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F4U-7 Corsair, 12 eme Flotille Aeronavale


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Hi Everyone, just finished my latest French aircraft build to go with my Invader and Kingcobra, Hellers F4U-7 Corsair

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Went for the heavy weathered look on this one as photo`s of these aircraft from Indochina and Algeria show

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Built mostly as Mr Heller intended with just some seat straps, plastic sheet and wire embellishments here and there

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I don`t know what vintage this kit is but I was a bit surprised when I opened the box..

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as the kit was very basic, in greasy lurid blue plastic and the largest location pins I`ve seen outside of a snap-together kit

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but I thought I`d build it, seeing as I`d paid for it, and see if I could hide it`s short comings

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Hope you enjoy looking at.. Cheers Russ

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Very nice work on the model, good to see you did GSB the way it would weather in the tropics (unlike what some others have done) - too bad Heller didn't really give you an F4U-7 to do (noting the area immediately to the rear of the canopy isn't raised, and the cowling doesn't have tbe faired-over 4 and 8 o'clock bulges from modification of the F4U-5 cowling). Just add that to your list of "very basic."

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- Hi Russ,

- You have done a very good job with this old kit.Of course as usual with Heller kits there are many shape mistakes, mostly around the cowling and the fuselage spine in this occurence,inducing canopy, very difficult to rectify unless using transkits .For instance, the cowling of the 7 breed used faired F4- U5 cheeks bulged intakes with an F4-U4 looking chin intake

- During the Indochina war, the name of the French Viet-Nam war, F4-U7 were used together with a few AU-1, the harsh climate and the operationnal constrains may have lead to very weathered painting like the one you have depict, but the marking were different in this period on the other end,they fit perfectly for the Algerian war a few years later and the Suez affair in 1956 alongside with British Forces, ( with yellow identification markings.) the weathering of these machines was heavy as they were getting close to obsolecence looking closely to your model.

- The F4-U7 were better maintained when they were used aboard carriers but the ages began to show and the paint was well worn out but not to that extent.

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Hi Russ,

Your modeling skills are outstanding.

Very basic model and the result is superb.

Regards,

Dirk

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