These are my two tamiya F4U kits, the-1/2 and -1D. You should be able to tell them apart ( Hint: the -1/2 is light blue, and the -D is dark). Hope you like 'em![:D] The -1/2 is almost done, it needs weathering and final assembly, and the -D is done.
F4U-1/2: 17-F-25, VF-17, 1943
The cockpit: I added a scratchbuild throttle, other than that it’s OOB
This is the photo I had to work with:
F4U-1D: 167, VF-84, USS Bunker Hill, 1945
Any questions/comments/suggestions would be appreciated.
Awesome work on a pair of great Corsairs! I really like your weathering jobs - they look like they are getting ready to take off from some dusty South Pacific island. Excellent job on the cockpit details too.
Outstanding builds. Very convincing wear and tear. The 1/2 has a good faded look. Does it have a different canopy cover? Looks like a backwards p-40 slide canopy.
Beautiful work on your Corsairs, Jaypack, especially the cockpits and the weathering and oil stains. I like your choice of markings, too. They’re a little off the beaten path, and this appeals to me. I’m curious about the -1/2 designation. What you built is the F4U-1; the F4U-2 was the nightfighter conversion (mostly F4U-1s) with a radar pod on the right wing. I never heard of the “one-half” model[:D]. If this was indicated on the kit box, it was a slipup on the mfr’s part.
One historical note: that’s a famous picture of VF-17 training stateside in F4U-1s. It was widely circulated during WWII. When they went into action they were in F4U-1As. The scribbling over the squadron no. was the work of a wartime censor on the photo, IIRC, and was not that way on the planes. Sorry about that. It’s still a fine representation of your resource.
The only reason I called the -1 the -1/2 was because that’s what tamiya’s box says, so people would know which kit it was. I didn’t know about the picture. It looked like the paint was intentionally chipped or peeled off to hide the designation. (looks like the censor didn’t do a very good job, It’s easy to tell it’s a 17[:O]) Which color would be accurat for the 17, black or white? I painted over the kit’s white 17 decals to get the black ones. I’m glad you like them!
The streaks are watercolor paints, mostly black with a little brown and white mixed in. I just barely wet the paint, so it’s kind of sticky, then dampen the area to apply it. then I use a fine brush and just smear it on. It’s kind of a trial and error process (I had to redo most of the streaks several times to gt the look I wanted), so be patient, and work carefully. Good luck on your D, the corsair is one of my favorite a/c.
Regarding the color of the markings, my references show two styles. One has the whole code string in white, the other has the “17-F-” in black and the acft no. in white. Dates for this info were inconclusive, so I don’t know which came first. I always thought that that censor put black ink over a white 17, but a closer look and your work suggest the opposite. Back then, white-out ruled!
When VF-17 took their -1As into combat, the “17-F-” was dropped for security purposes (as with all squadrons) and the -1As carried a large white acft no. on the fuselage, as in Kepford’s famous no.29. It appears VF-17 used sequential numbering (Blackburn flew no.1), but this was not a firm rule.
The “167” on your VF-84 -1D was in the middle of a large range of 100-series numbers they used. I don’t know whether they ran sequentially, or where they started. (102 is the lowest I’ve seen.) Any furhter info from anyone would be appreciated.