Matchbox 1/72 F4U-4 VF-74 Korea
![Album image #1 Album image #1](/albums/img/5/9/8/599598-10501-22-720.jpg)
Starting point: one ancient disassembled Matchbox kit, several spare parts and spare AD-4 decals. Turns out I have parts of three Matchbox F4U-4’s, didn’t remember I had that many...
![Album image #2 Album image #2](/albums/img/5/9/7/599597-10501-92-720.jpg)
After the oven cleaner routine the first job is improving the chin inlet by grafting in a leftover Italeri F4U-7 chin inlet. Cowling not yet separated from fuselage.
![Album image #3 Album image #3](/albums/img/5/9/6/599596-10501-89-720.jpg)
Both the Matchbox and Italeri R-2800 are useless. However, the spares box yielded a leftover resin R-2800 aft cylinder row which got upgraded to a front row with a modified Matchbox reduction gear box. Propeller got fixed, cowling is taking shape.
![Album image #4 Album image #4](/albums/img/5/9/9/599599-10501-93-720.jpg)
A basic cockpit was fashioned around the kit seat, wings were reassembled and wheel wells boxed in.
![Album image #5 Album image #5](/albums/img/6/0/0/599600-10501-41-720.jpg)
Detailing wheel wells and engine, fixing damaged edges of wheel well openings, plugging 20mm gun barrel openings.
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Painting the cockpit, engine painted and installed. Getting the feeling that the intake is not looking quite right...
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Added zero length launchers to wing, opened up tail wheel well.
![Album image #8 Album image #8](/albums/img/6/0/2/599602-10501-84-720.jpg)
Detailing the tail wheel well, quite an easy job and big improvement.
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Assembly time! Dry-fitting of the cowling and comparing to pictures convinced me the chin inlet was to deep. Darn.
![Album image #10 Album image #10](/albums/img/6/0/4/599604-10501-32-720.jpg)
No worries, with a few strokes of the razor saw the inlet lip was removed, another section of a Matchbox cowling ring was grafted in and the lower lip was reduced in heigth and reinstalled.
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Cowling installed, gaps around lower inlet lip filled with plastic bits.
![Album image #12 Album image #12](/albums/img/6/0/7/599607-10501-35-720.jpg)
This 40-someting year old plastic has some surprises, while installing the stabilizers the fuselage just snapped when I applied pressure. Duh..
![Album image #13 Album image #13](/albums/img/6/0/8/599608-10501-39-720.jpg)
Tail back on again, fairing in the lower engine cowl. I couldn’t figure out the correct lower cowling shape from pictures but it looks good enough to me.
![Album image #14 Album image #14](/albums/img/6/0/9/599609-10501-91-720.jpg)
Canopy polished, installed and masked. Unfortunately it is the early type canopy which doesn't match the subject I chose. Transparency is not what I would like either but hey, that’s what you got to live with when rebuilding. Primer coat on.
![Album image #15 Album image #15](/albums/img/6/1/0/599610-10501-10-720.jpg)
Sprayed yellow for the squadron markings. Started on the ordnance, also from the Italeri F4U-7. Ready for the blue main coat.
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Main coat on, used Vallejo Air gloss Sea Blue. Looks OK, could have lightened it a bit.
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Decaling started. Raided the decal spares, had to cut away the blue surround of the star & bar.
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Fiddled around with lots of small numbers from AD-4 serials and managed to approach my subject serial. Eagle eyed readers will spot the tiny AD-4B decal...
![Album image #19 Album image #19](/albums/img/6/1/4/599614-10501-56-720.jpg)
Tail code was cut down to size, combined digits for a/c number, had to fashion a cowling “4” from strips of white decal. Finished off with a satin coat and a matt anti-glare panel.
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Weathered with light gray pastel and dry-brushed exhaust streaks. Installing patched up landing gear legs.
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Installing wheels, bit of a challenge with rebuilds like this.
![Album image #22 Album image #22](/albums/img/6/1/8/599618-10501-79-720.jpg)
Adding retraction struts, wheel doors, drop tanks and antennas, decided to forego installation of other ordnance, kinda liked the clean look.
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And finished! Not bad for a 40-something years old piece of junk from the bottom of the scrap box 🙂.
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Hozzászólások
21 April 2019, 09:27
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Hi there, after my marathon B-52F build I started up a few smaller projects, including this rebuild of a very old 1/72 Matchbox F4U-4. It dates back to the hand-painting days of my youth and was already rebuilt once during that time. On a whim I checked out my spare decals and discovered I should be able to cobble together a set of Korean War markings for it so I decided to give this rather hopeless case another go and do a full rebuild. Hope you enjoy it.
21 April 2019, 09:34
Album info
A rebuild of a very old Matchbox F4U-4, improved using parts and decals from the spares box.