NZ5416 - "TUTAE WERA"

[Aidrian]

I have added this Corsair to my pile as I am waiting for few little bits arrive before I can make progress on the IIIF.  This is the Tamiya ¼” scale model – the kit I used is actually a F4U-1A but had all the parts I needed for this -1D.   Ventura have decals with roundels that are now close to the proper RNZAF blue – older issues might have been a bit on the pale side.

Three photos show this Corsair; one that shows her derelict at Rukuhia confirms the serial as NZ 5416. The first comes from the RNZAF Museum website

 

Another taken about the same time was sitting on my hard drive with no details about the source. I suspect this also originated with an RNZAF photographer; this is the only one that clearly shows the mission markings below the windscreen that aren’t on the Ventura sheet

 

 

The last shows sitting rather forlorn behind NZ5332 at Rukuhia, but it does serve to confirm the serial number .

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by Aidrian
a feeeewwww tYp0s

[Aidrian]

It being a Tamiya kit it tends to fall together by itself if left unsupervised, and I got a bit too far along before I remembered to take photos. Its pretty much OOB with some mild refinements. I didn’t have an USN pattern seatbelts in the spares bin, so they are made from foil – with the canopy closes they won’t be terribly visible. I might allow myself some resin cast diamond pattern tyres however as these are right out in the open

 

Main change was to raise the flaps – there are very few photos of NZ Corsairs which show the flaps lowered with the machine on the ground and these all seem to be stored machines.

 

 

The white areas ahead of the flaps are plastic strip to represent the cove doors which moved down to cover the gap when the flaps were raised and up to redirect airflow when the flaps moved down and back. I did need to shim the ends of a couple of flap sections and their leading edges needed to be filed down to get then to fit – you’ll see a few bits of strip have been added where I got a little bit heavy handed and had to rebuild the fairings. The interior green isn't nearly as lurid as it comes across in the photos and I think the wheel weels shouldl be GSB, but can deal with that later 

 

Nav, regogition and and formation lights cut or drilled out. The wingtip lights have had clear sprue offcuts added and shaped; these were clear lenses and it was the light bulbs that were coloured.

Wing mounted landing light filled and hopefully blended in with the fabric under the wing

 

Score card for dopey moves made so far… TWO - fortunately, they are pretty easy to fix

1.      Forgot to drill the holes for the underwing pylons and centreline tank

2.      Forgot to add the support bar behind the pilot’s seat  -the seatbelt is supposed to go over this rather than the seat back

Edited February 4, 2021 by Aidrian

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Welcome to the build Aidrian and of course there’s nothing wrong with choosing one of Vought’s best products. 

[LDSModeller]

13 hours ago, Aidrian said:

Main change was to raise the flaps – there are very few photos of NZ Corsairs which show the flaps lowered with the machine on the ground and these all seem to be stored machines

Or RNZAF Corsairs under going  Maintenance

(RNZAF Official RNZAF Museum- Used with Permissions)

14 hours ago, Aidrian said:

mission markings below the windscreen that aren’t on the Ventura sheet

Unfortunately, whilst kudos to Ventura doing RNZAF Decals,

there are still some sheets which are wrong in one way or another.

Then that can be said of other of RNZAF sheets by other manufacturers.

My favourite are the ones which depict NZ5277 (Angry Duck) with the mission kills

aft of the Angry Duck which are actually paint runs.........

 

Regards

 

Alan

Edited February 4, 2021 by LDSModeller

[Aidrian]

Thanks Alan - this was intended to be a quick build, so I don't really want to go down the road of opening up everything just to keep the flaps where Mr Tamiya moulded them . That might be a later project one day- trying to catch some of the light and atmoshpere of  a Maurice Conly painting.  Interesting that the outboard flaps have been dropped past the usual stop and are hanging close to vertical  - presumably to allow better access from the ground for servicing the guns?

 

I think you do have to treat decal sheets like art profiles sometimes, it always pays have a good photo to double check. I'm not knocking Ventura - these markings only show up in one photo which they may not have seen when they did this sheet.  Part of the problem with some manufacturer's offerings is that things like bright electric blue RNZAF roundels have passed into "common knowledge" via profiles and later copies of copies of these profiles and very few people have the time to go back to the original sources to check. 

