Dana Bell

I love this shot too - the aircraft is so faded that it almost looks like Blue Gray over Light Gray instead of well-weathered four-tone camouflage. The Insignia Blue is unbelievably pale, and the white bars are centered on the discs rather than tangent to the star points. Someone HAS to release this one as a decal sheet. The ship seems to be an Omaha-class - cruiser, but I'm not certain... Cheers, Dana

Hi Cezanne, The only A-10 painted in the Peanut scheme was 76-552 of the 917th TFW; she did not deploy to Desert Shield/Storm. The aircraft did not have LASTE modifications at the time. Cheers, Dana

Hi Alan, The EDO Aircraft Corporation drew its name from founder Earl Dodge Osborn; much company literature referred to the company as EDO, while some listing gave the company name as Edo. The -1 Kingfishers used Vought floats; -2 Kingfishers used Vought floats if the aircraft were to serve at sea or EDO floats if the aircraft was to be shore based for training or inshore patrol squadrons. The Vought floats soon proved too easily damaged and orders went out to replace them all with EDO floats. All -3 Kingfisher floats were made by EDO. There are some pretty good comparison pix in my Aircraft Pictorial on the Kingfisher: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982358342 Cheers, Dana

Hi RAF, The ailerons deflected with the flaps on all Kingfishers. Unlike the Vindicator's ailerons, those on the Kingfisher stopped functioning as ailerons when deflected as flaps. (Pop-up spoilers took over when the ailerons were down.) There are a number of details that will help with the kit in my Kingfisher book: http://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Pictorial-No-OS2U-Kingfisher/dp/0982358342/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443447556&sr=1-2&keywords=os2u+kingfisher Cheers, Dana

Hi guys, I'm working away on my talk for the Nats, surrounded by docs on smooth finish, waxing, and boundary layers. Given the art of WWII physics, the AAF and the US Navy were concerned with reduction of friction drag and excess turbulence. Smoothed (sanded) finishes were highly regarded for that reason, as were semi-gloss paints. These surfaces, of course, had higher reflectances and made the aircraft more visible, which seemed to counter the whole purpose of camouflage. In 4-tone camouflage, the Navy used semi-gloss paint on the wings and stabs, except on the leading edges - which were flat to reduce reflections on those curved surfaces. The Glossy Sea Blue scheme was an admission that speed had become more important than camouflage. On the few occassions when I can still put a model together, I like to apply thin coats of lacquer-thinned enamel, then buff them with nylon stockings. (Back in the early '70s, before I was married, I had to show my neigbor my modeling set up to prove I wasn't hitting on his wife!) The end result seems more like a scale reflectance, smoothed paint on a metal skin. Cheers, Dana

Hi Jorge, Let me add my congratulations on a beautifully executed model! Wonderful job! Cheers, Dana

Sometimes old questions can still get answered - working in the USMC collection (RG 127-GW) at National Archives today, I copied a clear photo of Ring-Dang-Doo. The aircraft is certainly in one of the graded, four-tone camouflage schemes. The undersides are white, the vertical tail and under the outer wing panles are Intermediate Blue, and the fuselage top and sides are N/S Sea Blue, feathered into the white at the bottom of the fuselage. I suspect you haven't been sitting on this question for 11 years, but perhaps you chose a different scheme and are still saving the decals for another project? Cheers, Dana

Hi Don, Sorry this is taking so long - I've got about four inches of radio documents to sort through, so I may not get this written up until next week. Nothing is ever easy! Cheers, Dana

Hi Nick and Ray, All Vought and Brewster Corsairs were delivered with folding wings; nearly a quarter of all FGs (FG-1As 13627 thru 14591) were delivered as land planes with fixed wings. The internal folding mechanism was removed, but the hinges were still used to keep the wings together and the seams between the center sections and outer panels were sealed. Any Corsair could be field modified to remove the folding mechanism, but records don't indicate how often this might have happened. (It certainly never happened on a Kiwi or British FAA Corsair.) You can generally recognize the fixed wing aircraft by the tail modifications that were to be carried out at the same time: the after halves of the tail wheel doors would be bolted closed and the cove which would have shown the arresting hook head (the entire hook was removed) would be plated over. The frameless canopy was introduced on FG-1D/Corsair IV KD662 and F4U-1D 57284 (after the completion of the last Corsair II). On the Brit designations, Mk Is were all Vought Birdcages; Mk IIs were also Vought, but could be -1As or -1Ds; all Mk IIIs were all Brewster -1As (Brewster never got the chance to build -1Ds); and all Mk IVs were Goodyear -1As or -1Ds Cheers, Dana (I hate to flog my own work, but the new Aircraft Pictorial #8 (ISBN 978-0-9857149-9-4) has several other helpful details on the rasied cabin versions of the -1 Corsair, including several new revelations on British aircraft.)

