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1/32 Tamiya F4U-1D!


wrbrdmech

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We'll be sending these to the printer shortly, and hope to have them back shortly after the Tamiya F4U-1D hits the streets in September.

 

I'll be ordering two of these sheets the moment they are available!

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F4U-1Ds were blue. Just a historical fact. Loads of interesting history there though.

If I were flying around the Pacific, I'd jolly well make sure my aeroplane was painted blue as well.

 

I think the weathering possibilities that sea water & high temperature offer more than makes up for the slight colour monotony.  I just bought my 3rd Tamiya Corsair, to go with my two Trumpeter Corsairs (remember them?!) and I'll get a 1D as well. They are cool aircraft.

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What we've discovered is that the VMF-312 aircraft you see with the full checkerboard treatment (cowl ring, cowl flaps, and rudder) were very early on in their combat career.  There's a famous photo of #559 with her aft end blown off by a ground based Japanese suicide sapper, and we believe that someone said they needed to tone down the markings to make them a little less easy to spot from the air and/or the ground.  She definitely had the full treatment before her loss.  Every other photo we see of -312 later that summer of 1945, they've removed the checkers from the cowl flaps and rudders.  We can't say with 100% certainty that those were not new airplanes that didn't get the full treatment, but after early spring '45 we haven't found a single pic with the full treatment.  We're just showing the slightly darker blue to indicate that they *probably* overpainted those areas to eliminate the white checkers.

Interestingly, Osprey's Air Vanguard 17 has a picture of VF-312's famous shooting down of a Nick by 584 & 533 on the cover, and both Corsair's are illustrated with half checkerboard fore, and a full checkerboard on the rudders.

 

A dodgy assumption on their part?

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What we've discovered is that the VMF-312 aircraft you see with the full checkerboard treatment (cowl ring, cowl flaps, and rudder) were very early on in their combat career.  There's a famous photo of #559 with her aft end blown off by a ground based Japanese suicide sapper, and we believe that someone said they needed to tone down the markings to make them a little less easy to spot from the air and/or the ground.  She definitely had the full treatment before her loss.  Every other photo we see of -312 later that summer of 1945, they've removed the checkers from the cowl flaps and rudders.  We can't say with 100% certainty that those were not new airplanes that didn't get the full treatment, but after early spring '45 we haven't found a single pic with the full treatment.  We're just showing the slightly darker blue to indicate that they *probably* overpainted those areas to eliminate the white checkers.

Nice attention to detail.   You planning on adding any additional subjects or are the ones shown the final selection?

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James V. Corr got 4 1/2 kills with -312 on June 6th. Steve Bakke has an autographed photo of him standing in front of his plane, but he's working on verifying the date when it was taken. The photo shows 588 with the white checks on the cowling.

 

-d-

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