F4U-1A information needed

[JohnWV]

Hello, I am currently finishing up a 1/72 Tamiya F4U-1 birdcage Corsair of
VMF-214s colorful Greg Boyington. I am currently finishing up the decals
then need to add the pitot tube, knocked it off twice so far, then do the rigging.
I am looking at doing Boyington's last ride, 17915 an F4U-1A. I have seen it modeled
with the fuselage mast and without. Which is correct? I have also seen it depicted with
a center line drop tank. The pictures I have seen of the 1As usually have only the
spine mast and not both spine and forward fuselage mast. Which is right? Are there
any pictures of this plane? Here's my shiney birdcage being decaled, almost hate to
dirty it up with weathering.---John

Birdcage 23 by jvandeu53, on Flickr

 

[CORSNING]

John,
It looks beautiful. I personally would not touch a thing unless you were
going to put it into a diorama. I love dioramas but never learned how
to do it properly or had the patients for it under the circumstances that
I was living under.
I present, Lucybelle:

May God bless and I hope this helps, Jeff

 

[CORSNING]

Guys, I am not the professor of camouflage but I believe the paint scheme that
John is using should be a flat texture. No more than semi-gloss at best. But then
that is just my limited knowledge. I really love the three tone scheme the USN used.

 

[GregP]

The F4U-1 and F4U-1a had radio masts unless they were removed in the field. I doubt anyone would do so unnecessarily since having a radio was a GOOD thing. The bird cage is almost self-explanatory. The F4U-1a has a canopy that looks like the one below, but is a 3-piece unit with two horizontal frames across the top outside of the canopy.

Our Corsair, the oldest one flying, started life as a bird cage, was upgraded to F4U-1a and then to F4U-1d status. It did not have a radio mast as an F4U-1d model until I made one, but it does now. We have all 3 canopies (bird cage, 1a and 1d), and can interchange it at will. As it happened, I made the mast we are using right now. In the pic below, it is configured as an F4U-1d (1-piece blown canopy). The bulkhead the mast is attached to has the fuel tank directly behind it, so mounting it was interesting.

 

[JohnWV]

It's glossy to add decals, the way I've done it for 50 plus years.
It gets dull coated after decalling.---John

 

[Old Wizard]

 

[JohnWV]

As far as the mast goes the radio wire on some went to the rear mast then into the fuselage.
So by having a rear mast only they still had a radio wire, just re routed. Here is Boyington
in his mastless 883 December 1943, month before he was shot down. Note the lack of a
forward mast, I have seen a lot of pictures without the forward mast. Nice corsair pic there though.---John

 

[CORSNING]

John,
I am up there in years but never did a lot of serious modeling. So my question
is, how long do you need the decal to dry before covering it and do you use clear
lacquer. enamel or something else?

 

[JohnWV]

I use Future to gloss it for decaling and wait a day. Then I decal and wait another
day before giving it a final gloss coat. If using Testors dull coat in the spray can I
wait a couple days for the Future to dry up good. I was told you can also flatten the finish with
Future mixed with water, 50% Future with 50% water.I don't have an up and running air brush
so all my painting is done with spray cans and small details like cockpits are brushed.The Future
is applied with a soft moppy brush. HTH---John

 

[Wurger]

I have found a couple of larger images of the 883 kite....

The pic source: the net...

 

[Wurger]

Also a couple of shots of different Corsairs used by the VMF-214 Black Sheep Squadron, most at Espiritu Santo in September 1943. As you may noticed all of them had the antenna mast in front of the fuel tank and no the one behind the cockpit.

White 31

White 57

White 68

White 70

White 82

White 93

And here is your White 83 , I would say...

The pic source: the net...

 

[JohnWV]

Yup, and most are birdcage, seems somewhere along the line when the F4U-1As came
along the forward mast disappeared, not sure when but the evidence is there. Seven
of eight of your pictures are positively birdcage, F4U-1 not F4U-1As. Interesting---John

I just dug out my F4U Corsair walkaround book and not all Corsairs had or
didn't have the forward mast. It looks like it was used up to the F4U-1D
then when the F4U-4s came about it was deleted. Then again not all
F4U-1s had it, looks like you need a picture of your certain plane to see
if it had the mast or not.---John

 

[Wurger]

I see....

A pic of the Corsair with the closest Bu.No. I found , is the image of the 17911, F4U-1A of the VMF-212. I think you may follow the one if there is no shot of the 17915.

 

[JohnWV]

That's what I am doing, 17911 is close in Bu numbers to 17915 also
units shared planes, 212 shared planes with 214. I guess that's the
way to go if you can't find the specific Bu numbers picture you're looking for.---John

 

[Wurger]

OK. Here is F4U White 937.... it may come in handy too...

 

[le_steph40]

Hello,
Some infos here about antenna wires on some F4U-1a (download PDF file)
fundekals | F4U Corsair
Infos here too: Tailhook Topics Drafts: F4U Corsair Wire Antenna Alternatives
I've this decal sheet in 1/48, it's very beautifull and very helpfull.
Others F4U-1a flown by Boyington with different antenna systems: 17735, 17740, 17883...

About 17915, with no photo evidence, it's as you want

 

[Dana Bell]

Hi John,

Almost all of the -1 Corsair family were built with the forward radio mast, which supported the antenna wire for the MHF radios. The vibrations and airflow snapped many of the masts off at the base, leading ground crews to search for alternative locations to attach the aerial wires. Vought tried shortening the masts, producing them out of stronger material, and eventually shortening them too.

The short dorsal mast aft of the canopy contained the internal VHF antenna; that mast could be used, and often was used, as an alternative attachment point when the MHF mast was broken. Originally there were far too few VHF radios; since the Navy had a greater need, early aircraft delivered to the Marines usually arrived without the VHF antenna mast.

Most of the details of these problems and solutions can be found in my two books on the -1 Corsair family.

Cheers,



Dana

 

[Old Wizard]