Edited February 4, 2021 by Aidrian

[LDSModeller]

7 hours ago, Aidrian said:

 - this was intended to be a quick build, so I don't really want to go down the road of opening up everything just to keep the flaps where Mr Tamiya moulded them

Hi Adrian,

 

Your model looks fine  as is currently  - I would like to do the 1/32 version some day

 

7 hours ago, Aidrian said:

That might be a later project one day- trying to catch some of the light and atmoshpere of  a Maurice Conly painting.  Interesting that the outboard flaps have been dropped past the usual stop and are hanging close to vertical  - presumably to allow better access from the ground for servicing the guns?

I have the book about Maurice and his paintings in my collection.

Re the flaps - certainly looks like the guns/bays are being serviced (amongst other things) - I guess it's not

entirely peculiar to the RNZAF, but my Dad was taught the  mantra - "Maintain - Maintain - which he carried

with him even after he retired from the Air Force

7 hours ago, Aidrian said:

I think you do have to treat decal sheets like art profiles sometimes, it always pays have a good photo to double check. I'm not knocking Ventura - these markings only show up in one photo which they may not have seen when they did this sheet.  Part of the problem with some manufacturer's offerings is that things like bright electric blue RNZAF roundels have passed into "common knowledge" via profiles and later copies of copies of these profiles and very few people have the time to go back to the original sources to check.

Pete Mossong has done a wonderful job working with Ventura, where we now have a better version of

the WWII RNZAF Pacific Roundel (proper colour)

As far as decal manufacturers go, unfortunately when something becomes "Lore" , it's very hard to

persuade modellers to think otherwise - even in NZ today there still exist myths about RNZAF aircraft

from WWII - Even the Charles Darby (who I have meet) Book "RNZAF First Decade", has errors in it. However those

have only come to light over the last 10 years or so.

I have another book in my collection written by William Green and Co, where they have depicted an RNZAF

Corsair with the Pale blue roundels, with yellow surrounds on the wings and you see it on a number of decal sheets.

unfortunately when these types of people give their view on something it to becomes "Lore" - anyway I digress

Look forward to the rest of your build

 

Regards

 

Alan

[Aidrian]

On 2/4/2021 at 4:58 PM, LDSModeller said:

Even the Charles Darby (who I have meet) Book "RNZAF First Decade", has errors in it

I was just looking at my now rather faded copy last night. To be fair to Dr Darby access to official records and personal logs and photo colections has improved enormously in the forty something years  since he wrote the book

 

The one thing that always struck me as rather odd was the note about 4-tone Corsairs tuning pinkish; I really don't know where that came from. I wasn't game to try this on the first Corsair that I built back about 1980, and I'm still not going to try it without a lot more really good evidence,  The Salmon primer that might explain this went away a good long while before the first NZ Corsairs were put together in the Islands and the paint on Marine Corps Corsairs in the same area usually seems to have faded to shaes of bluish grey. (Dana Bell gives the date of instruction for the change from "Salmon" to Yellow ZC  as April 1943 with existing stocks to be used up, Vought's drawings were updated in August, but the first batch of Corsairs that went to the RNZAF didn't arrive on Espiritu Santo until late March 1944.)  

Edited February 6, 2021 by Aidrian

[LDSModeller]

4 hours ago, Aidrian said:

To be afir to Dr Darby access to official records and personal logs and photo colections has improved enormously in the forty something years  since he wrote the book

Yes and No.

Charles had the opportunity to roam around the RNZAF Rukuhia open storage facility, and at least one mistake is wrongly identifying the Yellow

Gunnery School HQ codes as 14 Fighter Squadron codes which also wore HQ codes on P40E-1's (which incidentally were from the Tonga P40E-1's),

which he then published in his book, and been copied ad nausum by decal companies, even up to a couple of years ago.

 

 

4 hours ago, Aidrian said:

The one thing that always struck me as rather odd was the note about 4-tone Corsairs tuning pinkish; I really don't know where that came from. I wasn't game to try this on the first Corsair that I built back about 1980, and I'm still not going to try it without a lot more really good evidence,  The Salmon primer that might explain this went away a good long while before the first NZ Corsairs were put together in the Islands and the paint on Marine Corps Corsairs in the same area usually seems to have faded to shaes of bluish grey. (Dana Bell gives the date of instruction for the change from "Salmon" to Yellow ZC  as April 1943 with existing stocks to be used up, Vought's drawings were updated in August, but the first batch of Corsairs that went to the RNZAF didn't arrive on Espiritu Santo until late March 1944.)  

