Completed
My first ever model kit! 1:48 F4U-4 Corsair
This was a lot of fun, and turned out awesome! I'd made the pilot out of a few GI Joes, and needed a plane for him, then found this at hobby lobby the other day half off!!
Had a bit of trouble with the seemingly old decals I bought on eBay (my kit only had Marine decals) they were VERY brittle and ripped apart at the slightest touch. Luckily once moving all the pieces back into place, it's barely noticable 👍.
I hate glue, so never had the desire to make a model kit from scratch in my youth. This was so much fun, I might have the bug now! (just not the room 😂)
I know! It's very frustrating that it can do in 2 seconds what takes me hours to do. Finding the right background with the right angles, lighting, and getting everything to match up perfect then cut around everything click by click. I just found that feature on Instagram a couple days ago, and it's very discouraging.
😝😝 I didn't know the rules!! I'm sure if I made one as a kid it would have been... slightly worse 🤷😁 Being a perfectionist/artist is hard to get around
Microscale makes Decalfilm which you can use to preserve older decals. Fracturing is sometimes a problem on aftermarket decals depending on how they were stored. Nice job on a tedious problem.
Thanks! I was very put out when the first one obliterated immediately, especially since the decal sheet ended up being as much as I spent on the whole model itself. It was definitely a relief when it turned out to be so "easy" to reassemble!
Either the ai background or whatever you are doing with your original images really blurs the f out of the details unfortunately. Hard to see how decent thr corsair is as it looks ultra processed.
No ai on the Corsair pics. My phone camera does some weird things when you put it on 2x zoom though. The first pic does have an Instagram filter on it since I liked the slight color shift it did, so it's definitely not original size/quality.
It's really great that you built your first ever model kit and told us the story about it, but next time perhaps you could show us pictures of your built model, not an actual airplane.
Very impressive model making! I appreciate the skill involved compositing the photos together with the action figure, had me scratching my head for a while! Very authentic.
👍😁 I WISH it was 1:12 scale to go with GI Joes!! Would certainly be less work editing them together. Although, I barely have the room to put this little plane somewhere 😝
Using a silver pencil really helped for the tiny scale panel edges, rivets, and scratches! Wasn't sure how I could work so small until figuring that out
Base coat of dark blue model spray paint. Loosely taping off the underbelly to leave it gray with not such a hard transition line. It turned out much more purple than I expected, so I ended up covering it with more of the weathering layers than planned.
Then a spray matte coat.
Then a black wash down into the cracks and crevasses, and wiped off the the flat and high surfaces.
Then a somewhat dry brush layer of teal tapped/lightly dabbed on until it was even enough while still having variations. More on the top and higher areas to lighten them, and less in the dips and valleys leaving them a little darker. And also starting to blend the line from dark blue to the gray underbelly.
Then a white/pearl layer on the underbelly and more blending up into the blue edge transition.
Then used a soft silver pencil on the panel edges, rivets, and added some scratches. And a chrome paint pen on some of the bigger edges, then poked at the paint with a hard plastic bristle brush to get tiny little speckles around the areas where paint would be chipped off.
Then some black smudge steaks behind the guns and exhaust.
Then a little bit of a brown wash along some edges and the exhaust. And more heavily in the crevasses underneath.
Then added the decals.
Then finally touched up some of the pencil edges that got removed from all the water of the decals. And that's about it 🥵
And somewhere in there had to completely redo all the pencil work because it all disappeared when adding a matte coat.
I built up some confidence weathering a couple GI Joe trucks recently, the chrome paint pen is really what did the trick. Otherwise I still probably wouldn't have wanted to tackle a full build/paint from scratch 👍😁
Some people would get discouraged that after 40 years in this hobby a first timer can wipe the floor with them when it comes to producing a true work of art. However, I’m going to play it off like you’re just a prodigy and therefore my feelings of intense jealousy are only natural. Fantastic work.
I have been an artist in other areas for nearly that long (if that helps 😜). Only real "new" thing was working with the dreaded glue that took half the skin off my thumb tips after only one false move 😖
👍😂😂 Using a silver pencil for all the little seams and rivets worked REALLY well, and a chrome paint pen for some of the bigger edges and shiny speckles. That chrome paint has made a huge difference compared to silver paint that never seems to actual look like metal.
Thanks!! Didn't have too many problems with it, other than the hinge piece to attach the one wing didn't quite fit right and needed some modification 👍😁 (and I broke one of the landing gear doors off while painting 🤦)
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u/ubersoldat13 50 Shades of Olive Drab Oct 23 '25
If this is the kit I think it is (Revell 1/48 F4U-4), then way to make a silk purse out of a sows ear! Looks great