Repaint request

The US WWII front line fighter in the Pacific
mattcurry
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Repaint request

Post by mattcurry »

Hi all,
I have just bought the Corsair in the VE day sale having eyed it up for some time, and am doing the usual trawl for repaints. There are some really good Fleet Air Arm ones out there, especially for the Pacific theatre and HMS Victorious. I was surprised that no one has done KD 431, the time capsule fighter in the the FAA museum at Yeovilton. Image

I really have a thing for that dark blue scheme, and this is quite an interesting aircraft.
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Anyone inerested?

N.B, the codes in the pictures above are from two different times in the aircraft's life and would be mirrored.

Matt

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mountainhighair
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Re: Repaint request

Post by mountainhighair »

Hmmmm... now that I'm done with the cockpit I will have more time to finish my paint kit for the exterior. I've already done work on KE-340 and would be happy to work on more RAF Corsairs. Thanks for the request. Just what the doctor ordered...
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mattcurry
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Re: Repaint request

Post by mattcurry »

Thanks for the reply, it is an interesting airframe and I am glad to see that others are still using the Corsair!
You said you had been working on KE340? I haven't come across that one.

Matt

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mountainhighair
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Re: Repaint request

Post by mountainhighair »

I found a shot of a couple RAF Corsairs in a "Squadron Signal - In Action" series booklet with 2 Corsairs that were never delivered due to the war ending. 340 and 349 are pictured flying formation over Ohio. I did 340 just because I want to find obscure examples of Commonwealth Corsairs since everyone has already done the usual suspects.

I just did lots of work on the exhaust stack area of the Corsair today. It's grueling. The body parts come together there and its hard to line up panels and such. I think I'm almost done there and should have my paint kit done within this century for sure.
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Bomber_12th
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Re: Repaint request

Post by Bomber_12th »

Here are some photos of its preserved, never restored, cockpit, which of course has some British Fleet Air Arm modifications. In-service, this aircraft was retrofitted with the mounting of the British Mk.IID gyro gunsight - hence the twist-handle throttle grip.

There is a well known book all about the conservation work/program that was undertaken to carefully strip away its post-WWII paint and reveal its original WWII-era paint, including leaving all of the original paint wear & tear intact, as found preserved. The book is titled Corsair KD431: The Time Capsule Fighter. The aircraft is full of unique original preserved details, including the original Goodyear-applied stencils and the remnants of the temporary large three-digit individual aircraft number on the cowl, applied at the factory. It even still retains the gas-detection patch applied during WWII to the port-side wing, and evidence on the horizontal tail that it was almost painted in an earlier Fleet Air Arm camouflage scheme at the factory, prior to switching over to the overall glossy sea blue.

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A photo from 2004, just as the conservation project was nearing completion:

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In this photo you can see the gas patch on the port wing, which would change color if exposed to certain chemicals/gases.

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John Terrell

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mountainhighair
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Re: Repaint request

Post by mountainhighair »

Bomber, thanks for the photos! Amazing how many different variations of the Corsair cockpit I have found. No two are the same.

Well, I seem to have reached a happy stopping place in my exterior texture files for the Corsair. I could go on the rest of my life, but rivets and panel lines are in place and I gotta stop sometime. Now I am working on experiments with the Specular files and Bumpmap files, and those won't take too much time. Soon I will have an exterior revamp of the Corsair available - from nose to tail.
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mountainhighair
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Re: Repaint request

Post by mountainhighair »

Hi Matt, I have this repaint mostly done. I have a couple questions about the reference photos you supplied. The photo of the actual plane has the red-white-blue circle on tops of the wing. This is unusual for Royal Navy - I usually see the red-white-blue on the wing bottoms, and the red-blue on top. And then there's the profile art that has different call-letters.

I'm doing this repaint for you, so how would you like it?

My only historical input is that the profile art is probably the "delivery" scheme, since the 431 is painted on the cowl in large numerals. This was a common practice for aircraft that were being delivered (fairyed) to the front lines, but not yet put into inventory for that active unit. So I am guessing that the photo of this Corsair is what it looked like during active service.