Warren Russell mentions this in his Book on the RNZAF Corsairs (yes I've read through all of them).

Warren attributed the Pinky Grey colour to the coral dust (which initially I found fascinating) affecting the

paint. However I found this was not an issue with (Coral Dust)USN/USMC units on the same airfields.

It was not till Dana Bell made mention that the Pink Grey colour was a result of the Paint it self (degrading

not manufactured properly (apologies to Dana if I've not quite got that right). This all made sense.

So again erroneous assumptions - Yes, Things have changed information wise, but Modellers still swear by the book.

 

Pink Salmon colour could still be found on Later F4U-1 Corsairs, in the form of Ammunition boxes still being painted

in that colour - I can personally confirm this, as the RNZAF Museum has some (which I have seen) in it's collection, complete

with manufacturers details (Airparts - Winter & Crampton Corporation - Granville Michigan)

Regards

 

Alan

[Aidrian]

6 hours ago, LDSModeller said:

Warren Russell mentions this in his Book on the RNZAF Corsairs (yes I've read through all of them).

I came across his books in the early eighties on the shelves of the Auckland Public Library,  a few years before that once fair city started turning into modern day Jafaland. I have never, unfortunately, found a copy of the Corsair volume for sale in the last decade or so,  despite having set alerts for it on just every second hand book network on the internet.  So maybe the next Corsair will be pinkish after all - ultramarine based paints can do some funny things when exposed to strong sun. 

[Aidrian]

A bit more done in the last few day and we have some paint on now Fittings for the wing tanks were filed away as they weren’t a feature of the -1D, I got a bit carried away and forgot the photos before applying paint, but basically this involved filling the circular lines that denote filler point on the outboard section and filling away the raised covers below the wing.

A quick coat of primer to find any obvious blemishes and then some colour.  ‘5416 had quite a battered paint job so once the primer was dry and a few little problems were fixed, I applied some silver around the wing roots and various panels, then a few drops of masking fluid once that was dry. The photos suggest that the paint had failed in quite a big way in some areas, so a few bigger spots were added in areas where the wear was heaviest

Due to it being very soggy this winter, I had to work indoors, so the GSB was brushed on; spraying indoors in a small house is rather antisocial. The GSB is a mix of acrylic white, back, and Humbrol 15, mixed until I had something that looked about right.  The mix gives a dull blue-grey with just a hint of green to it I did vary the colour a little bit here and there just to break it up a liittle. It perhaps looks a bit too dark in some lights for a really faded GSB finish while it is still glossy, but the final dust and matt coat will tone it down a bit.

 

After a couple of thin coats of GSB I rubbed off the masking fluid and then used a small brush to fill in the edges of GSB around the chipped areas.   The clour has come out as bit satrated - it's alot less blue in the flesh 

 

 

I need to let everything dry good and hard for a couple of days, I don’t want to overdo the weathering at this stage - more will come after the decals are on since well-used airframes and pristine markings just /look/ wrong.

 

 

One mild frustration was the sudden reappearance of a slight ghost seam where the centre section joins the fuselage halves, which needs a bit more attention.

[CliffB]

I'm just catching up with this one Aidrian and I have to say it's been a good read (and great photos too).

Your paintwork and weathering are really good from here 

 

Cheers

[Aidrian]

Well, that IS interesting…

Ventura V4880 being applied.  The roundels looked reasonably close to what I had in mind on the sheet under domestic lighting. They don’t look too bad on the model in diffuse daylight or under incandescent light but, oh my goodness, they do look a bit alarming under a daylight bulb – a really bright electric blue. The ink responds completely different way to the surrounding paint when the light source changes.

 

This is what come up with normal room lighting, the change in colour is due to the phone and a different angle, not to any differce in the light 

 

 

 

The in-service photos of Tutae Wera show that the roundel on the fuselage side is slightly lighter than the surrounding, rather faded GSB. Although that relationship could be affected by the use different filters, the film used and the exposure, it’s all we have to go on so far.  I did throw one of the photos into greyscale to see what happened and that doesn’t look too bad, but I am still not a hundred percent convinced.

