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Olathe, Ks Corsair


Glynyrd

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Hi all,

 

I started this in '07, though I've wanted to build it since the early 80's. It is a Hasegawa 48th scale F4U-4 built to represent a Navy Reserve Corsair from the 50's that ended up at a warbird dealer's lot in an Arizona airfield. There was a picture of it in a very early 70's "Air Combat" magazine, and since I lived in Olathe as a little tyke, and Cutting Edge had a decal set for that very aircraft....

 

I'm trying to get it to look like the picture, so I cut open the cowl flaps (will add later), and cut up the wing, and flaps as well. I finished the fuselage in '07, and now am starting to work on the outboard wings. I am using a "Fine Scale" article from the early 90's for the cowl detailing and the wing flaps, but am having to deviate from that on the wings as the outer flap has some detail that he omitted. All of the bulkheads in the wings are scratched, and I'm using the wing fold hardware from Tamiya's -1D kit (except for the seat, the only kit-bashed item I've used so far). After that, it's making rocket rails, cowl flaps, and wing tanks for it. I didn't realize until I saw an internet photo that it still had the tanks hung on it.

 

First picture is the photo, second is the kit so far, and third is a very fuzzy photo of the wing work done so far.

 

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Those were some unusually marked birds. Hasegawa put a kit out of another Olathe Corsair (plane #11) that had since been restored to flying condition; there was also a picture of it in the back of the "In Action" book. Matter of fact, I understand that it just came back from France, where it had been flown for the past several years.

 

The one I'm building was also rescued and is currently unflyable; it's in Kermit Week's museum in Polk City (?), Florida. It was flying until 1992, and I have pictures of her when she was in Millington, TN at an airshow in 1983.

 

Glenn

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  • 1 month later...

Figured I'd update this one. Finished the wings, and cowl flaps (whew!). Got the base done as well. Since I took these pics, I added more wing fold detail, such as the rods that operate the flaps, painted the olive drab panels on the port side (some panels had been replaced or painted over on the real one at the time), and I still need to add some scenery detail, wheel chocks, antenna wires, and weather it some more. Oh, and the rocket rails as well.

 

Glenn

 

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861074-R1-047-22_022.jpg

 

 

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That's visually quite interesting and you're not even quite done yet! Neat mixture of blue and gray components. Is this due to maintenence getting the most out of the spare parts, or is it just the scheme they chose?

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Nice looking paint job and aircraft, very well done!

 

SteveK

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I have never heard of an explanation for the scheme. Robert Trimble speculated in the caption of the picture from the old "Air Combat" that it was made up of several aircraft, but noted that the markings were changed to comform to the colors. Then the owner of Cutting Edge decals put a sheet out of it when he confirmed that the USNR actually used the aircraft in that scheme. It was also not the only aircraft from Olathe that flew with those colors. Seems someone meant to do it, but I don't know why.

 

Thanks, ya'll for the kind comments!

Glenn

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  • 2 months later...

Hi all,

 

Figured I'd update this thread since I'm pretty much done with this, except for the rocket rails. I noticed from internet pics that the wings had braces on them, which I made from brass tubing and a straight pin. The wing fold detail is all kitbashed. The weathering looks better in person, it fades out when the camera looks at it. It scared me to paint those OD panels, but it really had them, so...take a deep breath...I'm really happy to have her on the shelf, I've always wanted to build it.

 

Thanks

Glenn

 

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