Argentine Navy F4U-5

Hi!

The Corsair is probably the most easily recognizable fighter produced since World War II. With the F4U-4 variant it became arguably the best, all-around fighter from WWII. The –4 Corsair was as fast, was armed the same, it was as maneuverable, and had with drop tanks the same range as a P-51D. But the Corsair could land on a carrier and the Mustang could not. A big item when it came to force projection around the world. I do not have the statistics, but I think the Corsair had a lower loss rate than the Mustang in Korea, both acting as fighter-bombers.

With the new supercharging system the –5 was faster, had a better rate of climb, could carry even more and was used as a day fighter, fighter-bomber, photo recon platform and a nightfighter. Its distinctive “cheek” intakes give the –5 Corsair away. The F4U-5 was exported to several Latin American countries. Honduras received –4 and –5 Corsairs. Another large user of the –5 Corsair was Argentina. Argentina received F4U-5, -5P and –5N and NL Corsairs. This model represents one of the Argentine F4U-5 Corsairs.

The Hasegawa late variant (F4U-5, AU-1 and F4U-7) Corsairs are well molded in grey plastic with very little if any flash. The kit does have some annoying flaws though. All of the late Corsairs have a F4U-5N cockpit with the radarscope in the instrument panel. Non-Radar equipped Corsairs do not have this. The front of the lower wing is wider than the fuselage, and the cowl does not fit correctly. These are easily corrected but from a company like Hasegawa they are not expected.

I used Hasegawa’s kit No.09418, “Cag Bird” for this build. It was a typical late model Corsair build. The front of the lower wing was aligned the best I could, and took a file to knock down the ridges. Some sanding and the ridges were gone. I could have sworn I had a new instrument panel but could not find it so the kit  part ( with the radar scope)had to do. Since I wanted to do a straight F4U-5, the radar, gun muzzles and exhaust shield were left off. Only small amount of filler was needed, and when sanded down the entire kit was wiped off with Isopropyl alcohol. The Sea Blue, and black antiglare panels were painted and the kit left to dry. A coat of Future prepped the kit for decals…or so I thought.

I was given an Aztec sheet on Argentine F4U-5s. But it did not have the rudder and tail colors for the kit. Ahhh, but the Victory sheet on late Corsairs did. But they did not include the white. The instructions called the modeler to paint the white first. Ahhh, but I had white trim film. So the trim film was cut to size for the white areas and the white decals works fairly well. But the Victory blue decals…they were brittle (even in very hot water) fell apart easily into several large chunks and were too small. They did not wrap around the edges of the rudder and elevators, flaking apart in these areas. So I took one of these blue decals to the LHS, and compared the decal to all of the blues. What I found was the “Light Blue” in the original Testor’s “Pla” bottle was close… close enough for me. The blue was brushed on using the blue decals as a guide. The next morning I found the paint had reacted with the decals. So I used some Testor’s brush cleaner and removed the paint and decals from the fin and rudder. I then repainted the fin and rudder, and reapplied the white decal film. To have the blue and white areas correct, the entire rudder was coated with the white decal film, and the correct dimensions of the stripes (there is that word again… I hate stripes!) were measured out, then the blue ( which is a bit light) was brushed on. The letters, numbers and other titling are from the Aztec sheet, for an aircraft number 7 on the sheet. You would think what you would need would be grouped together, and designators such as the 3-A-212 would be one decal. Nope, everything is separate. 

When the decals were finished being applied, the kit was sprayed with a semi-gloss clear (these were supposedly well maintained) the final bits added and the kit was then done.

The kit represents a Vought F4U-5,serial 122031, aircraft 3-A-212 of the 3rd Attack Sqn, Argentine Navy at Punta Indio Naval Air Station around 1963.  

      The kit itself is a nice kit, goes together well and requires very little filler. But for anything else than the F4U-5N/NL, the dash needs replacing. And for any version other than the F4U-5/N etc, the exhausts need to be sorted out, as the correct parts are not supplied.  

But these are small niggles on a very nice kit. Then there are the decals. It seems more and more the decals are a disappointment. I can recommend any of the late Corsairs by Hasegawa to all.

Bruce

PS: Those with sharp eyes noticed the replacement antenna. I broke the original off just before shooting the images.

1 additional image. Click to enlarge.