F4U-4 Academy 1/48 "Wrong Carrier Landing"

April 4, 2021 · in Aviation · · 16 · 3.4K

What happens when you drink too much and land your aircraft on the wrong carrier?
The crew takes you to record what happened, they give you food, and when you return your plane is vandalized with jokes and paint.

I have always wanted to represent this kind of navy curiosities in one of my models, I haven't found any kind of decals to do what I wanted, I haven't seen one built on the internet yet, so this was the perfect opportunity to experiment and develop new skills.

I decided to do my own custom decals, and after a lot of trial and error, and a lot of visits to my local print shop, I managed to finally print and use the infamous decals of this shameful aircraft.

I got a resin cockpit which I modified to use on my kit, made the pylons from scratch, the wings were modified to display them folded, and finally made a hole on the right flap for the pilot to step inside de cockpit, the navy blue was a mix of Tamiya X-3 Royal blue with a few drops of XF-17 Sea Blue.

It was a really fun and interesting project, I hope you enjoy the end result.
Also, I got the whole process in video format on my YT channel, please check it out: youtu.be/7wj4StBK69Y

Reader reactions:
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12 additional images. Click to enlarge.


16 responses

  1. Rene I really love it and have wanted to do that for years but on a Panther. A super job and a very interesting change from what we normally do. I think it would look great on a carrier deck display with a pilot figure somehow showing his surprise.

  2. Man that's comedic genius. Eventually I want to do one of these, like the above mentioned panther. Here's another example for you to enjoy Naval humor.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

  3. Great work on a project many have thought of but only you have executed.

    The technical naval term for this is "zapping."

  4. I have also pondered doing one of these but probably never will. I think you set the bar too high for me. This looks fantastic.

  5. LOL. Eternal shame on any aviator making that mistake.

  6. Great idea and execution!

  7. Love your model, René!
    What a nice idea!

  8. I seem to recall this was "SOP" in many NATO air arms when on exchange. A lot of that was at least going on with Danish squadrons visiting other nations and vice-versa. Great stuff, sometimes getting a bit out of hand. Whay kind of printer did you use René (@moixmodels)? (I shall visit your YT channel!)

  9. Great job! Ah the art of zapping! Way back when a Marine F-4 Phantom made the mistake of parking in our hanger {VF-31 NAS Oceana VA]. the next morning mysteriously there were hundreds of Felix stickers all over said aircraft. The sad part is I didn't get a picture of it.

  10. That looks great - what a fun project!

  11. Wow, looks great. So different from the norm.

  12. Nice to see, great work done on it!

  13. Original and funny topic, plus well done. Bravo!

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