 

 

Fading of the blue amrkings  is often due to a couple of factors. The prewar colour was based on ultramarine blue with some white added. I don’t know, but think it reasonable to assume that the BALM colour also used synthetic ultramarine as it was widely available and cheap; the fact that the colour tends very slightly to the red side of the blue spectrum rather than green supports this idea.  The white was most likely to have been zinc oxide as this was the most common pigment for aviation colours; titanium white mostly came from Norway which was under occupation, making it rather difficult to source at the time.

 

Two things happen when you mix ultramarine with zinc oxide white and/or expose it to bright sunlight.

 

The first happens anyway given time– ultramarine blue bleaches when mixed with zinc oxide. The rate and extent depend on the ratio of blue to white. You need less white than you might think as the blue is diminished immediately. However, while pure ultramarine is very stable, adding zinc white makes it much less so and it becomes prone to further fading when exposed to light.

 

The second is called ultramarine disease and is something that especially concerns art curators. It doesn’t need white added or directly affect the pigment, but rather the binder. There’s a photochemical reaction which results in a change in the reflectance, and causes a once clean blue to turn a muddy blue grey – the effect is a bit like looking at blue curtains through heavily frosted glass.

 

I am inclined to think the blue is not too far off for some Corsairs, and too light for others but perhaps a little too saturated. I don’t yet have a good solution for this.

[Colin W]

Wow thats a serendipitous discovery and might explain the huge diference in printed Kiwi markings on decal sheets. Most decals are too bright which really anoys me. I use @Pete Mossong s Aeromaster sheets as the definitive which actually agrees with your conclusions. Here are some of the Aeromaster decals under a ranf=ge of lighting conditions.

 

 

 

 

 

Colin

[Aidrian]

22 hours ago, Colin W said:

I use @Pete Mossong s Aeromaster sheets as the definitive

 

Aeromaster RNZAF decals seem to slighly harder to find these days than pots of gold at the ends of rainbows. I've been toying with the idea of getting some roundels printed in a range of sizes, styles and colours; at times I am inclined to think no two RNZAF aircraft were painted quite alike. An A4 sheet of just mixed roundels and a handul of fin flashes might be useful to supplement other offerings.   

 

I love your Rukuhia version of a Corsair and the peeling paint effect  

[tonyot]

This is coming along really well mate,.... I especially like how Ventura have left the darker outline to the USAAF marking on the upper left wing. I must be one of the few Brit`s who knows what Tutai Wera means too LOL! I only know becuse I`m nosey and checked when I made my model of the same aircraft in 1/72nd tears ago mind you!!

Keep up the great work,

 

 

23 hours ago, Colin W said:

Wow thats a serendipitous discovery and might explain the huge diference in printed Kiwi markings on decal sheets. Most decals are too bright which really anoys me. I use @Pete Mossong s Aeromaster sheets as the definitive which actually agrees with your conclusions. Here are some of the Aeromaster decals under a ranf=ge of lighting conditions.

 

 

 

 

 

Colin

That looks superb Colin!

 

Cheers fellas,

                     Tony

[Peter Lloyd]

Thanks Adrian. How much to weather before and after applying decals is always a conundrum for me so it's good to see your approach.

[Aidrian]

Two steps forrard and one back; photos now included at no extra cost.

 

Forward steps 

 

The tail gear was opened up a little  the solid moulded lower arm is more of an A-frame  - you can see this in Colin W's excellent model  - and the upper arm has a few lightening holes; the arrester hook was deleted on NZ Corsairs.   

 

The main gear was cleaned up - there are a couple of slightly awkward ejector pin marks in the main strut - and the openings in the torque arms were drilled out. I suspect that the latter is one of those nearly invisible things that might not really be worth it as I am not in the habit of displaying my models upside down. Brake lines were added from copper wire and then I test fitted the CMK wheels with diamond tread tyres.  These wheels are much narrower than the ones that Tamiya supply; I am not sure yet which is more acurate, the CMK ones look a bit skinny and Mr T's version looks too fat.

 

 

The question "what couour was the gear?" isn't easily answered; Chance Vought's engineering drawing gives a few options - Non-specular Light Grey, White, Non-specular, Semi-gloss or Gloss Sea Blue, or aluminium. Most photos of RNZAF Corsirs show a light colour and I have gone with aluminium as this was apparently a common repaint colour when the struts were serviced. 

