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1/72 Jo-Han F4U-1 Corsair Review/Preview


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Even for a 40+ year old kit, it builds up pretty nicely with some TLC and some effort spent detailing.  The overall fit of those JoHan kits was generally very tight; the biggest shortfall is the lack of detail in the cockpit.

F4U-1C.jpg

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At the time the Jo-Han kits came out, they were, in my opinion, quite good kits. I only ever managed to acquire the P-47 and the Me109 kits. Mind you, I lived outside a small town in Eastern Canada and didn't have access to any hobby stores so my options on kit purchases was limited. Hasegawa kits were an unknown then. It was mostly Airfix, FROG, some Revell with a smattering of Monogram. There were Lindberg kits, too, but I'll speak no more on those.

 

 

Chris

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One of the few brands that never found its way into my stash. Johan, i had a friend with that name when i was a kid. I heard their Me 262 is supposed to be good. Oh no, here we go with the rumors again 🤣 I couldn`t see anything as far as surface details in your video. A nice treat would be to introduce us to the company and let us know where is was located.

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1 hour ago, dogsbody said:

At the time the Jo-Han kits came out, they were, in my opinion, quite good kits. I only ever managed to acquire the P-47 and the Me109 kits. Mind you, I lived outside a small town in Eastern Canada and didn't have access to any hobby stores so my options on kit purchases was limited. Hasegawa kits were an unknown then. It was mostly Airfix, FROG, some Revell with a smattering of Monogram. There were Lindberg kits, too, but I'll speak no more on those.

 

 

Chris

They were pretty much as good as any other kit from that period, and better than quite a few.  The level of detail was pretty much the norm for when they were designed and manufactured - expectations, as well as the tech available to make a kit, were quite different then than they are today.  As far as I'm concerned, they were pretty good kits when viewed in the proper context.

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Jo-Han primarily produced car kits. They did venture into 1/72 aircraft kits. I never bought their aircraft kits but I may have had a couple car kits. I'm sure I bought their 1969-70 Olds 442 and at the time thought it was a nice kit but I was 17 around that time. If I opened a box now I might change my opinion as I don't think I've even seen one of their kits since.

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From what I recall, Jo-Han was actually part of a bigger company that made plastic parts for real cars in Detroit and if they needed to keep the factory working during a lull, they would pull out the kit moulds and run those. Thus their production and availability was kinda spotty...As to the original poster, I never  go to his reviews because they are really only "click bait" to get you to visit his site and are not useful reviews. I suspect looking at the modelling section of a Detail and Scale Corsair book would yield more useful info on the actual kit...... 

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I built their Rufe some years ago (got it for a buck.)  Not a bad little kit, just rather basic.  I made scratchbuilt a rudimentary cockpit and added a Squadron vacuform canopy, but I think those were the only embellishments. 

 

Jo-Han's boxes showed other a lineup of 1/72 aircraft which included a P-40B/C.  Sadly it was never released.

 

SN

Edited by Steve N
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I don't how many here went through a car craze in their modeling career but I certainly did and it went from the mid 60's through about the mid 70's. I still bought airplanes but I also bought my far share of car kits as well. Just for an interesting historical perspective for those that may have built AMT and Jo-Han car kits back then or even now, do a google search for Jo-Han. Wikipedia has a article on the history not only of Jo-Han but AMT as well. It's full of info I never knew about the companies and their relationship to each other as well as the automotive industry. Good short read.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is a big reason why I do these videos, as it creates these sorts of discussions on the history of model building. Also because some, but not all, of these older models still can hold up today. They may need varying degrees of TLC and other work, but they still will build up to pretty decent models.

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I enjoy these videos and have watched most. Older kits but many I've not seen before. So the videos are neat to play in the background while at the workbench.

 

Regards,

Don

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