Hi Nick, JT410 and KD244 can both be built from the Tamiya kit; KD578 cannot without additional mods, since it was based on the FG-1D. JT410 was (as you noted) derived from the F4U-1A; it was delivered with standard US Navy wingtips, which were quickly replaced with Andover Kent short wingtips at Roosevelt Field. There were later orders to replace the short wingtips with "short short" wingtips, but I've no records to show if or when that mod might have occured. Carbon monoxide vents were added by the Britsm abd should have been the style shown on the Fundecals fact sheet accompanying their decals (also available online). KD244 was based on the FG-1A (KD562 was the first Corsair IV to be based on the FG-1D) and was delivered with the "short short" wingtips and US versions of the CO vents - there are pix in my Aircraft Pictorial #8, F4U-1 Corsair Vol 2. I suspect Tamiya will produce the -1D and British Corsairs at some point in the future, though that is just a guess on my part. They are aware of the short and short short wingtip differences, so I'm hopeful they'll provide both types if they produce the Brit Corsairs. Cheers, Dana

Hi Jennings, You're right about the early Corsair IIIs wearing USN colors. Brewster was SO far behind in production that the Navy insisted all production immediately switch to British aircraft. Aircraft on the line were already in USN colors, and the wingtips were still being modified by Andover Kent at Roosevelt Field, so Brewster had relatively little to change moving these aircraft to the Brits. The big question is just when the Brit scheme was instroduced to the Corsair III line. If there ever was a record made, it must have been among the files that were pulled by the legal teams sorting out the post-war suits. Cheers, Dana

Hi Juggernut, I've a bit more material on the "as-supplied" radios in British Corsairs, but I'll need some time to make sense of it and write it up. I'll try and present what I've got early next week. The big problem (and the reason I rarely deal with export aircraft after delivery) is that I have nothing on whatever changes were made to radio sets in the UK or Pacific. More soon... Cheers, Dana

Hi Harv, Here's volume 1: http://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Pictorial-No-F4U-1-Corsair/dp/0985714972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428103742&sr=8-1&keywords=f4u+dana There's only a page on -2s - most of which shows things seen elsewhere, though there are two good detail views of the exhausts. I searched for the photos that would have shown the cockpit and the radar installation, but never found them. Cheers, Dana

I just had a call from Steve Wiper and he's picking the second Corsair book up from the printers right now. It's available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Pictorial-No-F4U-1-Corsair/dp/0985714999/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1428075977&sr=8-2&keywords=dana+f4u I had the 1/32nd Tamiya F4U-1A in hand before sending the book in to layout, and we had time to add a number of details that might come in handy with that wonderful kit. Now, if only I can make the time to build one too! Cheers, Dana

The general consensus is that the 361st's Mustangs were all painted with OD. Evidence to the contrary is that four English spotters were given tours of the base; they were close enough to record the 1-inch-high block numbers under the cockpit and recorded seeing a blue color in their notebooks. (Detractors of the spotters' evidence have invented the fact that they were all so far away that they were confused about the color they saw.) The surviving original color photography (which I used to manage for the US Air Force) shows that some of the aircraft wore a greenish looking OD, but others wore a darker color that cannot be clearly identified. At least two of the darker aircraft were recorded as being blue by the spotters. Roger Freeman - no slouch as a researcher - believed in the blue Mustangs, and MJF Bowyer - another non-slouch - was one of the four spotters. Nothing is proven by any of this, but I'm still surprised to read that there is no evidence that any of the aircraft were blue... Cheers, Dana

