Jump to content

Three years in the making, another Corsair, Marines Dream.............


ScoobyDoo

Recommended Posts

My Corsair has been underway for a few weeks now. This will be my first build at LSPs.

I plan on building it as a well known Corsair which I have updated unpublished images for. These new images reveal some of the mistakes and omissions that have been made by modelers of this Corsair for years now. This scheme is going to decal form soon (I hope). As well, the images will be published in a soon to be released Corsair publication. That author doesn't want the images posted until his book is released!!!

I will post images soon of the build. Looking forward to this, the actors air is my favorite aircraft!!!

Edited by ScoobyDoo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

Holy crap, I started this in August of 2013, I nearly have the fuselage closed up! I'll photograph everything before I close up the fuselage and post soon.

 

By the time I am done it'll be three years!

 

I'm going to model it as Marine's Dream and I'm going to want to discuss my view on how this paint scheme has been interpreted over the years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I finally have something to post. For the cockpit and the interior I used the FAQ books to pre-shade, post-shade, and to apply washes to the interior. I wish my photography was better. I used Mr. Color 302 for the green (we all know now that Birdcages did not have interior green or all-black interiors). For the salmon I used Model Master RLM 23. Thus far this kit has been a joy to build!

 

Corsair%20build%20098_zps6os0qfw7.jpg

 

Corsair%20build%20095_zpsjedspij0.jpg

 

Corsair%20build%20093_zpskn85xyft.jpg

 

Corsair%20build%20087_zpspkiqkzvq.jpg

 

Corsair%20build%20086_zpsardvlccz.jpg

 

Corsair%20build%20083_zpsiyn1yvmp.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

During this build I am going to present an argument that I feel builders of "Marines Dream" have been repeating an error in the paint scheme over-and-over. I believe the aircraft was an early blue-gray Corsair in the standard scheme. It was very patchy but I disagree that it is the version that everyone builds, which is something with a high-demarcation paint line with the light gray pulled up from the belly.

 

I am of the opinion what everyone thinks is a high demarcation line is nothing more than some streaking in the paint from both exhaust and coral being blown over the wings. If you look at any Corsair in the Pacific that has been in theatre for any period of time they all have some evidence of this streaking (F4U-1, 1As, 1Ds).

 

I know Roy Sutherland agrees this aircraft is a blue-gray scheme, although he feels it has the high-demarcation.

 

Dana Bell feels it is an in field repaint in the 3 tone or 4 tone. The images I am posting are from Dana and I feel they reveal it was a blue-gray Corsair with a lot of patch-work.

 

The change to the 3 tone was implemented about a few months before this accident. I am highly doubtful anyone in the field went through the process of painting an aircraft in new colors. They were too busy fighting a war, keeping the aircraft serviceable, and fighting disease such as malaria. I think a repaint was low on their priority in the warzone.

 

I have plenty of photographs of Corsairs being touched up in the field, that I understand.

 

As well, I know why Roy added the mouth to the aircraft. I don't feel it was there as you can't see it wrapping around the front of the cowl in the pictures I am posting. The Ignormus was a wartime book that had a monster in it, a monster that was only seen in the dark (eyes). While researching the Marine's Dream pictures with Dana and a small group of Corsair fanatics, I was the only one that strongly felt there was an eye on the right side cowl. Others thought it was mud. When the images were forwarded to Roy, he independently discovered the eye and was as convinced as I was. It makes sense, the book had a monster in it and that side of the aircraft was a representation of that monster and book.

 

Here are the images, now that Dana has released the book I have permission to post these.

 

The eyeball:

 

F4U-1%20BuNo%2002576%20-%20Marines%20Dre

 

F4U-1%20BuNo%2002576%20-%20Marines%20Dre

 

F4U-1%20BuNo%2002576%20-%20Marines%20Dre

 

F4U-1%20BuNo%2002576%20-%20Marines%20Dre

 

F4U-1%20BuNo%2002576%20-%20Marines%20Dre

 

This is the picture you would see the mouth wrapping around the front of the cowl, I don't see it.

 

F4U-1%20BuNo%2002576%20-%20Marines%20Dre

 

F4U-1%20BuNo%2002576%20-%20Marines%20Dre

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I should add, I have high resolution copies of the photographs and I have printed them off to study them. I have studied them to death for the past three years.

 

The dark areas in picture three on the spine up to the turtle-deck and the rh wingtip are from the aircraft being submerged in the water.

 

Note at the time of the accident, this aircraft had the turtledeck modification (no glass). This was the field modification, not the Stateside factory modification. It is most likely the pilot survived this accident due to this re-enforcement. The aircraft was delivered with those windows though and was in the early configuration at one time.

 

The aircraft code has been repainted. So there is a patchy appearance to it.

 

The wings have been resprayed in areas with fresh paint.

 

I should add, I do agree a few aircraft did get repaints in the field, not necessarily full repaints. But those aircraft also had the bars next to the star outlined in red or blue. The order for those changes occured at around the same time, many units refused to paint the red though and painted blue instead (it was eventually changed to blue).

 

The fact that this aircraft only has whie bars without any surround makes me think it was a blue-gray Corsair with the bars added.

 

I don't see a strong demarcation in any of the pictures. Most make it look like one shade.  

 

The tail wheel area was likely salmon, this airframe was within 100 spots of the recently recovered salmon Michigan Corsair on the production line.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

Awesome research John! I've been given these same photos from Dana himself before and studied them myself a lot. I never knew much about the story of monster, just that it was supposed to look like one on the other side. What's your input on the girl? Are you going island dark skinned girl or light skin tone? I'm starting to lean more towards the dark skinned girl more myself, but that's kinda a disappointment for me because I have the awesomely printed Pyn-up decals for this bird and they only have the light toned skin girl. Looking forward to seeing more of your build here.

 

Cheers,

Brady

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome research John! I've been given these same photos from Dana himself before and studied them myself a lot. I never knew much about the story of monster, just that it was supposed to look like one on the other side. What's your input on the girl? Are you going island dark skinned girl or light skin tone? I'm starting to lean more towards the dark skinned girl more myself, but that's kinda a disappointment for me because I have the awesomely printed Pyn-up decals for this bird and they only have the light toned skin girl. Looking forward to seeing more of your build here.

Cheers,

Brady

Dark skinned girl all the way.

 

Yeah, I prefer the other Pyn-Up decal too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...