F4U-1 NZ5255 - No 4 Servicing Unit/No 18 Sqn RNZAF

[Calum]

OK No 2 is done. No 1 can be seen HERE

This is F4U-1 NZ5255 of No 4 Servicing Unit/No 18 Sqn RNZAF based at Bougainville in July 1944. This was one at least 3 RNZAF Corsairs that carried an angry Duck Nose art.

Decal notes said the gloss sea blue on this aircraft was very faded so it looked like the intermediate blue. I initially replicating thought this would be a problem but in the end it wasn't. these aircraft were very heavily weathered so I went for this look. Thought I'd overdone for a while but now I think I could have gone a bit further.

Some Details
Kit: 1/48 Tamiya F4-1A
Decals: Ventura (which were horrible BTW)
Paints: White - Tamiya flat. Intermediate Blue - Mr Color Lacquer and the Gloss Sea blue -Tamiya Navy blue from the Spray can mixed with some Mr Color intermediate blue.. All have been heavily weathered with using Mr Hobby Acrylics, and post shaded with Humbrol enamels
Clear coat: Tamiya clear all with Mr Color thinners.
Flat coat is Testors Dullcoate.

Build tread is HERE





Bomb fins were made from the tracks used to repair Printed Circuit boards

























More pic's HERE

[corsair67]

Calum, that looks terrible mate - put it in a box and send it to me, as I'd hate to think you'd have to have that sitting in your house for everyone to give you a hard time about it! ;D

What a great job you've done - she looks wonderful.

I hope you are happy with how she turned out?

[Dave Homewood]

Another masterpiece Calum. That really is superb weathering on the paintwork.

One of the reasons the aircraft paintwork was so harrassed was the coral dust sandblasting the paint on taxiing around, but what many people don't realise is the coral dust built up on the aircraft skin and if left it could be bad for aerodynamic performance just like frost. So the groundies used to wash the aircraft with petrol, the only thing they had that removed the dust. And I'm sure that the petrol must have contributed greatly to the demise of the paintwork.

It must have recently had a new spinner fitted? It looks nice and new and shiny.

[allok]

Nice one!

[smithy]

Terrific Calum!

I always look forward to your builds as you really are a very proficient modeller.

These last two Corsairs of yours are your best work yet IMHO.

What's next mate?

[Calum]

Nov 6, 2010 1:46:38 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

It must have recently had a new spinner fitted? It looks nice and new and shiny.

Yeah Dave it did ;D (nice pick up, I should dull that down a bit)

[Calum]

Nov 6, 2010 8:03:54 GMT 12 smithy said:

Terrific Calum!

I always look forward to your builds as you really are a very proficient modeller.

These last two Corsairs of yours are your best work yet IMHO.

What's next mate?

Thanks Smithy, I'm working on a RAF F-4 FGR2 and some figures for my 1/48th T-34/85 (both 1/48th).

The T-34 is HERE and the F-4 progress is HERE

[Dave Homewood]

Out of interest Calum, how do you display your models when they're finished? I reckon your Corsairs would look great on appropriate bases, with crushed coral and Marsden matting, etc.

[Calum]

I've got a cabinet that my father in law built me



Here's the WW 2 Kiwi aircraft shelf





One corsair sits on the plate you mention

[alias]

Excellent models, nice cabinet too!

[Dave Homewood]

Really nice display cabinet. You'll need another cabinet soon by the look of it.

[allok]

All very nice. I see some familiar subjects in there too.

BTW, if you do run out of space, there's plenty of room in my cabinet. I might have to convince to switch scales though.

[Calum]

Nov 6, 2010 16:19:18 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Really nice display cabinet. You'll need another cabinet soon by the look of it.

Nah plenty f room down below. I'll ditch some of these once the cabinet reaches capacity.

Some could even find a good home with some of the members here.

[adzze]

Amazing details Calum, well done.

Pardon my ignorance but was that blue roundel used by the RNZAF during WW2?

[Calum]

Yes it was, along with a couple of others

[Dave Homewood]

Calum wrote:

This was one at least 3 RNZAF Corsairs that carried an angry Duck Nose art.

At least four Corsairs wore the Donald Duck emblem:
NZ5248
NZ5255
NZ5262
NZ5277

[Dave Homewood]

I'm afraid I have to say that I think the roundel decals are completely the wrong colour. I was sceptical when I first saw how bright, vivid blue they are, and now I have just looked at a photo of the real NZ5255 on page 135 of Warren Russell's "Corsair Special" it confirms it. Although the paint work is totally worn almost down to the metal, the blue of the roundels remain a deep, dark blue. Rather than a bright vivid blue, they appear to be a dark dull blue.

Also it's clear in the photo that the Donald Duck was really worn and faded too, the blue of the body almost faded to white, this should be reflected in the decal in my opinion if the decal sheet specifiies the rest of the paint needs to be worn and faded. They could easily provide two options, a bright vivid one and a faded Duck.

Warren Russell also states the 55 on the rudder should be Orange Yellow and the dome Red.

[Calum]

I didn't have the benefit of that book unfortunately it's a bit like rocking horse poo. I only had what Ventura produced so I'm not changing them now

I would have thought Ventura would have had that book for a reference before they produced the decals.

They do have a colour photo of the tail of 55 as found in the solomons in 2000 in Classic Warbirds 6. You can see the RH fuselage roundel and it is quite dark (Darker than the ones on the sheet).

I was going to use my Aeromaster sheet for the roundels as they are darker but after I'd seen these on a mates Corsair I decided to use them instead mainly because the aeromaster ones were very thick and were also a PITA to apply.

BTW Dome do you mean the prop spinner cover? I just guessed as the Decal sheet showed a bluish colour, anyway as you pointed it's just been changed. the red one went U/S

Never new about NZ5262. I have serials and a duck for NZ 5277. Maybe one day I'll build that but to be honest it'll be a long time from now. I'm over Corsairs for a while

[Dave Homewood]

Ventura might be pretty good, but their decals are not infallible. The colours of the nose art on Plonky in their Avenger decal sheet is also wrong.

I think by dome, Russell meant the prop hub cover, yes. There's no spinner on the Corsair of course, just the dome. Yes, the colours he stipulates may well be innaccurate as that was witten in the 1980's going by b&w photos and if the aircraft was found in the Solomons in 2000 as you say (I didn't know that) then maybe opinions have changed. I am however sure from the photo that the decal roundel colour is too bright.

If you need any referencing done for future models from the Corsair book I am happy to look things up for you.

I have a photo of NZ5262 with the Duck by the way. I'm sure that it must have been a Servicing Unit marking because the photos I have showing NZ5248 and NZ5262 wearing the Duck were from when No. 21 Squadron flew these aircraft. So there were probably other Corsairs too that wore Donald on the cowl. I wonder if they got the design off a Ventura originally, as some of the SU's serviced both Corsairs and Venturas, and as we know a lot of the Venturas wore Donald Duck markings.

By the way, I was not intending to in any way criticise your model, I think it is stunning. I just thought it was worth mentioning about the decal colours for the roundels.

[Dave Homewood]

I don't have a scanner here at home Calum so I have photographed the image in the book, and while it is not the best reproduction i hop that it might show what I am trying to say about the faded nature of the Donald Duck, and the dark colour of the roundels.