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During the presentation of my F4U-1A from Airfix, I complained about the long absence of good kits of Corsairs in 1/48 scale. Now the situation changed, we have good F4U-1/-1A/-1B from Tamiya and Hobbycraft, and late F4U-5/5A and AU-1 from Hasegawa, but there are still some “gaps” just like the old Hasegawa F4U-4 mold, which is now very evident, with its raised panels.

The cockpit color was painted Interior Green (Humbrol 158) and semi gloss Black the instrument panel and consoles, with Tan headrest. A drybrushing with Light Grey highlighted the details. The canopy is in two pieces and I fixed it open.

The fuselage joint needed some putty and sanding, while the wing fit was good. I decided to avoid the complex work of cutting, scratch building and replacing the wing flaps. I did not mount the wing cannons (those are for the F4U-4B while I would make an F4U-4). I could not find the wing rails of the late series of the Corsairs, even in the other boxes I have.
 

I selected a very peculiar paint scheme. The subject insignia were from the Cutting Edge sheet 48-269, and are of a plane of the Naval Reserve based at NAS Olathe. There are many photos of this example coded 7286 which was a late scheme light gray / white Corsair with many parts replaced with old scheme Sea Blue components: outer wings, rudder, left tail plane, right wheel, etc. The effect is impressive, and heavy weathering and brush retouches added more drama to this subject.
 

The base scheme is the “classic” Light Gull Gray FS 26440 (Gunze H325) on upper surfaces and gloss White on lower surfaces and mobile surfaces.   The replaced parts are in Sea Blue FS 35042 (Gunze H54). I had to paint in Yellow the script OLATHE which was in White on the decals, and I had to airbrush the white “K” on the upper right wing.   To finish the model, I did some weathering with light gray pastels and brown oil paint.   The result is interesting, even if the kit is a bit out of date, but this scheme is worth of it!

The F4U-4 close to the Airfix New Zealander F4U-1A Corsair > Here