F4U-1D Corsair USMC Late
1943
This WWII prop build was a refresher for me. It allowed me to concentrate
on build and detail aspects that were characteristic of WWII in the Pacific
Theater. I felt I was getting into a rut building a certain type of aircraft,
from a certain period, from a certain country.
I’ll not belabor description of the Corsair to you regular visitors to
ARC; you’re well versed in the major aircraft types. Suffice it to say that
this model depicts what I feel was a typical F4U that had been on a number of
missions in late 1943 in the Southwest Pacific, as evidenced by the ‘star
and bar’ with a red outline. This aircraft marking was short-lived, only
appearing in early 1943, and by late ’43 and especially early ’44, the
usually seen ‘star and bar’ with blue outline was applied to all US
aircraft, in all war theaters.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The model depicts a US Marine unit in action at that time (I failed to
research the unit, but it can be done by anyone interested). Carrier-borne
Marine Corsairs were quickly relegated to land bases after suffering
astronomically high rates of carrier landing accidents, due to the poor
forward visibility because of the long engine length and gull wing design.
Plus the F4U was a "hot" aircraft, with very high performance
features, including landing speed on a rolling, pitching carrier.
I have to confess that I had this model in nearly completed state for over
a decade; other kits kept catching my attention, so I felt guilty and decided
it time to give it well deserved life on my shelf. The Tamiya kit used was the
highest standard F4U kit on the market when I bought it. I contend it still
holds its own to the new competitors since then. I only purchased an after
market cockpit seat for my build.
Finally, it seems no
two F4U-1D Corsair photos I consulted looked alike; each had distinctive wear,
but all tended to look as if they were nearly worn out and ready for overhaul,
or the scrap heap. I therefore erred on the well worn side. I used a mix of
oil-based washes, pastels and mechanical pencil for my wear patterns. I also
carefully chipped away on the upper wing ‘star and bar’ marking, to more
accurately reflect the effect of hours in the air, heat, humidity, and the sun’s
ultraviolet rays on painted metal surfaces. (The lower markings were less
affected, as they were in the shade of the wing.)
Carl
Jarosz
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