VMF-214 "Blacksheep" Capt. Ashmun F4U-1 Corsair, Bu.No 02723 Tamiya 1/48

Started by Louis Gardner · 32 · 1 year ago · 1/48, Blacksheep, Corsair, Tamiya, VMF-214
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    Erik Gjørup said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Really well done research as always. Apart from being some nice colors, you gotta love the names for them "candy apple green" and "salmon".

    Good to hear the jabs paid off - get well soon!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Welcome back to the scene, Louis @lgardner
    Good to hear that you both are recovering quite well, just a few hurdles to take.
    Your interest and quality work clearly did not suffer from it, great progress.

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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Thanks for the kind words. I’m feeling better each day.


    I unmasked the walkway strips on the wings after I had finished painting the rest of the model. I used various shades that I had mixed up beforehand.
    The landing gear were installed too.

    Then I finished the engines for the rest of the Corsairs in the Corsair Kindergarten.

    The intake and exhaust pipes were painted and stained accordingly. Then I glued the engine and cowling on the fuselage.

    The rest of the propellers for the Corsair Kindergarten were finished too.

    I sprayed on a rough shaped circle on top of the Starboard wing. I wanted it to look as though someone had sprayed over the existing US Star insignia. I did the same thing on the area where the fuselage numbers were located. I wanted it to look as though the plane was assigned to a different unit previously and then the numbers 723 were added to the side of the fuselage once it was assigned to the aircraft pool between VMF-214 and 122. The Blacksheep shared their planes with another Marine fighter group on the island.

    The areas behind the US Star insignia were painted using a Flat White paint. I also painted the “wings” that were added to the Stars during the mid 1943 year. Now all I had to do was to add the kit supplied Star insignia decals. By painting the background white, it helps to keep the decals look more even in color since they are thin and slightly translucent.


    Then it was time to start adding the decals and some more weathering. I paid a lot of attention to the forward fuselage fuel tank and I wanted it to look as if fuel had been spilled on the paint regularly. This is how these planes looked after a few months in service on an island in the South Pacific.

    Once the decals were done and they were dry, I did some weathering on the paint. I used some Yellow Zinc Chromate and Aluminum paint and I lightly dabbled some on the areas where they would have had heavy traffic during maintenance or suffered erosion from the coral dust and prop wash.

    I also used several Tamiya weathering decks to make it look dusty too.




    There’s an oil wash on the underside and it represents exhaust stains, engine oil and carbon tracks from the exhaust and wing mounted MG’s.
    I pushed the completed propeller in place and this is what it looks like now.

    It’s almost done.

    I’m sorry I missed the January 3rd date I had set for completion but it’s a case of better late than never.

    As always comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for stopping by.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Very nice effects, Louis @lgardner
    The oversprayed areas, the fuel stains, she clearly looks like a re-used aircraft which has seen some severe action.
    No problem on missing out January 3rd, as you said, better late and achieving a nice result.

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    Tom Cleaver said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    This is looking great, @lgardner. Once cool thing about Solomons Islands airplanes: it is IMPOSSIBLE to "over-weather" them. Your weathering on this looks superb.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Absolutely wonderful result so far, my friend @lgardner! QC1&2 approved!

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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Thanks gentlemen for the kind words.
    Since I have missed the original deadline for January 3rd I decided to slow down a little bit and enjoy the building process.

    So I went back over the Ashmun Corsair and I did some minor touch ups on it.

    Once satisfied with how it was looking I sealed everything in using some Future acrylic thinned with MR Color Leveling thinner.

    This stuff works great ! It also gave the Corsair a little bit of a shine and I didn’t want that. After some considerable thought I decided to go a slightly different route from what I usually do at this point.

    So I gave the Ashmun Corsair a very light mist coat on the top side using some highly thinned WW2 USN Blue Gray. It was more thinner than anything else. Just enough to knock down the shine and still leave it looking weathered.

    Once I get the clear parts on it and install the radio antenna cable leads, this one will be completed.

    I’m definitely getting a lot closer to calling it done.

    As always comments are encouraged.

