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Hobby Boss 1/48 F4U-4 & AU-1


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Hi guys, what do you think of the newly announced 1/48 F4U-4 & AU-1 by Hobby Boss. First of all I noticed the projected $85 price tag for them. second of all, why bother with the AU-1, since Hasegawa has one that is absolutely gorgeous and half the price. Third of all, if they just shrink down the Trumpeter F4U-4 to 1/48 than it will still require a new aftermarket cowl. Let's have some input on this, The F4U-4 has been required for a very long time. If you are going to do one than do it right.

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They have it listed as kit # 80386 F4U-4 "early version". I don't know, but I've studied the F4U-4 for MANY years and never heard of an Early version or Late version. I know of the F4U-4, F4U-4B, F4U-4C (20mm armed), F4U-4E/N (night fighter version of C model), F4U-4K (drone), F4U-4P (photo recon). The major diferences visually was the armament of either 6-.50s or 4-20mm. The F4U-4 and F4U-4B were actually the same aircraft but one designation was for the British and the other for the US, with 6-.50s. The F4U-4c had the 4-20mm. The picture they show is the -4/B with the 6-.50s. I am just worried that they will screw up the cowling again and it will cost another $10-$15 for a corrected aftermarket cowling. Hobby Boss REALLY screwed up their F6F. In every way imaginable. http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=4770

We will have to wait and see. If they take the Tamiya kit as a base and work with that than we might have a reasonable subject. I have already made a F4U-4 cowling Conversion for the Tamiya, so using it as a master to make a new resin cowling for this thing would be a possibility. The hardest part to convert a F4U-1 to a -4 is the section of the fuselage behind the cowling. I started with an Academy kit to adapt the front end to the Tamiya kit to a -4. The problem was that the front of the Academy kit is just WAY to oversize.

Edited by Otto
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They have it listed as kit # 80386 F4U-4 "early version". I don't know, but I've studied the F4U-4 for MANY years and never heard of an Early version or Late version. I know of the F4U-4, F4U-4B, F4U-4C (20mm armed), F4U-4E/N (night fighter version of C model), F4U-4K (drone), F4U-4P (photo recon). The major diferences visually was the armament of either 6-.50s or 4-20mm. The F4U-4 and F4U-4B were actually the same aircraft but one designation was for the British and the other for the US, with 6-.50s. The F4U-4c had the 4-20mm. The picture they show is the -4/B with the 6-.50s. I am just worried that they will screw up the cowling again and it will cost another $10-$15 for a corrected aftermarket cowling. Hobby Boss REALLY screwed up their F6F. In every way imaginable. http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=4770

We will have to wait and see. If they take the Tamiya kit as a base and work with that than we might have a reasonable subject. I have already made a F4U-4 cowling Conversion for the Tamiya, so using it as a master to make a new resin cowling for this thing would be a possibility. The hardest part to convert a F4U-1 to a -4 is the section of the fuselage behind the cowling. I started with an Academy kit to adapt the front end to the Tamiya kit to a -4. The problem was that the front of the Academy kit is just WAY to oversize.

There was no F4U-4C. The F4U-4 had 6 x .50 cal MG, and originally was fitted with the same canopy and windscreen as the F4U-1D (curved windscreen with internal armor glass and a canopy with the semi-circular armor over the pilot's head). Later F4U-4 introduced the flat-panel windscreen where the armor glass was the center panel of the windscreen, which changed the canopy bow shape a bit and the new canopy deleted the head armor over the pilot.

The F4U-4B had 4 x 20mm cannon instead of the 6 machine guns. Very late F4U-4B added the F4U-5-type canopy and the slight bump on the spine aft of the canopy to fair it in. Some of these were converted to F4U-4P photo-recce aircraft.

There was also a single F4U-4N night figher built, with a radar installation similar to that of the F4U-5N but the same 6 machine gun armament of the F4U-4.

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There was no F4U-4C. The F4U-4 had 6 x .50 cal MG, and originally was fitted with the same canopy and windscreen as the F4U-1D (curved windscreen with internal armor glass and a canopy with the semi-circular armor over the pilot's head). Later F4U-4 introduced the flat-panel windscreen where the armor glass was the center panel of the windscreen, which changed the canopy bow shape a bit and the new canopy deleted the head armor over the pilot.

The F4U-4B had 4 x 20mm cannon instead of the 6 machine guns. Very late F4U-4B added the F4U-5-type canopy and the slight bump on the spine aft of the canopy to fair it in. Some of these were converted to F4U-4P photo-recce aircraft.

There was also a single F4U-4N night figher built, with a radar installation similar to that of the F4U-5N but the same 6 machine gun armament of the F4U-4.

