Here’s the second installment of my Pacific Warriors mini group build. It’s Tamiya’s jewel built as a FG-1D using the old Superscale decal sheet. The decals are supposed to represent Lt. Col. Donald Yost’s plane, but the markings don’t seem to be accurate. Still, I used the decals to build my kit. I used the decals to create some masks and painted on the stripes and squadron markings. The national insignias are actually the decals from the sheet. Aside from resin wheels, seat, and flaps, the plastic is out of the box. The only modifications I made were to create a new light for the spine, new wingtip lights, and a new light for the tip of the tail. Everything’s painted with Testors and MM enamels and weathered with pastels and Flory washes.
Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy. I didn’t shoot as many as my Hellcat because it was tough to photograph with the folded wings blocking a lot of the view and light. Still, here you go…
I’m happy with another solid 3-footer to add to my collection. Thanks for looking! Feel free to question, comment, or criticize. Your feedback is welcome.
Please forgive my ignorance regarding drop tanks but would the drop tanks have weathering/chipping where the rest of the aircraft would not? In other words, were the planes maintained well enough so that weathering was minimal but the drop tanks were not maintained at all? Were they re-used or were most of them “dropped”? Just curious.
First, thanks for the compliment. Second, to answer your question, I did use some artistic license on my build. I know that not all tanks were dropped and many planes returned carrying their tanks. I have seen pictures of the tanks stored in racks on the ship, leading me to understand that a tank would be handled, moved, attached to and removed from multiple airframes, and would get beat up in the process. I’ve even seen pictures of tanks with dents in them. I didn’t have a picture of a Corsair tank looking EXACTLY the way I modeled it, but I wanted something to show a little wear and break up the all blue scheme without taking too much attention away from the airframe.
Anyway, thanks again for looking and the pat on the back!
Thanks for the explanation which answered my query. I just have to say your corsairs are a real treat to view and some day, if I live long enough, I’d like to be able to weather an aircraft model half as well as you do yours.
