Tamiya 1/48 F4U-1D Corsair
This plane was flown by Lt. Commander Roger Hedrick- coincidentally same last name as mine- when he served as CO of VF-84 on USS Bunker Hill in 1945. Hedrick had 12 total air victories including 3 in one day. His photo is included. He retired a Rear Admiral.
Kit is very good to Tamiya standards. All paints were Vallejo Air. Used semigloss varnish but still fairly flat. Not a big fan of the all blue planes but that’s what was called for here. I like my result.
Does someone know the purpose of the white marking ahead of the wind screen? I included them but have no idea their purpose.
The markings are tape to seal the gas tanks.
Thanks Tom. I’ll buy that. I wonder why it’s not on any other plane?
Hi Mark,
I wanted to share about the tape as well. I had read about it somewhere but could not articulate it as well as this exchange:
Every time I see a picture of an F4U Corsair, they frequently have white stripes in front of the cockpit windscreen. These appear to surround the fuel tank and maybe are tape of some kind. Can you tell me their purpose?
Bob Hewitt
Dear Mr. Hewitt,
Among the many problems that turned up in operational F4U-1 Corsairs was a leaky fuel tank, which was located between the pilot and the engine for the most favorable center of gravity. Corsair pilots I spoke to said that a virtually universal practice to keep the windshield clean was to seal the fuselage panels with strips of white tape. The oil on the cowling flaps also leaked, spattering the windshield and also affecting visibility, hence the upper cowling gills were fixed shut and they were eliminated entirely on later models.
Sincerely,
Jon Guttman
Research Director
World History Group
Thanks so much! I also wondered about the white markings. What a great reply. And why white tape which is so observable; why not black? Was white tape what was universally common at the time? Was it fuel resistant?
After this exchange started I read that mostly when necessary they used white medical tape which was in good supply on the ship so readily available and only on those planes where there was an actual leak explaining why in period carrier photos some planes have it but some do not - a bandaid applied a sea.
Awesome Corsair. Also the yellow nose was non-standard, just used for the Tokyo attacks of late Feb 1945, and only on the Bunker Hill.
Very nice Corsair, Mark!
Very nice work on this Corsair, Mark @markhedrick
Nice work, Mark.
Nicely done, you have the yellow trim and his score board, that's a little color.
No photo I could find showed his plane with kill markings but I added them. The yellow nose does appear authentic for this plane.
I wonder why WWII photos of Corsairs show only a few with this nose tape but the rest without? Maybe only some planes leaked?
Thanks for all the comments.
Nice looking build of the bent-wing fighter. Well done.
Hi Mark,
I also wanted to say that I enjoyed seeing your build- maybe I will be inspired to finally finish my 1/32 (heavily corrected) Trumpeter F4U-4.
Love the Bunker Hill markings, I built an F6F-5P with VF-84 markings (it was attached to the squadron), you can find it in my builds list.
dan.
Dan, I looked at that F6f. Very nicely done. Agree that the Bunker Hill markings were most attractive.