F4U Headrest Color

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Why are the F4U Corsair Headrest’s Black and/or Brown ?

Is it what Corsair it is or it just done not matter ?

Thanks all

Bud

2

I would guess the originals were made of brown leather and the restored ones are synthetic materials.

3

Goodyear built Corsairs here in town. I believe my mother in law worked on the assembly line, but she died before I met my wife, so I am not positve. Anyway, they put a fuselage in the company museum. Its been a while since I went to see it, but I am almost positive the headrest was black. They are moving the fuselage to the MAPS museum, so I will have to go visit it again, and get some pictures.

4

Well it dose say to paint it black but with seeing the brown and black, I thing black is the way to go,

Thanks all

Bud

5

There might have been variation based on what was available… Remember, there was a war on. A lot of materials were in short supply.

6

Thanks all

7

I’m going to feel like a horse’s patootie if I’m wrong here but I thought I heard or read somewhere once that the headrests were filled with straw. Can that be right?

Eric

8

You got me with that one …

9

I found some color picture from Korea of F4U-4’s on the Bairoko a buddy of mine had taken and given me copies of and the head rests are black. I’ll scan and post them. The Squadron was VMA-312, Checkerboard cowlings, one is #22 of the old Monogram Kit and another is #18, as hanging in the Pensacola Naval Air Musuem, don’t know it it’s the actual aircraft or just painted as such. # 18 is also on page 44 of the early Squadron Signal series of the Corsair.

10

For what it’s worth, I was informed that Navy pilots were issued brown leather boots during WWII, then in Korea they recieved black. So like others have said, anything is possible.

11

These were WW II F4U-4’s not newer AU-1’s or -5’s so I think the black headrests are the original black. I also found a color shot of a Corsair II of the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm that has the black headrest. In the black and white pictures they all apear black because brown would be a lighter more dark grey in a B&W picture. Just found another color shot of a “Black Sheep” F4U-1 dated Dec. 1943 and it has a black headrest! I rest my “head”!

12

Ok, here are the pictures from Korea showing black headrests. These are all from VMA 312 on the USS Bairoko during Korea taken by the late Doug Parker. The last pic is one I took at the Pensacola Naval Air Musuem of a F4U-4 painted as #18 of VMA 312. In the second to last picture you can see # 18 in the middle foreground. #22 was used on Monogram’s F4U Corsair kit in the original issue and reissue. Not apparent in these photos but in the rest I have is that the wing armament varied from 4x20mm to 6x.50’s on the F4U-4’s.

13

WOW 1st of all Thank you wayne baker, paintsniffer, echolmberg, RadMax8 and Melgyver for the Great Info and the GREAT Photos… You see in pic 2 the tail is shot off.

I am going to go with Black and will have pics posted under

/forums/1179076/ShowPost.aspx

Thanks again all

Bud

14

Bud,

With Tilley sitting behind it, and the windscreen and canopy shattered so badly, I don’t think the tail was shot off. I think that might have been a nose over. The prop looks a little bent, also. I don’t think a pilot could have survived hits like that to the canopy.

15

Wayne is correct, missed the wires and it hit the “barrier” and flipped over. I’ve got a shot of it on it’s back on the deck. Don’t know how the pilot faired, but he probably made it to fly another day.

16

Yeap your both right. I did not mean “shot off” as I look back on my post,

but you got the idea [:-^]

Bud