Last night the Iron Werks was at it again. I had the table covered with a bunch of parts that were getting sprayed with some Flat Black enamel. In this mix are parts for 4 different aircraft. There are 2 different 1/32 scale Revell of Germany P-51D Mustangs, and the Hobby Boss F4U and the Hasegawa F4U.
There are the cowlings and propellers for the Corsairs. The Hasegawa parts are on the left, with the Hobby Boss parts on the right side.
This next photo shows the cockpit parts for both of the Corsairs. I will come back and spray on a little interior green color on the floors. My understanding that by the time the Korean War happened, most of the cockpits were painted using black. I have seen several photos where the floors were sometimes left in a shade of green.
But once a plane has left the factory, and has entered into service, anything can happen. The crew chief would commonly use whatever paint was available to protect the metal. When this happened, occasionally they would spray over small placards since they were all familiar with how to operate the aircraft. So these cockpits would most likely not look like they once did when they were brand new. By the time the Korean War broke out, some of these F4U-4's were pulled out of storage and placed into service. By now the average age of each plane was 4 to 5 years old. They had entered service towards the end of World War 2 in 1945. Some Corsairs were being flown in the Navy and the Naval Reserves, but keep in mind that after the Second World War had ended, defense spending was cut back to almost nothing. That means that these planes didn't get flown as often as they once did due to a severely reduced "Peace time" budget. This would come back to haunt us in 1950...
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Here is what the plastic looks like for the Hobby Boss fuselage.
and the same photo again, but this time I am showing the Hasegawa plastic instead.
As usual, comments are encouraged.
Thanks !
