Here is a plane that I have been wanting to build for several years now. My plan is to hopefully get it done in time to post a tribute build on 03 January, 2023. I have to wait on the Molotow chrome to completely dry on my "LOU IV" Mustang, so there' no better time than the present to build a model of my favorite plane, the Corsair.
On January 3rd, 1944, Captain George Ashmun was shot down in flames and killed while flying as Major "Pappy" Boyington's wingman. This is also the same day the Boyington was shot down and captured, becoming a POW for the rest of the War.
For some reason or another, this project always gets pushed back further in the building plans.
Several months ago, I started a Kindergarten for 9 various 1/48 Tamiya F4U's.
In my usual Iron Werkes style of building, this works out well for me. After doing some research on this particular Corsair based on it's Bureau Number of 02723, I realized that it was possible this particular Corsair might have had the cockpit areas painted in a color that resembles "Candy Apple Green". I'll explain this later on in this build journal.
Since I already have painted the cockpit and fuselage side walls in the other 9 Corsairs, it was simply easier to start building yet another Corsair, making the new total at 10. This also helps to thin out the herd of Corsairs in the stash a little more.
I assembled the wings, fuselage side window inserts, and the cockpit for Corsair #10.
Then I painted the cockpit areas in an aluminum base color. At this same time I painted the cockpit parts too. I was in the zone so I didn't take the time to snap a few pictures of these parts when they were painted aluminum.
Next I sprayed on some Tamiya clear. This is a mix I made up several years ago using Clear Blue and Clear Yellow. It will get a little darker with each coat of Clear that is sprayed on top of the Aluminum base. This is something I learned at a House of Kolor painting seminar, where I learned how to professionally spray custom motorcycle gas tanks and fenders. I met and talked with John Kozmoski who is the owner of (and he started) the "House of Kolor" paints. This custom painting system is based on this principle of adding different clear colors on top of the various metallic bases.
Turns out it works on models too.
Once I painted the cockpit parts and internal sidewalls I changed colors and sprayed on my custom mix for Vought "Indian Red" otherwise known as Salmon. I painted this color on the tail wheel well areas on all of the Corsairs in the Kindergarten at the same time. It's one less thing to do in the future on the others.
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1. I shaved off the head rest and filled in the hole using LQS.
It turns out the "Birdcage" Corsair that Ashmun was flying this fateful day was not equipped with a head rest when it left the Vought factory. Ironically, only two aircraft later it became a standard feature. It is possible the headrest could have been added later on in the field. I don't have any pictures to show it was there or not, so I'm going to go this route and not have one. I carefully shaved it off, and filled in the hole with LQS.
I'm headed back to the work bench now to continue on with this Corsair. I want to get it done and photos taken of it so I can post it up in the headlines section on 03 January, 2023.
I will be building up two of these 10 Corsairs as part of the Pacific group.
As always, comments are encouraged. Thanks for stopping by.
