RCNVR Lt. Gerald Anderson's FG-1, August 9th, 1945 on HMS Formidable

[mark.au]

Lt. Gerald Anderson RCNVR was the last Canadian to die in the Second World War and while being the first, last, thousandth, or ten thousandth to die makes no difference to the individual, it carries a poignancy for the rest of us that resonates three quarters of a century later.  Anderson died the same day as Lt. Robert Gray VC. Robert Gray’s sacrifice is widely commemorated in Canada, and even in Japan - and rightly so; But Anderson also gave his life that day, and like Gray didn't get the chance to enjoy the peace for which he had fought no less courageously.  As there's already plenty of model KD658 X/115's out there, my Corsair is marked as KD456 X/127 (the #127 of which is probably/possibly how his aircraft was marked) in remembrance of Gerald Anderson who died aged only 22 years old, also on 9th August, 1945.

 

The kit was Tamiya's 1/48th which I modified to FAA spec but clipping the wings and adding the fuselage vents.  I didn't do much else though I am sure there are a few other mods that could have been incorporated.  The kit lived up to its reputation and my experience in being largely simple to build.  I painted all of the markings, and am indebted to @iang in particular for help in deciding to mark the airframe X/127 for Anderson's aircraft that day.  We don't know for sure it was 127, but it's a strong possibility - stronger than any other we could come up with.  

 

I based the weathering on two main influences.  The first is the excellent walk around pics of KD431 in the Walkaround section here at BM.  I learned that KD456 was issued to HMS Formidable only a few days before 9th August but that it wouldn't have necessarily been new at the time, it more likely was back from a major service.  Additional to that, and somewhat tenuously, the S/N would tend to suggest similar ages between KD431 and KD456 so I based my weathering on the assumption that both would have similar wear and tear.  As it was just returned from maintenance I weathered mine to about 50% (so to speak) of KD431's weathering.  If you have an hour or so, the whole story is laid out  in the WIP;

 

 

The photos;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Excellent modelling Mark, really subtle and effective weathering.  A fine tribute model.🙂

[Dunny]

Mark,

 

Superb work, and a fitting tribute to a brave man. I think I need an FAA Corsair in my life...

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[stevehnz]

That is lovely Mark, just enough patina/finish to make it look plausible in my eyes. A fine tribute to another brave young man.

Steve.

 

[bigbadbadge]

Mark, what a lovely model, and a wonderful tribute to a brave man .  The Corsair looks absolutely stunning and has been a real pleasure to watch it develope.  It certainly has inspired me to look at mine and I have moved it towards the top of the stash .

 

Great work as always

Chris

[AliGauld]

Another superb model and the finish is simply wonderful, but as always the story behind the build reminding us of the more important side.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[TheBaron]

Cor sir!

A superb Corsair.

Really effective combination of techniques in play around those surfaces Mark, giving it a real physical presence.

Bravo.

[Tail-Dragon]

That is an absolutely lovely FG-1!  I'm going to have to follow your lead on this, congrats!

[opus999]

Beautiful!  A fitting tribute, and incredibly realistic.  I really enjoyed the build thread too!

[85sqn]

Well done, a lovely FAA Corsair👌

[AeroNautique]

The restrained weathering is very well done, great job (and nice pics). 👍

 

Have just finished reading Will Iredale's 'Kamikaze Hunters', so I'm pleased to see this particular airframe.

[Maginot]

Great modelling. Interesting and poignant story behind choice of airframe.

[Scooby]

Fabulous build and nice tribute. I really enjoyed following this build. I have researched Hampton Gray over the years so I knew of Gerald Anderson’s fate that day too. I now plan my own tribute build for Anderson.

 

I knew a former FAA pilot who trained and flew with both. This man owned a camera store in my city. When I was a young teen I brought a roll of film in for developing from an airshow that was accidentally exposed. He felt bad and gave me a framed Avro Arrow print. Over the years I was fortunate to get to know him well (or so I thought). We always spoke aviation and I enjoyed visiting his shop.

 

It wasn’t until about ten years later did I learn he flew Corsairs with the FAA. I was stationed back in my hometown with the RCAF when I read an article on the front page of our paper on Nov 11, about his exploits flying Corsairs.

 

I was shocked, I had no idea, he made no mention of serving, let alone flying Corsairs. I went to visit him the next day. I grew up watching the Black Sheep series and the Corsair was my favorite aircraft. He knew I was an Air Cadet and later joined the Airforce, but this humble man kept his service quiet.

