The model represents a aircraft from VMA-332, which flew the last missions of
the Korean War on July 27th, 1953, when the truce was signed. The
squadron was the last US unit to fly F4Us from a CVE aircraft carrier into
combat. To identify VMA-332 Corsairs to our ground troops, the Squadron's
Corsair engine cowlings were painted white with red polkadots. This provided
instant recognition and encouragement for mud Marine ground troops when the
Squadron blasted the enemy with rockets and bombs. Troops called VMA 332
"the Polkadots" and the moniker, won in combat, stuck.. During this
“Police Action”, VMA-332 flew from escort carriers and shore bases. The
Squadron provided close air support for the mud Marines fighting the Chinese and
North Korean Communists. Both Army and Marine ground troops preferred close air
support provided by Marine Squadrons over Air Force squadrons, Marines squadrons
got the job done! VMA-332 returned to the states during December, 1953, ending
the Corsair’s combat record.
This is
a kit bash project using the following items: Academy F4U-4b, Hobbycraft
F4U-1a, Monogram Pro Modeler F4U-5n, True Detail F4U-4 cockpit, bombs and
wheels, High-Tech PW R-2800, Verlinden
F4U-4 detail set, Squadron Products F4U-4 canopy, Moskit exhaust tips, and M.V.
Lenses. I wanted a Korean War Corsair and the Academy kit is only option to
build a dash 4b. After talking with my buddy Gene Chudy, we came to the
conclusion that the cockpit area of this kit was the main problem.
Let me begin with the fact
that the Academy kit is a dog, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Looking
at the Academy kit it is horribly misshapen around the cockpit, the area being
too wide, but the rest of the kit is detailed with nice engraved panel lines.
Both the Academy and Hobbycraft kits are light in details and would need
detailing out. I decided to combine the Academy nose, wings and tail, to
Hobbycraft's rear fuselage and use Monogram's F4U-5n for the prop, landing gear,
wheel well covers, tail wheel gear, bomb racks, cannons and antennas for their
fine level of details.
Using the set
of excellent drawings from Aero Detail 25 book, I enlarged these to 1/48th,
and used this as a guide to plan where to make the cuts. I studied the Monogram
F4U-5 kit and noted where Hasegawa made the mold break; I transferred this point
to the Academy and Hobbycraft kits. Out came the saw and I chopped the noses off
of both kits, grafted the parts together and sanded till the pieces matched,
checking the total length against Hasegawa’s dash 4 kit.
Still
working on the fuselage, I then pulled out the True Detail cockpit set. Had to
remove quite a lot of material to get the set to fit. Sanded till the sides of
the cockpit set were translucent. I then proceeded to paint the set using the
Detail and Scale book on late model Corsairs as a guide. I used acrylic paints
to paint the cockpit and the seat, followed by washes of thinned oil paint, with
dry brushing with enamel base color and highlighted the details with colors.
Added a few scratch-built detail parts, used the control stick and weapon panels
from the Verlinden set to finish off the cockpit. Painted the instrument panel
weathered black, picked out the details on the faces and glossed the instruments
with Future Floor Wax. Next I then superglued the cockpit and reinforced to area
where the nose grafts came together. Then I carved away the kit flaps using a
flat square tipped wood carving chisel. Next I removed the kit exhausts, filled
the graft joint and started to rescribe the new panel lines on the Hobbycraft
fuselage using the drawings from Aero Detail 25 book. The fuselage was now ready
for the engine. I used the R-2800 from the High-Tech set. This is a complete
metal cast model with separate cylinders and engine block. I painted the engine
using the same techniques that I used on the cockpit and finished up detailing
with a scratch-built ignition harness and push rods. Mounted the completed
engine on a bulkhead made out of scrap plastic using the kit engine/bulkhead as
a guide. Looking at the tail wheel well, I made up the stringers and cross beams
and measured the area to install the tail wheel gear from the Monogram kit.
Painted the area and modified the Monogram tail wheel assembly so that it would
fit in the tail wheel well. I then assembled the fuselage and added the cockpit
glare shield and gun sight. Now it was time to start the wing assembly.
Decided cut
away the kit flaps, in order to drop the flaps. The wheel wells on the wing are
shallow, but I decided to leave them alone. Rescribed the wings for the 20mm
cannon bays, using the Monogram kit as a guide. Cut out the gun camera and the
wing tip lights. Drilled out the ground recognition lights and the mounting
holes for the bomb racks. Made up a false wing spar to mount the Verlinden flaps
and assembled the wings together. Matching up the wing assembly to the fuselage,
I only had to trim off a ¼” of the bottom fuselage to get a near-perfect fit.
