes easy.
Next I used a Prisma silver pencil to further wear the finish, and gave the whole airframe several coats of clear flat. Using Tamiya tape, I painted it white and cut it into correctly sized strips to represent the medical tape used to cover the gun barrels to keep dirt and dust out of the guns.
Next up was the little things, and a dusting of the tires with some pastel, added the aerial line and called this one done!
And the “Adversary” pairing.
Overall, for cost and ease of construction the Tamiya kit still holds its own, and is a fabulous kit for a beginner to learn basic skills while affording the experienced modeler countless opportunity at a very affordable price, I highly recommend this kit to any modeler. That said, dropping the elevators was a first for me on this kit and I’ll most likely do it again spending a bit more time on the clean-up of the mating area. Additionally, the photos reveal that I neglected to give the drop tank any attention post painting, perhaps next time.
Anyway, I’m off to dust another queen off and bring it to the finish line, stay safe, and have lots of fun!