The Little World

I always admired the Ling-Temco-Vought Corsair II when I was a boy and dreamed of flying it. Had I dreamed up some way to see without glasses I might have saved myself some heartache.,

This childhood infatuation eventually petered out when I discovered girls, but it is somewhat surprising that I never built a model of it, or of the similar Crusader, at the time. This is the first LTV aircraft for me.

The kit is apparently ex-Esci reboxed by Italeri. I have no kick about this as several of my favourite builds have had a similar provenance. This kit is well-packaged with plenty of colour indication between the front and back of the box. The decals are superb, and the instruction sheet all one could ask for. Yet…

There are more instances of flash on the sprue trees than heretofore seen on Italeri – perhaps indicating that this is a much older kit. Scalemates says 1988. None of the flash is deadly, but the weapons will need careful assembly. Like a lot of kits, the locating pins and holes are not always where they need to be and frequently you are better cutting the pin off and sanding the mating surfaces flat.

The basic dry fit stage will show me whether I have got a good answer to that old itch…or just another rash decision. I’ll be choosing a classic USN scheme with all the ordnance hanging off.