 

After that day he opened up with me, I think I learned more about his time in the war than his two sons did. He was into photography during the war too and shared many of his photos with me.

 

Sadly he passed 5-6 years ago, his sons sold his camera business, which he worked in up to his final days. I tried to find out what his sons did with his photo collection, I don’t think it was preserved. He had a vast amount of photos that he took post war, of FAA Corsairs flying as part of the occupation force. He had images of bomb runs on Japanese carriers that were towed out into the harbor and were used to drop bombs on. Given the fighting was over, he had great shots of this practice.

 

A portion of the hospital I now work in, is named after him (Ross McBain).

 

Through Ross, I also met Don Sheppard, the only FAA Corsair ace and another Canadian FAA Corsair pilot.

[mark.au]

Thank you all for the comments, @Maginot, @85sqn and @AliGauld, much appreciated.

 

On 10/22/2022 at 3:01 PM, Dunny said:

 I think I need an FAA Corsair in my life...

On 10/22/2022 at 6:54 PM, bigbadbadge said:

It certainly has inspired me to look at mine and I have moved it towards the top of the stash .

People will talk… ☺️

 

On 10/22/2022 at 2:51 PM, ColinChipmunkfan said:

Excellent modelling Mark, really subtle and effective weathering.  A fine tribute model.🙂

On 10/22/2022 at 3:22 PM, stevehnz said:

That is lovely Mark, just enough patina/finish to make it look plausible in my eyes. A fine tribute to another brave young man.

Steve.

 

17 hours ago, opus999 said:

Beautiful!  A fitting tribute, and incredibly realistic.  I really enjoyed the build thread too!

21 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Cor sir!

A superb Corsair.

Really effective combination of techniques in play around those surfaces Mark, giving it a real physical presence.

Bravo.

Thanks gents, I was second guessing myself on the weathering all the way through…

 

20 hours ago, Tail-Dragon said:

That is an absolutely lovely FG-1!  I'm going to have to follow your lead on this, congrats!

 

I shall look forward to following you following my lead!

 

12 hours ago, AeroNautique said:

The restrained weathering is very well done, great job (and nice pics). 👍

 

Have just finished reading Will Iredale's 'Kamikaze Hunters', so I'm pleased to see this particular airframe.

 

I’m not familiar with that book, I shall look it up.
 

And finally, thank you for sharing that @Scooby - what a shame if all those photos are gone.

[Cookenbacher]

An excellent tribute Mark, and an inspiring build.

[Winded Penguin]

Unflinchingly zoomed in photos show any blemish ruthlessly. You've avoided that fate by being 'Johnny on the Spot' on all the technical modelling details.

Bravo on a fantastic model 👍

[Ngantek]

Beautifully sharp finish as always Mark. The chipping worked out really well didn't it? I've thoroughly enjoyed following along with this one. I agree, it somehow looks better and better the more you zoom in.

 

Andy

[Unfinished project]

That’s a beautiful Corsair the attention to detail is phenomenal 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

[shortCummins]

super build and a really informative and enjoyable build log

 

rgds

John(shortCummins) 

[mark.au]

On 10/28/2022 at 1:14 PM, Cookenbacher said:

An excellent tribute Mark, and an inspiring build.

There are so many stories, it's often hard for me to pick which one to tell.

 

On 10/29/2022 at 2:31 AM, Winded Penguin said:

Unflinchingly zoomed in photos show any blemish ruthlessly. You've avoided that fate by being 'Johnny on the Spot' on all the technical modelling details.

Bravo on a fantastic model 👍

It's a bit of an adventure, looking at those close-in pics.  Sometimes I see things I'd never have noticed otherwise, and then have to decide its I'll go back and fix or not.

 

15 hours ago, Ngantek said:

Beautifully sharp finish as always Mark. The chipping worked out really well didn't it? I've thoroughly enjoyed following along with this one. I agree, it somehow looks better and better the more you zoom in.

 

Andy

Yes, the chipping did come out well.  I prefer the pencil chipping to the actual chipping though; somehow the actual chipping seems over-scale to me, something akin to hyperreality vs the representative nature of the pencil chipping.  It's hard to explain.

 

14 hours ago, Unfinished project said:

That’s a beautiful Corsair the attention to detail is phenomenal 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

I try and find those little details in the subject to bring it to life.  I'm not the best at construction, but I do like to paint and weather.

 

5 hours ago, shortCummins said:

super build and a really informative and enjoyable build log

 

rgds

John(shortCummins) 

The story is the thing isn't it? both the history and the WIP - I've said before how that's my favourite part of BM.

 

Cheers.