Reviews : Academy F-4UB CORSAIR

The Academy 1/48 F4U-4B Corsair kit is a 1993 product release from this company. As such, this kit has been surpassed in accuracy, parts fit and detail by other manufacturers. However, if you are looking to build a Korean War era F4U-4B Corsair, this might be the only model kit of this variant available on the market. I decided to use this kit as another challenge kit to see if my basic modeling skills could make it look realistic and historically accurate. Despite its age and fit issues, with careful assembly, painting, decaling and weathering, this model will build up into an acceptable model replica of this variant of the F4U-4B Corsair aircraft that was armed with 4, 20mm cannons. One of the numerous negative things I noticed about this kit was that there are images of the completed model shown, on the side of the kit box, of an aircraft in Marine markings. However, the kit does not include the Marine Corps decals to make this version. Therefore, the builder is only limited to making the Navy Version of the aircraft as shown on the box art. Furthermore, if the builder wants to build up the aircraft with the load out configuration (i.e. centerline fuel tank with two bombs) shown on the box art, modifications must be made on the lower wing half part to achieve this objective. This modification required me to drill two small holes in this part to make the glue attachment points for the centerline fuel tank. Installation of the cockpit tub and the instrument panel was problematic. The rear panel of the cockpit assembly and the instrument panel did not line up precisely with the fuselage halves, I had to eyeball these parts to center them in place, but I was not able to get it precisely right. In order to improve the appearance of this kit, I added aftermarket stencil marking and manufacture marking decals to the propeller blades on the aircraft. As no seatbelt/harness detail parts are provided in the kit, I also found a seatbelt decal from another kit and installed it. I purchased the Montex Mini Mask set for the F4U-4 Academy Corsair, Item Code SM 48222. The kits instructions do not show that two small 302 decals are supposed to be installed on landing gear cover parts C14 and C17. The kits instructions indicate that the fuselage color should be royal blue, however, I thought it was to light in shade after looking at color images of the aircraft and other builds of this model. As such, I used Vallejo Model Air 71.004 Blue which I applied over a white primer coat using an Iwata HP-C airbrush with a 0.3mm needle at 20 psi. For the cock pit interior and the landing gear bays, I used Mission Models MMP-054 Dunkelgrun RLM 83. For the bombs and rocket tips, I used Mission Models MMP-026 US Army Olive Drab FS 33070. Although the kits decals were thin, I still used Micro Sol and Micro Set solutions to get the decals to settle in over the contours of the model which were not flat. I had to examine the instructions carefully to ensure that I would address properly painting all of the navigation lights on the wing tips and surfaces of the aircraft where they were located. I added weathering and exhaust stains using Tamiya Weathering Pigment. I added antenna wires to the aircraft using EZ Line fine thread. Due to the fit issues and upgrades necessary to obtain reasonably acceptable results, I would recommend this kit to intermediate to advanced fine scale modelers with airbrush, masking and decal installation skills.

Easy build. Had no issues at all with this model. I hope to build some more aircraft with this particular brand. Looks really good on my shelve

Excellent model of the Korean War vintage Corsair aircraft. Price is right for this excellent kit.

nice kit lots of detail , but tricky wings that fold up