April Group Build--F4U Corsair

[draken35]

Splendid, Scott!!!

[Second Air Force]

I don't see why not, it could tie in with the 70th anniversary of Operation 'Torch'

You know, I nearly forgot that anniversary and I shouldn't have--my father was in Operation Torch. Perhaps we could consider doing armor, aircraft, ships, anything at all that was involved in that part of the War. There are certainly enough different nationalities and machinery that were involved there.

No.1,

I don't exactly have a set scheme yet for the F4U-4 but I do have markings in my spares for one of the choices. In fact, it's an airplane you sent me a photo of.

Here's a photo of the "progress" so far. As I have earlier learned, Testors and Pactra yellow and black are almost indestructible. I tried stripping with oven cleaner, brake fluid, acetone/alcohol mix, and straight acetone. I finally broke down and wet-sanded the stripes smooth using acetone/alcohol for the fluid and simply made the surface uniform and smooth. Other than that this is a very straightforward restoration, though the kit isn't exactly what one would call high-tech today. For 1981 it was decent, though the cockpit, gear well, and engine detail are very sparse.

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

[Second Air Force]

Here's a photo of the Corsair II in sunlight that gives you a much better view of the seawater staining effect I attempted with the white glue. It's far too subtle to properly see on the cloudy-day photos I posted earlier. This effect actually took a bit of planning since the Corsair has the gull wing layout. Getting the water streaks to "run" down to the low spot took a little thinking.

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

[Ernie]

Cool effect I don't know if I would have even though to try the clear glue for something like that.
Ernie

[No.1]

Again great result mate

[Second Air Force]

Here is one of the photos that inspired the water staining idea, from the Imperial War Museum collection. This is also a Victorious airplane but from 1834 Squadron:

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

[No.1]

Nice source mate

[draken35]

 

[ta152c]

Evidence of repainting on the F4U in the foreground too, behind the fuselage code '7T' -is it possible it had USN roundels before? The amount of staining on the wing is very severe too, nice to see.

[Second Air Force]

Most likely the overpainting was from the earlier codes used in training here in the U.S. I've done a bit of research into 1834 and 1836 Squadrons and they brought their new airplanes along from the East Coast training centers when they shipped back to England. Chances are this was one of those airplanes. The bird I modeled doesn't have this, so I assume it was a fresh airplane when assigned to 1836. The FAA-schemed airplanes don't seem to have ever had U.S. markings, at least the Corsair IIs that I've been looking at.

I forgot to take a photo of the underside of mine--I'll try to do so tonight.

[Second Air Force]

As I mentioned, I neglected to shoot a photo of the underside of the Corsair II:

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

And some progress on the -4. It is in the "paint booth" right now for the final color:

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

[draken35]

Excellent result, Scott!

[No.1]

Very realistic on bottom, I see some images and they was like that

[Second Air Force]

My learning for today: Don't try to paint gloss paints when it's below freezing! It was a nice but cold morning so I tried spraying this in the garage. It worked until the plastic got too cold, then the paint started to fisheye a little. This forced me to stop painting and bring everything into the kitchen to warm up again. The second time was the charm and everything is blue. I do mean everything on this one as the gear, wheelwells, doors, EVERYTHING was sprayed gloss sea blue on this F4U-4.

April Group Build--F4U Corsair

[Sall]

I love this paint. Look good ön this type of planes.