Corsair F4U-1A Interior Colours

[fishplanebeer]

Dear All,

 

One of my next projects will be the Revell 72nd scale F4U-1A Corsair which, whilst not as fine as the Tamiya equivalent, looks to be a good kit and at less than half the cost of the latter. The kit itself has two decal options, one for a Marine Corps unit in December 1943 and the other a Navy unit in February 1944, one of which I will be using, and both have the same colour scheme shown which has a mixture of white with blue/grey outer wings panels for the undersides.

 

However after searching this site via Google and also referring to an article on interiors colours in the October 1981 edition of SAM I'm slightly confused about the correct colours for the wheel wells, engine cowling, oleos and the internal sides of the undercarriage doors. Some suggest that all would be in the external colour, so white in this instance, yet others refer to the use of chromate yellow unless it compromised the underside colour?

 

I've checked my SAM publication on the Corsair (MDF 18) and pics of preserved examples in the US show white being used for the wheel wells, oleos and undercarriage door inners (including the tail wheel doors) but as museum pieces don't always get it right can I safely assume this to be correct? Other pics in this book show chromate/zinc yellow primer being used in the gun bays, engine cowling/bay and inner tail section, with interior green for the cockpit all of which I'd expected.

 

Regards

Colin.

 

[Seawinder]

Dana Bell:

"In spring 1943 (as production was shifting to the "-1A"), the Navy ordered manufacturers to discontinue use of Salmon and Dull Dark Green as soon as existing stocks were depleted - for the Corsair this seems to have happened sometime in the summer of 1943. For most interior surfaces, Vought, Brewster, and Goodyear received permission to apply one or two coats of untinted zinc chromate (yellow) primer - not Interior Green. Main gear wells were still camouflaged [white], while the after well was generally not."

 

William Reece:

"Wheel bay tops; Zinc Chromate Yellow

Gear door interiors; NS White. Rarely Interior Green or Interior Green with White overspray.

Inside the fuselage above the Tail Wheel; Zinc Chromate Yellow. Generally the tail wheel doors are White inside and out but could be Zinc Chromate Yellow."

 

So there's disagreement as to the wheel well color, at least the top surface, between white and YZC. I think Dana Bell's data are more recent, so I'd probably go with white for the main wells.

[noelh]

As above. I always understood white was standard for the wheel wells,doors and legs. The oleo would be natural metal. The rest ZCP. 

 

As for the kit. It can be a tricky build. Not shake and bake like Tamiya. But with work it can come out nice. 

[Hook]

These links might be a half decent starting point as well: 

 

https://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/05/stuff_eng_interior_colours_us_part3.htm

http://www.theworldwars.net/resources/resource.php?r=camo_usn#ww2interior

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[LDSModeller]

1 hour ago, fishplanebeer said:

correct colours for the wheel wells, engine cowling, oleos and the internal sides of the undercarriage doors

Hi Colin,

This rather bent RNZAF F4U-1A Corsair (Stock USN Colours) shows quite well,

the Wheel wells/Wheel well doors (given B/W Photo) which look to be white

(Probably RNZAF Official - Used for Illustration purposes only)

Gear Oleo's  can be silver/White

Engine cowling interior - When I was researching my F4U-1A build, I contacted the

RNZAF Museum, who interestingly had a copy of the F4U-1 M&E manual.

The RNZAF did assemble Corsairs in Both New Zealand and the SW Pacific Islands - Photo below - RNZAF Station Hobsonville - Auckland

(RNZAF Official - RNZAF Museum - Used with Permissions)

 

The manual gave the colour from cowling leading edge to Engine cylinders as " Non Specular Intermediate Blue"

while the colour aft of the cylinder heads was "Non Specular light grey"

 

Hope that helps you?

 

Regards

 

Alan

 

[don f]

Hi Colin,

 

These may help.

 

From a production drawing courtesy of D. Hansen

 

 

And just when you think you have it figured out. However, the upside down Corsair is likely a -4.

 

Don

 

 

 

 

 

 

[e8n2]

The oleo is always natural metal.  It actually is more like a piston that moves up and down inside the gear leg with the oleo being moved by hydraulic fluid and not air like with an engine piston.  In a previous life, I was in a mobile radar unit and we had thing called mobilizers.  These were two part wheeled units that would attach to the front and rear of different type of modules, such as console modules, air conditioning modules, etc, so that they could hook up to the pintle hook and the back of our M35A2 2 1/2 ton trucks and go down the road to wherever we were deploying to.  The mobilizers had oleo type legs.  When we got to our deployed location and were done with the mobilizers for the time being, we always had to bleed off the hydraulic pressure so that the oleo part would go down into the leg,  otherwise the bright shiny piston part would still be visible and on a sunny day would advertise "I'm a target!  Come here and bomb me!"  Some things you never forget.

Later,

Dave

[72modeler]

15 hours ago, don f said:

However, the upside down Corsair is likely a -4.

I think you are correct, and this photo depicts a postwar carrier op, as the Avengers on the deck appear to be TBM-3E's, which were not used in WW2; you can see the prop on the RH Corsair with the xS tailcode has a four bladed prop, and the six .50 cal guns as seen on the upside-down Corsair would make it an early production F4U-4.  The RZ TBM tailcode was for VR-21, and what is most likely an RS tailcode on the Corsair was for VR-5, both squadron codes being allocated in 1948. BTW, in 1948, USB/USMC tail codes were no longer associated with an individual aircraft carrier, but a carrier air group, so I can't tell you on which carrier the posted photo was taken. Maybe @Tailspin Turtle might know? Neat photo, though!

Mike

[fishplanebeer]

Many thanks for all the great information of the F4U-1A interior colours.

 

Just a final question, what are the problems/issues with the Revell F4U-1A kit as on first appearance it looks pretty good but I haven't done any test fitting as yet? I'm not averse to doing some fettling but if they are major I may go for the Tamiya one instead.

 

Regards

Colin.

[noelh]

Colin, Britmodeller itself is a great resource 

I had bought one but before I built mine an uncle bought one for my younger son for Christmas. So the two of us set about making it. I was taken aback by the complexity. But we had fun. He wasn't bothered. 

 

Look it's perfectly OK. It's when they made it a 1D etc. When it went wrong. 

 

I like it a lot. I know it has it's issues but modelling requires some skills. 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2021 by noelh

[Tailspin Turtle]

20 hours ago, 72modeler said:

I think you are correct, and this photo depicts a postwar carrier op, as the Avengers on the deck appear to be TBM-3E's, which were not used in WW2; you can see the prop on the RH Corsair with the xS tailcode has a four bladed prop, and the six .50 cal guns as seen on the upside-down Corsair would make it an early production F4U-4.  The RZ TBM tailcode was for VR-21, and what is most likely an RS tailcode on the Corsair was for VR-5, both squadron codes being allocated in 1948. BTW, in 1948, USB/USMC tail codes were no longer associated with an individual aircraft carrier, but a carrier air group, so I can't tell you on which carrier the posted photo was taken. Maybe @Tailspin Turtle might know? Neat photo, though!

Mike

All I can say for sure is that the Avengers are TBM-3Rs (CODs) not -3Es, which makes it the Korean War era. There wouldn't have been an F4U in a transport (VR) squadron so RS is not the correct tailcode for the Corsair. Based on the position of the letter S on the rudder, my best guess is that the tailcode is WS, which would be VMF-323 on Badoeng Strait (CVE-116) in late 1950 or (more likely) Sicily (CVE-118) in 1951.

Edited January 24, 2021 by Tailspin Turtle