I am building a Corsair from the battle at Okinawa, but cannot find any reference photos of the napalm tanks they carried. Were they basically extra fuel tanks filled with napalm and dropped? Or, were they different? Did they paint or mark them differently? I also read somewhere that they sometimes carried a bomb on one fuselage pylon, and a napalm tank on the other. Has anybody ever heard of this? Sounds feasible (and destructive), but wouldn’t the mis-matched loadout adversely affect the flying qualities of the aircraft? Thanks for looking!
They were the regular large drop tanks. They were a paper type that had a life of 24 hours once filled. They were dropped from the centre rack on -1A’s and -1A+‘s. On the true D’ models, they used bombs mostly, but did use the slimer style tanks as napalm occasionally. Most “D” models were bomb ladden and loaded with rockets. Let look in my archives and see what I can come up with for you. It’ll take me a bit, but I will let you know later today Frank. I have loads great referances on Corsairs. 'Tis me favorite plane[:D]
*edit: I have exactly what you’re looking for. I will work on getting it together for you shortly.
Thanks Drew!
I can’t wait to see what you come up with. I have to admit, 'tis my favorite plane too! I’ve been hooked on it since my childhood days watching “Baa Baa Black Sheep” with my Dad on Wednesday nights. [:D]
I hear ya on the show bud. That did it for me too.
Ok, here’s what I found out. It surprised me also, I had never looked for it before.
On -1D models that carried two napalm tanks, they are not the tanks in the Tamiya kit. They look like these:
Now, those are from my Acadamy P-47 kit, may not be exactly the same, but they look right. Now the tanks in the Tamiya kit are metal fuel tanks. The references I have (8mm combat footage from Okinawa [;)]) show the metal tanks were carried on the starboard pylon with a 1000 lb bomb on the port side.
Ok, now to throw you for a loop. (This is what surprised me) There were -1D models (not -1A’s modified - have proof!) carrying a centre line napalm tank. The one you find in the Tamiya -1A & -1 kits. They seemed to carry that more than the two napalm tanks.
Hope that helps you some. I can do more if you need and give you units that I referenced.
Thanks Drew! That really does help. Those tanks look just like the ones in my Academy P-38E, may have to scrouge them up. I also recall seeing an F4U with a center tank, two drop tanks, and rockets. What a sight that must have been to see coming right at you!
Do you have any photos of -1D Corsairs with a lot of ornance hanging under them? The last couple I have built were done in a “clean” configuration, but I wanted to hang a lot of ordnance under this one. Thanks again Drew!
One other thing, what color were the napalm tanks? I have seen zinc-chromate yellow ones hanging on a Korean-era F-51, but I am not sure what color to paint mine.
Here’s a photo from HS, showing the 150 gallon drop tanks from the 1/32 Hasegawa P-47D Thunderbolt. I have the same tanks from my 1/48 Tamiya P-47D, may have to use those instead.
Frank, I must say that I’m impressed by what your doing. Nothing says I love you like napalm[:P] To bad there were no Corsairs with shark teeth markings or is there?
Roy
LOL, thanks Roy! I have this image in my head of an all-blue Corsair with bombs, napalm, and rockets under the wings!
As for shark-mouth Corsairs, here’s a link to some decals for an F4U-4 with a shark mouth on the drop tank. I have these in my stash, just don’t have an F4U-4 to put 'em on!
That might be cool. Not as cool as on the plane but cool still.
Roy
Yup, thems the one dude!
As for color, they seemed to be light gray (B&W [%-)]) but weathered. They mostly sat in large piles until needed. Rust, dirt and other stains were very visible on them. Loaded tanks had an orange fuse on the filler cap that was raised somewhat.
I have to work tomorrow, but will look at the film footage again for you to see what I can come up with when I get home. I think there’s some color footage on there.
*edit: Hey Frank, VMF-312 (checkerboards) were one of the units I have the footage on. They show them with the two napalm tanks dropping in tandom in a flight of four. Very cool![8D]
Thanks a ton Drew! The aircraft I had in mind to model is #530 of VMF-312! That makes my decision for loadout simple- TWO napalm tanks and EIGHT rockets. This thing’s gonna look mean, I can hardly wait! [8-]
I have been hunting the same info for a build I am gathering references and materials for. I’ve hunted Yahoo and Google with no luck on those early napalm bombs. All I have are some pics from an Air Classics magazine (happens to be my primary reference on the project). Color is still going to be guess work. Hope it helps.
