In the 3D cutaway view of the F4U-1D Corsair I have (in the book “World War II Aircraft Anatomy” it shows
what appears to be radio equipment behind the cockpit of the aircraft (behind the seat armour plating/bulkhead).
The 3D view is from the right-hand side of the plane and there does not appear to be any form of access to the radio compartment on this side.
Was there a hatch or removable panel on the other side of the plane (left-hand side) to give access to this area of the interior - if so, are there any photos of it?
I have the old Revell 1/32 Corsair kit and am planning to add plenty of extra scratchbuilt detail to it (it cettainly needs it, as anyone who’s built this kit will know!).
It might be worth adding the radio components if there is a panel which I can cut out to show them - but not otherwise!
A photo in the book, “The war in thre air” by Major Gene Gurney, 1962, shows a panel just behind the canopy opened up for maintenance. The caption says “Marines performing radio maintenance on a VMF-214 Corsair”.
Searching on Google, I found the following paragraph relating to the F4U-4:
“the seat back could be folded to ease access to the radio equipment for maintenance”
This suggests that access to the radio components in the Corsair wasn’t very straightforward; in this case,
not only will the parts not be very visible in a model, but it’ll be hard to get reference photos of this
part of the aircraft in the first place.
If you buy the Verlinden Corsair Cockpit set in 32nd scale (built specifically for the Revell kit), the radio equipment is already provided for you. It sits on a shelf directly behind the bulkhead that the seat is attached to.
I’m also in the midst of a Corsair project using the Trumpeter kit (what a beast!) and thought I could modify the Verlinden set to fit it. Too much of a hassle. Ended up buying the Black Box cockpit set instead, which was built for the Trumpeter kit.
Normally I would prefer scratchbuilding to buying AM cockpit sets myself, but due to deteriorating eyesight I’m pretty much forced to buying AM sets and console myself to just fitting and painting them. Good luck with your Corsair.