I am building a Hasegawa 1/48 F4U-4 Corsair (Korean War Era) and am dubious about some of the painting call-outs for the landing gear and wheel well colors. Everything seems to be a variation of the overall gloss sea blue but this seems wrong. Does anyone know what these components should be?
Willie,
I’m no Corsair expert, but I’m pretty sure that Korean War era Corsairs did have their gear legs and painted gloss sea blue…not sure about the wells…I’ve seen pics with the wells painted interior green with blue gear legs, and with both the wells and the legs blue…so just exactly what the Navy regs were is a mystery to me…but it’s always s good idea to have a look at whatever references you can find.
From all the pics I’ve seen, late era corsairs were overall gloss sea blue (including wheels and struts) with interior green wells and wing folds.
I have the same kit in my stash as well as all the resin and AM parts I could get for it. Finding the walk-around book has proven to be more of a challenge.
-Fred
Fred,
Thanks for the reply.
Willie
Maybe a little late jumping in, but here goes…
From the factory, GSB -4 Corsairs had wing folds and gear bays painted in “green” tinted ZnCr. Nothing was masked when the GSB was applied, so a fair amount of over spray obscured some of the green. Subsequent trips through depot maintenance resulted in less and less green being visible.
Landing gear, again, from the factory, could have been in GSB, medium gray, or silver-gray finish. Gear was usually refinished during depot refurb, being painted with whatever approved paint was to hand (more often than not, GSB).
So, by the time Corsairs reached Korea, looking like they had been dunked in GSB is highly probable.
Phil