I have three 1/72 Revell -5 Corsairs to be built as follows, (1) AU-1, pylons coming from -7, (1) F4U-5NL in solid black finish from Korea night fighter squadron, and (1) -5 in white / gray / black finish with Argentine markings. Thats next in line once current hobby desk projects are completed.
Ok Frank. Here we go:
VMF 312 ‘Checkerboard’ Sqn. These Corsairs carried a mixed bag of ordanance. Sometimes one Napalm on centre line, one Napalm and one 1000lb bomb, two tanks for flying CAP missions, two Napalm tanks.
The types of tanks I saw specifically on one -312 bird was the P-38 style tank painted olive drab (looked like it in the color pic) under the starboard wing pylon. There was nothing on the other. All had fixed 5" rocket stubs - not bolt on packs-loaded and one tank, one bomb mix on the wing pylons.
There was a mix of the diffrent tanks there. Any of them were fitted for Napalm. The tank cap always had a handle welded to it sticking up about 4-5" so the loader woudln’t ‘bang’ the fuse. Corsairs did cary all three styles of tanks for the Napalm roll, but the ones I saw, only had the P-38/P-47 ones on Okinawa for that Sqn.
Weathering was faded paint, rust streaks, red/brown fuel stains and oil stains all over them. Ding and dents were noticable. Most of the tanks were painted white (for the centre line style), dark sea bluy for the slims in the Tamiya kit and olive drab or dark gray (AAC Neutral gray??) for the P-38/P-47 style that we taked about.
I wish I could get pics for you and everyone. But, I can’t. Hopes this get’s you going and I want to see PICS!!!
WOW! THANKS DREW!!!
That’s some great info, should tide me over until I get paid and can order that DVD. I already have a great idea for the tanks-
On my last Corsair, I took a small ball bur and thinned the plastic out VERY thin from the inside. Then, I took my fingernail and “dented” it a little and scratched it up to make it look REALLY worn. Here’s a pic of that build:
It’s hard to tell how thin the plastic really is, so here’s a photo of a drop tank for my P-39 that has also been thinned out:
I really want to make these tanks look abused- will probably use two slightly different colors (or, two totally different colors), rust, dents, streaks, and filth to really make them stand out. I hope to make the ordnance the focal point of the build. Thanks again for your help, Drew! [:D]
Sounds like the only difference in the napalm tanks were the addition of the fuses. They could have been any spare tanks and painted any color, sea blue, grey, OD, being the most common.
Any combat unit was likely to have these things stockpiled somewhere around the field, which usually meant piled up somewhere, till needed. They are treated roughly and so would indeed show a mish-mash of staining, denting, and dirty use. All that was needed was to fill them with the naplam itself and add the fuse to the fill fitting.
If the fuse was painted orange with a protective guard over it, that should be easy enough to replicate. Does anyone know how they were filled? How was the naplam procured or made? Was there some additive mixed into regular gasoline or was it a separate product of it’s own, shipped as such?
Yea, the tanks were just normal aux. droppable fuel tanks.
The tanks were filled just prior to use. They used a compressor at about 20 psi to “push” the gel out of a 45 gal drum. It was mixed 24 hours prior to use idealy. Napalm is a powder added to fuel and mixed at the airfield. It sets up into a thin gel about the consistancy of pudding from what I have seen.
The fuse was inside the tank. the rod (looked like 1/2" round rod) was litterally welded to the top of a regular fuel cap. The ones I saw were not painted, just bare rusty metal.
Drew,
That’s some good info on the fuses, thanks!
I wonder, I may just use the kit-supplied drop tanks for my napalm tanks as they would be much easier to mount on the hardpoints. Whaddya think?
Sounds good to me buddy! [tup][:D]
It’s settled then! Think I will paint 'em different colors too, just to make them more visually appealling.
I did some work on my tanks this weekend, and decided to use the ones that came with the kit as they fit better than the others. I spent a couple of hours with round burs in a motor tool to really thin them out so I can dent them up properly later. Here’s a thinned out one on the left with an unstarted one:
I also found this pic on the web of the same style tank, in heavily worn condition:
This is the look I am going for.
Drew- Do you by chance have a photo of the filler cap area with the fuse/guard on it? Thanks!