Filled in all the new join lines using 3M Spot Glazing Putty. Added the
horizontal stablizers and removed the trim tab control arms that were molded on
and replaced these with wire. Added the landing flaps and cowl flaps from
Verlinden. Scratch-built the wing tip light lenses from scrap clear plastic,
drilling out the bulbs and painting these red and green. Cemented the lenses,
sanded the parts till they fit and finished by polishing. Cut free the True
Detail wheels and drilled them out to fit the modified landing gear. Detailed
out the landing gear using different gauges of brass wire to represent the brake
line, tow clevis and retraction link. Added the bomb racks and the 20mm cannon
fairings to the wings and then moved back to the fuselage.
Using
the canopy from Squadron, I removed both sets from their backing sheets using a
new X-Acto blade. I managed to damage one when cutting the front windshield from
the cockpit bubble. I glossed with Future Floor Wax and attached the front
windshield after it was dry. I then faired in the seam using super glue and
masked the framework with Bare Metal foil. I then blanked off all openings with
tissue paper to protect from overspray. The model was now ready to paint.
The
Corsair I decided to model had seen years of intense service, being built in the
mid-1940’s and being a hand-me-down aircraft from VMA-312. But Gloss Sea Blue
was highly resistant to fading, so the model should only show wear and dirt.
Spraying interior green as a base coat, I checked for seam flaws. I pre-shaded
the kit with Tamiya Gloss Black. Using Tamiya Gloss Sea Blue as a base color, I
then oversprayed this color with Aero Master Gloss Sea Blue, till I got the
finish I was looking for. I sprayed both of these paints thin to achieve better
control using a Badger dual action airbrush. To protect the thin finish and
prepare the surface for decals, I use Testor’s Metalizer Sealer. The Super
Scale sheet provides complete markings for two different aircraft from the
Korean War. I decided to use the one for a Corsair from VMA-332, as it is a very
colorful scheme. The decals are fair to poor in register. The lettering had
bleed thru past the outline on some of the major lettering and I had to trim
these with base color. The cowling band was too short and I had to use a second
sheet to get the right length. The maintenance stencils were too large so I used
the detail stencils from the beautiful sheet from Victory Decals. All decals
where set using the Micro Sol system. The decals were left to dry overnight and
the model was wiped down to remove all residues.
I begin
to weather the model at this stage by spraying the kit with a coat of satin
floor varnish. I then applied oil washes to add depth to the finish, followed by
overspraying to tone down the panel lines with the original base color. Then I
studied all the pictures of operational Corsairs I could find finished in G.S.B.
and got my trusty Prisma silver pencil to start adding paint chips in high use
areas. With this done, I then sprayed the exhaust stains using grays, browns,
blacks and reds to get the color I wanted. Next I added all drips, spills and
smears using oil washes, black and brown fine tipped markers to represent the
grime the aircraft would collect. I finished the weathering with a light coat of
Testor’s Dullcote to lock in the finish.
The
model was almost finished; I removed all the masking and did any touching up on
the finish. I first assembled the 500# and 100# general purpose bombs from True
Details, painted them Tamiya Olive Drab and weathered these items by
overspraying with Aero Master’s Faded O.D. Added the bomb fuse wires by
drilling the nose fuses and using 32 gauge wire. Assembled the Monogram 5”
rockets and painted them using gray, olive drab and silver Gunzie paints.
Highlighted all the fuses on these weapons by using good old Testor’s Chrome
Silver, followed by a wash of thin black acrylic paint.
Drilled
out the radio antenna locations, added the IFF aerials from the Academy kit.
Replicated the antenna wires by using “Spider Wire” and attached the same
using Super Glue Gel. Added the Moskit exhaust tips, assembled the bubble canopy
using the excellent detail items from Verlinden and added the recognition lights
from M.V. Lenses. Turning to the landing gear, the Monogram units with the gear
doors were added. The model was now complete.
The kit came
out rather nice and I enjoyed making a “silk purse out of a sow’s ear”
exercise. It showed me what could be done to an old kit by using a few new
models as donors and a detail set to bring it up to today’s standards. I hope
you all enjoy the review. You can contact me at
Emilio.Diaz@ispat.com
Emilio
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