Hi Bill, As you suspected in your original posting, more Corsairs were delivered by carrier than operated off carriers. Unfortunately, all the -1As were delivered; when the first Corsairs were sent to war operating from carriers, it was already the last week of 1944, and all the aircraft were -1Ds. (The exceptions were the -2 nightfighters' brief operations, and VF-17 - yanked from carrier duty just before going into combat.) The sole identifying difference between the -1D and the -1A was the addition of twin pylons under the center section of the wing. Other changes were introduced during -1D production, but many of them could be retrofitted to earlier models. The good news is that many of the features (rockets, pylons) could be removed from -1Ds for operations. The bad news is that all the carrier operated -1Ds I've seen already had the "one-piece" frameless canopies. The wings could usually be folded on shore-based -1As, which allows for some great weathering. If that little open space that the tail hook peeked out of has been plated over, you're looking at a fixed wing Corsair, so don't fold the wings... (The -1A/-1D book went to the printer today, so we should have lots more details available next month.) Cheers, Dana

Hi David, Will you provide some details when the set arrives? I just checked it out on Sprue Brothers, and while there are two different length MHF antenna masts, I can't tell if these are the phenolic "plastic" masts used on earlier Corsairs or the formed sheet aluminum masts used on later aircraft and retrofitted to earlier aircraft. (The aluminum sheet masts were bent around a master, and had a riveted ridge on the trailing edge.) Either type mast will be useful, but knowing the type will help me figure which project I might buy one for. Cheers, Dana

Wow, that was a long time ago! Thanks, Don - I must have lost my copy of that three computer crashes ago... Cheers, Dana

Hi Thierry, Someone must have fed Steve some bad data on those 12th BG aircraft. (That or Osprey went off on their own again.) We ran the serials, and some of those aircraft never even passed through the MTO. The aircraft you're asking about only served in the CBI. Cheers, Dana

Hi Gunfighter, The contrast on that canal shot is pretty poor, but on the better quality photos you can see the Intermediate Blue on the fuselage sides. You're right about the insignias, though - it will make for a very interesting model! Cheers, Dana

Hi John, I'd have to say that your evidence is very strong that some Goodyear-built Corsairs used only primer on portions of the cowl interior. From the archival side of the discussion, I haven't anything that indicates when such a change was introduced, how long it was in play, or how many manufacturers might have used it. I wish we had a lot more unrestored Corsairs out there to help establish some parameters! Cheers, Dana

Hi Jeff, I'm caught up in the holidays and family things, but I still hope to deliver in January and publish in February! Cheers, Dana

Kepford certainly flew several Corsairs, but the aircraft seen in the famous right side, ground photo is a later-model F4U-1A. When I brighten up my 600 dpi scan of that image, the serial appears to be in the 563xx range. The good news is that we can eliminate a number of the colors used in that transition period in late-summer 1943. The cockpit is almost certainly Interior Green - the true color that we've all been using since the 1960s, not one of the earlier substitutes. All unfinished interior components would have been untinted (yellow) zinc chromate. If the surface was Alclad, there would be a single coat of yellow; anything else would have had two coats of untinted yellow. Wheel wells would have had a finish coat of Light Gray or (more likely) white; the same possibilities would exist for the gear legs. The inside of the cowl and cowl flaps could have been finished in Light Gray or Intermediate Blue. The other interesting feature of the camouflage in that photo is the lack of Intermediate Blue on the fuselage. Instead, the NS Sea Blue appears to have been feathered down the sides (before and aft of the wing) to subtly blend into the white of the undersurfaces. Intermediate Blue did appear on the vertical tail, under the outer wing panels, and a few feathered inches into the wing center section. (I'm looking forward to seeing who's first to enter a Corsair in that scheme at a model contest!!!) Cheers, Dana

Hi Tim, The color was Aircraft Gray, orignally known as Navy Gray but renamed to end confusion with the paint used on ship hulls. Eventually it became the modern Aircraft Gray (aka ADC Gray, Air Defense Gray, Adcom Gray, etc) 16473. The prewar color was much lighter, however. My 1933 Navy color chip looks a lot like 16515, though very slightly darker. When the ANA chips were created, the color changed slightly, becoming a touch lighter and ever-so-slightly browner. It became much bluer and darker as 16473. I don't know if anyone still make 16515 (Boeing Gray), though I think Model Master used to. If you're mixing your own, find any light blue-gray and lighten for scale and personal taste! Cheers, Dana

Hi Danny, The window was probably still there on LA City Limits - it wasn't eliminated until BuNo 50066, which was the 2531st Vought-built Corsair. BTW, Freeman had an earlier Corsair with similar markings. The first LA City Limits was BuNo 17666, squadron number 20, which shed its ailerons pulling out from a dive; the aircraft recovered safely. The accident took place 6 September 1943. Enjoy the model! Cheers, Dana