I picked one up from my local Hobby Town USA store on Saturday and have posted a review below. Haven't had time to take pictures, but I did post one from TheFlyingMule website (which has curiously sold out of this piece completely!)
Anyways, the aircraft depicts Ira Kepford's famous "White 29" scheme from VF-17, Jolly Rogers, in 1944. There were no paint issues with my plane and the colors and markings appear to be quite accurate. There is no weathering of any kind, but most HM aircraft do not seem to have that... The fuselage, inner wing portion, and tail surface are diecast. The cowling and outer wing pieces are plastic. This actually makes the plane feel light - lighter than other comparably-sized HM aircraft.
The wings are an interesting feature. They come packed seperated from the plane and you have two "pegs" one inserts into the wing to hold it in the extended position, the other will hold the wing in the folded position. There is a silver pin that helps hold the wings in place when extended as well. I saw on a diecast forum that a lot of collectors were unhappy with the wings as they leave a gap. You can see the gap on the picture above. The wings on my plane push together tightly and while there certainly is a seam, it doesn't look as bad as on some of my larger Corsair models. The flaps were tooled as seperate pieces, but are affixed to the wing and do not move.
The cockpit is basically detailed with the seat, control stick, instrument panel, gun sight. There isn't too much detail otherwise and the gunsight is painted black. Also, the cockpit is not "deep" and has a solid floor directly under the seat. On the F-4U, the pilot sat up high and there was space below the seat leading down to that little window on the underside of the fuselage (the 1:18 BBI Corsair and 1:32 21c Corsair detailed this well). The Hobby Master F2A Buffalos have "deep" cockpits like the Corsair should have, but this was not done. The canopy is sort of a bummer. While it looks good and is accurate, the position of two tabs designed to hold it in place prevent the canopy from sliding all the way open. Not sure why HM designed it this way, especially when every other 1:48 diecast plane they've made has a fully-opening canopy. You have to take the whole piece off to insert the figure.
The landing gear pieces all go in easily and stay in tightly. The main wheels do not roll, however. The drop tank easily connects to the underside and does not have to be removed when the plane is on its display stand. I'm not sure why the figure is in full leather high-altitude garb, especially when HM makes a decent 1:48 pilot in a uniform more appropriate to the Pacific Theater.
So, there you have it. My thoughts on the new HM Corsair. Overall, I really do like the plane, lack of certain details aside. The only 1:48 Corsair I've had up to this point is an old Yat Ming plane (ironically in Kepford's markings as well) and this one blows it away. I was originally going to wait for Boyington's Corsair (due this month) but when I saw Kepford's aircraft, I had to get it. The Boyington one will be a must for me, though
