First off, I want to thank Gary Sausmikat @gwskat
for help with locating a set of decals for this project. He also recently posted his dual Corsair builds in the headlines section. Here's a link to his builds if you want to see them...They are definitely worth checking out !

DEVOTION !

This dual build is something I have wanted to build for a long time now, since my Dad actually served here during the Chosin reservoir campaign with the US Army. Most people are not aware of this, but the US Army protected the right flank of the USMC and allowed the Marines to improve their defenses. The Army suffered horrendous casualties and they were heavily outnumbered by the Chinese. I am going to be building two 1/48 scale F4U-4 Corsairs. One will be the old reliable Hasegawa version, and the other will be a Hobby Boss kit. One will have the wings folded, while the other will be extended. I have built Corsairs from both companies in the past, and they look nice once completed. This is the decal sheet I will be using. My goal is to have this project completed by December 4th, 2020, which will be the 70th anniversary of the event when Lieutenant Thomas Hudner purposely crashed his Corsair in the vicinity where his wing man, Ensign Jesse Brown landed after losing oil pressure when an oil line was hit by small arms fire from below at the Chosin reservoir in North Korea. The story of this is told very well in a book entitled "Devotion" by Adam Mako. He tried to save his wing man and attempted to put out a fire and remove him from the cockpit where he was pinned when the fuselage caved in on Jesse's legs. Sadly Jessie died, but this action by LT Thomas Hudner earned him the Medal of Honor. So please stay tuned for updates, and as usual, comments are encouraged. Thank you.

What an entry, Louis @lgardner, and what icinic deadlines you 've set for it.
Waiting eagerly for your start; it is a winner combo already!
Thanks for hosting me here at this great KWGB!

That's a great pile up of goodies, Louis @lgardner!
Aahh, that feeling of unwrapping a kit...
Waiting eagerly for your next installment, my friend!

Hello Spiros, @fiveten
Tonight I have unwrapped the plastic shrink wrap from the model box, and I know exactly what you mean... It's like an early Christmas in June ! I posted a few photos showing the outer wing sections. Sadly I am disappointed about them being fabric covered, but this is life. You get up and move on and that's that. Never give up !

Gary, @gwskat
Here are a few pictures of the plastic parts.

They got the outer wings depicted as being covered with fabric like the earlier versions were. This is an error and I'll have to do some filling in and sanding... not what I wanted to hear right off the bat, but at least now I know about the problem. One way to fix it would be to get a resin wing fold set for it, but I'll probably just fill it in and roll with it. I will see how it looks once completed. If I'm not happy with it I can go the other route and purchase the resin Wolfpack set. I have a set for the F4U-5 and later Corsair versions. They will not work because this plane was armed with six 0.050 caliber machine guns and the later versions had four 20 MM cannons.

As far as the FAA clipped wings, That's not present. The wingtips look like a standard F4U wing tip and not one of the shortened FAA versions.

It will definitely have rockets, and possibly some napalm too. Here is a little clip of the instruction sheet. They have you drill out the holes for the rockets...

This bad boy will be loaded up like a dump truck !

Here's another picture of the instructions showing the rockets and fuel tanks.

My Dad told me that when he saw these Corsairs flying ground support missions in Korea, that they were so heavily loaded that he thought they wouldn't be able to remain airborne for too long... Dad said they looked like they were flying at a speed of around 250 knots or so when fully loaded. Maybe they were just slowing down to get a better time on target and gain accuracy ... who knows ? I wasn't there so I will not comment.

As always, comments are encouraged.

Bring'em on. I'm tuned in.

More detective work has confirmed that both of these F4U-4's should have had the flat wind screen. On the earlier versions of the F4U-4, they still had the original rounded style of wind screen, similar to the type that was used on the earlier model Corsairs, starting with the "raised cabin" F4U-1A.

Here's what was written about the changes and it's listed by the production block of the bureau numbers on Joel Bauger's website. Here's a link to the website if you want to do some digging of your own.

http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/navyserials.html

Vought F4U-4 Corsair
Bureau Numbers 80764 through 81758, and 81779 through 81828 had round windscreen, while bureau numbers 81759 through 81778, and bureau numbers 81829 through 82177 had the flat windscreen.

LT Hudner's plane was in the last block, with Bureau number 82050 being listed as the number for his plane.

This is what is written about the final disposition of this airplane:

82050 (VF-32) made wheels-up landing behind enemy lines near Koto-Ri to rescue Ensign Brown Dec 4, 1950. Pilot Thomas Hudner was rescued by helicopter and was awarded Medal of Honor.

Ensign Brown's F4U-4 was Bureau Number 97231. It fell in a later production block so it would also "most likely" have the "flat style" wind screen. Here is what is stated for the final disposition of this airplane:

97231 (VF-32 attached to USS Leyte (CV-32) hit by AAA in Chosin Reservoir area Dec 4, 1950. Pilot KIA

As always, comments are encouraged.

Always impressive what you find when you dig into something. Even a lot of accepted facts may prove wrong, nothing mentioned, nothing forgotten (don't want to clutter your thread my friend) As always a pleasure to follow the ponderings and digging for material you usually attatch to your builds.

One day, when I run out of stuff for the preferred type, I would like to build another F4 (have one on the shelf, from my younger days, that will either be rebuilt or just cleaned up, but that is far out in the future)

Bring me more knowledge my friend 🙂

Another marvolouis Gardner build, I always get a little more educated, I've thought about doing these two aircraft ,of course in 1/72, you've given us enough time so maybe...