1:72 F2G-1

The Goodyear F2G-1, a Corsair with a radial of twenty-eight cylinders

When the huge Pratt & Whitney Wasp Major with four rows of cylinders was fitted into the Corsair airframe, the result was a machine with a steep rate of climb that nevertheless came into the world too late to take part in the fighting in the Pacific. Only a handful were built. The Super Corsair won its real fame after the war at the air races in Cleveland, where it rounded the pylons low over the ground and in 1949 carried Cook Cleland to victory. For the sake of the view to the rear it received a cut-down fuselage spine and a different, markedly bulged canopy.

The bubble canopy and masking

A rounded cover without ribs is treacherous to mask in that the paint boundary has no line to follow and must trace a continuous curve. A pre-cut part holds that curve by itself; the builder only sees to it that the film forms no crease anywhere. That also does away with the nastiest part of the job, namely tracing the arc with a knife right on the finished part, where a single slip means a scratch in the glazing.

• 1:72 scale, the Special Hobby kit
• The shape matches the bulged canopy of the Super Corsair
• Masks are included, not decals for the racing numbers
• The adhesive holds on a curved surface without lifting
• The material can be trimmed to fit even after application

Racing Super Corsairs carried loud finishes, on which a clean division between the paint and the glazing shows up particularly well. A model in the Cleveland scheme therefore stands or falls on how accurately the boundaries on the cockpit and on the engine cowling are drawn.