1/48 Hasegawa/Hobbycraft Vought F4U-4 Corsair |
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Gallery Article by Robert-Jan Willekens
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Dec 5 2003
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This is a
late-war F4U-4 Corsair, readily identified by the enormous four-bladed
propeller. I managed to cross-kit two models to make this model. The fuselage
and tailplanes come from a Hasegawa F4U-4; the wings are from a Hobbycraft
Corsair. The fit was of course non-existant, and a lot of plasticard strips,
filler and sanding was necessary to get the wings to fit the fuselage. By using
the Hobbycraft wings, I could lower the flaps, giving the all-blue airplane a
nice imposing look. Note the assymetrical loading of a single drop-tank in order
to increase the range and yet carry a bomb to the target! The lower fuselage of
the F4U-4 and -1A was totally different and had to be scratch-built. See the
picture below on the left and judge by yourself if it's OK! The cockpit was
discarded and replaced with a True Details resin cockpit, as were the wheels;
late type weighted ones. Decals come from the SuperScale set 48-97 "F4U
Corsair Aces". The whole airframe was airbrushed with Xtracolor Glossy Sea
Blue, with minimal weathering applied for this was a fairly new aircraft. Guess
what I did with the Hasegawa wings and Hobbycraft fuselage? See my future
installment of a British Corsair Mk.II...
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Click on
images below to see larger images
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This is the second
Corsair I've built as flown by Kenneth A. Walsh. Again he used "White
13" as his personal lucky number; the side of the fuselage at this time
shows a considerable amount of victories chalked up during the course of the
war. At this point in time, Walsh had 20 "kills", and on the 22nd of
June, 1945, he was about to down his 21st and final victim before war's end.
My
model shows F4U-4 BuNo. 80879 prior to this event. The aircraft was a pristine
and clean F4U-4, kept in immaculate condition for the "boss", Marine
Captain Walsh, who commanded VMF-222 out of Okinawa at the time.
Robert-Jan Willekens
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