Next up, after years of collecting references.....
After years of collecting references and figuring I could build the Revell 1/32 corsair into something decent, Tamiya comes out with another super kit. When it was first out it was too rich for my blood, but as these things go, patience and a Squadron sale and I got it for about $100 and free shipping. She will be one of the land based Corsairs from VF-17, the original Jolly Rogers. A good guy over on HS sent me a prop so I can have the smaller diameter wider chord ones that VF-17 had after they got to the Solomons. Pictures show a mix of props so I will need to be careful of timeframe and aircraft. I got both decals and masks for the national insignia, I am thinking I will go with masks, paint the red surrounds to the national insignia, then over paint them with blue like they actually did. There is some controversy as to when this happened, and if they ever flew combat with the red surrounds, so I have more research to do on that! I will update as I go!
That's one of, if not THE best engineered kit out there, Rob...you're gonna love it.
Looking forward to the build.
Cant wait to see the finished kit. At least you are starting off well with a cold one.
I like Your references - especially the upper right one 😉
Best guess about the markings is the red surround was there when VF-17 were on Munda. When they went on leave in December and the airplanes weren't in use (the Marines really hated them for having their own airplanes - Marine squadrons only cycled personnel in and out of the combat zone while the airplanes were passed around),l the ground crews had the time to get all that painting done. Given they did it with paintbrushes, which meant they weren't all smooth and nice, I decided when I did Lonesome Polecat that I would use a red-surround decal, and then painted Royal Blue with a 0000 brush, which I think looks pretty realistic. HTH
Thanks Tom. It sure looks as if they were red at first, the surrounds are just too uniform, then once they were on their second tour you start to see some smoothly painted over, some not as much. Some seem to use lighter shades, some two shades, some darker. Add to that the effects of sun and jungle, and coral airstrips and you get what we see. I was amazed when I was in C-2s at how quickly our aircraft started to deteriorate even on well prepared bases like Andersen on Guam, and we tore tires up like crazy since the runways are made with crushed coral in the cement. I also have come to the conclusion some folks may be over thinking the whole issue, again as a maintenance Chief I wanted stuff done "yesterday", the best we could get it done because we had missions to fly we could make it all pretty when we got back home.
i've read a couple of sources that said the red surround lasted 3 months...this source claims from June 28th till September before they were painted out ...http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2011/06/brief-f4u-corsair-oriented-history-of.html