That is not the information I have. The F4U-4B was originally slated for the UK, and was the export designation. It wound up the other way around where the UK received the F4U-4 and the US kept the F4U-4B The F4U-4C received the 4 x 20mm canon armament. The airframes for the -4B/-4C are 100% identical and the C was strictly an armament designation. There were -4Bs that were re-armed with 20mm guns and retained the -4B designation. There were 297 -4B built and 200 -4Cs built Here is a short but good Corsair history. I do agree that the windscreen changed about half way threw the production run. Over 1000 of the initial -4s had the non bullet proof windscreen. Bu#s 80764-81758 & 81779-81828 all had the earlier windscreen.

http://www.aviation-history.com/vought/f4u.html

Edited by Otto
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The worst part of a kit that expensive is that there is no way a kid would even consider buying one. If this is an indication of what pricing will be for kits in the future, you might was well forget about new blood coming into the hobby.

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Hold on guys, that is what I read as projected retail. Let us see if it actually comes to that. That was converted from Yen. Their other similar kits are in the $25-$30 (F4F, F6F, FJ-4 etc)

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That is not the information I have. The F4U-4B was originally slated for the UK, and was the export designation.

But the war ended before any could be built for export, ergo no "British" F4U-4B were ever built (they were supposed to be built by Goodyear as the FG-4, but were cancelled with the end of the war). The UK never received anything beyond the F4U-1D/FG-1D.

The F4U-4C received the 4 x 20mm canon armament. The airframes for the -4B/-4C are 100% identical and the C was strictly an armament designation. There were -4Bs that were re-armed with 20mm guns and retained the -4B designation. There were 297 -4B built and 200 -4Cs built

Again, what was originally planned is one thing, what actually happened seems to be that all the cannon-armed F4U-4 aircraft received the designation F4U-4B. By the time they were built, there was no need to skip a letter and use the "C". Please, what BuNos were built with the "C" designation, and I'm most interested in seeing a photo of a cannon-armed F4U-4 that is clearly and positively identified as an F4U-4C.

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Hi guys, what do you think of the newly announced 1/48 F4U-4 & AU-1 by Hobby Boss. First of all I noticed the projected $85 price tag for them.

I think Hobby Boss can enjoy building them. I don't plan on buying any 1/48 fighter kit for anything remotely approaching that kind of insane money. They must be taking Italeri lessons at the local college.

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As far as I knew the only cannon armed Corsair with a C designation was the -1C. It was my understanding that the -4B was the cannon armed -4 variant.

There are conflicting references; some state that the -4B was a British export version and the -4C had cannon, and some state that the the -4B were the cannon armed versions. Photographic evidence that I've seen supports the latter camp, although as I've noted previously it is possible that the -4C designation was originally intended for the cannon version but the end of the war and subsequent cancellation of the FG-4 order for the UK allowed the cannon birds, when built, to use the "next available" letter which made them -4B.

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Let's just see what they come out with and if it even will be worth the words we are spending on it. So far they managed to screw up everything with the exception of the FJ-4 and F4F-3, which are "acceptable".

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From what I saw of the posted sprue tree images, it appears that the 1/32 Trumpeter kits were the origins. The HB had the same screwed-up MLG strut covers as the Trump kits-that much was easy to see in the images. I'm not optimistic...

For me, I'll stick with the old Mania/Hasegawa F4U-4. What I'd REALLY like is for someone to finally do a proper F4U-4/-4B in 1/72 scale, as the Italeri monstrosity is a miserable failure as a Corsair kit and the ancient Matchbox has its own set of basic problems. Hobbyboss are workable, but nowhere near the level of the Tamiya -1 series as they are part of the 'quick-build' line. For that matter, good F4U-5/-7/AU-1 kits are also lacking in 1/72. Again, Italeri missed big-time on fuselage shape and High Planes are hard to find and expensive, even though they are quite accurate in shape.

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I also have the CMK conversion set. I also believe it is possible to kitbash a Tamiya -1A and a Academy -4. I don't think that the CMK set is even available any more.

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That is not the information I have. The F4U-4B was originally slated for the UK, and was the export designation. It wound up the other way around where the UK received the F4U-4 and the US kept the F4U-4B The F4U-4C received the 4 x 20mm canon armament. The airframes for the -4B/-4C are 100% identical and the C was strictly an armament designation. There were -4Bs that were re-armed with 20mm guns and retained the -4B designation. There were 297 -4B built and 200 -4Cs built Here is a short but good Corsair history. I do agree that the windscreen changed about half way threw the production run. Over 1000 of the initial -4s had the non bullet proof windscreen. Bu#s 80764-81758 & 81779-81828 all had the earlier windscreen.

http://www.aviation-history.com/vought/f4u.html

I do remember reading the 4C has existed...

When one says "early" or "late" -4, I understand immediately what they refer to: The big change is in the windscreen, which is a huge clue visually since the new windshield looked absolutely nothing like the previous one, and even beyond that, this also changes the sliding canopy shape completely, so an entirely new canopy is involved...

This distintion is important, because the flat armored windshield/canopy apparently never saw service in WWII, and thus could not wear any WWII markings, a really big deal one would think...

I would make the "early" or "late" distinction very prominent myself if I came out with the kit...

As for the $85 pricing, this is likely rumor monguering: Hobby Boss prices have been very reasonable of late, but quality dubious. Their Avenger was pricey but beat the Accurate Miniatures one by a wide margin, and I'd rather have that than most of the cheaper models they have done since!

Robertson

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