    Thanks for stopping by.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    A very interesting technique that worked great, my friend @lgardner!
    Closer to the finish line!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Looks perfect this way, Louis @lgardner

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    capt. R said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Painting and Weathering are impressive!

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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Tom Cleaver (@tcinla)
    Spiros Pendedekas (@fiveten)
    John vd Biggelaar (@johnb)
    Lis (@lis)

    Thank you all for the kind words. I hope to have the Ashmun and the Mayberry Corsair completed tonight. I will post up more details here on the Ashmun Corsair once I finish the canopies for them both.

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    Harvey R. said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Ooh, a nice surprise to see so many Corsairs in one picture!

    Looking great on this one, the fuel tank staining is particularly nice and those repainted areas sell the look of a well used, but well maintained aircraft.

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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 10 months ago:

    Harvey R. (@scalerambush)
    Thank you for the very kind words. As you can see I'm a diehard Corsair fan. It stems from many years ago when as a kid, a local man happened to own three of the real planes. His name was Harry Doan, and he had the F2G "Race 57", an early Vought built Corsair Bureau Number 17995, and another Corsair that was actually a F4U-1D. Originally I had thought for years that this plane was an early F4U-1C cannon armed plane, (and ultra rare if this were true)... but later on I found out through Jim Sullivan that Harry's plane had actually suffered wing damage from a landing accident, so this is why it had the later cannon armed wings.


    This skinny little kid is me, back in the day when the "Blacksheep" TV series was being originally aired. I was ate up with the Corsair bug... I'm standing next to Harry's 17795.

    Here is another picture of it at this point during the restoration. Notice the color of the primer. This was in 1976 or 77. This plane is now on display in South America, but it's wearing a "birdcage" canopy. His wife sold his collection after his tragic death at an airshow.

    I took this picture during the planes first roll out after the restoration. If this wasn't the first flight, it couldn't have happened too much earlier. I took this photo on Thanksgiving weekend in 1982 going from memory, and this was at the Spruce Creek Fly Inn during a semi "private" airshow. He had the Corsair painted up as VF-17 Tommy Blackburn's "Big Hog".

    Wait until you see the gas stains on the Mayberry Corsair... I think they came out even better. I also did some "in field tough up" painting on both Corsairs. I wanted them to look exactly as you described them.

    "a well used, but well maintained aircraft."

    I have some pretty cool plans for some of these Corsairs in the current Kindergarten. I have been thinking about doing a Salvadoran camouflaged bird, and also one from Argentina in the mid 1950's US Navy look of Light Gray. I have a killer set of decals for the Argentine birds.

    Then there will be some more FAA planes from the South Pacific, similar to your MAGNIFICENT KD-431. One will be in a similar scheme to the color picture you posted with the early "birdcage" Corsairs . JT-199 and JT-235 I think they were ? Another will be in an overall Gloss Sea Blue like yours is.

    Thanks for stopping by.

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    Bobby McKellar said 1 year, 9 months ago:

    New here! Just wanted say that it’s VERY nice! I genuflect in your general direction, sir!

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    Louis Gardner said 1 year, 9 months ago:

    Bobby McKellar (@rwfanj)
    Welcome to Imodeler. I think you will find this a great place. Thanks for the kind words, and please stay tuned for a Corsair that I will be posting on Saturday, March 4th. I have a build journal started for it and it's listed as the "Mayberry" Corsair. He was a local hometown man who lost his life tragically, when he and another 29 Allied POW's were executed by the Japanese on March 4th and 5th, 1944. Lt. Mayberry was killed with 14 other men on the first day. It was called the "Tunnel Hill Massacre", and no one was ever brought up on War Crimes charges.

    I'll have the whole story laid out in the article, so please check it out if you can.

    https://imodeler.com/groups/the-80th-anniversary-of-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/forum/topic/vmf-123-lt-walter-tiger-mayberry-f4u-corsair-tamiya-1-48/

    Meanwhile here is the link to the other Tamiya Corsair. This one is the Mayberry Corsair I was talking about above.

    Thanks again.