Italeri 1/72 F4U-7 Corsair

ITALERI 1:72 F4U-7 CORSAIR

front cover

Reviewer: Derrick Winters (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 9 October 2001

Aircraft:
The F4U needs little introduction amongst modellers, being almost as famous as the mustang and in some circles is considered as the more outstanding of the two, although debate will rage on for centuries about this. The F4U-7 version was the variant made exclusively for the French Air Force

Kit Comments:
This is a new tooling kit from Italeri that was released in the mid 90's featuring beautifully recessed panel lines and detail inside the box on a couple of dark blue sprues. This kit was released about the same time as another post war Corsair variant, the 5N representing the Korean War. This kit of course is marketed for the French Air Force example. One thing I noticed was that the kit will also do a US Navy version - as my reference material suggests the F4U-7 was used only by the French Air Force I figured this is an error on Italeri's part. Further investigation revealed that this version should be an American F4AU-1 and parts are included in the kit so the error is not all that bad. All one needs to do is follow the sequences for the respective versions correctly.

back cover

Inside the Box:
Quality is what we have come to expect from Italeri, especially with their later new-tooling boxings, with recessed panel lines and very reasonable surface detail. There are two sprues, both dark blue in colour plus a clear sprue with a two-piece canopy allowing the ability to have the cockpit open. Wheel wells are shallow but contain some nice detail that represents a bit of plumbing, internal structure and the like and gear doors have rivet and structure detail on their insides. Two cowling versions are provided and all the parts are generally nicely molded. Drop tanks and rockets are provided as the main stores options in the kit. The cockpit receives a reasonable amount of attention with both instrument panel and side panels provided with raised gauges and detail. The engine is the standard offering you find in these types of kits lately, offering detail of only the front row of cylinders.

Instructions & Versions:
Very typical Italeri fold out sheet with easy to follow assembly steps and the two versions provided for by the kit on the back page with four-view diagrams showing decal placement and colour schemes. I alluded to the fact that there was an American version in the kit. This American version is Korean War example from VMA-323 in overall Midnight Blue and should be referred to as an F4AU-1 not an F4U-7 example. Modelmaster paint range is quoted for painting instructions plus FS numbers where available.

Construction:
The cockpit is adequately detailed that features a reasonably decent seat, floor, control stick, instrument panel and side panels (both of which have raised detail). There is also what appears to be a small gun sight to add to the cockpit so overall it is not too bad at all. Everything fits nicely and the cockpit is placed within one fuselage half.

Before the fuselage halves are affixed together you are also required to attach the engine bulkhead inside one half. This turned out to be a bit problematic as the instructions are vague in exact placement and there are no alignment tabs or rails on the model to assist in exact placement either. So it was a case of dry fit testing until it was clear that it was in the correct position based on the fuselage half covering it with a flush fit. Obviously the engine should be flush against the cowling ring so this should also serve as a guide to placement. Once this is done the fuselage halves can be affixed together and with the aid of pegs and rubber bands in the right places, it fits flush together nicely.

The wings are split into three pieces, an underwing section with two upper halves. The instructions say to affix the upper halves to the lower wing piece and then the sub assembly to the belly of the Corsair. Generally I add the upper halves to the fuselage first then affix the underwing piece on later. The beauty of this is that it gets rid of all the gaps at the wing roots but the downside is that even a slightly out of alignment mold will result in off canter wing assembly! On this occasion I decided to follow the instructions and make a sub assembly of the wings and these go together well. I noticed that the trailing edge of the wings was quite thick, a trait that is obviously shared on all Italeri Corsair kits that share the same basic engineering pieces - like the 5N kit which shares more or less the same parts. The wing sub assembly was attached to the fuselage and the gaps were very minimal with a little bit of filler needed in the belly section where the underwing piece meets the fuselage cavity.

The tailplanes go onto the model nicely and the alignment tabs are different sizes, to ensure that you put the correct tailplane on the correct side. The undercarriage was then assembled, painted, and added to the aircraft and this presented no problems with everything fitting as it should. The detail on the undercarriage was quite impressive in this scale. The model does sit up a little too much I noticed on reflection, and this could be a result of a longer nosewheel undercarriage section. The instructions tell you to paint the interior of the wheel bays Zinc Chromate but I believe that Korean War examples, especially Night Fighters, were painted a dark blue matching the exterior scheme of the aircraft. Zinc Chromate may have been used on French Air Force examples so I took a gamble that this was correct and followed the instructions - and the boxart which also has the Zinc Chromate shown.

Weaponry is provided in the form of underwing stores such as drop tanks and rockets. I struck a few problems here in terms of fit and size of some of the components. There are no locator holes for the drop tanks and these are butt joined to the underwing surface - but after viewing the instructions for some time I am convinced they tell you to put the tanks on backwards and once this was discovered it was a little easier to affix them. Five underwing rockets with their pylons are provided for each wing and I found that the rocket fins were large and almost impeded the ability to actually get the pylons onto the underwing surface - that is, the fins touch the wing. A little bit of trimming and careful placement was needed to correct this problem.

In the final steps the various antennae and canopy were placed. Superglue was used on a couple of the small antenna masts just to strengthen the bond. The canopy is sparkling on the sprue but is also thick and distorts the view inside the cockpit. The kit does not really provide assistance in having an open cockpit or cover this in the instruction sheet, but it would be possible for those who can add in the small actuating strut and move the main canopy section back accordingly.

Versions & Decals:
As already alluded to there are two versions provided for by the kit, a French Air Force/Navy version and a US Navy example. Since I wanted to portray a correct F4U-7 version the French example was chosen as depicted on the boxart, Flotille 15F in overall Midnight Blue colour, featuring black and gold "invasion" stripes on the wings and fuselage. These can easily be painted using masking techniques - yellow of course being the first paint to use. They can also be left off because the machine only wore them for a short time during the 1956 Suez incident. The decals conformed to the surface very well and although the white was a little off due to the dark background they were still in very good register.

Overall:
Highly recommended in my opinion. It captures the the look of the Corsair very well and looks convincing to my eye. The French version makes for something a little different for Corsair buffs, especially with the addition of the invasion-like stripes painted on. It goes together very well and should suit all modelling skills.

Addendum supplied by Kevin Ronayne:

My model was painted using Humbrol 190, which is a straight match for the colour FS35050 'Blue Angels Blue' specified in the Italeri instructions (i.e., ModelMaster 1772) for both subjects in this kit. This colour is noticeably lighter than the 'standard' gloss sea blue FS35042 normally used on US Navy and Marine aircraft during this period. I wouldn't like to speculate on whether my choice of colour (that is to say, the Italeri choice) is correct or not. Oh alright, I will: it's probably wrong, especially as Italeri's kit of the F4U-5N also specifies the lighter colour, and the F4U-4B kit probably does as well.

There is also the question of the flat black ant-glare panel ahead of the cockpit. The Italeri instructions are ambiguous on this point, so I did not apply it. It could yet be applied retrospectively if I found out that I was definitely wrong.

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