Let me know how you'd like it. I can do it any way you like :D

Take care,
John
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mattcurry
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Re: Repaint request

Post by mattcurry »

Hi John. I feel very privileged! I agree with you about the roundals on the wings; the red and blue on the top and red white and blue on the bottom was more common. This seems to fit with other RAF/FAA schemes of the time.
As for the lettering on the side, again I think you're right there, and the profile art is a delivery scheme, or soon afterwards and the E2-M code would have been the in service code, so would be more appropriate.
I wish I had a copy of that book, as it does a good job of charting all the paintwork worn during its service life, but missed my opportunity in the museum shop when I was there last and the online prices are a bit steep!

Thank you for doing this,

Matt

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mountainhighair
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Re: Repaint request

Post by mountainhighair »

Thanks for the input. Here is KD-431 at this point.
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I'm going to change the wing-top roundels to Red & Blue, and need to put the call letters onto the forward fuselage. I also need to work on my RAF insignias as the white band looks too thick. Otherwise, it's about done.
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Lewis - A2A
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Re: Repaint request

Post by Lewis - A2A »

Looking great mountain! 8)
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mattcurry
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Re: Repaint request

Post by mattcurry »

Wow that is beautiful! And even has the emergency cut lines around the cockpit, great work!
An 'as is' one would be interesting to have too, without the number on the cowling and with the later roundals with the white in them, if you haven't edited already. That would be a post war scheme, tidied up and painted over. I have seen a mix of both with and without white on both Corsairs and other contemporary naval aircraft.
Without white parts
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With
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It seems that the dark blue colour was just the delivery paint also applied to later US F4U, and that was just left in the later models rather than being painted grey and green in the early models. Time? Being shipped straight to the carriers rather than to Britain? So the white in the roundal was either part of that delivery scheme and was/wasn't painted over during the war, or was purely post war. I doubt it was painted on by the RN during the war as all other aircraft over wing roundals have no white in them. I would be interested to know why the RN started putting red back in the roundal rather than just the white and blue pacific scheme too (the red could be mistaken for Japanese markings, the US did the same thing).

Matt

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mountainhighair
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Re: Repaint request

Post by mountainhighair »

Last night I did some research on RAF insignia technical date, and actually found a good explanation on Wikipedia. It explains the whole history of RAF markings from WW1 to present. The White & Blue was just a variation of the "Type B" red and blue insignia, used in Southeast Asia so that the red circle wasn't confused with the Japanese meatball - same technical dimensions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Air_Force_roundels

The ratio numbers Wiki shows are kind of confusing, but you just take the largest number, divide the pixel size of the graphic by that number, and multiply the other numbers by that fractional number (saved in your calculator's memory). I tested the Wiki numbers with real photos of RAF roundels and seems to be right. So last night I reworked all of my RAF insignias. I'll have to upload my PSP "picture tubes" on my website sometime.

Inaccurate insignias are a pet peeve of mine. Even most US insignias are wrong because the star is not created symmetrically, and everything else is based on the star points. I remember that in the movie series "Band of Brothers" they showed a downed C-47 in one of the earlier episodes and the US insignia was totally wrong. I!@#$*(^&@%!!! Seriously? lol

Thanks to everyone inputting here - Matt & Bomber... This is a fun hobby.
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mountainhighair
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Re: Repaint request

Post by mountainhighair »

I found a wealth of info on KD-431 at a couple websites:

http://www.fleetairarm.com/exhibit/cors ... -4-18.aspx

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/inde ... arm-kd431/

Good news is that I now have more info to make a historically accurate repaint. Bad news of course is I have to remake my skins one last time. The 2nd link provides tons of info for me, and I'm glad I didn't upload my repaint as it is today. I've been in the middle of selling my house these days, but ETA is not far off at all, for KD-431 and a handful of others.
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mountainhighair
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Re: Repaint request

Post by mountainhighair »

KD-431 has been uploaded to my website. Click my Simulated Creations banner below to download the files. She's the only one available at this time.
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Bradburger
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Re: Repaint request

Post by Bradburger »

mountainhighair wrote:KD-431 has been uploaded to my website. Click my Simulated Creations banner below to download the files. She's the only one available at this time.
Thanks for the HU!

Cheers

Paul

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