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Dean Caswell's F4U-1D


Chris Bucholtz

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Here's the Tamiya 1:72 F4U-1D Corsair MOSTLY finished (missing details like the spine antenna, underwing landing light, position lights on the upper wings, photoetched control actuators - y'know, stuff only we modelers would spot!):

 

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I finished it at 4:15 before the 5 p.m. set up for the Aces Symposium at the Oakland Air Museum last week, featuring Alex Vraciu, Archie Maltbie, Ted Crosby and Dean Caswell, whose plane this is. There are no decals for VMF-211's 183; I made the numbers from two SuperScale sheets that had "33" four times on each sheet in the proper stencil size. I cut the middles out of a third set of "33s" and flipped it over, and inserted it into the first three to make an eight. The one was "stencil-ified" with a sharp knife. :)

 

At the symposium, the pilot got to meet the plane:

 

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I now have three models which have been held by the men who used the real items - Vraciu's Hellcat (10 years ago!), Andy Anderson's 379th FS S-1 jeep, and now Caswell's Corsair. I really hope I can have a few more of these items in the collection before time steals these great people away.

 

--Chris Bucholtz

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Very nice!!!!! Keep up the good work Chris.

 

Mark Fiedler (aAzZ09)

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Its always an honor to meet the people who we model subjects after. Theres always a hanger reserved for WWII vets at the Camarillo Air show I attend every year. I've met several great airmen who are always eager to tell you the stories of their wartime experience. Most of the time they are selling their stories in book form so I never leave empty handed. Sadly, even in the few years I've been going I notice empty seats each year. I take my son and daughter to this event but I don't know if it will ever have the meaning it does for me. Great model, thanks for sharing the story. This is why we model.

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