 

 

Backward step

 

I wasn't happy with the roundel on the fuselage, it looked a little too far back and was crowding the serial number despite the fact that I had taken a good bit of care to line up the front edge of the bar.  Checking against the Vought drawings suggested the decal for this option was just a little bit too big. The circle in which the US star  was inscribed was 40" diameter, and the white portion of the bars was 20" between the inner edge of the blue surround and the edge of the circle.  The bars on the Ventura decals for this area were too long and the circle a couple of inches too large as well. Since the NZ roundel was painted right over the US star, it should be very close to the same size (allowing for varying levels of skill among the paint crew). So a bit of masking tape was used to try and pull as much of the original decal away and the damaged area was sanded down and touched up. I pinched the fuselage roundel from the angry Donald Duck Corsair on the same sheet, and everything seems to fit much better. I'l need to touch up some detals with a 00 brush; the yellow ring on this decal covers the ident blue surround on the bar, whereas it should stop at the outer edge, and perhaps the centre blue spot is a little small?          

 

 

And greyscale again to try and get an idea of where I am close enough and what might need a bit of adjustment

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by Aidrian

[JOCKNEY]

Love the build, but the photo of all those beautiful aircraft lying abandoned in your first post is really sad.

Look forward to the next installment 

Cheers Pat 

[stevehnz]

On 2/10/2021 at 10:32 AM, Aidrian said:

An A4 sheet of just mixed roundels and a handul of fin flashes might be useful to supplement other offerings.   

I did suggest something like this to Malcolm Laird a few years ago but he didn't think it would be viable, I remain unconvinced. I like your Corsair, another that is waiting on me to get some more modelling time.

Steve.

[Aidrian]

On 2/18/2021 at 8:53 AM, stevehnz said:

I did suggest something like this to Malcolm Laird a few years ago but he didn't think it would be viable, I remain unconvinced. I like your Corsair, another that is waiting on me to get some more modelling time.

Steve.

It may not be viable as a purely commerical proposition, but that doens't mean it can't be done if there's enough interest to justify geting a few dozen sheets printed. 

 

Right.... on with the build.  There s one little marking that I had originally thought was perhaps a remant of some tape, but it's not that. It's visible on NZ5416, but also show up on '24 ,"Nan" so must be some sort of badge or cartoon emblem. Even at full resolution fom the version on the museum website it's not clear what it is  - to me it looks like might be a cartoon of pop-up toaster on wings, but I don't think they were widespread in the 1940s.

 

Does anyone know or have any suggestion about what this might have been?   

 

 

 I cna t see much mre than something that might

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

8 hours ago, Aidrian said:

Does anyone know or have any suggestion about what this might have been?   

Im away from my info and sources but I will take a look through when I can get to them. 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

8 hours ago, Aidrian said:

Does anyone know or have any suggestion about what this might have been?  

Hello Aidrian, I believe its either a hand hold or access to the area behind the fuel tank. 
 

 

Unfortunately I don't have the guide for this number schematic. 

 

This ⬆️ is a -4 but it still has the item in question. 

I hope these help in some way ? 

 

Dennis

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Also found this. https://fotoweb.airforcemuseum.co.nz/fotoweb/archives/5003-Search-the-Collection/Collection/PR3405.jpg.info#?c=%2Ffotoweb%2Farchives%2F5003-Search-the-Collection%2F%3Fq%3Dcorsair

[Aidrian]

Ahah, thank you kind sir, not some undiscovered emblem or even left over ends of tape,  just a bit of weathering and wear around an access door,  

[Aidrian]

Progress delayed waiting for back ordered bits.  I gave up on the CMK wheels with the diamond tread tyres, they were just too skinny and the whole thing looked rather like an enormously fat man on a unicycle, Unfortunately the alternatives all seem to be backordered everywhere, so the plain tyres (ribbed with most of the tread worn off?) from the kit have been pressed into service in the interim. The canopy has a vey slight but noticeable bottle glass effect and I might go for a vacform one after all - backordered again...  

 

 

Added a "white" centre line tank with a bit of a dent in the nose;   this combination seems very common on GSB machines. It's actually more a sort of grotty beige with chips and streaks, though the flash has overexposed it rather badly. I wonder if I need to  add a little more dust and grot to the underside; I am trying to keep a bit of contrast between the top surfaces which were exposed to the sun and rain and the underside which spent most of its time shaded. I don't think I'll add the extra ferry tanks or ordnance, though I might eventually get round to making a trolley with a depth charge and a daisy cutter.   

Edited March 21, 2021 by Aidrian