FROG F243 Chance Vought Corsair F4U-1D

FROG Black series F243F Chance Vought Corsair F4U-1D, Rovex Scale Models ltd, 1972

NEW AND IN VIEW

Although we had no information other than that generally released to the public on new items from Frog, our local stockist has recently received supplies of their latest releases, the Heinkel III H1/H6 and Chance Vought Corsair F4U-1D.

We purchased one of each to see what was what and the result is rather mixed feelings.

Taking the Corsair first this is one of the 21p. packet series like the Hellcat, moulded in grey plastic and with the card assembly instructions and colouring details. Dimensionally and 'shapewise' the kit checks out well and is quite accurate.. . the purist will shave one or two slivers here and there to get it just so, but it is fairly good except for a fair bit of flash. When I open Frogs more recent offerings I have a distinct impression that the job was started by someone who knew what he was doing and was really interested, but finally finished up with the all too often met, couldn't care less bod, who wanted to finish it before finishing time on Friday. Surface detail is nicely scribed, but Frog's trade mark of clumsy, thick trailing edges once again is there. The method of splitting the mould for the wing top and bottom should give a knife sharp T/E like the Japs obtain, but instead we get the thick edge and compound it with a horrid gap as gap between the wings and control surfaces. It would just about be possible to trap your foot in the gap scaled to full size). Rather than mould a wing root integral with the fuselage Frog have tried to produce a complex compound curve at the wing end to match the fuselage - it almost comes off, but the effort was too much and the result is the slot for the stbd. wing has to be re-cut and the whole wing realigned, otherwise it sits lower on the fuselage than the port wing. I found the best way to handle this problem was to attach the port wing to the fus, strap it to a flat length of wood with dihedral/anhedral set correctly, and fit the stbd wing strapping this down also with correct setting. A little twisting and the fus could be set to dry mounted with the fin truly vertical. The result needs a fair amount of fille. The tail plane is similary mis-set and needs realigning.

The transfers are good standard, but will cause controversy with the darker shade or the Pacific theatre blue. This was correct on a fresh painted aircraft but paint rapidly weathered so if you wish to finish the model as well-weathered use faded decals from another source. I do rather question the dark outline on the decals as I consider this should be the same shade of blue as the roundal.

The Heinkel suffers from some of the same production errors. Considering the wealth of very accurate and comprehensive detail available on this aircraft it should be absolutely spot on to make it worth best part of a Pound. It checks out quite well on scale and shape apart from wing tips and tail which are slightly too round and can be reshaped easily. Surface detail is good but once again much is lost filling bad gaps in the wing root fit and engine nacelles. Fuselage halves need some fitting and the odd insert to the fuselage to enable the alternative H6 version to be made is a poor fit. The transparencies could be much thinner and clearer and the windows for the gondola are merely blobs of clear plastic which sit in a hole. The port lower wing need packing towards the tip or it sinks below the edge of the aileron, and though the trailing edges of the wings are much thinner, the effort has been too much for the production method and there is considerable mould sink on these surfaces.

he undercarriage is fragile and much too long, even if it is intended to represent the aircraft in flight with undercarriage lowered and it is not easy to reduce to correct length, due to the rather complex structure - this is a rather bad fault which needs attention. Cockpit detail is inadequate, but fair as far as it goes. Decals are good quality but the swastika off register. Box art acceptable and attractive but greens depicted too light.

The IPMS magazine, JUNE 1972. Vol. 9 No. 6

Model Enthusiast
A pair of "standards" from Frog

One of the more remarkable aspects of the modelling scene is the fact that, despite the proliferation of kits of World War IPs "standards", some of the true immortals of that conflict are still represented by only one kit, or by kits that are so inaccurate that they are simply not worth purchasing.

Frog's other "standard" is a l/72nd scale kit of the F4U Corsair which makes up into a really good, accurate, and finely-detailed model which is easy to assemble providing some care is taken with the wing root joint. Decals are provided for a Corsair IV of No 1842 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, and for an F4U-1D of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the usual excellent colour scheme drawing is provided. It is certainly good value at its UK price of 21p, and our only reservation is engendered by doubts concerning a sizeable market for a l/72nd kit of this aircraft, as most modellers who want to include this war-plane in their collections will surely have already made it. After all, there have been so many kits of the Corsair available for so long.

Air Enthusiast 1972-08 Vol3 No2