**** FINISHED: 1/32 F4U-1A 17740 - Allied Manufactured Aircraft

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Username: Catch22
First name: Cory
Category: Intermediate
Scale: 1/32
Manufacturer: Tamiya
Model Type: F4U-1A
Aftermarket addons: BarracudaCast main wheels, Eduard/HGW fabric and PE belts, fündekals decals.

Subject: F4U-1A BuNo 17740 of VMF-214, December 1943 at Vella La Vella. Flown by Major Boyington among other pilots in the squadron, as they did not have assigned planes.

Well, it's done! Thanks to everyone who helped me during this build. I'm somewhat surprised I finished in time, as I was in the hospital twice during this GB, but here we are. A few notes:

Used EZ Line for the aerial, and the bits on the aerial are just made from wire casing with the wires removed. A little bit of silver snuck through at one spot on the front windscreen towards the bottom, but there's nothing I can do about it. I also was unable to removed the Micro Mask from one of the gun camera windows as it just won't seem to come off. Not sure I'd use the fündekals again. They worked well with Micro Sol but there are a couple small areas of white coming from behind the blue on the roundels, and the placement instructions were incorrect in a couple of areas, that I was able notice easily in photos, so I'm not sure how it was missed to begin with. This is also the first time I have ever used a wash, and the MIG washes worked quite well, though not a whole lot will show up on the Non-specular Sea Blue. Will definitely use the hairspray method again. Lastly, due to the cost of the kit I figured when I started it that I'd keep track of how long it took and convert that into a $/hr number, in Canadian dollars. Going with $180 (includes the kit and any aftermarket items, but not supplies like paint), it took me a total of about 54 hours (though I think I shorted myself a few times). That makes the per hour cost of the build to be $3.33, which really isn't that bad once you get over the initial shock of the cost of the kit itself.

Required Photos:

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Optional Photos:

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Very nicely done Cory. only tiny criticism so far is the background - it's OK, but the folds in the cloth are ever so slightly distracting. A piece of plain card for the base and backdrop would help, or a roll of lining paper, draped over something to provide a backdrop and base.
 

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